Korea This Winter?

My tutoring lessons are wrapping up, which only means the days until I go back to the U.S. is creeping behind my back. Even a couple days ago, I was quite depressed about leaving Korea so soon, but not anymore. It's not that I won't miss Korea or I'm ecstatic about going back. Instead, an opportunity arrived and I caught it.



Yesterday while Skyping Mom, she told me she received a text message from someone asking for me. She told me grandma's number, and soon after the cell phone rang. The person turned out to be a girl I met at Harvard dinner in Seoul Club, and she asked me if I was interested in joining a non-profit that she has created. The non-profit is hosting a winter leadership camp for Korean high school students, and if I were to be on the board member, I would create a lesson curriculum and help with logistics. The perk is that I would get to come to Korea this winter with the airfare paid for by the sponsor of the non-profit! I can't quite describe my joy except that I am so grateful for this opportunity.



After tutoring Sally for the last time today, I met up with the creators of the non-profit for lunch. We discussed the non-profit and what is expected of me as a board member. Unless something unexpected happens, it is set in stone that I will be flying to Korea again in 4 months. Whoop~



Anyways, to continue my food posting, we went to an Indian restaurant called Dal. The boneless chicken tandoori was a bit too spicy and the chicken curry too creamy, but I was pretty hungry so it all tasted good nonetheless. I had to gulp down several glasses of water while eating this chicken tandoori.



I always say Indian food is one of my favorite cuisine, but I don't like it when the curry comes out way too oily & creamy, i.e. when the oil floats on the surface, as was the case for this curry. I guess I should just eat Indian food in the U.S.

Eat Till You Drop

When I tell my friends I have been in Korea all summer, the typical questions are as followed:



"What are you doing?"

"How are you liking it?"

"How's the food?"



The last question stumps me every time. How am I liking the food in Korea? A simple answer is: it's too great.



I love food, and I am a voracious eater. The only reason I am able to maintain my body is that I am a rather picky eater as well. There are many things I avoid, both for my health and my eccentric taste bud. For example, I don't eat pork (bacon, pork chop, sausage, etc.) because pigs scare me. I realize it's quite irrational, but this fear prevented me from consuming pork for so long that if I tried eating it now with a blind eye, I still can't do it because it upsets my stomach. I also dislike anything greasy (fried food), creamy (cream-based sauce), or chocolatey (I'm partially allergic to chocolate...).



Despite my picky taste, I still love trying new food. And today I got to eat food--albeit not new--until my stomach erupted in pain from overdose.



I crossed the Han River twice today instead of relying on public transportation; I foresaw that my day would involve lots of food consumption so I emptied my stomach in advance by exercising. I first met up with a guy from Harvard and had Chinese food. The two of us ordered mapa tofu (spicy tofu with minced meat), vegetable fried rice, noodle in clear broth with seafood and vegetables, and shrimp dimsum. The food was decent, but I realized I am not a huge fan of Chinese cuisine because it uses too much oil.


The small serving was mapo tofu was just the right sized because I didn't eat it much--too much chili oil floating on the top. The fried rice was likewise a bit too greasy for my liking.

I have had better shumai (shrimp dimsum). Nothing special with these ones, except for the oozing juice inside.

We then shared the famous Meal Top patbingsu, which, by the way, is a summer dessert I am absolutely sick of because of this article on patbinsgu that I wrote for Chosun Ilbo. I had to visit 15 cafes in 5 days, and my stomach was in pain for a long time afterward.



After this feast, I did my last day of tutoring with Belle, and her parents bought me dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant called Anna Bini. The tomato salad with fresh mozzarella was so delightful! I usually don't like cheese (that's actually one of the many food items I dislike), but I could eat this mozzarella every day! It was chewy and savory at the same time. Great texture!



The cream pasta with squid ink black noodle is the restaurant's signature dish, but since I don't like cream-based pasta, I only had a bite to be polite.



I ordered black olive oil pasta, which surprisingly wasn't as oily as I had expected! I liked the seafood in it, especially the lobster tail.



I am also not an omnivore, so I only had two pieces of steak. The only time I can tolerate steak is when it's cook to rare so that I can taste the tenderness of the meat, but this was cooked to medium. Bleh.



We ordered this chicken, broccoli, and bacon risotto at the end because the parents thought the food wasn't enough. The mom put a heaping spoonful on my plate to try, and I had such a difficult time finishing it because the chicken was fatty and the risotto had bacon in it :( I didn't want to seem wasteful so I ate the whole thing.



Anyways, my stomach is crying inside right now because it is full of food, but I am just eating as much as I can before I leave Korea because the food at Harvard doesn't even compare. And I need to get a little fatter, anyways.