That's right, part 1. How could I only devote one entry to the glorious feasts that are my everyday school lunches? That would be downright disrespectful. Also, I'm only a few weeks into my relationship with these midday banquets. We're still in the honeymoon phase. I can only report on the initial swept-me-off-my-feet feelings towards the food.
I'll start this off with one word: ssamjang. My love. My whole heart in a sauce. Ssamjang is the red paste featured above (next to the big lettuce leaves). It's reportedly a fermented soybean paste made with garlic, sesame oil, gochujang, and some mild sweetener like honey or sugar. In this meal, you take the lettuce leaves, pile some rice, meat, and the blessed ssamjang into it with your clumsy chopstick-wielding hands (oh, is it just me that's clumsy? yeah, just me.) and shove the whole wrap into your mouth. Worth the mess to get a taste of the ssamjang. Once I had sampled this red miracle sauce, I would repeatedly point to it when it was served at school and exclaim, "좋아요!" ("I like it!"). My co-teacher caught onto my obsession and brought me a tub of it to take home. I'm eternally indebted to her.
Next fan favorite, songpyeon (송편). Songpyeon are the little green pods seen next to the rice in the picture above. This past week was Chuseok (추석), a Thanksgiving-styled holiday, and songpyeon is the Korean equivalent of pumpkin pie. Stuffed with sweet sesame butter, these chewy rice cakes are my new obsession. After sampling a few at school, I promptly went out and bought myself a batch to gorge myself on.
Not gonna lie, this lunch was the dark sheep of the school-lunch family for me. Jajangmyeon was not my favorite. It was thick and goopy and pretty much tasted how it looked. If you haven't guessed, jajangmyeon is the brown sludge pictured above. I know, I know, I'm being harsh on this poor dish. From what I've learned, it's a noodle dish that includes varying veggies and meats, all our which are coated in a hardy black bean sauce. Normally, I am 100% on board with noodle-foods. But that bean sauce is not my jam.
If you'll turn your focus to the second bowl of sludge featured in the top right hand corner, you'll find rice porridge, better known as "juk" (죽). It's considered a good "sick food" due to it's warm and nutritious qualities and is often served during flu season (maybe Covid will make this a daily dish -_-).Now, don't get me wrong. I've had my fair share of good rice porridge while in Korea. Sometimes it's made with chicken or seafood, and those versions I'm all for. But veggie juk and I are not friends.
Let's go ahead and address the globulous elephant in the room. That yellow stuff in the top left. I think it's fruit jello. But it tasted more exotic, so I really have no idea. Next on the docket, seaweed soup, AKA miyeok guk (미역국). If you know me, you know I'm usually not a big soup gal. But miyeok guk has made a strong case for soup. It's so salty and tasty, and apparently it's great for your skin. The fried squid (shown in the top middle) is of course divine because, ya know, it's basically calamari. And then there's the fish... Nice and tender, coated in some kind of mildly spicy seasoning, I'd give it an 8/10. You know why it got docked 2 points? BONES. So. Many. Bones. Every fish I've eaten in Korea has not been deboned, which leaves me to pick around a million needle-sharp obstacles just to eat the dang thing.
It's safe to say I look forward to lunch time. It's also safe to say I probably eat too much considering they serve me portion sizes meant for a large male. My co-teacher once told me if I ate Korean meals three times a day, I would stay slim. I'm really banking on that being true...
I'm really enjoying your blog. I've heard that Korean and Japanese school lunches are the bomb. I'd like to see more posts of your afterhours jaunts around the city! Oh, BTW, I think you are supposed to soldier through the bones. Just eat 'em!