This Must Be the Place: I meant to write this months ago-Brendan

In October I went to a palace with the teachers from my school. It was ok, but I had been there a week earlier with all the English teachers in my district. Anyway, afterwards all the teachers went to a great Korean restaurant. We were served dish after dish. A couple highlights were these tiny clams, I guess we’d call them cockles, in a vinegary, soy saucy thing with finely diced scallions and hot peppers. I couldn’t get enough. Also, giant prawns covered in sea salt and cooked on a hot cast iron pan. The shrimp were slightly mealy, but I love salt, which I don’t get enough here.

Now to the strange. Towards the end of the meal, we were served fermented (rotten) skate that you eat along with kimchi (which is naturally fermented) that they let sit & rot longer. All this is wrapped in lettuce. Pure funk. This dish made me strongly disagree with George Clinton (figure out that reference!). Not sure I’d be ordering that again. This was followed up with fermented tofu soup. Smelled like old shoes after you played 5 pick-up games in them. It tasted great, however, and I hogged most of it to myself.

So, Tuesday night, all the teachers went out because my principal is leaving for greener pastures (or a smog covered city, not sure which). This was a barbecue place, where you sit on the floor & grill the meat on the table. There were ribs and seasoned pork (though I tasted no seasonings). Side dishes that came with it included ray smothered in a thick, spicy red sauce. The sauce was good, & the meat tasted ok. The problem was, with my piece, they hadn’t removed the cartilage, and there was nowhere for me to spit it out. That was rough (in Will Ferrell voice). Also, there was jellyfish. Jellyfish is much better here than in the states (no offense Balducci’s). I’ve had it a bunch here; I just hadn’t realized what it was. I thought it was some kind of ice cold, slimy noodle. Either way, it tastes pretty good.

And then yesterday one of the special teachers bought Chinese for the rest of us (the non-homeroom-having). There was what amounts to sweet & sour pork, a mix of stir fried veggies that centered on green peppers, dumplings, and larger fried dumplings. This was 2 hours after lunch. Ugh. It was pretty good, though.
The nurse was invited to dine with us as well. While eating, she asked, “Do you have a religion?” I answered that I was raised Catholic. This confused her, and she asked a couple people in Korean what that meant. She then turned back towards me and asked, “Catholic?” while doing the sign of the cross. I answered in the affirmative, & she was quite happy that she figured it out.

The 1st 4 pics are from a school BBQ.