Spotlight on Korean Food: The Generic Tofu Restaurant
Written by Kyle on Thursday, November 05, 2009 in Korea, Republic of
Feelin' normal
Or, "How to kind of look like you know what you're doing in a Korean restaurant". Feelin' normal
Note that I'm qualifying the name of the restaurant with "generic" only because there are better tofu restaurants in town. I'm only highlighting this one here because of the process, which is a little daunting, especially to a first-time visitor.
It is a process that is totally natural for the local population but befuddling at first for a foreigner. If you give any American a hamburger, they'll know to put it in between two buns, throw some ketchup and/or mustard on it and maybe top it off with some lettuce or onions. But if you go into a tofu restaurant in Korea, get a bowl of steaming tofu soup, a basket of raw eggs, and an stone-like bowl crackling with rice, what do you do?
First, the soup you are going to get is too hot. Don't attempt to eat it right away. The bubbling sound should alert you to this, but there are impatient people out there (aka. me) who try to eat it right away. Bad idea. While it's searing hot, take one of the raw eggs out of the basket and crack it open into the soup. Stir it around until it's nice and cooked.
Next, do something about the rice that is still cooking in the stone-like bowl. Scoop it out of the bowl into another rice bowl, but don't try too hard. Some of the rice has burned and will stick to the bowl. Leave that there. With the soft rice out of the way, pour water into the bowl until it is about 3/4 full. Now put the top back on the bowl which should now contain the slightly burned rice and some water. You can set it aside and forget about it for now.
Your soup should at least be less hot such that you won't get third degree burns eating it. Just about any time that you will have a small bowl of soup ("jjigae", if you want to get technical), it will be accompanied by rice. This is because the soup isn't really enough to fill up anyone; that's the job of the rice. So, use your spoon to scoop some rice and then dip the rice in the soup, allowing the rice to absorb the flavors. Now eat it. Yum! You can eat the soup by itself if you want to, but it would take someone with a small stomach to get full off of it. It would also take somebody with a strong stomach as they tend to be quite spicy.
As you eat the soup and rice, don't forget the dishes spread around you as well. The kimchi isn't there just for looks, it's there for your consumption. And if you don't like some of the kimchi, that's fine, as there should be enough types in front of you to find something you like.
When you finish your rice and soup, you now have one thing left: that bowl of burned water/rice mix. At this point, some people prefer to eat the rice from the bowl and drink some of the water from it as well. For me, I just let it sit there because the taste of burned rice in water is not my favorite. Give it a try and see what you think, though.
Of course, if you forget any of these steps or if you find yourself in an unfamiliar restarant in Korea, just look lost and somebody will help you. Koreans are proud of their food and are happy to show you how to eat it the Korean way.
Comments on "Spotlight on Korean Food: The Generic Tofu Restaurant"
Thank you for teaching us the art of eating a simple Korean meal. It looks very tempting! But I can still remember the photos of that $70.00 seafood extravaganza which you and Bessie tried to eat your way through earlier in your adventures. I think it contained about 40 different food samples, some of which were still moving around on the plates. Now there was a meal that required an instruction sheet!
Thanks for sharing this meal with us along with the vivid photos... Warm regards...
I can't say that I'd get too excited eating any of the things above......except maybe the rice........ but the food photographys beautifully!
I absolutely LOVE the sense of adventure you two have when it comes to FOOD!
I'm really enjoying reading your blog. It's very informative and inspiring. My husband and I are taking off on our path in June and have been researching places we want to go and what we'll do once we get there. We're kind of on the low-key side of adventure, with good food, history, architecture, hiking, and learning about different cultures, all on a budget, being our focus. Thanks for sharing your experiences and I'm looking forward to reading more.
by Eva at November 06, 2009 12:04 AM