Korean Food

I think the thing that was most different about Korea was the food. Elizabeth did a good job of exposing us to many Korean foods. We ate at her host family's, at restaurants, at the school cafeteria, from the street vendors, and shops. Here's our first meal in Korea, breakfast at a restaurant near Incheon - we had a noodle soup, and bibimbap (?) (rice, vegetables, etc. with a partly cooked egg on top):

The side dishes were common at every meal: kimchee (red-pickled spiced cabbage), pickled radish (bright yellow here), and various unknown pickled and unpickled things. We had not even met Elizabeth at this point and managed to order by pointing at pictures in the restaurant.

We had grilled food several times, including eel, squid, pork, beef, chicken, and duck.

Here we are at a duck restaurant:

We always had stainless steel chopsticks and a spoon to eat with. Some meals were eaten sitting on the floor. There were always many dishes. Soup frequently comes at the end of the meal and sometimes it is ice cold. Koreans are not big on desserts but one night we stopped at a shop called Can-more that has swings and vines and flowers inside. We planned to get some juice and see the inside. Elizabeth ordered for us and came back with this dessert concotion called patbingsu. It is shaved ice, red beans (really!), fruit, ice cream, syrups and sprinkles. You mix it all together and eat it and it's not bad. It's served with toast and whipped cream (to put on the toast). This was the small size and we couldn't eat it all: