Adventures Eating Out

We can classify my meals into four categories: what I can make at home with limited ingredients and appliances, American-style snacks at work, homemade Korean dinner provided at work, occasional traditional meal at Korean restaurant. Yesterday all of the teachers went out to eat at a traditional Korean restaurant. This is our second or third time. Last time we sat on cushions on the floor and grilled meat on the low tables right in front of us. That was pretty fun. This time we went to a different restaurant. I intend to take more pictures of the traditional meals because I think they can be pretty exciting.

I admit that I can be a picky eater, but yesterday I was determined to eat outside my comfort zone, or just not ask about what I was eating. In the picture below you can see Round 2 of the meal. Everything is served as small side dishes and there is one dish for every four people or so. I like how the table becomes completely full of dishes, and I'm glad I don't have to wash them all. You usually have a couple of dishes, like rice or soup, to yourself and then just pick and choose which sides you'd like to go with it. It's a very communal meal; there are no serving spoons, you just pick up with your own chopsticks and don't think about cooties. I sort of like it this way.

Here is what I ate:
a delicious pumpkin soup
tofu soup that prevents cancer but tastes....different
kimchi, of course
a whole cherry tomato (hey, it's out of my comfort zone)
JELLYFISH in a spicy mustard sauce (not my fav)
and
something I thought would be exotic/aquatic and ate several pieces before I asked and found it was mushroom. (And I still didn't believe them.) Oh well.

Eating jellyfish was like eating the clear noodles with mustard. It wasn't delicious but it wasn't bad either. I wouldn't mind eating it again in a different sauce.

In the pics you can see the stone pot used to serve rice. After dishing out my rice, I poured water in it and let it boil. After I finished the rest of my meal, I went back to the stone pot for something like rice soup, really just watered down rice. I liked the stone pot and the fact it boiled water on its own.

Round 2 and a few of my coworkers. Aren't the nice looking? The boys somehow evaded the photo.


Not sure what I'm eating in this photo. Notice remains of jellyfish below right elbow and stone pot on my left. And "mushrooms" in center directly above cup.