Lunch Time!

Date: 11/2/2010

So I have been doing a lot of posts on the food in Korea, so I thought I'd share a little bit about the School Lunch at Seohung Middle School.  These are the wonderful ladies who served fried chicken on Wednesday--unfortunately I deleted the pictures I had take on Wednesday about my beautiful fried chicken--so I took some new pictures on Thursday of their very Korean meal.

So, all the students line up outside the cafeteria until a teacher tells them to come inside.  I don't know what they'll do when it gets really cold outside, but right now they seem ok to stand outside.  Because I'm a teacher, I don't have to wait! 

This is the inside of the cafeteria.  Notice the dark hair--I really stick out here.  

The tables are actually quiet similar to a US cafeteria table.  

They line up along the sides of the cafeteria and slowly progress up the window where the lunch ladies load up a tray.

A sample lunch tray.  Today's selection of food: Rice, a crab soup, an apple up in the top right, a crab cake (I think--it could be a squid cake) and some spicy chicken.  The chick is actually on the bone--but it's very hard to eat because you don't use your fingers--just your chopsticks.  You hold the meat in your chopsticks and bite around the bone.  I cheat and use one hand because I'm American and can't do chopsticks quiet that well.  You then spit out the bones on the tray and kind of hide them in the bottom of a well.  

The teachers have a table set out.  It has the same food as the kids, but it's self serve.

Rice and soup.  Since Gunsan is so close to the water, sea food is very inexpensive.  Thus, the crab soup.  Unfortunately, this is also eaten in the shell.  I watched a couple teachers eat them: you basically grab the crab with your chopsticks and bite on the shell so that the crab meat comes out in your mouth.  I did not get any crab in my soup (I only drink the broth).  I am usually don't like the soups because they are so spicy or heavily full of seaweed/tofu.

The rest of the buffet.  

Two types of kimchee--the white/red stuff is the traditional cabbage kimchee and the other one is a leaf and stalk of a green plant with some carrots (maybe?) thrown in.  Very, almost, sour.  I usually only grab one little sliver of each because it is a very acquired taste.

The 'meat" portions of the meal.  The left is either a squid or crab patty that has been grilled.  Think Crab cake--but it's for a school lunch so don't expect super delicious.  The right side is a spicy chicken dish.  This is on the bone so it's very difficult to eat.  But what I could eat, I did like.  I usually like the chicken or pork meat. 

This is the students waiting to get up to the serving area.  

Some sneak shots of students eating.  When eating a large item, like an apple slice, or potato chunk, you can actually stab the item with one chopstick and bite the item sort of like a apple on a stick.  This is very helpful when eating fruit.

When you are finished with your meal, you push all the left overs into the soup well.  Then you carry your tray to the back of the room where the dish are is. 

You drop off your spoon in one sink and your chopsticks in another.  Then your dump your soup into a trash hole and your tray goes in a stack of dirty dishes. 

The stack of dirty dishes.  Then you grab a cup and get some water (like in the next picture).

I am getting used to the Korean style of eating where you don't have anything to drink until afterwards.  It is hard when everything is very spicy, but apparently that's what the soup is for.  After you dump your dishes you grab glass and a take drink of water.  I usually take three or four drinks because I'm so thirsty.

So that is a regular lunch at Seoheung Middle School.  After this, I usually walk outside, enjoying the sun, and make my way back to my desk.  Koreans practice very good dental hygiene because almost every teacher gets back to their desk and brushes their teeth.  I think this is because the food is a) spicy and b) stringy and it can get stuck in your teeth very easy.  

Anyway...I hope you enjoyed!