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!
