Kimchi Chronology: Food Friday

It's Friday night here in South Korea. ^^ My first TGIF as a teacher! This week was amazing. I have so much to talk about and so little time to sleep. So I'm going to save it all for tomorrow. I promise I'll find the time. Before I get to Food Friday here's a little update:

Patrick has a cold. I diagnosed him with the "new teacher flu." Bad things happen when you're exposed to new germs from three hundred new students in one week (for the first time in your life!!). I paid my dues during La Petite Academy & student teaching/practicum days. I'm solid as a rock now and won't get sick the first month (knock on wood). So since I haven't fallen ill, I have babied him all week. Looks like we're having a fun weekend of movies, plenty of fluids, soup, and rest. On a good note: the weather suddenly cooled down. Missouri doesn't feel this great until October! I love it!!!!!

OK. Food!

Well this week I'd like to talk about meat. Lisa and Cameron (they come up so much because they took a week out of their life to prepare Patrick and me for life in Korea, they taught us so much!) ... anyways, they took us to a place near Yawoori (downtown area) that serves all the meat you can eat. Yup, a meat buffet. Patrick's dream come true. Lisa is a vegetarian and the employees consider her a regular and give her the veggie discount since she isn't really getting the full ₩10000 worth ($9.50'ish). The best part is you cook your food yourself. It's known as Korean barbecue and it is super delicious and fun. You can stop by this place or go somewhere and sit with just one other person. This joint seems to attract large groups of people. You know all the frozen yogurt places that are popping up in the states? And the bright cheerful paint on the walls? This place looks exactly like that, minus the yogurt and add tons of meat and mesmerizing smells. Welcome to Self Bulgogi. I think that's the name but it is just called self serve buffet of bulgogi (meat) and there were all types of meat (and very raw). Thick fatty bacon, chicken and pork chunks and lots of sea food. One bacon was marinated in a yummy dark wine and some of the chicken was super spicy. The variety never ended.

Tips for beginners:

Grab one of each then go back for more.
Do not fill your plate with tiny raw octopus... maybe you shouldn't even eat it.
Watch your time. Burning the meat creates smoke and then you look like a fool when the employees have to switch out your grill. (we did pretty good and only had it changed once.)
Remember to eat the friendly items such as sweet potato dumplings and cheese dumplings. There are fruit and veggie options too.
Go Korean style: Meat first (pace yourself), salad maybe, then the watermelon slices and finally, ice soup to end the night. The people next to us were on a new round every time I looked over.