Rest & Digest

Returning to the Land of the Morning Calm, I knew what I was getting into with regards to food.  My favorite Korean staple is the Bi-Bim-Bap, a big bowl of rice, veggies, a barely fried egg, and a dollop of spicy red pepper sauce.  Mix it all together and it's a decent, filling meal.  The very spicy Soon-Do-Boo (tofu soup with egg) was another favorite during the chillier winter season.  Commonly, the food is based around either rice or noodles, much of it being peppery-spicy.  During my time here I've gotten out to taste a nice variety of foods, and have also enjoyed cooking for myself.  


Being vegetarian with an adventurous need to try new things, I'll start with the least expected.  It was early November when my Korean Aunt AeSim stopped by for a visit.  After a nice walk overlooking the sea, she and her sisters took me out for some fresh, raw, Jeju fish.  Some of it was awesome, some I didn't care for.  I'm on an island, I had to try it.  Before I leave here, I'm hoping to be in the mood for a taste of another local specialty, sea urchin soup.  The fish in the photo is, according to translation, either snapper or bream. 



Next, this salad is the first thing I threw together after our kitchen was finally in working order.  Raw tofu with little green leaves, walnuts, almonds, carrot, seaweed, olive oil, and a dash of soy sauce.



I'd never cooked pumpkin before coming to Jeju, but I've always liked everything made with it.  Discovering my deep love of this vegetable would have been reason enough for the trip out here.  Excuse the blurriness, this is steamed pumpkin with tofu, brown rice, raisins, cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup. 



Just a sandwich:  tofu with garlic, spinach, and strawberries on grainy toast. 



Overall, my experiences with restaurants here have been great.  Though many restaurants specialize in meat dishes, I've had some delicious vegetarian food.  I've been to a few pure vegetarian restaurants that were outstanding.  Here's a photo of a typical Korean table spread... including the pork being cooked in the center of the table.  The variety and quantity of side dishes (including egg, vegetables, soup, & tofu stew) was enough to keep me satisfied. 



This past fall, I had the opportunity to do an overnight temple stay.  The food is pure, non-spicy vegetarian.  The three meals we ate included seaweed soup, rice, and various vegetables and tofu.  Nothing too fancy.  Here, we learned proper eating etiquette.  Take only what you will finish, wasting nothing.  Lift the bowl, take a bite, set the bowl down.  Repeat.  After eating, we had to clean out the dishes.  Not everyone tried it, but I did it the "proper way":  wipe out the dish with a sliced radish (stabbed with a chopstick), eat the radish.  Lastly, rinse out the food bowls with a bit of water, then drink the water.  Yum.  



One of the cultural activities included in the temple stay was making rice cakes.  Not the sweet/salty crunchy puffed kind you can buy at Publix.  Glutinous, chewy rice cakes coated with crushed peanut (I think that's what it was) are a traditional Korean snack/dessert.  I'm not a big fan.  They're really bland and too chewy for my taste.  Here are some monks smashing up the rice.  



For special occasions, people buy cakes.  Two common flavors here are green tea and sweet potato.  The cakes are light and airy, and usually not too sweet.  Not nearly as delicious as the cakes back home, but they always look awesome on the outside.  Here's a typical bakery cake.  At least there aren't any cherry tomatoes on this one.  


Many things around here may be flavored with green tea.  Cakes, cookies, candy, ice cream, lattes.  In Japan, we found green tea Kit Kats.  



There's also a lot of Hello Kitty.  Thanks to Jen, we can even make Kitty-head waffles.  Delicious with peanut butter & Canadian maple syrup.  



Last, but not least, Jeju's famous Hallabong (named after Jeju's Mount Halla, which the nippily-tip of the orange resembles) .   Developed in Japan, it's a sweet seedless hybrid.  They're harvested in January/February and sold through May. Hallabongs are really expensive, overhyped oranges.      



Bon appetit!  

Sweet dreams

In a dream, I was heading out with an old favorite college buddy from the 90’s, the adventurous, redheaded Becca.  We were going for a bike ride on a sunny, spring day.  She’s pregnant, but doesn’t hesitate to go out to the stairwell, lift her bike in through the hallway, and lug it down the stairs.  Outside waiting for her, I encounter a few strangers, presumably friends of hers.  They’re eating cactus.  Not the fruits or flowers, but the flesh.  I’m handed a huge, oblong piece, sliced open and ready to eat.  The outside of the plant appears to be the standard, light green cactus.  The innards are a lovely purple, light and almost pink, but still purple.  Not sure what you’d call the color, but it was gorgeous.  As I pulled the juicy flesh to taste it, the texture was stringy like a mango, juice filled like a grapefruit, and light like cotton candy.  Beyond being not too sweet, the taste was indescribable. 

Needless to say, I’ve been craving cactus for two days.  Luckily, I’m living in a place where there happens to be a special cactus, Baeknyuncho or "palm cactus", native to this island.  I’d tasted the chocolate they make with it.  Great flavor, but the chocolate isn’t anything to write home about.  Today, I bought the cactus tea.  70% cactus fruit, 10% honey, and I think the rest is water.  The sticky consistency of this pink-purple gel is like plasma.  The taste is perfect, on its own and with hot water, as tea.  I guess it’s just what I needed.  This weekend, ansha allah, my best girl & I will go west to check out this special, native, cacti... growing along a lovely trail for a Sunday.