Eating or in my case not eating in Korea

Well, food has been quite a challenge for me here. I've always been a basic steak and potatoes kind of guy. A kimchi warrior I am not ! For hose of you not familiar with kimchi, it is cabbage leaves that are fermented in a brine of god knows what. Actually I think it consists of fermented anchovy or shrimp along with red chili paste. These set outside in big vases until it reaches just the right rottenness, umm fermentation. Oh man, and the stuff leaves a nasty smell ! They actually sell special kimchi refrigerators here. The odor of the kimchi will actually permeate into your other foods if it is not sealed well. And that is not the only thing it permeates into ! A nice  bus full of Koreans can actually leave your nose burning ! The one saving grace there is that since I am a foreigner, none of them sit next to me. They eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is just no escaping it. Laila loves it also, therefore it is at the house too. I do make her buy single serving packs and whatever she doesn't finish goes out the door into the trash bin.

Now aside from that, I don't eat any seafood. This puts me at another huge disadvantage in not just Korea, but all of Asia ! I will eat shrimp tempura, but that is the extent of my foray into ocean's bounty. When we go to Thailand, Laila and her friends love to get these fish that are broiled whole and served that way, and they fight over who gets the eyes and brains of it !

So I am left with basically pork and chicken. Even though there are plenty of McDonalds around.....

I still can't stand the burgers. Mainly because it is not American beef. American beef is banned in Korea because they are afraid they will get mad-cow disease (No joke.)

I have had some good BBQ beef though, but it is as expensive as hell ! I usually eat Dwaeji galbi, or in English, pork ribs. This stuff is awesome.

You cook the meat yourself at a grill in the middle of your table. This is good if you are quicker than the waitresses. I like a nice little char on mine. If they come over and see any black on the meat, they will pick it up and either toss it aside or cut the black off. "No good, give you cancer ! " as they light up they're Marlboro. Also, the words cross contamination mean nothing here. You have your plate of raw pork, and then you have some of it that is cooking. They grab the raw pork with the tongs and then the meat that is finished cooking with the same tongs and put it on your plate or the cooler part of the BBQ. YO ! Not cool !

For now, the last thing I would like to mention about eating in Korea, You need a strong stomach. Not necessarily for the food, but rather the lack of western manners here. Not that they're to blame, after all I'm the one who is supposed to adapt.  Eating with your mouth open, talking with a mouthful of food, smoking with food in your mouth, belching and farting in the restaurant. Sorry, but after 5 years I still can't "adapt" to that.

On the plus side of things, there are Outback Steakhouses', Bennigans' , TGI Fridays' and I just found a very good Mexican restaurant called On The Border, which is about 45 minutes away via subway.