Farming on TV
The only time we watch Korean TV is at restaurants or hotels. Out of the few times I’ve watched it, it always seems to be some sort of celebrity show, or a show about food and farming. And usually, on that said celebrity show, they’re put in a country house and forced to do some sort of manual labor, which usually revolves around food. This could all be pure coincidence, but I don’t think it is. Koreans care about their food more than Americans. Sure, they use the same chemicals and hormones, but I don’t think they’ll forget where their food comes from (the dirt, by the way, where bugs live), nor will they forget their food culture.
Tonight, we had a new Korean dish: Kimchi Galbi Jjim (김지 갈비찜). The meal was like a lot of our meals here, one big dish cooking in the middle of the table, with tiny sides beside it. All shared, communal style. The table next to us had six people, and three bowls of soup. And they weren’t married couples. I’m talking about two Korean men sharing the same bowl of soup (I’ve seen old men share noodles). It may seem as if they aren’t afraid of germs, but that’s not the case. They were pretty nervous about Swine Flu.
Anyhow, 김지 갈비찜 = Delicious. I liked Kimchi before we came, but now I love the stuff. The problem is, we’re introduced to it the wrong way. It’s not at its best sitting on a plate after having been fermented for a year. It’s amazing fresh, but even better cooked. In this case, Jjim, means stewed. Galbi is pork. It was like a spicy pork and cabbage stew. I don’t know how, or why Kimchi gets so delicious when cooked. It tastes almost tomato-y. Try it if you see it on the menu of your local Korean place. And if you get BBQ at a Korean place, the real kind where you grill it at your table, put the Kimchi up there with it… Trust me. How many of you eat Korean food, by the way, show of comments. I liked it. Six months ago it wasn’t even in my top five cuisine choices, but something clicked and its in the top three now. I use gochujang, kim, doenjang, and sesame oil on a regular basis. I find that I don’t even miss anything anymore.
We haven’t blogged that much lately. Sorry. We’ve been working on our plays at school. Tomorrow is our performance, but it won’t be in front of parents yet (swine flu is still a threat), that will happen in February.
I would have thought this looked like puke when we first got here, now though it looks pretty good just because I know its taste.
