FOOD IN KOREA!

Food in Korea!
This is a topic most people enjoy hearing about and it is definitely something I enjoyed doing! Eating in Korea is a whole new experience within itself; there are so many different foods to try and then there are different variations of that food as well.

This was my first meal here in Korea. This meal is called 삼겹살 or in romanization; samgyupsal. In this meal, you have a small grill in front of you and you basically cook your own food. Samgyupsal is traditionally pork belly but sometimes other meats are offered. The meal comes with lettuce and usually perilla leaves to wrap the meat in. Depending on where you go, the side dishes will vary with what you can place in your lettuce wrap. At this particular restaurant, there was egg (shown cooking in the small gutter of the grill) radish, onions, a mixture of green onions and some sauces. (usually ssamjjang or some type of soybean paste) 

Shown at the top is  짜장면 (Jjajangmyun) which is Korea's take on Chinese food. This dish consists of noodles and a black bean sauce. Let's just say I am not a huge fan of this dish. The second picture is a picture of ramen with rice cakes in it. I really enjoy rice cakes as they are one of my favorites here in Korea. There is also a ramen dish at this restaurant that has a slice of American cheese on the top. This is definitely something I get when I'm low on money but want something a little more filling than kimbap.  

Bibimbap is next! I'm sure if you know anything about Korea, then you have heard about bibimbap. This is a very simple dish; it consists of veggies, lettuce, seaweed, rice and meat. Depending on which restaurant, the ingredients will be different. Sometimes the meat and rice is already placed under the vegetables but like I said, there are so many variations of the same food here. Once you have placed your rice and meat into the bowl, you mix it up until everything is nice and even. There should usually be a bottle of red pepper paste or gochujang on the table. For this restaurant, there was a small pool of the sauce under the vegetables so all I had to do was mix.  It is said that the best mixed bowl of bibimbap has a piece of eat ingredient in a spoonful.  

 Next is nightlife food! Or food you generally go eat with more than yourself. "Nightlife food" is extremely popular because in Korea, you are not supposed to drink without eating food with it. On the weekends, especially Fridays, you can find many students out eating and drinking with each other.

Fried chicken has become super popular over here in the past years. There are so many restaurants that offer quick delivery and so many flavors that it'll be extremely difficult to decide on just one. I have to say, I enjoy Korean fried chicken a lot more than I do with the chicken back in the United States. 

 As you can see, do it yourself food is extremely popular here. The waitress or waiter will bring over a plate of uncooked food and place it on the burner. Most of the time, you are the one to watch your food and cook it but sometimes, they will help you. They might just help you because you are a foreigner or because it might just be their policy. (Who knows)

 I am actually quiet fond of the do it yourself idea behind some Korean restaurants. I have gotten so used to it to the point of where I went to an American style restaurant in Seoul and could not stand the waitress coming over to our table every two minutes.

Korean interpretation of WESTERN FOOD

 The above pictures were of my first "Western" meal here in Korea. It was extremely good but expensive as most "western" food here is.

 This is a Western style restaurant in Itaewon that served amazing pizza. Most of the staff spoke English and actually, two of their waitresses were foreigners which I thought was very neat.

This was very disappointing chicken and fries we got at Everland. They weren't very good at all :( 

I'm sorry about the position of this photo, it was taken on my phone but wow! Even Korean McDonald's impresses!

The best part is last! That part is!!! *DRUM ROLL PLEASEEEEEE* SWEETS!! 

 I have SO many pictures of bingsu. Bingsu is a Korean style of dessert. This is obviously not the traditional kind but just as amazing! (Traditional) Bingsu is made of shaved ice (sometimes shaved ice cream) topped with condensed milk, chopped fruit, sometimes nuts and red beans. Now, remember how I said there are so many variations of Korean food? Same applies to desserts.

 This bingsu is an Oreo bingsu and it is absolutely amazing.

 This bingsu is as close as it get to the original without being the original. This bingsu was a do it yourself bingsu that came with the buffet we went to. It was so good.

Mint Bingsu 

 Cotton candy! The man actually gave us another one for free!

 Brownie "pizza" with ice cream on top. So amazing.

 Pac-man doughnuts! There are even Pokemon doughnuts as well!

 This ice cream we got in Itaewon right after our pizza dinner. The ice cream had macaron pieces in it.

 These two ice creams I got at Everland to make up for that disappointing lunch.

 This one had churros in it and it was delightful.

 Cafes are super popular in Korea too. I've noticed that there is almost a cafe on every corner and different variations of cafes. I absolutely LOVE cafes so I have no problem with this at all. In the picture above, I got a cafe mocha with a red velvet cake. Oh I wish I could go back and consume this again. It was so, so good.

  

Well, that concludes this blog post. Yes it was a long one! But you made it! Thank you so much for reading and if you would like to see more, let me know!