Chinese Cuisine

Being so close to China, and with China being the biggest importer to Korea, and China being the largest influence on Korean culture and language, I though I'd better comment upon Chinese food in Korea.

Chinese restaurants are probably the favorite "ethnic" food in Korea. There are Chinese restaurants all over the place. Some are easily identified by the Chinese writing on their signs. Others are not so easy to see. There is one by my apartment with the words "Chinese Restaurant" in English... so that one was surprisingly easy to find, although I haven't eaten there yet.

My exposure to Chinese food is a bit limited I'm sorry to say. But, this is what I've had and what it is. Tang-su-yook a.k.a. sweet and sour pork. Wow. You thought the stuff was sweet in the U.S.? This is basically fried pork in honey. I'm totally diabetic now. But, it's awesome stuff. Bad thing is that when you order it, that's all you get. No rice. No egg roll. No fortune cookie.

Jjajang-myoen. Ok. How to discribe. It's noodles. Chinese noodles are never cut, so they're about 20 miles long, and not easy to eat with chopsticks. Myoen is noodles. Jjajang is a sauce that is popular here. It is black. Black as ink. In Western cuisine there is no black food... unless it's burnt. The sauce also has lots of veggies in it, mostly onions, some peas, some beef. It's delicious. What does it taste like? I'm not entirely sure, but it's good, so shut-up and eat it. It's probably the favorite dish of Koreans in a Chinese restaurant. You can buy the sauce in the supermarket, but it's not as good.

Udong. Another kind of noodle. This time it's in soup. Oh my God, it's the best soup I've ever had. Noodles in a chickeny, seafoody, egg dropy broth. Some of the seafood in the soup is scary and I give it straight away to other people at the table. I mean, I am the one who gets food poisoned so easily. So, the squid, crab claws, shrimp (whole, with eyes and all), etc. go onto a Korean's plate and they are happy to have it.

Scary seafood dish. I don't know what this is. I was out with the teachers and they ordered this. Why? It had shring, squid, fish, octopus, sea cucumber, and jelly fish in it. Sea cucumber is like a log of jello that is sandy and gritty. Mmmmmm.... and jelly fish looks like a pile of snot when it is raw or cooked. Yeah, I don't think I'll eat this one. I'll just fill up on some kim-chi, thanks.

Side dishes at the Chinese restaurant are a bit odd too. You get kim-chi (duh), picked radish (duh), raw onion. You dip this into black thick sauce (which I'm guessing is the base of the jjajang sauce). They also have white vinegar that they put on the onions. They also mix the vinegar with red chili powder. So, basically, I don't eat these things. I will eat the kim-chi and radish though.

So, that is my very limited trip through Chinese cuisine. It's pretty good. You must realize though that there is a Chinese proverb that says "If it walks on the earth, it must be good to eat." In other words, they eat any and everything. Think fear factor. So, unless there is a picture or an english speaker to tell me what something is... I'll stick to the jjajang myoen, thanks.