EPT
Our company is moving to the Valley and I really needed to ask some questions to the omniscient TL, so I am gonna start off with some content that will meet the criteria set forth by the featured bloggers posting guidelines. Then, at the end I will spoiler my questions and all the girlblog stuff that has been pelt up. Feel free to skip the last part if you're not interested in that kind of stuff.Korean sing-songs which bear no particular correlation to the content will be dispersed throughout the blog. Listen to them while reading if you so desire
Introduction: Food
Since I pretty much shat on Korea (inadvertently, might I add) in my last blog, I will be writing a blog that accentuates one of our culture's many good qualities this time, namely the food. Our food is delicious and (relatively) healthy, but it may be a bit exotic and intimidating for people who have not grown up eating it. For all the lovely foreigners on TL that want to try them out, I will be separating them into leagues to provide general guidelines on the order in which you should try them out. Feel free to try out foods in the higher leagues during your placement matches if you so desire, but some of the stuff in the upper leagues may make you drop all the way to bronze and lose all desire to ladder ever again. You can move up the ladder at your own pace when you are good and ready, as I've only picked out the most mainstream, delicious food items I could think of to make your journey to the top as pleasant as possible. If you come to Korea, you really should try everything on this list up to where you feel comfortable. League advancement thresholds are about as ambiguous as blizzard's MMR system: I would be hard-pressed to give an answer if I were asked on the standards, so just live with them. Alcoholic beverages will mostly be left out barring one, cuz honestly, I personally drink not because I like to savor the delectable taste of alcohol, but because either I wanna get drunk, or a friend/elder wants me to get drunk, so definitely not my area of expertise. That said, if you come to Korea, drink everything (unless you are a girl - bad times in Seoul with all the sex crimes going on right now), and have fun! Guaranteed good time.
I'll romanize each food item so you can pronounce it, but first lemme establish some ground rules.
- 'A' is to be pronounced like the 'a' in the word 'wad'
- 'E' will be pronounced like the 'e' in 'belt'
- 'I' will be pronounced like the 'i' in 'bin'
- 'O' will be pronounced like the 'o' in 'dose'
- 'U' will be pronounced like the 'u' in 'butt'
- 'EU' will be pronounced like the non-existant vowel from 'hmm.'
- 'OO' will be pronounced like the 'oo' in 'food'
- Double consonant sounds will be put in caps. Basically, when you see this, make your mouth the shape you would pronouncing that letter, but hold it at the state right before any sound comes out, and let out your air explosively. For example, for BB, you would purse your lips together and then all the sudden let out all the air quickly while pronouncing the 'b'. If done correctly, it will sound similar to the 'b' in 'BOOYAH/BOOM, IN YOUR FACE,' used when you want to celebrate something rather obnoxiously. Imagine you were having a heated argument with a single digit poster on TL over whether SC1 or SC2 had more strategic depth, and Jaedong, Flash, MMA and Stephano suddenly came out and confirmed whatever your opinion was, and you want to rub it in his face SOOOOOOO badly. Channel all that internet rage and misery he/she would have caused you over the course of the imaginary argument into that single 'b' sound and you will get something akin to the ㅃ (BB) sound in Korean. After you get that down, you just need to mitigate the anger and tone down the volume so you're not shouting at your friend every time you wanna go to a bar (빠).
+ Show Spoiler [Helpful video on pronouncing double co…] +
The best part is the subtle music in the back
Sad music to dampen the mood, so you don't go running out to eat Korean food in the middle of reading my blog
The best part is the subtle music in the back
Sad music to dampen the mood, so you don't go running out to eat Korean food in the middle of reading my blog
1. Bronze~gold league
Honestly, all the items here are as non-intrusive as can be (and delicious as FUdge), so if you find what these leagues have to offer you intimidating in any way (unless you're allergic to some of the ingredients, but I can't even think of any that you could possibly be allergic to... sesame?), you're not ready to eat the more hardcore Korean food, sort of like how everybody will laugh at you if you post in a balance discussion thread on TL and they find out you are a gold leaguer. Honestly, you should do your best to conquer at least gold league, cuz otherwise, you're missing out on some delicious food you won't find anywhere else in the world.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/rotinegg/food/kalbi.jpg)
갈비(Gal-bi) - means ribs, but they are very different from the TGIF full rack JDBBQ ribs. this and the next two comprise the holy trinity of Korean BBQ that all non-vegetarian foreigners can't get enough of. 갈비 can either be marinated in a sweet sauce or served without. Cook it yourself at restaurants.
불고기(Bool-go-gi) - Always marinated and submerged in this delicious, sweet juice. Boiled with different veggies, like onions. My favorite of the holy meat trinity.
삼겹살(Sam-gyup-sal) - Never marinated - imagine bacon, except thicker, juicier, and less crispy. Great companion to soju. Cook it yourself at restaurants.
닭갈비(Dak-gal-bi) - Chicken marinated in a spicy sweet sauce with veggies. Very popular among youngsters, although I personally don't enjoy it as much as the holy meat trinity. The waiters cook it for you.
제육볶음(Je-yook-bok-GGeum, courtesy of swunder) - Spicy pork fried in a pan with veggies such as carrots, onions, scallions, garlic, green pepper, spicy pepper, mushrooms. Tastes like a spicier, less juicy version of bulgogi. Marinated in a mixture of 고추장 (go-chu-jang, spicy paste), 고춧가루 (go-chut-ga-ru, spicy pepper flakes), minced garlic, sugar, etc. Tastes really good on top of rice or just by itself. Slightly spicy and your breath will smell very garlic-y afterwards.
비빔밥(Bi-bim-bab) - Rice with veggies, an egg, chili paste, and sesame oil. 돌솥비빔밥(Dol-sot-bi-bim-bab) is served on 돌솥 (no shit) which is a hot stone plate: this keeps the dish hot throughout the meal, the rice at the bottom gets crispy, and the dish feels and looks more authentic.
알밥(Al-bab) - Rice with fried veggies and fish eggs, served in a hot stone plate. Delicious shit, one of my personal favorites. The fish eggs don't taste fishy at all, and have a fun texture.
잡채(Jab-che) - Sweet potato glass noodles served with seasoned and fried veggies, beef and sesames/sesame oil. Very delicious. Even though the noodles are made of sweet potatoes, they don't taste weird or anything, they taste just like any other form of noodles.
물냉면(Mool-neng-myun) - Cold, thin noodles served in a delicious broth, usually has vinegar added for taste. You can either eat it at a restaurant that specializes in 냉면, but you can also find it at any meat restaurant, as they serve 냉면 (sometimes free) as an after-thought to your carnivorous meal. Also one of my favorites.
콩국수(Kong-gook-soo) - Cold noodles served in this white bean broth. Literally, steamed beans are mashed up and mixed with milk, although tofu is used instead of beans for convenience at times.
칼국수(Kal-gook-soo) - Hot noodles served in a delicious, garlicky broth with potatoes, zuccini, onions, and oftentimes seafood. Awesome.
잔치국수(Jan-chi-gook-soo) - As its name, festival-noodles, implies, often served at festivals like marriages in the old days (it even looks festive with all the different colored veggies as well). Thin noodles served in a hot broth with lots of veggies, eggs and beef. Aesthetics are very important for this dish.
만두(Man-doo) - Dumplings, except we have the 왕(king) and 물(water) variation. 왕만두(wang-man-doo) is an over-sized dumpling while 물만두's (Mool-man-doo) are cute little dumplings boiled (not steamed).
계란찜/탕(Ge-ran-tang/Ge-ran-JJim) - Basically hardened egg cake with scallions. Tastes great, dunno how else to explain it. 계란탕 is a much waterier version of 계란찜. Often consumed with alcoholic beverages.
팥빙수(Pat-bing-soo) - Shaved ice with sweet bean paste, and other stuff depending on your likings. Often served with fruit, jelly, other delicious stuff on top.
수정과(Soo-jung-gwa) - Cold cinnamon juice, a lot tastier than it sounds.
매실(Me-shil) - I actually don't know what this is in English, but google says either plum or japanese apricot, and I know these aren't plums, so I am gonna go with japanese apricot. They are tangy, sweet, sour, basically everything great in this world combined. Most commonly served in diluted juice form.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/rotinegg/food/apollo.jpg)
아폴로(Apollo) - This had to be on the list even though it's junk food and not a real meal because it is god damn delicious and although I am 99.4% certain it is carcinogenic, you have to at least try one. It comes in like a pack of 20? for ~10 cents i believe (may have increased due to inflation) and they are these little straws with sweet tangy paste stuffing in them. It's great but my mom never used to let me eat them in elementary school cuz she believes they are 199.4% carcinogenic. She would still give me shit if she caught me eating them.
양념치킨(Yang-nyum-chi-kin, courtesy of OpticalShot) - Chicken doused in sauce. You can order this from chicken restaurants around the corner, and they will deliver it to your door, or you can eat out. The sauce is really delicious: usually, it's a slightly spicy, but mainly sweet red sauce over fried chicken, and it goes great with beer. There are different varieties to 양념치킨, such as 파닭(pa-dak = Scallion chicken, your breath will smell like scallion and garlic the next morning) and 불닭 (Bool-dak = fire chicken, really spicy as the name implies, I can't handle it very well). Popular item among progaming houses and students on a budget in general.
파전/녹두전/감자전(Pa-jun/Nok-doo-jun/Gam-ja-jun, courtesy of Ozarugold) - These three look like pancakes, but that's where the similarities end. 파전 is made from a mix that consists of wheat, corn, potato, sweet rice powder, milk, scallion, some other optional veggies and seafood in the case of 해물파전 (he-mool-pa-jun = seafood 파전) or kimchi for 김치파전 (kim-chi-pa-jun). 녹두전 is made from mung-bean powder (they look like green beans) and is similar in taste and texture to 파전, but grainier. Same goes for 감자전, which is made from potato powder. For cooking these three, you basically mix everything together with water and just put it on a well-oiled frying pan and wait til it's done. Great appetizer, or you can just have it as a meal if you cook alot of it.
Quite dazzling, I must say. No tears, though
4. Platinum league
Congratulations, you've graduated from gold league, your league icon is now an eagle! That means you're ready to move onto things that may require you to muster up a bit of courage to try, whether it is because of the smell, texture, spice level, knowledge of the ingredients, or whatever. However, in most cases I've seen, foreigners, albeit hesitant at first, tried and handled all this stuff just fine, and enjoyed most of it. Once you conquer plat, you can start chipping into SC2 discussion threads on subjects like 'the importance of macro' while simultaneously dropping lines like 'I'm top8 plat, matched up against mid~high diamonds most of the time, noobs don't know what they're talking about.' Keep on keeping on and your courage and tenacity will be rewarded soon enough.
식혜(Shik-he) - The first items on this list are barely low, low plat, so conquering these items is not something you should be too proud of. 식혜 is this sweetened rice drink, and although it's delicious, it's a bit too sweet for me. You will see lots of grains of rice at the bottom of your drink.
엿(Yut) - Also used interchangeably with the swear word equivalent of 'fuck' (엿먹어 = Eat 엿 = fuck you), it's made of rice and wheat oil (don't ask me, no idea how you get oil from wheat). It hardens into a candy that will stick to your teeth like no other. There used to be these 엿장수's who were peddlers that went around from town to town, buying old furniture, clothes, etc in exchange for 엿.
떡(DDuk) - Rice cakes. Comes in many different varieties, but basically you will taste a shitload of slightly sweet, sticky rice. Very heavy on carbohydrates, as it's literally rice and sweet rice compacted into as small of a form-factor as possible. They way they make 떡 is through the use of a 절구(jul-goo), where you have a bowl with the rice, and a hammer with which you pound away til the shit becomes one sticky blob. The sound and motion of using the 절구, along with its shape and the texture of its after product, 떡, has caused the term 'making/hitting ricecakes' to be used as a sexual innuendo, which I will not write here.
+ Show Spoiler [NSFW] +![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/rotinegg/food/Julgoo.jpg)
An old man watching two ladies making ricecakes
An old man watching two ladies making ricecakes
떡국(DDuk-gook) - Rice cake soup, with eggs, scallions, sesame, sesame oil, beef, etc. Typically ingested on new years, but you can eat it anytime and it is delicious. Rice cakes my stick to your teeth.
수제비(Soo-Je-Bi) - Similar to ricecake soup, but 수제비 is made of wheat and egg instead of rice. A big dough is ripped by hand into small pieces, which is why North Koreans call it 'Wheat-rip-soup' (밀가루뜨더국) Consistency and taste are similar to 떡, but the broth is usually spicy and has more veggies, and oftentimes seafood is added, making it taste more like 칼국수 than 떡국. One of my favorites.
달고나/뽑기(Dal-go-na/BBob-gi) - Burnt sugar and baking soda melted and hardened again. Sweet with a bitter aftertaste. You can find these outside of elementary schools, where the sellers have sort of a mini-game going on: they melt it, and pour it out and stamp it with a metal frame bent into a certain shape. If you manage to break off the sides completely without breaking the middle piece, you win a prize, usually a toy gun. Never seen anybody but the sellers be able to do this though, I always failed miserably T_T They now also come in prepackaged candy form apparently. My sister and girlfriend's favorite candy.
김밥(Gim-bab) - Rice with veggies and beef in the middle wrapped in seaweed, then rubbed with sesame oil. You probably know it as a maki roll, but Korean 김밥 is slightly different in that it uses seasoned veggies, like 단무지(dan-moo-ji, yellow radish) and 시금치(
Sea.GuemChi = spinach) instead of avocados or fish. I put it in platinum league because even though I think it's delicious, my best friend in Ohio, shoutout to Daniel you big pussy, said the smell of seaweed+sesame oil was an unbearable combination for him. When my mom offered him one, he seemed very hesitant to eat it, and after he put it in his mouth, he didn't want to be impolite, so waited for my mom to look away and spat it out immediately lol설렁탕/설농탕(Sul-lung-tang/Sul-nong-tang -> Technically the latter is correct, but it is more commonly known as the former) - Meat and bones (mostly the latter) boiled for a LONG ASS time, usually 24 hours or more, resulting in a milky white soup. Dump some noodles or rice or both in, add some chili paste (note: not 고추장(Go-chu-jang), it's a pastier version of 고춧가루(Go-chut-ga-ru)), some salt and some scallions, and omg so good.
갈비탕(Gal-bi-tang) - Cow rib soup that hasn't been cooked for too long, with radishes, onions and glass noodles added. Garlicky deliciousness.
양곱창/막창(Yang-gob-chang/Mak-chang) - The first and last parts of a cow's four sets of stomachs, usually marinated in a sauce similar to 갈비(gal-bi) sauce. Tastes like any other meat, but placed in this league for its slightly unfamiliar origins.
회(Hwe) - Sashimi. No doubt a lot of you have already had sashimi/sushi. There is a special kind of sashimi in Korea called 세꼬시 (Se-GGo-shi) and I believe Japanese people don't eat this, but correct me if I am wrong. It's sashimi with all the bones mixed in as well, but they select certain kinds of baby fish so the bones are still soft, yet crunchy. I love the texture of this; I value the texture of food as much as the taste, which is why I like champignon (small mushrooms that don't taste like anything) and celery. I advise you all to try it out (unless you have fish allergies like my sister
). The most notable difference between Japanese and Korean sashimi is we like to dip it in this sauce that is a mixture of 고추장 (Gochoojang, chilipaste) and vinegar, called 초장 (Chojang). I personally like it better than soy sauce. 회덮밥(Hwe-dup-bab, courtesy of jpak) - Sashimi on rice, with other veggies, 김(Gim, = dried and salted seaweed) and 초장(Cho-jang). Not much else to say except that it is really delicious. Everything is mixed 비빔밥 (Bi-bim-bap) style. If you are having trouble eating straight up raw fish, this can ease your transition because the ratio of 회 to rice and other veggies is like 1:20, so the taste of raw fish is buried in with the rest of the ingredients and the spicy sauce.
삼계탕(Sam-ge-tang) - Chicken soup with a bunch of old Korean veggies, like 대추 (Dechu), 도라지 (Doraji), 인삼 (Insam), etc that I won't bother looking up their names in English. If curious, look them up yourself, but I don't like this dish that much so I don't eat it often, and as a result I don't know much about it.
오뎅국(O-deng-gook) - Fishcake soup with radish and onions. Delicious. 다시마(Dashima, kind of seaweed) is added to the broth for flavor and chilipaste is added to give it a stronger kick. Good as companion for drinking.
콩나물국/국밥(Kong-na-mool-gook/Kong-na-mool-gook-bab) - Beansprout soup with onions, scallions, chilipaste, eggs, etc. Not very special, often consumed when you have a hangover for 해장 (He-jang, curing hangover) purposes. My dad's favorite dish.
짜장면(JJa-jang-myun) - black bean paste noodles. It's technically from China, but we modded it so much it might as well be our own, kind of like how American pizza =/= Italian pizza. Cheap dish you can order from any chinese restaurant. It's oily and the color may be intimidating but it's delicious. Has onions, zucchini, cucumbers, etc sliced into it with either pork or seafood, depending on the dish. If it doesn't fill you up, you can order 곱배기 (Gob-be-gi) which doubles the noodles at an increased, but not double, price.
The lyrics are justin-bieber-esque but it's okay cuz I like this song
5. Diamond league
Hey tough guy, you've made it to diamond league I see, you must be proud of yourself. You've gotten past the initial list of foods that may cause fears of 'WTF am I eating?' You are slowly being broken in to try more adventurous stuff, and that's a good thing, cuz the stuff from here on really embodies the taste of Korea. Good job foreigner, but unfortunately, this also means it may be where your advancement ends. Just like some people don't ever make it out of diamond league in SC, not everybody is cut out for this kind of thing. The shit here mainly tests your limits on your spiciness-level tolerance. If you persevere through this stage, however, you will gain the opportunity to join the myriad of gosu's who have already moved past this preliminary-stage to Korean food nirvana, where the exotic ingredients start to come out.
떡볶이(DDuk-bok-GGi) - World renown, yet why so high in the leagues, you may ask? Well, if you haven't had it, it's spicy as shit. And I'm talking about the regular kind of 떡볶이, not the super-insane-spicy-cuz-the-regular-just-didnt-cut-it-kind, which they also sell. Rice cakes with fishcakes, onions, carrots and scallions. Popular and most well-known street food. Non-spicy variants exist, for example 궁중떡볶이(Goong-joong-DDuk-bok-GGi), which is doused in a mixture of sesame-oil and a sweet-tasting sauce. My girlfriend's favorite street food.
떡꼬치(DDuk-GGo-chi) - Same ricecakes, except skewered and fried, then coated with a chili-paste + ketchup + sesame paste concoction. Tastes really great, my personal favorite street food.
김치(Gim-chi)/깍두기(GGak-doo-gi)/any 김치 derivative like 김치볶음밥/김치찌개(Gim-chi-bok-GGeum-bab/Gim-chi-JJi-ge) - Kimchi! Everybody knows Kimchi, right? However I bet a lot of you didn't know it's rotten cabbage. HAH! How do you feel about the friend that made you try Kimchi now? It's seriously rotten cabbage, with bacteria crawling all over it. Fortunately, it's the good kind of bacteria, and apparently Kimchi is really healthy for you. Well anyway, not only is this spicy, but it stinks like fart. I didn't realize it growing up, but then I came to the US and after having lived without it for a few months, I bought a jar and put it in my fridge, and noticed something stank, only to realize it was the closed (yes, closed) jar of Kimchi. If you haven't smelled it before, it smells BAD. 깍두기 is 김치's little brother made from radishes, cut up into little squares. They go with EVERYTHING, literally you could eat a meal with just a bowl of rice and kimchi. 김치찌개 is Kimchi soup with veggies and tofu, while 김치볶음밥 is Kimchi-fried-rice.
된장찌개(Dwen-jang-JJi-ge)/any kind of 된장(Dwen-jang) derivative - Dwenjang, another rotten product! Yay! It's this salty, slightly spicy bean paste, except it's ROTTEN (politically correct and slightly less reproachable term is fermented but who gives a shit)! So the reason we have so many rotten food items is cuz our ancestors were pretty much all farmers with limited means of food storage, and had to figure out a way to last through the long periods on preserved food during times with inclement weather, such as drought seasons or winters, that would kill all their crops, so they decided they would start experimenting with rotten food. After realizing that rotten meat and rotten rice were no good (I made this up) they realized 'hey cabbage and beans aren't that bad rotten! The beans have blue fungus growing on them, but let's pickle it anyway, make it into a paste and eat it with our veggies! Also how about we make a soup out of it too? Yum!' So these beans are boiled for a few hours and then packed into these brick-like blocks called a 메주(Me-joo), and hung to dry/ferment for months. When they have blue fungus growing, they are pickled in a jar with salt water until ready to eat. Fun fact: soy sauce is the left-over water after removing the beans from the pickling process. So yea, it's the eastern equivalent of cheese and yogurt (yuck, never liked the taste of cheese) which is basically rotten milk (cultured, if you would prefer). 된장 can be consumed with anything that needs some saltiness, and 된장찌개 is soup with 된장 and veggies like chili peppers, onions, zuccinis, and tofu.
미역국(Mi-yuck-gook) - Seaweed soup with scallions, sesame oil, beef, etc. Typically given on your birthday, but you can eat it anytime. It is delicious, but people not used to the slimy texture of seaweed may need some time to get used to it.
낙지(Nakji)/문어(Moon-u)/오징어(O-jing-u) (cooked) - WTF is 낙지 in English? It's a small variation of octopus, but anyway, small octopus/octopus/squid are often used in Korean dishes. They are delicious, and the little suckers tubes on their legs are a real delight to eat. If cooked right, they don't smell, and they're not slimy either, so don't be afraid to try. 낙지 and 문어 are often served as an ingredient in a spicy soup like 짬뽕(JJam-BBong), while squid is also served dried and seasoned in butter or spicy sauce, sort of like nachos at a baseball game (analogy was terrible in hindsight)
비빔냉면/쫄면/막국수(Bi-bim-neng-myun/JJol-myun/Mak-gook-soo) - 비빔냉면 uses the same cold noodles as 물냉면, but there is no broth, and instead you dump a whole bunch of sweet and spicy sauce on it. 쫄면 is this really stringy, chewy noodle that I LOVE: the noodles are cold and thicker than 냉면, and it's served with cabbage, carrots and sesame seeds. 막국수 is made of 메밀(me-mil) (=buckwheat, also often known as 모밀(mo-mil) but technically it's a misnomer) and it's less chewy than 쫄면. It's served cold, mixed with spicy/sweet sauce and lettuce leaves. All of these dishes are pretty similar and really delicious, if you can handle the spice.
감자탕(Gam-ja-tang) - Spicy potato soup with giant cow bones (usually not alot of meat on them) and other veggies like 시래기 (Shi-re-gi = raddish leaves, not the roots). Great traditional dish that goes really well with alcohol.
아구찜(A-goo-JJim) - Fish stew. I have no idea what the fish is called but google tells me its scientific name is Lophiomus setigerus, more commonly known as angler. Slithe tells me it is more commonly known as monkfish in America. This is like a spicy-seafood-veggie-explosion, where you will find all sorts of ingredients: you can find beansprouts, parsley, perilla, shrimp, little octopus, 미더덕(Mi-du-duk) = google says it's called Styela clava. It's squishy with a crunchy shell and squirts hot water when you chew it, burning the insides of your mouth), little shells, etc. One of my girlfriend's favorite dishes.
순두부찌개(Soon-doo-boo-JJi-ge) - Pretty famous dish even among foreigners, I believe. Spicy ass soft-tofu soup with scallions, eggs, seafood, etc. One of my sister's favorite dishes. Not much else to say here, just try it.
육개장(Yook-ge-jang) - Spicy soup with some traditional veggie ingredients. Contains stringy beef, bracken, green bean sprouts, mushrooms, and other shit. Very deep taste. one of my favorites, and again, I could sit here all day and try to describe the taste, but at the end of the day you just have to try it.
- Intermission without elevator music -
- Part 2 -
One of my favorite singers, not because she is particularly talented, but because nobody else has her voice and style.
6. Master's league
This will be as far as most people go. If you make it into top8 masters and are being matched up against GM players once in a while, you can say you have conquered Korean food. You can stop after learning how to eat most foods on this list, and brag to all your Korean friends that not only do you get all the Korean chicks thanks to your 양키간지 (Yankee ganzi, look up ganzi in your spare time), but now you are a 'master' of Korean food as well. Now all you have to do to integrate to Korean society is get over the ridiculous amount of innate xenophobia that Koreans have, learn to speak the language perfectly (including honorifics to your elders, even if they are older by merely a few months in some cases), buy tight clothes from a flowery guy named 박태준 or any one of the millions of online shopping mall "CEO's", learn all the Korean drinking games (that might be handled in a future blog
), learn how to be polite (give up your seat on a bus for an elderly), yet at the same time cold to strangers (never make eye contact walking or strike up a conversation without being properly introduced, unless you are trying to get a girl's number), and adapt to all the cultural subtleties stemming from everybody having to go through a ridiculously stressful schooling system and (at least for males) wasting two years of their lives in mandatory military service. Alas, the list is a tad longer than expected, but hey, at least you won't have to pussy out anymore when your friends wanna go out for chicken feet and soju after a hard day! (Please don't do the 'I get all the Korean chicks!' part, I was joking).![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/rotinegg/aboki.png)
박태준 (Bak-Te-Joon), CEO of ABOKI which sells XXS ~ S size clothing for men. If you're lucky, I heard you can find M sized shirts in their clearance section.
순대/간/허파(Soon-de/Gan/Hu-pa) - steamed pig intestines filled with glass noodles/liver/lungs. 순대 is the primary dish, and the others come with it as a side. It is sold with 떡볶이 at food trucks, one of the street food holy trinity (떡볶이/오뎅/순대 = DDuk-bok-gi/O-deng/Soon-de). Dip in salt, eat, tastes delicious. 간 tastes like dry, crumbly meat, while 허파 is chewy and personally tastier. 순대국(Soon-de-gook) is spicy soup with cooked 순대, cow bones, a little beef and other veggies such as onions and peppers. Good for mornings after getting hammered.
* As far as 순대 goes, there is a more legit version that they serve at 순대 restaurants that aren't street food vendors. These tend to have veggies and meat along with noodles in the intestines, and the texture/taste is quite different.
복어(Bo-gu) - Blowfish. What's so bad about it? It contains a sac of poison that is lethal - ingesting an amount that is equivalent to a pinhead would kill an average human being, and there have been incidents in the past where people have died from eating ill-prepared blowfish. It's delicious, though, and most places do a good job removing the poison.
산낙지(San-nak-ji) - Live small octopus. So you take a small octopus from a tank, wash it, chop it up, and serve with sesame oil and salt, all done in less than five minutes. Delicious, no? The tentacles still move and stick to the insides/outsides of your mouth, so be careful not to swallow without chewing, as you my suffocate from the tentacles sticking to the insides of your esophagus. Delicious, personal favorite Korean dish.
닭발(Dak-bal) - Chicken feet. Fried in a pan with spicy and sweet sauce. Good as a drinking companion. Cheap, delicious, also good for your skin due to its collagen content (apparently), so women love it.
돼지껍데기(Dwe-ji-GGub-de-gi) - Pig skin, very stringy, you can often find pig hair on it as a result of lazy restaurant workers. You cook it on a pan the same way you would cook 갈비(Gal-bi) or 삼겹살(Sam-gyup-sal). Oftentimes you can find a meat house where pig skin refills are free all night as long as you eat their main meats. Very chewy, and some people don't like it's taste. I'm neutral, tastes good enough when you are drunk and need to chew on something.
족발(Jok-bal) - Pig feet steamed, lots of cartilage. I didn't really enjoy it, mainly because the place I ate smelled vile, but lots of people love it. Good drinking food.
청국장(Chung-gook-jang) - 청국장 is made from the same beans that make 된장 (dwen-jang, the rotten beans that also give you soysauce, remember?) but instead of being packed into 메주's (me-ju) and hung to dry, the are just straight up boiled and then rotten at around 40 degrees Celsius (~110ish Fahrenheit) for a few days. Apparently the beans rot to a brown color and sticky strings start to form at the top, which is when you know they are delicious and ready. 청국장 smells terrible to people who haven't had it, but it's a lot safer than 된장 because 1) the fungus that forms on 된장 produces a known carcinogen, so special attention must be paid to remove that, and 2) 된장 was dipped in soy sauce for a few months, so high sodium content. Other than these differences, you make a soup with 청국장 the exact same way you would with 된장. Strongly advise you to try it, as a lot of foreigners shy away from the smell.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/rotinegg/food/seafood.png)
weird 해산물's (He-san-mool) - Weird seafood. So my family and I went to a 횟집 (hwet-jibp = sashimi restaurant) and part of their main course, they served a dish full of all these gross looking seafood items. Not only were they gross looking (the 오분자기(O-boon-ja-gi = abalone) were still moving), I wasn't used to the taste so they all tasted like the ocean. The texture was all slimy and some of them produced green water, which I HATE. My mom loved it though, she grew up on the seaside so she had a blast eating all the food I couldn't eat. I just had the peanuts. Two of them that I remember were 개불 (Ge-bool = spoon worm, also called penis fish apparently? lol. This was moving too...) and 보말(Bo-mal = Omphalius rusticus, cant find the common name)
번데기/뻔데기(Bun-de-gi/BBun-de-gi, former is technically correct but latter is used more) - silk larvae pupa? The cocoon thing before butterfree in pokemon, if that makes it any easier for you. Never had it, but it is a very popular street food, and apparently delicious. I just have a thing against eating bugs. People eat it alot with drinks.
곱창(Gop-chang) - Different from 양 (yang), 막창 (mak-chang), etc, which are all cow stomachs, these are the intestines, and are often served cooked on a grill or in a soup. You chew it, and all the stuff that was clogging the intestines comes out. You ever see a heard-disease medication commercial on tv? Where all this stuff is clogging your arteries and they play an animation of a red blood cell trying to get through? It's sort of like the stuff clogging your arteries, except the arteries are now cow intestines. Sounds gross, but it's actually really tasty and doesn't smell like shit.. The texture of the intestines themselves is chewy, while the stuff that comes out is pasty. Good drinking food.
선지국 (Sun-ji-gook) - Block of coagulated cow blood put in a spicy soup. The first time I ate it I didn't know it was cow blood, and it just tasted like dry tofu, albeit a bit harder and less crumbly. Served with veggies, cow meat, etc. Good hangover food.
내장탕 (Ne-jang-tang) - The name organ soup says it all. Organ soup. Organ soup. Blocks of cow blood, 업진살 (cow meat, the fattiest part of the stomach), cow intestines, cow stomach, veggies, spicy stuff all mixed into a soup. It's like a combination of the previous two items and more stuff into a soup. Delicious.
육회(Yook-hwe) - Meat sashimi. It's beef washed of its blood and marinated with sesame oil. Juicier and softer than cooked meat, literally melts in your mouth. Texture is akin to that of tuna. Not much else to say. Some crappier places it smells, apparently, although I've never had that happen to me.
추어탕(Choo-u-tang) - Freshwater fish called loach that is cooked alive. They look like big tadpoles / small catfish. They are STRONG so if you don't put the lid on the pot while cooking they might jump out. Never had it so can't describe the taste.
꼬리곰탕(GGo-ri-gom-tang) - Slithe provided me some insight to this dish with which I am not too familiar. Flavorwise, apparently comparable to 설렁탕/설농탕(Sul-lung-tang/Sul-nong-tang). It's one of his favorite soups and he has some cooking in his kitchen as we speak.
도가니/도가니탕(Do-ga-ni/Do-ga-ni-taㅜg) - steamed cartilage/cartilage soup. It is what you think it is. I don't like it, I hate the texture, it gives off a slightly unpleasant smell, and it tastes like nothing. Not my favorite dish to say the least.
닭똥집(Dak-DDong-jip) - Literally means chicken-shit-holder, but it's actually a misnomer, as it's the organ that stores all the sand grains separated from their food. Fried with spicy chili paste, garlic and a whole bunch of veggies. Served with alcoholic beverages. Warning: if not scrubbed and washed carefully with salt and water, it can smell... like shit.
소머리/돼지머리(So-mu-ri/Dwe-ji-mu-ri) - Cow/pig head. Cow heads are usually boiled and made into a soup, while pig heads are steamed. Both are supposed to be nutritious. Never had it, so can't comment on the taste.
홍어(Hong-u) - Skate (a type of fish). They apparently pee through their skin so the meat contains uric acid, and to make things worse, they are rotten at room temperature for a few days, so the shit truly stinks, I personally have no idea why it's not in GM yet, cuz in terms of smell, it probably beats out a lot of its GM competitors. I smelled it once, and it's rancid. Ugh.
I like Dynamic Duo, you should too
7. Grandmaster's league
I'll admit, I have no clue what goes here, sue me. This is basically random food items I've seen my grampa (I miss you) and his friends eat. I won't go into too much detail since I don't know much about them. If you haven't figured it out already, that means no, I'm not a GM in Korean food either ;_; Just like how not all Koreans are MVP's and DRG's and MMA's. I'm sure there are more food items in this category, so any lurking Korean GM's, feel free to enlighten me and I shall add to the list. These are either foods originating from the state of abject poverty during our earlier years, or the health-craze that our ancestors had, believing that certain foods brought you 'good health.' I won't go into whether they truly do bring you good health, and any ethical issues that may arise will be left at bay.
말벌술(Mal-bul-sool) - Alcoholic beverage made of wasps (wtf) - I hate these assholes that sting you, so I try to swat them away whenever they come within a 10 feet radius. Even the thought of drinking this shit makes me nauseous. You seal dozens of live wasps into a jar (bottle) of soju and ferment it for at least 3 months in a dark place. Apparently it's good for increasing energy levels, lowering blood pressure, fixing arthritis, increasing stamina, relieving inflamed urethra, lowering the risk of heart disease, solving insomnia, solving asthma, solving excessive sweating, and preventing aging (I shit you not, this is the list I compiled through simple web searches on naver. Of course, it's not scientifically verified, with a minor exception here and there, but mostly it's just 'known' to be healthy in those regards).
메뚜기(Me-DDoo-gi) - Grasshoppers. Fried to a crisp. Go figure. My dad used to eat it when he was poor. Like our-family-has-no-bus-money-so-he-had-to-walk-the-8-mile-round-trip-to-and-from-school-poor. He also ate a bad watermelon they were selling on the streets on the way to meeting my mom for the first time and got food poisoning. His face turned as white as a ghost and couldn't talk cuz he was in severe pain, but my mom liked the chic image he projected so married him. She complains about how she fell for it to this day (in a joking manner ofc). NO IDEA what that little aside had to do with the subject-at-hand.
영양탕/보신탕(Yung-yang-tang/Bo-shin-tang) - Dog soup, basically specific breeds of dogs raised for consumption (NOT pet dogs) cooked into a soup. Funny thing is the name 영양탕 literally translates to nutrition-soup, while 보신탕 means help-body-soup, so yeah apparently our ancestors saw it as the epitome of health food.
People also eat snakes, turtles, and other stuff, but that stuff originated from China so I won't put that here.
+ Show Spoiler [questions and girl blog] +
So this is the part where I get to ask my questions and write about the silly girl blog stuff. I had a lot I wanted to write about but writing this blog exhausted me so I'll have to keep it short. I have been working as the main developer for a tech start-up, and we are moving to the Valley to join the myriad others out west. I don't have a lot of faith in the direction our company is headed, so I will be looking for another job while working, probably another start-up in Cali or NYC, not sure. Might apply for grad school.. not sure yet. I do need some tips on the general area though, so if anybody lives near San Jose/Sunnyvale/San Fran maybe you can help me out.
- I need to find a place to live, like NOW. Office will be in Sunnyvale, and I'm having a hard time finding a 2-bed (me and my bud) that's close to work. Cheaper would be preferable since I'm planning to lease 6 months for now.
- I need a car - I'm not on a tight budget but I'd prefer <50k. Hows the traffic in the area? Public transport?
- Hows the weather/how do start-up people there dress? I don't wanna look like a clown wearing a suit and tie, but I have very little casual clothes. I'm generally against dressing in shorts + tshirt + flipflops, so something a lil classier, yet not outside the norm, would be nice.
- I like snowboarding (I know it's a bit early) but what are some nice slopes that are semi-close?
- Is there a Ktown nearby? I need a place to get my hair cut.
- How safe is the area? Can I walk around at night or should I hide my kids and hide my wife? Are there areas I should absolutely stay away from?
And to the girl/life blog part, my better half is having a tough time recovering from her loss. She is losing another loved one to cancer in a month (according to Mr. doctor), and it blows that I'm not in Korea to help her through the process. I've offered to quit my job and go (it wasn't an offer, it was more like 'I'm going NOW') but she said she would be very disappointed if I did, so I held off on it. What do? The last time I lost someone dear to me was when my ailing grandfather passed away some years ago, and I wasn't very involved in the process because I was still a student in the US, so I don't really know what to do except wait and lend her support when she needs it. Life is a mixed bag for sure. Plan for now is to concentrate on the startup at hand, jobsearch for a more established startup, and learning mobile app dev (I'm a software dev). I tried Diablo 3 to pass time but after about a week or so I lost interest so I refunded it. It's hard to concentrate on anything with thoughts of her and the army lingering over my head, and it's been tough finding motivation.
- I need to find a place to live, like NOW. Office will be in Sunnyvale, and I'm having a hard time finding a 2-bed (me and my bud) that's close to work. Cheaper would be preferable since I'm planning to lease 6 months for now.
- I need a car - I'm not on a tight budget but I'd prefer <50k. Hows the traffic in the area? Public transport?
- Hows the weather/how do start-up people there dress? I don't wanna look like a clown wearing a suit and tie, but I have very little casual clothes. I'm generally against dressing in shorts + tshirt + flipflops, so something a lil classier, yet not outside the norm, would be nice.
- I like snowboarding (I know it's a bit early) but what are some nice slopes that are semi-close?
- Is there a Ktown nearby? I need a place to get my hair cut.
- How safe is the area? Can I walk around at night or should I hide my kids and hide my wife? Are there areas I should absolutely stay away from?
And to the girl/life blog part, my better half is having a tough time recovering from her loss. She is losing another loved one to cancer in a month (according to Mr. doctor), and it blows that I'm not in Korea to help her through the process. I've offered to quit my job and go (it wasn't an offer, it was more like 'I'm going NOW') but she said she would be very disappointed if I did, so I held off on it. What do? The last time I lost someone dear to me was when my ailing grandfather passed away some years ago, and I wasn't very involved in the process because I was still a student in the US, so I don't really know what to do except wait and lend her support when she needs it. Life is a mixed bag for sure. Plan for now is to concentrate on the startup at hand, jobsearch for a more established startup, and learning mobile app dev (I'm a software dev). I tried Diablo 3 to pass time but after about a week or so I lost interest so I refunded it. It's hard to concentrate on anything with thoughts of her and the army lingering over my head, and it's been tough finding motivation.
Oh god, I am super tired from writing this blog, and I'm sure you are too after putting up with all the random shit strewn across my blog. I might update with more information and make the language more presentable, but most likely not lol. Was gonna add pictures but it quickly got out of hand and I am a lazy piece of shit so for now I won't add any images. I'll add them once I find motivation later. If you have the perfect picture of a certain food item, reply to this thread with it, and I will add it to the OP on a first-come-first-serve basis per food item. If you were ever offended for whatever reason, I apologize, none intended. I hope you've enjoyed what I've written! Also, if anybody comes up with a much better piece on a food item, I will edit it into the OP, so have at it! Have a nice day
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