One of the benefits of working at a public school in Korea is the subsidized lunches. For ony ₩1500 a day I am presented with an ever changing Korean gastronomic symphony.
So join me now as I present to you my 5 part series:
“What I Had For Lunch Today”
Monday’s school lunch (Clockwise form top left) Bean sprout salad thing, Tangsuyook (탕수육) – what we in the west would call Sweet and Sour Pork, Kimchi, Dongtaeguk (동태국) a fish broth with various crab bits and steamed rice.
Bimbo Rating :★★★1/2
Not a bad start for the week. The Bean sprouts were fresh, but I can see them making a comeback later in the week in a less crisp guise. The Sweet and Sour was good, not too sweet, and not too sour while the Dongtaeguk actually had something to it rather than the usual musty socks taste!
What will tomorrow bring? Stay tuned for part two…!
28/10/2008 at 1:30 am Permalink
Wanna be a guest columnist on FatManSeoul? We love hearing about lunch . . .
28/10/2008 at 2:38 am Permalink
Your school has some good lunch. You gotta continue the series, since I’m now interested in whether that’s regular stuff there, or some kind of special day exception.
My first day at a middle school on Cheju Island in 1994 involved beef soup in which I got an eyeball under the spinach leaves. Yes, a cow eyeball the size of a golfball, with optic nerve still attached, boiled white and looking all glutinous. I sheet you not. That was some Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-style banquet we’re talking. No chilled monkey brains, but still. Yeesh.
So, tangsuyuk and dongtaeguk together? Those are two main dishes in the same meal, man! And no sensory organs, such as eye or tongue? You got it good, mang.
What’s next at your cafeteria? Kalbi or somefin? Inquiring minds want to know…
28/10/2008 at 3:51 am Permalink
i forgot what i wanted to say about the school lunch after reading metro’s comment. EWWWWW!!! i’m not opposed to eating from nose to tail but i think i threw up a little in my mouth at “optic nerve.”
so, yeah, back to school lunch…that looks so much tastier and healthier than the school lunches i grew up with in the brooklyn public school system. and all that for ₩1500? that is insanely cheap!
28/10/2008 at 8:52 am Permalink
School lunch in Korea. This is an intriguing topic. Most of the time I opt to eat out because I like outside food better than school food, but I have to say the quality of school food here is pretty good compared to say American school food, if you are willing to break down the basics. Korean school food is probably healthier. Though, many westerners may be disgusted by it, soups in my school are generally made with real broth that had been boiled. (I think people may be disgusted by various the fish or other sea critter broths.) Now the metropolitician’s experience is a bit difficult to stomach, but I have to say that Korean school food has its drawbacks and its benefeits.
28/10/2008 at 9:27 am Permalink
Speaking as a hagwon jockey, I lurve our lunches. We have a “lunch lady” who comes in every day to prepare morning snack and “lunchi.” It’s pretty good grub, with the only caveat being that since she’s cooking mostly for tykes, she tones down the traditional hotness of all the dishes.
There’s always a bowl of kimchi though (cabbage or radish style) that I can throw on top of whatever the main course is not heat it up though.
Hmm. I think I’ll take some pictures. The lunch lady would be extremely proud to have her food depicted outside of school, I think.
Oh, and it’s free. Kind of makes up a little for my ridonkulous “maintenance” fee at my office-tel.
28/10/2008 at 1:45 pm Permalink
I was at Yonsei ID & KLI for a year back in the early 1990’s. Your lunch reminds me of what I used to score in the student cafeteria at Yonsei back in the day. If I recall correctly, it was 500 won.
I actually miss that sort of cheap, quick, basically healthy lunch. When I go to the cafeteria at the college where I now work (in southern California), most of what they serve is unhealthy food-porn type stuff.
28/10/2008 at 2:06 pm Permalink
Yonsei KLI cafeteria? You’re referring to the BEST 3,000 won (back then) soontubu EVER?! That stuff was gold in a bowl. Circa 1997. Still, I hear old fogies like me talk about it from time to time when KLI comes up. KLI soontubu in da house!
As for you, Jaim, your “maintenance fee” balancing against your school not taking money from you for food is evidence of the universal maxim “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” The man’s gonna get you somehow, hehe.
28/10/2008 at 3:33 pm Permalink
Although loathe to admit to anything good about Yonsei in a public forum, that liquid gold can still be had for a mere 3,000 (eh, maybe 3,500) at the engineering building cafeteria, near the front gate. Went there with friends a while ago.
28/10/2008 at 5:31 pm Permalink
I have eaten a cafeteria lunch everyday for the past three years. At my previous job, we picked up plates and lunch was 100% subsidized. At my current job, lunch is 3,000. I also have pictures of my lunch.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smokehard/2327684847/in/set-72157601813889141/