I skipped two parties tonight to go with Cheolseung tonight to Korea Town to do his shopping and have dinner. Today is just multicultural central!
The Korean market was different--its strangeness reminded me of the grocery stores in Chile. Things I take for granted (cheese, for example) are completely absent. First we went into a video store inside the larger grocery store and Cheolseung rented about 6 Korean movies...all melodramas, he said. We then went through the isles, starting with fruit and vegetables. Mostly fruit, really, and what was really interesting was how heavy the section was on roots and mushrooms--and whats more, that seemed to be what most people were getting. My impression of Korean food (having eaten it all of...twice) is that it largely consists of big soups, more "entree in water" than what we consider soup, along with about a million side dishes. The veggies of choice seemed to reflect things you might put in a soup. Also facinating were a huge fresh fish section with live flatfish (halibut?) and abalone, along with a lot of squid-on-ice. Nearby was an entire isle of frozen packages of fish, all of which, according to Cheolseung, were supposed to be part of soup. Nearby was an isle devoted to side-dishes, and opposite it a buffet-style row of vats with various side dishes and containers, so that you could scoup as much of the side (lots of pickled things, lots of kimchi) into a container yourself to buy it, and eat it throught he week. The best part? The store was filled with Korean people, speaking Korean, buying Korean food with Korean lables. And the teller and bag guy were talking to each other in rapid...Spanish. Only in LA.
The Korean restaurant was a trip too. I was amazed when we went for a full Korean barbecue a few months ago, but figured what they did there must be a special thing. Not so! We sat down and were immediately given a pitcher of Korean ice tea (think Thai ice tea) for no charge. Then, two bowls of rice and four appetizers--a gellylike thing, harder gellylike things, kimchi, and pickled stringbeans. All what, in an American restaurant, would be considered full appetizers and would cost $5-7 a pop. Here, when one got low, a waitress came by and refilled it. Cheolseung said that, in Korea, it is considered bad manners to leave a side dish empty. Also, according to him, you can tell the quality of a restaurant by the number and quality of their side dishes. This one only had 4 plus rice...a B. The American capitalist inside me cried a little.
The main dish was chicken soup--a whole, small chicken in rice-broth, with little fruits, nuts, ginsing, and leeks. But now I'm getting stupidly detailed so I'll stop. I will say, though, that today has been a great day. I think I may make it a goal to visit the religious centers and grocery stores (two main cultural centers, as far as I am concerned) of various cultures and religions. It's just damn interesting!
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