My new foodie blog

After much musing and deliberation, I have finally concluded that my well overdue travel blog should consist of what I know and love best. Being an Ellory, that of course boils down to food (excuse the pun)! I hope to document an insight not only into traditional Korean cuisine, but into the eccentricities of Korea's interpretation of western food in all it's amusing glory. In addition, as my life in Korea opens up more and more opportunities to explore, I will widen my foodie inspiration and amazement and hope you will be as excited as me! I have seen the sweet, the confusing and the downright weird in this country and hope that your cyber belly will be as full as mine!

Now I am in an unusual position and part of the fun of this adventure, is that most Korean's have not the foggiest why or how you would choose to be a vegetarian of sorts (in my case a pescatarian- I eat seafood and fish but no meat). There are many of us in Korea, for the most part expats like myself. Despite this there is a huge lack of commonsense and a whole lot of ignorance to the subject which resulted for the millionth time this very weekend past, where I was left holding the meaty plate! I shall elaborate.... Now I don't go round eating pizza everyday, this was a special occasion as a new western style restaurant had opened in downtown Masan. I asked for a 'pizza' with no meat. The guy behind the counter spoke good English and I felt a lull of security that there was indeed a pizza with only a sprinkling of beautifully fresh seafood delights on a toasty pizza base. I ordered and waited with giddy anticipation as my stomach grumbled for some tastes of home! However, what I and my unsuspecting buddies were served was a kind of runny cheese quiche and of course mine came with ham. I was feeling particularly veggie that day as some times I have been known to be held incommunicado through language barriers or too tired to bother and have just picked through the food, but not today. To my surprise when I took it back and explained that we had agreed no meat, the young guy and his crew of eighteen year old coworkers, seemingly full of youthful and culturally educated pioneering spirit, looked at me like I was an alien and said.. 'well ham is not meat?!' I protested that indeed ham does come from a dwejji (pig) and indeed in my culture equated to an animal. The guys looked very much embarrassed to have mistook ham for a vegetable and this obviously made me feel super guilty and so I ended up apologising for being so awkward. We agreed I would settle to exchange my meal for a tortilla topped with grilled cheese and dairylea type squares on top! Now, one less experienced may have been alarmed but alas, having spent ten months in Korea already I have learned that I am in fact an alien in a meat loving country and I must let bygones be bygones!

I feel these stories must be shared with the world at large. I hope to share some highs and lows of genius foods and awaken a few tired taste buds along the way.

So for now,

Anyeongi gesayo.

Comments

  1. Ha ha! Hilarious, they are so funny aren't they?! Mistaking pig for veg!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment