What Do I Eat?

So I write this blog describing various aspects of my life here in Korea, and I figure that many at home may be thinking, "what does he eat?" And "please, just tell us more about what you eat." And so on. Well, the short answer is take-out, lots and lots of take-out.

The long answer is that I have about four different restaurants that I frequent for my various meals throughout the week. Generally on a weeknight I will just get take-out for one, and then on weekends I'll usually go out with friends for chicken, pizza, or whatever.

It turns out I pretty much never cook a meal unless it's breakfast and I warm up some toaster pastries or something. So does this get expensive? The answer is, not really. My meal from night to night ranges from about 3000 Won to 6000 Won. That translates to about $2.50 to $5.00 American. Oh, for lunch I usually just eat at school or pick up a cheap rice roll or something.

So talking about the food I eat isn't so exciting, and I figured I would delve into a plethora of pictures to illustrate just how good some of the food I can get here is.

The first place I'll talk about is called Sushi & Roll Fusion Restaurant. I guess it's fusion because it's a mix of Korean and Japanese, but I'm not 100% on that. This is the best sushi I've found in town, and it's a little expensive. My favorite one is called the crunch roll which is only 6000 Won.

The crunch roll, it has shrimp and little crunchy things on it.

A salmon roll, this is more expensive, but it's really good.

There's also a place near my house which I like called Sushi 990. They have a little bit cheaper sushi and then some different soups and cutlets. I'll eat here about two times a week. The family which runs it is super nice, they always want to bring out fruit or whatever while I'm waiting. One time the wife, who cooks the meals brought over this little towel and started pretending to wipe the table and saying something in Korean. It turned out she wanted to give me a gift, a towel that she stitched a little flower onto. It was super nice.

This is a cheesy chicken cutlet. It costs 5000 Won and comes with rice, pickles, mixed fruit, coleslaw, and cream corn. It also comes with some broth to drink with the meal.

Another favorite restaurant is called Hanudong. This place makes great food but it's a little more expensive than the Sushi 990. They make excellent cutlets and also these great rice dishes.

This one has octopus in it along with vegetables. It's very hot and comes with a side of kimchi. 4500 Won.

Korea is of course well known for the street food, and a staple of street food vendors is the dok bokki. This is basically a bunch of rice cakes in hot sauce, very very hot sauce. It also has these little noodles and an egg. One day I ordered this and a woman behind me said "you like dok bokki?" And I was like yeah, of course. She basically thought it was very strange that I was not Korean and I was able to enjoy spicy food. It's racism if you ask me. Very very mild racism.

Mmmm, dok bokki, 3000 Won

This one comes from this little tiny pink van parked about a block from my apartment. The guy spiral cuts potatoes and deep fries them in front of you and dips them in powder.

Spiral potato, 1000 Won

The last food I'll mention is from a restaurant called Toastour, which is also a block from my house. You can order many different things cooked on a griddle between two pieces of bread, though I only know how to order two different sandwiches. One is the standard egg and ham and cheese. The other one is called the pizza toaster, which is excellent. Its got egg cooked with a pepperoni and pepper in it. On the other piece of bread is some cheese and pizza sauce. Delicious.

Pee ja to su tu, 2200 Won