food

Everyone know my love of Korean food. Along with Chinese and Indian (ok, and Mexican), it is one of my favourites. I had it from time to time as a child, but it was really living in Moscow that I started to become obsessed. There was a cheap Korean place in my dormitory building at Moscow State University that served a cheap bipinbop. It was the best culinary option around (the other being stolovaya) and although it wasn’t brilliant, I became a regular. Later, working with Koreans in Moscow, I was able to experience more refined (and better quality) Korean cuisine. I soon came to know all the Korean places in Moscow, and to frequent them. Korean friends taught me to make kim bop. Moving to London, I quickly made a point of finding the best Korean restaurants and supermarkets where I could get my Kimchi fix. So when I booked my tickets to Seoul, food was the first thing on my mind. Despite the disadvantage of being vegetarian (which is a massive minus in Korea), i ate well everywhere.

Of course I immediately rushed to try the Korean dishes I already knew- bipinbop, kim bop, and the ever-present kimchi, but there were also many dishes to discover.

One of the great things about Korea is that there are open air street markets everywhere that serve local dishes, and the hygiene standards are so high that, unlike in some countries, you can select whatever you want knowing it will be completely safe. The markets are also great because you can see the food, decide what looks interesting, and have a small portion, before moving on to the next stall and trying something different. I spent several evenings wandering around trying different dishes, many of which I had never seen in Korean restaurants in Europe, such as Ddeokbokee- rice cakes in a spicy red pepper sauce that had me addicted from the first bite. On my first evening in Seoul, I ran into a friend from childhood and we spent the entire evening wandering the length of Gwangjang Market, sampling everything we could. But the culinary delights of Korea are certainly not confined to the markets, there are excellent restaurants all over the country. Koreans seem to prefer their own cuisine, as I found very few foreign restaurants there. But you would struggle to walk down any street without stumbling over a series of eateries, many of them quite small, as though they had been set up in someone’s front room. That said, many of them serve stunning food at very affordable prices. Even the larger restaurants in posh districts of Seoul are affordable. My Korean friends claim it is easy to live comfortably without ever having to cook, there are just so many options available. When I went out with Korean friends, I often allowed them to order for me, so I would invariably end up with a surprise...cold brown noodles in red pepper sauce with egg, pancake like creations and delicious banchan at every meal. The culinary wonders of Korea are not confined to Seoul, in small towns in the countryside the selection was overwhelming. People would find it strange that i dont eat meat, but plenty of food was always found for me. I will definitely be going back.