Korean Buffet

We're still in Windsor, but we are engaging in certain activities to prepare us for our big trip. Even though we are spending our spare time packing all our earthly possessions into boxes, we still have to make time to eat. We were lucky enough to have 2 of our friends from Starbucks - Hyo Jean and Steve - who are of Korean descent over to our apartment for dinner. Not only were we able to taste test some authentic Korean food, but they also did the cooking for us. It was like having our own personal chefs! Steve even brought his own cooking device to barbeque the ribs. This little contraption is similar to what we will have in our apartment in Korea. There won't be a conventional oven, so no cooking turkeys or baking pies, but we will have a burner to fry food and a hotplate to boil water. Oh, and there is a microwave.

As this spread shows, Korean food is colourful and appetizing. But as we are learning with most things Korean, not so easy to pronounce or spell. So at this point all we can say about this Korean buffet is that it was absolutely delicious, but don't ask us to remember what anything was called. Not to say that Hyo Jean and Steve weren't perfect ambassadors for Korean cuisine - they taught us a lot about foods that we would normally just raise an eyebrow at, but we just seem to be slow learners when it comes to these Korean words. Nothing 12 months won't cure.

We shared this Korean feast with a group of friends from Starbucks and a good time was had by all. Jenn was particularly impressed with the Korean food and was able to dissipate her fears about living on white rice alone. One of the words we do remember from the meal to help along our (and your) Korean education is kimchi. This is the national Korean dish that is served at every meal. It can be prepared in many ways, but the main ingredient is cabbage and it is pickled and loaded with spices (think cabbage rolls without the meat and rice and ten times hotter on the tongue). The kimchi we had with our dinner cleared our sinuses nicely. Now that is a sign of good kimchi.