A Week in School Lunches

Since so many people have asked me what we are fed for lunch at school, I decided to do a post about a week's worth of middle school lunches. It should be noted that we eat the same things as the kids - though they always complain that we get more, which, to be fair, is true, they don't get to go back for seconds ;).



Going clockwise from 12 o'clock, we have pork stewed in vegetables and oyster sauce (굴소스돈육불고기), a spiced mixed green and onion salad (가랏겉절이), kimchi and bean sprout soup (김치콩나물국), rice with barley (보리밥), and dried fish and almonds in a sweet and spicy dressing (아몬드쥐손채볶음) - Soo yummy! There was also yogurt served with this meal, but as a lactose intolerant, I did not partake.

School lunches in Korea (and much of Asia) always seem to be served in these specialised metal trays. The smaller deeper bowls at the top are for your side dishes, or banchan (반찬), while the shallower, more central indentation is meant for the main dish. The usages of these three receptacles do seem to be somewhat interchangeable however - particularly if the main course is saucy or there is a flat side or dessert served.
 

Tuesdays main dish was mackerel in a boiled kimchi sauce (묵은지고등어조림). (I cannot adequately express my love). As sides, there were Lotus roots simmered in sweetened soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds (연근조림 - top right), the ever-present kimchi (also top right) and spicy chicory, cucumber and octopus salad (치커리오이초무침 - top left and sooo good!). This was accompanied by a baby clam, potato, noodle and vegetable soup (바지락감자수제비국 - also delicious) and 'eco' brown rice (친환경현미밥). Dessert (not pictured here for intolerance reasons) was 'creamy cheese corn' (옥수수콘치즈구이). Apparently it's very tasty. I'm not so sure. 


The lower two bowls are reserved for rice and soup. The rice is always placed on the left and the soup on the right. Don't mix these up, you will get a ridiculously large number of strange looks if you do! (And this from people who didn't flinch when I started photographing my lunches!). As with all Korean meals, you are also given a spoon and chopsticks. The spoon is for both the soup and rice, while the chopsticks are for everything else. Eating your rice with chopsticks will garner you looks just as strange as if you'd put your soup in the wrong bowl.


Occasionally, the main dish, due to it's nature, will need to be placed in one of the larger slots - or, as in this case, in a bowl in one of the larger slots - in that case, many Koreans will simply fill one of the banchan bowls with rice. In this photo, the main course is in the bottom left-hand corner and is a Korean-ified Chinese dish called Jajangmyeon (자장면), or noodles with peas, carrots and beef cubes in black bean sauce. As sides we had a fried breaded shrimp in a sweet and spicy chili-peanut sauce (깐쇼새우 - sooo good!), cabbage kimchi, cubed radish kimchi (깍두기 김치), and sweet (yellow) pickled radish (단무지). The soup was (oddly not listed on the menu) a broth with shrimp, seaweed and green onions. In the top right corner you can see some asian pear (배) for dessert.

 Both rice and soup are present at every meal (even when I don't take any as the main dish is noodle based as above). The rice is left plain so that you can used it too soothe your poor tongue should any of the other food prove to be too spicy (as is often the case - though I am also partial to mixing my sides into my rice). The soup can also be used to serve this important function. It's mainly there for another reason however, Koreans don't believe in drinking water while eating! (Though they do believe in drinking alcohol... hmm...) This is so that you have space in your stomach for food. Water is often drunk after the meal. I don't know about you, but personally, I get thirsty when I eat!


In this instance, my main dish is located in the top left corner bowl, and it is absolutely delectable steam-braised pork short ribs stewed with dates and grapes (돼지갈비찜). The sides on offer included the inevitable kimchi (not pictured here), salad with chili-paste dressing (성추겉저리), whole rice (쌀밥), and seaweed soup (미역국). For dessert, we had delicious almond and orange rind cake and oranges.


Another element which is present at every meal is kimchi (김치), or fermented cabbage dressed in spicy chili sauce. While I don't necessarily add it to my dish every time, a number of the other teachers will fill their banchan bowls to overflowing with kimchi (and look curiously at me when I don't - similarly, they always say I don't take enough rice!). If you look carefully at the upper right hand bowl two pictures above, you'll notice that I not only had normal cabbage kimchi, but kkadugi (깍두기 김치), or cubed radish, kimchi as well.

And for the final platter, we had seafood patties in oyster sauce (해물동그랑땡 - a lot more delicious than you might expect!). Our sides were wasabi beansprout and crab salad (와사비 콩나물무침), kimchi and tiny dried whole anchovies in a spicy sweetened sesame sauce (멸치 조림 - also a lot better than you might think!). Rice was plan white, while the soup was a variation of my favourite - jjigae! In this case, it was tuna jjigae (참치 찌개) but pork, beef and kimchi jjigae are all also common.

Overall, I find my school lunches to be varied and super delicious - all the more so as they only run me 3,000 (or $2.75 US) per day. This is likely a good thing as eating lunch in the cafeteria alongside all of the students and other teachers is seen as being an integral aspect of participation in school life. This is so much the case that it is seen as terribly rude to leave the table before everyone in your group is finished - especially if that would leave one person sitting alone.

잘 먹겠습니다!

(Jal Mokgetsumnida! - Eat Well!)

Author's Note: A Massive THANK YOU! to science teacher 박형도 for helping me identify and name all of the foods!!! 감사합니다!!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland - Mudeungsan in the Snow

Okay, so I may have lied when I said hiking season was coming to a close. Clearly I hadn't adequately considered the potential in combining two of my vary favourite things (No, not food. Though with me, that's always involved.) - hiking and snow!

Setting off from Jeungshim Temple (증심사).

This past weekend, a few friends and I decided to take advantage of the fresh snowfall to check out the views of and from Gwangju's Mt Mudeung (무등산) in the snow. Rather than taking the 1187 bus halfway up and doing the ridgewalk to the top, we decided to start right from the bottom at Jeungshim Temple so that we could stay warmer under the tree cover. We wound up hiking to the top via Jungbong (중봉- Jung Peak) and looping back around on our way down so that we could hit the famous Ipseokdae (입석대) rock formation on our way back to our starting point. Overall, the hike covered about 8 or 9km took us about 5 hours with all the snow.

A view of the city from partway between Jungmorijae and Jungbong. About 800m up.

It seemed like much of the older population of Gwangju was also on the mountain to play in the snow for the day - small wonder as brisk winds kept the clouds moving fast so that we often had clear blue skies.

Playing around in the snow en route.

As per usual, any time the locals glanced down at our feet and realised that we weren't wearing 'proper Korean hiking gear' (in this case cramp-ons and brightly coloured knee-high waterproof leg warmers - no joke!) there was a lot of clucking and shaking of heads in dismay (in my case, this may have been justified, my hiking shoes officially died yesterday, so I was hiking in dress boots - they were nice and cozy and warm though!).

Looking up toward the Seoseokdae (서석대) rock formation near the top. Standing on top of this at 1105m is the highest you can get on Mudeung as the peak (at 1187) is occupied by the military and cordoned off to the public.

Fortunately for us, the snow was still fresh enough that our lack of cramp-ons was in no way a factor (though it did make 'ski-ding' down the mountain at the end much more fun) and many of those we encountered were just happy to see foreigners so enjoying their mountain.

A view of the Ipseokdae (입석대) formation. They are huge! To give you some idea, if I were standing at the base of that pillar, my head still wouldn't make it into the picture!

Such a great day! There's nothing quite like going out to play in it to remind you just how awesome snow is!

Descending into a snow-covered Jeungshimsa on our return.

Bibimbap!

So it seems that now that hiking season is coming to a close, I've turned to blogging about one of my other favourite things - FOOD! Or, in this particular instance Bibimbap (비빔밥)!
 

A photo of my school's bibimbap. You may not be able to see all the ingredients, but this one includes rice, fermented radish strips (buried under the rice), mushrooms, bracken fern stems (고사리 - gosari), soybean sprouts, zucchini, seaweed, lettuce, sesame seeds, sesame oil and gochujang (fermented red chili paste) with ground meat. It's delicious, if it doesn't look it, I'll take the blame. I'm the one who prepared it ;).

Bibimbap literally means 'mixed rice' ('bibim' means 'mixed' and 'bap' means 'rice'). It's a dish you will find all over Korea in a number of variations. In Jeonju (전주), Jeollabuk-do province this variation includes a raw egg and is said be how it was traditionally served during the Joseon Dynasty. Another variation is Stone Pot Bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥- dolsot bibipbap) which is served in a (surprise!) steaming hot stone pot. In the northern province of Gangwon-do, wild mountain vegetable bibimbap is the signature dish, while elsewhere beef may also be added. Here in Gwangju, it is also common to stumble upon spicy seafood bibimbap, which is one of my favourite variations.

The above bowl once mixed. This is making me ridiculously hungry.

Wherever you eat it, there are a few ingredients which will almost inevitably be present. The first, and most obvious of these, is rice, but a good bibimbap will also contain zucchini, cucumber, spiced radish strips, mushrooms, soybean sprouts, seaweed, bellflower root, bracken fern stems, sesame seeds and oil and, of course spicy chili pepper paste (often this is 고추장 - Gochujang, or fermented red pepper paste). Bibimbap is almost always served unmixed, with the ingredients arrayed attractively around the bowl. In many restaurants, the rice will be served in a separate lidded cup. It is up to the customer to mix it to their satisfaction.

Ddeok! A delicious Korean rice-based dessert.

While the above picture is not of bibimbap, it is of an equally typical Korean dish - Ddeok (떡), or rice cake. This particular assortment was given to one of the other teachers in my office as a 'thank you' from one of her student's parents. The giving of ddeok in thanks, in celebration or as a parting gift is a fairly common practice in Korea. In its most basic form, ddeok is made from glutinous rice flour and can take on many forms - both sweetened and not. In the above picture, both forms are intended to be eaten as a dessert or snack. To left is ggul tteok (꿀떡), or honey and sesame filled ddeok, while to the right is injeolmi (인절미), or steamed and pounded rice cake coated with soybean powder. Both are delicious.

The Gwangju Biennale

This past weekend I finally made it out to The Gwangju Biennale - a roughly 2 month-long (Sept 7th - Nov 11th, 2012) modern art festival occurring once every two years (or biennially).

Biennale Hall.

Gwangju's Biennale was established in 1995 and is widely recognised as one of Asia's biggest and best contemporary art festivals. It is international in scope and is meant to continually embrace the spirit of the civil uprisings and memory of the bloody repression of the Gwangju National Democratization movement in 1980.

This year's theme was the ROUNDTABLE, with six sub-themes: Logging In and Out of Collectivity, Re-visiting History, Transient Encounters, Intimacy, Autonomy and Anonymity, Back to the Individual Experience and Impact of Mobility on Space and Time. Overall 92 artists and groups from 43 countries had a hand in the projects.

While I'm not usually a particularly artsy person, I figured that this was too big of an event not to check it out!

Some of the permanent artwork on the exhibition hall.

Community Members were invited to create their own rubbings while shopping in Daein Market for Do Ho Suh's "Rubbing Project III"

One of the giant wood and steel ginseng roots from Benjamin Armstrong's "Conjurer I-IV".

Possibly one of my favourite pieces, "From Where They Left" by Ahn Kyuchul , was once a full mural, but the tiles have been dispersed about the city.

Immigration instructions at Xijing Men's "Welcome to Xijing: Xijing Immigration Services, 20". I would love it if this was what customs were actually like!

Another piece which I truly enjoyed but which is not photographed here was the 13min 45s parallel videos "El Fin Del Mundo, 2012" by Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho.

Unfortunately the title and artist of this piece eludes me (which is a shame as it was one of my absolute favourites!).

But check out some of the writing on the walls.

Photographing moving film is surprisingly hard. Seeing this projector brought back so many memories of elementary school though!

If you happen to have this or next weekend free and are in the Gwangju area, I recommend that you go check it out. Tickets cost 11,000 won in advance or 14,000 won at the door. Included in this price is free entry to the other museums in the area. At present the Gwangju Museum of Art has only one exhibit up, but the Gwangju Folk Museum is always worth a visit! 

Looking out over the Biennale - Jungeo Park (중어공원) area behind the Gwangju Museum of Art.

Kimchi Festival

To most people, there are few things more quintessentially Korean than Kimchi - well, okay, except for maybe Psy's Gangnam Style. For those of you who don't know, kimchi (김치) is Korea's traditional national dish. It is typically made of fermented or pickled spiced cabbage, although many other vegetables can also be used and seasonings vary widely across the country.

Some very finely chopped cabbage kimchi

This past weekend, Gwangju played host to its annual International Kimchi Festival. On offer were free kimchi tastings, gourmet kimchi supplies, a kimchi museum, free shows, many kimchi themed meals, kimchi pot making and art for the kids and, for the international visitors (though I saw many Koreans there as well), kimchi and kimchi meal making lessons!

Held near the Gwangju Folk and Art Museums, even at 5pm on a Sunday the festival was a thriving place to be.

Some of the varieties of kimchi on offer. Furthest away sits un-spiced (but still spicy) white kimchi. Next furthest is traditional cabbage kimchi. A little closer there is some young radish kimchi (my favourite). And, finally, green onion kimchi.

While I don't usually like Jeollanese kimchi - a problem since I live in Jeolla province - all of the kimchi I sampled at the festival (well, with the noted exception of ginseng kimchi - not a fan) was delicious!

Pottery class!

Traditional kimchi pots, still widely used to store kimchi while it ferments, sit outside of the Kimchi  Making Experience Hall.

One of many possible kimchi ingredients, a green pepper gets his groove on.

Pots for sale!

Our personal guide to the Five Senses Kimchi Museum. His English and knowledge of  kimchi were wonderful!

The typical ingredients of Jeollanese cabbage kimchi.  Napa Cabbage, raddish, green onion, and a paste made of salt, chilli pepper, ginger, brined and fermented anchovy, and anchovy paste (the latter two ingredients are not included in kimchi to the North.)

All seasoned and wrapped for fermentation. 

While clay pots are still used by many for klimchi fermentation, most urban Koreans store their kimchi in specialized 'kimchi fridges' which allow them to both control the temperature and ensure that the rest of their food doesn't come to smell like kimchi. My kimchi is currently sitting in a special double layered plastic container in my fridge for precisely that reason... or some of it is anyhow. I already seem to have eaten a great deal of it, cooking things such as kimchi-fried rice with peppers, mushrooms and local greens and kimchi ramyeon (라면 - Korean style ramen noodles) with tofu and rice cake. Turns out I much prefer my Jeollanese kimchi unfermented or boiled -who knew!

Our kimchi making instructors.

Oh, and regarding Gangnam Style? I guess some things just go best when together ;).

Updates - Brought to you by Typhoon Bolaven

Typhoon day!!!
(Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear myself say - especially after growing up in Toronto where the school board was hesitant to call snow days even in the midst of blizzards!)

With Typhoon Bolaven expected to be the worst storm in years to hit Korea, the country's school boards (and, in an unprecedented move, the private hagwons) unanimously decided to close for the day, instructing their students to stay home. We teachers were not so fortunate, we were told to come in and be on 'stand by' in case of 'needing to protect the school during an emergency' (though as one family member pointed out - "What good is a five-foot-nothing Italian girl against a Typhoon?!").

Happily, not only was the storm much less severe than predicted (though the winds did get quite strong and a number of fishermen, trees, and power lines were sadly lost), I was instructed last minute by my principal to "stay home and not leave the house until after 4:30 when he would no longer be responsible should something happen to me". ^_^

Luckily for you, the end result of all of this was that I finally had time to upload and parse through all of the photos from my recent trips to Beijing & North Korea (It was back to work for me (literally) as soon as I got home) - and that means you, lucky readers, may finally get to see some of them! In the mean time, please enjoy some of yesterday's blustery scenes as shot from my window (which I had, of course, left wide open in order to more fully enjoy my typhooning experience).

Cycling in Gwangju

Last weekend I (finally) managed to take advantage of some gorgeous weather and the need to run errands, and went on my first true bike ride around town since arriving here. Well... I suppose that's not entirely true. Having been so excited about finally acquiring a bike and the time to use it, I also went on a bike ride the weekend previous  - in the pouring rain (sorry Jason for dragging you along!). While monsoon season was due to start a month or so ago, it only truly started two weeks ago, just in time for me to insist on riding my bike :D. It was actually a great deal of fun (I rode in the rain plenty while living in England, but never in a true downpour!). It was not, however, conducive to taking pictures. This past weekend's ride was just the opposite, with gorgeous nearly clear skies allowing for some lovely photo ops. Check out the pictures below to see some of the sights I regularly see on my bus rides into town.

Gwangju proper from the West with Mudeung Mountain in the distance.

Looking southward along the main branch of the river. This is Sangmu or 'New Downtown' district of Gwangju. (I actually live quite close to the 'NewNew Downtown' District which is quite wonderful, but of which I, sadly, have no pictures since it seems to be raining whenever I go!)

Some lovely paths and parks along the river. One of the things I love most about Korea is that no space ever seems to be wasted. Parks, sports fields and outdoor workout stations fill any available spaces - including those located under overpasses!

Crossing the river into down town after it curves eastwards.

Northward toward some high-rises that seem to permeate every Korean city.

While I thoroughly enjoyed my ride into town, it was possibly one of the most harrowing rides I have ever undertaken. I live out on the west side in an area that is separated from the rest of the city by two arms of the river and the expansive area of floodplain between then. Rather than cycling the winding route along the river, I'd decided to take the more direct route along the roads. While the freeways and overpasses were quite comfortable to cycle, with wide and well maintained cycle paths, these all but disappear on the larger, non-freeway, roads and cycling becomes either a fight not to be run down by the buses (who I previously thought only had it out for motorists and pedestrians, nice to know they choose their targets in a fair and equitable fashion :P), a jungle expedition through thick tall grass, or a game of thread the bike through the cars parked up on the sidewalk (this latter route, though time-consuming, soon became my favourite). While I've been told by many cyclist friends that my normally 45min bus ride into town is much faster on a bike, this route took me nearly 1 hour and 30 mins! I'm not sure whether this is due to my inability to cycle rapidly, the thirty-some-odd degree heat (Celsius), the amount of times I stopped for photos or the fact that I have no gears on my bike. Non-the-less, it was a thoroughly pleasant ride.

After finally making it into town and running all my errands, I saw that I still had plenty of time until dusk and decided to check out some of the sights that I had here-to-fore not had the time to see. Chief of these was 5.18 memorial park in Sangmu, which celebrates the lives and deaths of the  hundreds to thousands (the death toll is not known) of Gwangju citizens (mostly students) who took up arms from May 18th to 27th in 1980 and died fighting for democratic rights for all Koreans. Known as the Gwangju Massacre, the event and the sacrifice of the martyrs is considered significant by all Korea, with May 18th established as a national holiday. It carries a special weight here in Gwangju where the incident occurred and where many people remember the event and victims personally.

The park itself is absolutely lovely (as any park celebrating life, liberty and perseverance really should be), with lovely monuments, bike and walking paths, fountains, workout stations and shrines. The atmosphere is also supremely friendly and warm, with people greeting one another and conversing with strangers. There was even an older man playing the accordion at one of the pavilions and a group of flute playing university students at another to complete the experience. It was almost impossible to remember that one was right in the heart of downtown!

5.18 Monuments

The monument from behind.

The pagoda atop the hill in the park.

A view from the pagoda toward the Northwest where I live, you can see the flood plains behind the buildings and the "New New Downtown" area even further behind.

Looking Southwest-ward toward the 'New Downtown Area'.

Looking to the East

To the East with Mudeung and Old Downtown. Check out the storm clouds rolling in.

The lovely pagoda and fountains at the base of the park.

Riding home along this route, I also had the opportunity to ride along the floodplains which, while not exuding the prettiest scent in the world, make for some beautiful scenery.

One of the other things I love about Korea is how friendly and welcoming everyone is. After rejoining the river for the final leg of my journey home, and just as my stomach was beginning to make itself known, I was waved over by two young families (with 3 lovely children each!) who were having a barbecue under a bridge. Inviting me over and sitting me down, they ensured I was well fed as we watched the sun set over the river, stuffing me with meat, beverages, mouth watering sea food, side dishes and desert (the children were insistent that I share their cookies and fruit). Such warmth is both incredible and normal. While I was a special guest in the sense that I was a foreigner and, so, the adults had many questions for me and the kids delighted in showing me their English, many passing Koreans were waved over as well and such sharing of food is a regular practice when eating outdoors. Love it!

  

The kids playing along the river.

The bridge after sundown.

Looking toward the Wolgok-dong/Hanam area at dusk.