What's with the corn??

On Friday, we followed through with getting our pizza, so here's our experience with that. Little did we know that ordering pizza could turn into an entertaining story, but of course, that was before blogs came around. Now, everytime we brush our teeth or drink some water - or in Liam's case, roll around on the floor for naked playtime - can be shared with everyone. Our Korean teaching partner, Brian, talked us out of going to Domino's. He wanted to set us up with something he said would be better. (We failed to ask what "better" meant.) So instead of finding the pizza place ourselves and carrying it home, Brian called for us, ordered a combination pizza in Korean, and had it delivered to our apartment. It turned out to be quite easy for us. And to make it even easier, he left instructions at this pizza place for future orders - from now on, whenever we (the English ones) call KIM SUNG RAY PIZZA, we only have to say "Pizza!" into the phone and we will get a delivery to our apartment. No further instructions in Korean or English are necessary, it's just a one word order. Whether we get more from Kim Sung Ray has yet to be decided.

While we waited at home for the delivery guy, we were skeptical about what could be on this combination pizza. Maybe some rice or kimchi. Remembering our "ice cream" experience, Jenn joked that they might throw on some red beans and corn. We spoke too soon. Or to quote Carrie from her blog: "Spoken like a true idiot." Our pizza arrived and the main ingredient was corn. There were a few pepperonis, a few mushrooms, a few onions, but it was plastered with corn. That didn't stop us from eating the whole thing though and it wasn't bad, just quite corny. There was also a side order of sweet pickles and Tajun (not Cajun) hot sauce. So that was our Friday night pizza experience, but we didn't stop there.

On Saturday, we were out walking the streets of Yeoju with our new friends, Stephanie and Malachi from Ireland who started teaching at a nearby school the same time we did. We didn't plan on having pizza two days in a row, but they suggested stopping at a place called PIZZA HOT. This menu was in Korean and English, so we assumed we would be safe with ordering a Hawaiian. The one problem was that pineapple and ham were not the only ingredients on it. You guessed it - corn everywhere. And not only that, but along with the canned pineapple, there was also canned peaches and some sort of melon. They have quite the combinations over here - fruit on pizza and vegetables on ice cream!! And there was also a side order of sweet pickles - we're not sure how pizza and pickles got paired together, but it seems to be common.

Enough about pizza, here's a little bit about the other food over here. At restaurants, our favourite dishes so far are called bi-bam-bap and bulgogi. The first one is a mixture of rice and veggies with hot pepper sauce. The second is beef (we think), veggies, rice, noodles, and seaweed with a milder sauce. They are both very tasty. We've also had kimbap which is the Korean version of sushi with veggies and rice rolled in seaweed - there's no fish in it but the seaweed makes it taste fishy. We've also found a dumpling soup that we like very much. And of course, luckliy for us, there is an excellent ice cream parlour downtown, which we treat ourselves to about 3 times a week.

And then we get into the Fear Factor stuff. On our journey through the outdoor market on Saturday we came across a vendor selling bondegi. This is silkworm larvae boiled in a large pot. They are big disgusting bugs. But they are seasoned, so maybe they don't taste like bugs. And they are dead, which is not the case for the small eels that are swimming around in buckets in the seafood section of the market, right alongside the slimy squids and the mini sharks. We also saw baskets full of chicken feet, which Malachi said he tried by accident at a restaurant and advised us to stay away from. To top off our visit to the market, we saw three cow heads sitting outside the butcher, right alongside two vats of congealed blood. We wil not be eating this stuff, unless we are forced fed or offered a large sum of money. Call us unadventurous if you will.