Asia shows the way in its Street Food, the West shows the way to a Heart Attack

I am having a bit of a war on Western food (from English speaking countries) at the moment and combined with a recent post of mine over at Asiapundits on enjoying food and food waste, I thought I'd use my own site to highlight some attitudes towards health and our food and what we can learn from Korea specifically, and Asia in general.

I don't know much about the United States, but from what I can gather from the news, my American friends and the internet the people there tend to be a little more overweight than average, my country is not far behind and to be honest it isn't hard to see why.

Recently, I have been watching a program on National Geographic Adventure in Korea called "Eat Street".  It charts the truck street food trend currently in the US, Canada, and occasionally other countries like the UK.  It always happens to be on the TV when I am eating dinner myself, coincidentally.  While I usually tuck into Korean food for dinner, I can see what Americans on streets all over the country are eating.

It is actually quite an interesting program and usually makes me quite hungry, even after I have finished dinner.  Sometimes, however, I have to admit to being quite shocked at what some people can put down their throats.  Here are some examples:

I always hear of the customers of these establishments saying how they often eat there everyday or a few times a week and I wonder how their hearts can cope.  I also see parents feeding some of the more irresponsible things to their children, some of whom are already grossly overweight. 

Of course, excess is kind of the point to these food trucks, but it is a fair reflection of where we are in Western culture with regard to enjoying food.  There is a definite feeling of, "This is so bad for me, but I don't care, in fact that's what makes me like it more."  I sort of understand this attitude because I used to have it myself.  However, living in Korea and also travelling to other countries around Asia have given me a new insight into how we perhaps should be looking at the food we eat.

The street food around Asia sums much of this up quite nicely.  Korea is the only country I have lived in and street food is probably not quite as good as in many other countries in Asia, especially Thailand.  While the street food in Korea is not especially healthy (it is also not especially unhealthy either), it is also not thought of as a meal, just a snack often during a night-out drinking.  The portions therefore reflect this and it doesn't seem quite so indulgent as the clips above.

Somewhere like Thailand, on the other hand, has street food sorted.  You can get anything from quick snacks to full meals, freshly prepared and often quite healthy.  When I was there, I did not see gluttony on the street, just a varied and interesting food culture.  I have traveled to a number of countries now in Asia and a pattern I see is that street food in the Far East is more about smaller snacks and South East Asia tends to go for actual meals.

While some might argue that the lack of health and safety regulations for street food vendors in Asia might cause health problems of their own, in principle the food on offer does not clog arteries or drastically expand waist-lines.  The funny thing about Western food culture generally, shown in many of the street-food trucks featured in "Eat Street" is the pride people take in looking death in the face while they eat.

The "Double By-Pass Burger" with "Flatliner fries" by Heart Attack Grill

I know the above picture is all in good fun, yet at the same time I can't help but feel that it sums-up a very serious attitude problem towards our relationship towards food in many Western nations.  In Korea, I have noticed people eat food for a specific purpose - other than just filling their stomachs - and this is to make them feel good, feel stronger, or to make them healthier in some other way.  Even if some of these reasons are bullshit ones, there is still a real thought to what they are eating having positive effects on their body, rather than simply fulfilling a gluttonous desire for sugar and fat because it gives them a big hit of guilty pleasure.

The interesting thing is though, Koreans love the taste of their food as much as anyone and I have learned to love the pleasure of eating Korean food also.  Once I coupled this pleasure for eating with the genuine feeling of well-being it gave me and the feeling of being healthy, there was no turning back.  To put it simply, my diet is no longer a Western one, it is predominantly Asian and mostly Korean (because that's what I know best).  Even Western food that is not fast-food or street food does not tend to make it onto my plate anymore.  Generally, I find it too heavy, too fatty, and too oily and it just doesn't make me feel good in the same way Korean food does.

If street food tells us something about the culture of the country we are in, what does the street food of the US or the UK tell us?  I showed some of these clips to my students at school last week as part of a lesson on food.  While a minority thought that the food featured on some of these trucks looked like the best thing since sliced bread, the majority were shocked by what was being consumed and many laughed at the number of fat people eating it and saw it all as a fit subject for ridicule.  I have to say, when you look at it all from the perspective of a culture with a greater connection between food and what it does for the body, I must agree with them, there is something ridiculous about it.

Perhaps I am being a little unfair, after all I did pick probably some of the worst clips of the most unhealthy food trucks to show you.  However, the healthy ones did tend to be exclusively non-American, non-Canadian, or non-English, and a great many of them had an Asian theme.  They also tended to feature much smaller portion sizes.  Huge portion sizes was something that shocked me on my only visit to the USA.  Here are some examples of the healthier food trucks on the show:

Of course it is just one TV show, but my experience of street food from back home is not a healthy one either; it mainly consisted of hot dogs, doughnuts, pork pies, pasties and not a lot more (not that Britain is especially world famous for its food culture).  I guess on a positive note the show does at least show how open most of our countries' people are to eating food from other places.  Unfortunately, however, the "good ol' fashioned" all-American food or English food that is served on most of these food trucks are often the worst examples of fat, grease, and general unhealthiness imaginable.

In reference to my post over at Asiapundits about waste and enjoyment of food, someone wrote that the poor attitudes to food we have in the West are mainly present in the cities and when you get outside of them people are eating locally-grown food and eating healthily and that I was mainly talking about a countryside vs the city phenomenon.  This was not my experience in England, however, and a little anecdote that sums-up our differences in food culture concerns the contrast in the schools that I worked at in England and my current school in Korea.

At break time in one of the rural schools I worked at in England (picture a classically old, rich English school in some of the most idyllic countryside you can imagine, it was a beautiful school) between stints in Korea, there would often be food in the middle of the staff room for all the teachers to enjoy.  100% of the time this would be cakes, chocolate or sweets.  While I tucked into some of this myself, I was often held back by a niggling guilty conscience about what the Koreans I knew would have to say looking at the scene.  I thought that they would say we were eating the kind of food kids would eat and that as teachers and adults we should be eating much better quality food, not to mention the number of over-weight teachers that were scoffing down cupcakes and fun-size chocolate treats.

The difference in my High school in Korea is like chalk and cheese.  Occasionally there is something sweet, but not nearly as sweet as back home, even the cakes in Korea seem to be lighter and less calorie dense (which is probably why they are not as tasty).  The vast majority of the time the only food that gets put out on our staff room table is locally-produced, seasonal fruits and vegetables.  It is a telling difference in culture.

When I see what is depicted of the US and what I see for myself in my own country, I wonder whether too many of us have a relationship with food that is totally dysfunctional and broken.  There is also a childish element to the way we eat; it is almost as if we need our mums on our shoulder all the time to tell us not to eat the things we know we shouldn't.  The fact that she is not there to do so means we can be naughty and do what we know is wrong anyway.

There is of course nothing wrong with a little indulgence every now and then, but when it becomes too commonplace we need to change our ways; there is an obesity epidemic in many Western English-speaking countries which is at the heart of a range of health problems.  This is down to our culture as much as anything else, a culture that is severely compromised in the food department.  We have slipped into some of the worst habits imaginable, consuming some of the worst food possible and doing very little physical exercise.  A connection between the health of our bodies and the food we put into our mouths has to be restored and looking to other countries that have better attitudes may help us break a rather dangerous spell of unhealthy eating that has been cast upon us.

Instead of doing this, however, we seem to be remarkably good at spreading our bad habits to other countries.  I hope Korea doesn't lose sight of what is great about their food as some of the younger generation appear to be slipping into the same bad habits as we are in the West.  Let's hope that Asia's food culture wins through in the end or at least the healthier aspects of our own food culture in the West.

Korean Food and Why it is so Great - Part 2

Sorry for the delay in this post, but I have had a busy few weeks with a wedding, parents coming to Korea, my wife leaving for Australia to study, and being given a white Jindo puppy from my father in-law to look after.  Because of this, however, there will be some interesting posts coming up in the next few weeks.  I thought I had better finish off my love affair with Korean food first, though.

Following on from last week, I think an interesting part of any country's cuisine is the trying of foods that make you squirm a little, the delicacies that you can amaze your friends and family by saying you've tried when you get back home, so this is where we will start part 2.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Live Octopus (산낙지) - most commonly this is only the tentacles cut up and served with some seasame oil and salt on the side.  Still wriggling, the tentacles must be chewed quite a lot to avoid the suckers sticking to your throat on the way down.  The taste is really not that bad at all.  If you want some really hardcore delicacy action, however, you can eat the whole octopus live by wrapping it around some chopsticks and putting it all in.  I have never tried this, and I am slightly fearful to do it as I have heard that people die eating it like this, especially when already a little tipsy on soju.  The octopus obviously sticks inside peoples throats and chokes them to death.  I don't fancy picking up a Darwin Award for such silly night-time antics.

San Nakji by LWY at flickr

Fermented Ray (홍어) - I have never tasted anything worse.  I am a great admirer of Bear Grylls and if you have watched any of his shows you will know that he will eat just about anything and I am similar.  I don't tend to gag or have any prejudices about eating anything (I do draw the line at dog, however).  I have eaten 홍어 twice, it is usually served with a bit of fatty grisley pork and kimchi, but it doesn't manage to take the taste away, which is truly horrible and the closest I have ever come to being sick right-away after eating something.  The pungent smell of the fermented fish also gets right up your nose.  Worth a try once, but be warned!

Silk Worm Pupa (번데기) - These are often sold as snacks in little paper cups on street stalls and I rather like them.  One cup is quite filling as it must be quite high in protein.  Apparently (so Bear Grylls says), insects - pound for pound - contain more protein than beef.  As a keen hiker, it is difficult to carry high protein and cheap foods with you on a hike, so I have gotten into the habit of carrying a tin or two hiking with me and either eating them straight out of the tin or putting them in a sandwich with some tomato ketchup.  I also cook 번데기 fried rice for dinner sometimes, although my wife says it gives me bad breath, so I am banned from eating this when she is around and she accuses me of eating 'pig food'.  Seeing as she has gone to Australia, however, I can eat with freedom for a while, and in fact, the first two nights she was away, I ate it both nights.  It ain't great, but it is nutritious and cheap.

Raw Seafood (회) - If you go to a raw seafood restaurant in Korea, you can sample some really great, tasty and healthy food, but there are some slightly dodgy things on the menu also and if you are with some mischievous Koreans they might well order it for you, as happened to me one week into my Korean experience many years ago.  A couple of the more, shall we say, acquired tastes are Sea Squirt and Gae Bul (a pink sea spoon worm that looks like a penis and obviously good for a man's stamina in bed).  The Gae Bul was as bad as the 홍어 and the sea squirt was just bizarre and difficult to eat.

Gae Bul: Photo by J. Patrick Fischer

Gae Bul: Photo by J. Patrick Fischer

Great Soups

Eel Soup (장어탕) - I have this at school quite a lot and I have to say that I get quite excited when I see it in the pot.  Usually, the whole eel is ground up into a paste in the soup so you eat bones, sinew and all amoungst the other ingredients and it is very spicy.  As with many dishes in Korea, it is a whole lot better than it sounds.  I did once have it with sliced sections of eel in it, however, on Geoje island, which wasn't so good because I had to spit out a lot of bones, but the soup still tasted great.

Spicy Fish Soup (매운탕) - Bit of a tricky one to eat as there are often a lot of bones, fins and other fish parts in it, but it is spicy, wholesome and delicious.  I remember once having it after I finished running a marathon, and although I was sceptical that a spicy, fishy soup was the best thing I could be eating straight after running all that way, once I had some I felt almost immediately rejuvenated.

Heavily Fermented Bean Soup (춘국장) - the stronger, fuller-flavoured elder brother of 된장찌깨
(doenjang soup) is an aquired taste as it has a strange flavour and intense odour.  As always very good for you.

Bone Soup (설렁탕) - There are a few varieties of bone soup, but I am picking the one I know best and like best, 설렁탕 (Solongtang).  This is a bone soup with sliced beef, served with rice, salt, and radish kimchi, which is usually mixed all together.  If I can recommend one soup to really make you feel strong and healthy it would be this one.  It often makes me feel like a new man after eating it and this feeling is something I really like a lot of Korean dishes for.  They don't just fill your stomach and taste good, but they make you feel great as well.

Motorway Service Station Food

When you first come to Korea, it might just be that you need to go on a fairly long bus journey to get to your destination.  On the way you will stop at a service station, and besides the sit-down food you can eat there serving the usual fare, you will find other food that is quite specific to motorway service stations.  Not the healthiest usually, but will temporarily fill a hole in your stomach.

Fish Cake on a Stick - And other stuff on a stick with mustard and ketchup.  It is Korea's answer for hot dogs, which they also serve at service stations.  My personal favourite is a Doek Dog, which is crispy Korean rice cake on the outside and a frankfurter in the middle.

Walnut Cake (호두 과자) - my favourite long-journey snack food.  Best when it is warm, but be careful not to burn your tongue on the red bean paste inside.  Crispy on the outside with a walnut also, they are lovely and sweet without being grossly unhealthy.

Roast Potatoes - I was slightly surprised by this as I thought Korea wasn't a particularly potato liking country.  They sell mini roast potatoes at many stops and most Korean people I have ever seen eating them put so much salt on them, it is almost unbelievable.

Pumpkin Candy (엿) - Come in small plastic boxes and cost about a couple of dollars.  It doesn't look that great value as it seems there is not much there.  However, they are quite chewy and surprisingly long-lasting.  Quite subtlely sweet and satisfying to chew on, with quite a unique texture and flavour, they can end-up being quite addictive.

There are many other foods that you can buy at these stops, which seems to be the same at every one, including:

Corn on the cob
Takoyaki (Japanese snack, and another favourite little snack of mine)
Deli Manjoo (sort of vanilla cream in a soft batter)
Whole fried squid
Sweet potato fries
Sandwiches (Korean style)
Tteokbokki

Takoyaki: Photo by Keith Pomakis on 2004-09-18.



Side Dishes

There are almost certainly too many to name, as kimchi alone has about 200 different varieties.  An American friend of mine once said Korea was, "the land of side dishes no one wants to eat", and I used to agree with him, but as my Korean food appetite has matured and grown, the side dishes have also come into their own.  Many side dishes are vegetables, fish or egg served in a tasty sauce to make them more palatable.  When my wife visited England with me she remarked about how blandly we cooked vegetables, often boiled without a sauce, Koreans rarely do this and there can also be an incredible range of different side dishes with different meals.

I think it is fair to say I could go on and on about Korean food.  When I wonder around the city, I can see so many foods that I haven't yet tried, so I still have a way to go yet on sampling everything Korea has to offer in the food department and this makes me even more puzzled when people say it lacks variety.  There is no way I could even come close to doing the same two-part post on delicious English food. 

Perhaps there is a reason, though, why Western people say Korean food lacks variety; maybe we Westerners indulge ourselves in other culture's food much more often than Koreans do.  Sure, Koreans like their Western food, Japanese food, and sometimes Chinese food, but they are often Koreanised slightly and they eat them far less often than Korean food.  Most Koreans I know really love their own food, I can't say the same for English people.  Yes, we love a good roast dinner, but we also love an Indian or Thai curry, a take-away Chinese, Mexican food, Italian food, etc.  We eat other culture's foods far more often, in my experience, than Koreans do and I think this goes for most people from Western countries.  This rings so true in England that apparently the Chicken Tikka Masala is the nation's favourite food and is now even considered an English dish.

So when you consider that most of the time in Korea, Koreans that you are with are eating almost solely Korean food and they enjoy the pleasure of introducing you to it, perhaps then you might be able to see that it is not devoid of variety at all. 

Personally, I eat a Pizza about once every 3 weeks and the rest of the time I eat Korean food.  I never get bored, I feel great, energetic, and I am almost certainly much healthier for it.  My favourite food in the world, I always miss Korean food badly when I leave Korea.

Korean Food and why it is so Great - Part 1

I often label Korean food as one of the significant plus points to living in Korea in my posts, but I am regularly amazed how so many people come back to me asking me in puzzlement how I can justify this.  I have also had a number of people state that Korean food lacks variety.  I simply cannot understand this; in my opinion Korean food is delicious, varied, and super-healthy.  It is going to be difficult to list everything, so I am going to stick with some of the things I like best and hopefully some of you might be so kind to add your favourites to my comments section below (wait until I finish part 2 though!).

The Basics

These are the Korean foods that everybody should be well-aware of, even the newcomers.

Bibimbap (비빔밥) - is still one of my favourites as it is packed with lots of different vegetables so it is healthy, fairly cheap, quick to prepare, and delicious.  It is fast-food Korea style.  Bibimbap is also extremely varied and different ingredients are combined in different places.  Fresh seafood bibimbap is often enjoyed in coastal regions, which varies from place to place according to what is caught (I recently had Sea Urchin bibimbap in Geoje Island, for example).  It can also come sizzling in a stone bowl or on a flat plate and is generally a favourite with most foreign visitors.  If you want the best bibimbap in Korea, head to Jeonju in Jeollabukdo.

Kimchi Jiggae (김치찌개) - this has become a regular feature of my diet, even when I was back home in England, as it is actually very easy to cook at home (although a little tricky to cook really well).  All you basically need is Kimchi and water really and obviously other ingredients add to the flavour.  My father in-law always cooks this dish extremely well, often adding the cheapest and fattiest bits of pork to make the flavour even better.

Kimbap (김밥) - cheap, delicious, comes in a few different varieties, and it is portable; who doesn't like kimbap?  I used to make it for lunch in England and take it with me before the start of my cricket matches.  When I handed it to friends to try, they looked at me like I had given them a piece of dog poo to eat.  But once they tried it, they almost always liked it.  An older, wiser friend told me, "You know, I think you can't not like that."  I agree.

Doen Jang Jiggae (된장찌개) - there are a few key ingredients that pop-up in many Korean dishes; kimchi, gochu jang (chili paste), and doen jang (fermented soy bean paste).  Like miso soup in Japan, but with a stronger flavour, this soup is often served with or after some other foods at various restaurants.  Again, this is another easy one to cook at home and I personally like adding a little gochu jang when I make it for a little spicy flavour.  A very simple and delicious soup.

Korean Porridge (죽) - is made with rice, not oats, in various varieties and different ingredients.  Doctors always prescribe this when you are feeling poorly as it is usually not spicy and doesn't have strong flavours or fermented ingredients, making it easy on your stomach.  As always, very healthy food.

Korean BBQ (갈비 Galbi) - I have hardly met anyone who doesn't like going out to eat at a Korean BBQ restaurant, whether it be pork or beef.  My personal favourite is Dakgalbi (chicken), which is not so much BBQ, but the cooking of chicken in a spicy sauce on a hot pan.  There are, however, many other varieties of Korean BBQ, as well.

The Non-Spicy Alternatives

Something that I hear often from many foreigners living in Korea is that Korean food is basically one flavour and that is spicy.  Therefore, if you don't like spicy food, you're screwed.  While many of my personal favourite foods in Korea are indeed spicy, I would have to disagree that this is all there is and I managed to find a great many alternatives for my very spicy food-shy mother to try when she visited last year.  I have in fact already listed a number of them in porridge, BBQ, doen jang jiggae, and kimbap, but here are a few more:

Samgyetang (삼계탕) - This is basically a whole chicken in a pot of warm soup and rice, stuffed with various things to add to the flavour.  It is supposed to be extremely healthy and is most widely eaten on the hottest days of summer.  Even though the meat almost falls off the bone, I do however, find it a bit of a drag to eat with chopsticks and a spoon, but it is very tasty and healthy nonetheless.

Miyeok Guk (미역국 Seaweed Soup) - also known as "Birthday Soup" because it is usually given as breakfast on many Korean people's birthdays.  I believe this is because mothers often eat this while carrying their child and after labour as it is thought to be very beneficial for mother and baby.  My wife often talks about making sure she is in Korea after giving birth so her mother can take care of her and cook her seaweed soup.  I would say that this soup is a bit of a grower in the taste department, however, and probably doesn't suit the foreign tongue straight-away.

Note: Not to be eaten before a big exam as the seaweed's slippery nature will cause your grade to slide downwards!

Kal Guk-Su (칼국수) - These are knife-cut wheat flour noodles, usually served in a soup, hence the name ("Kal" means knife in Korean).  Not usually spicy, and in many varieties to suit individual tastes, is especially famous in Myeongdong in Seoul.  Often served with Mandoo.

Mandoo (만두) - Korea's version of Dim Sum (Chinese Dumplings) are also not usually spicy, although Kimchi mandoo can be.  Good to snack on or as a bit of a side dish.  Personally, I like the huge mandoo that some shops specialise in that are really delicious dunked in soy sauce.

The Cheap and Delicious and Street-Foods

Korea doesn't quite match-up to somewhere like Thailand when it comes to street food, where you really can get anything from a snack to full meals with great variety that is cheap, healthy and tasty.  In Korea, I consider street food as more of a snack and I am sure Koreans do to.  Still, I really enjoy most of the street food and the small shops that sell a quick tasty bite to eat, especially in winter.  Let's start with my favourite:

Sweet and Spicy Chicken (닭강정) - usually found in small shops and sold in a cup.  Sometimes I feel like I could step over my own mother to get a cup of these crunchy chicken pieces.  They can be fiery hot, but also sweet at the same time, so I often have a small cup as kind of a dessert after a meal.  Occasionally, my school serve them for lunch and I become seriously excited - along with my students.  However, one day a teacher decided to load my tray with southern fried chicken instead (as he thinks I am a spicy food shy foreigner).  I thanked him for the sentiment, but actually felt like beating him to death with my food tray as I felt compelled to eat at least some of his fried chicken, which left less room for the 닭강정.

Spicy Rice Cakes (떡볶이) - easy to like and again is sweet and spicy.  Is a favourite with high school students, so if you really want to find the best places to eat this ask some students, they will know.  떡볶이 really comes into its own when you combine it with some deep-fried squid, sweet potato, and those little noodle rolls (I don't know what to call them in English).

Fish Cake (오뎅) - good for a quick snack and a winter-warmer with the fishy hot broth it is cooked and kept in.  Not spicy and dipped in soy sauce it is a favourite with many other foreigners I know.

Something Sweet... 


Red Bean Fish-Shaped Snack (붕어빵) - crispy sweet-battered coating with sweet red bean paste inside, really great in winter.

Sweet Korean Pancake (호떡) - sometimes comes with a few nuts in the middle, again really nice when the weather is a bit chilly.

Sweet Red Bean Dumpling (국화빵) - I have to admit, I was very sceptical of the widespread use of red bean in stuff when I first arrived here, but it has really warmed on me; it is a little healthier than just loading everything with sugar or jam and it is not too sweet.  This particular one is my favourite and is similar to 붕어빵 but less crunchy, a bit eggier and a bit doughier.

For a Great Lunch

Rice Soup (국밥) - having real difficulty getting a good translation of some of these foods into English, so this is not as bland as it sounds in English.  국밥 comes in many different varieties and, as always, is usually very healthy.  I like my local 콩나물국밥 restaurant (bean sprout rice soup, much better than it sounds) and 순대국밥 (noodles stuffed in pig intestine in rice soup, again this really tastes much better than it sounds).

Cold Noodles (냉면) - this can come in a few varieties, but the spicy one is my favourite (비빔냉면). This is mainly eaten in summer, for obvious reasons in that it is cold.

Koreanised Chinese Food Spicy Seafood Noodles and Black Sauce Noodles (짬뽕 and 짜장면)
Very popular in Korea and is often ordered as a delivery for lunch.  The former gets a real sweat on and the later tastes really good when you mix the left-over sauce with rice.

The Cheap Cuts that are so Delicious

In many countries in the world the history of some of the most popular foods has been intertwined with poverty.  People living in hard times tried to make the cheapest and most abundant ingredients go a long way and flavour them to make them taste good.  This is how many of Korea's most sought after and tasty dishes today came about.

Pork/Beef Spine Potato Soup (감자탕) - I have to admit that I find it more than a little fiddly and frustrating trying to scrap away the meagre amount of meat hiding between the vertebrae in this dish, but the broth is truly delicious.  Like a little boy, I usually let my wife take all the meat off the bone for me, but I could just as easily simply eat without bothering with the meat.

Pig Intestine - this was once very cheap but now, due to its popularity, not so much.  I have never been too keen on this as there is a definite flavour of poop in it that I just can't seem to like that much.

Chicken Feet (닭발) - again, like the pig intestine this was once very cheap but now is a little expensive, although still very affordable.  Spicy chicken feet is one of my favourites and has a chewy, crunchy texture that is quite unique.

Sundae (순대) - most commonly pig intestine on the outside with a filling, but when ordered at a street food stall, comes in a few different varieties, usually the leftover parts of a pig or cow, i.e. the heart, lungs, intestine, liver and kidneys.  Many people, especially foreign visitors can't stomach this, but although I am a vegetarian back in England I have no problem tucking into this as long as there is a little bit of samjang (common Korean table sauce 쌈장) to hand.


Pigs Trotters (족발) - often served sliced, I have to admit I have never tried it, but my wife assures me that it is amazing.

Again, you can see that all these foods are derived from the parts of animals that are normally thrown away. Also, even going back not that long ago Korean people could not afford to waste any food at all and this is where this admirable attitude of not wasting food comes from.  I have noticed that there is not much of a sense of humour about food wastage either in Korea.  On many occasions, Koreans I have known have turned their noses up at food fights on Western TV shows and films and festivals like La Tomatina in Spain. On the whole, Koreans certainly do take their food very seriously and appear to have a genuine love for it and this is something that I share with them.

Korean people also harvest and eat a wide variety of foods, many of which Westerners find repulsive, but again I think this is a admirable trait as we really can't afford to waste any sources of food in this day and age.  In part 2, I will start with some of the more ambitious Korean delicacies, yet another reason to enjoy Korean food culture, this time though, perhaps not for the flavour.

Fight the Flab in Korea!

Perhaps this is simply an observation from my own experience, but I have known so many people that have lost weight and got in shape while living in Korea.  The change in them hasn't simply been a few pounds or a short burst of training for a marathon or something, it has been a real lifestyle transformation.

Back in England, I was a gym instructor and personal trainer for a few years after leaving university and I saw many people come and go in gyms on little crusades to lose weight.  The vast majority would fail miserably or experience short-term successes only to fall back to where they were before, eventually.  Very few made the lifestyle changes necessary to make the real difference in their lives that they were looking for.

In Korea, however, I often see people (foreigners) making lasting changes to their health and fitness and generally in the right direction.  There are perhaps a few factors involved in this:

1. More Time - talking mainly about native English teachers, most have considerably more time on their hands than normal in Korea.  This means that they have less pressures or excuses from their work or social life, which means they make more time for exercise.  It becomes a purpose for foreigners in Korea and something to fill the time.  An English teaching job in Korea allows for much free time to ponder life and consider changes.

2. A Different Environment - when you decide to come to Korea, change is already on the mind, it is a conscious decision to take a break from the norm of everyday life in your own country.  It is therefore no surprise that other revolutions occur.

3. Food - if you embrace Korean food culture you might notice that Korean food is quite a bit healthier and less calorific than Western food and they also don't tend to do desserts - this is especially true of the older generation, however the young of Korea are starting to develop different habits.  The food may well be conducive to losing weight.  However, even if you do not enjoy Korean food, this too can help you lose weight as some of your Western favourites might not be so available or maybe they are present, but at highly inflated prices.  All this might make you eat less or differently.

4. Social Stigma - being fat carries with it more of a social stigma in Korea than in the West.  What's more, you really don't need to be that fat to be called out on it (and many Koreans will keep you well-informed of your weight troubles).  This might encourage foreigners to do something about it.

5. Hills and Mountains - Korea is mountainous, with over over 70% of its area being hills and mountains.  This makes for some hard walking and biking - if that's how you get around - and also a nice strenuous hike is never that far from your doorstep.  Koreans love hiking and the abundance of trails makes hiking so accessible.  I am sure that many foreigners make hiking more of a habit in Korea than they ever did in their own countries, I know I have.

6. No Car - most native teachers and other Westerners living in Korea tend to have less need for a car than back home.  Public transport is good and cities are squeezed in between mountains, so they are quite compact and easy to get around in.  This all may encourage people to walk or bike to work or for other short journeys.  The standard of Korean driving may also encourage people not to want to drive on the roads.

7.  Outdoor Exercise Stations - whilst at the park or on a mountain you can get a more rounded workout done by utilising the equipment provided.  Some seem a little strange to me, but the bars for pull-ups and the sit-up benches can be quite handy.

8.  The Korean People Exercising Around You - I have quite a nice lake park near where I live in Korea and it amazes me how many people are walking or jogging around it, especially in the evening.  Even when I woke up early to run at 6am, I would always find people doing their exercises in the park.  I have always liked many Korean people's attitude to health and fitness.  A lot of them ruin it with cigarettes and alcohol, but their thinking about improving health through food and exercise is mostly commendable.  When there are others around you exercising, a bit like yawning, it can be contagious.

All of these factors work together to aid the motivation required to get in shape. 

I was in fairly decent shape already before I left England, sport and exercise was already a fairly central element to my life, but even I have found myself exercising more in Korea.  Of all of the above reasons for getting down to some hard-work on the exercise front, personally I think 'more time' would be my main reason.  Not only the greater amount of time my job allows, but the fact that I probably have less of a social life, less TV to watch, and fewer interests generally that are more accessible to me back home in England.  I find that I must actively try and fill my free time in Korea, whereas my free time just kind of dissolves away back home.

In Korea, if you want a training goal to work to, you can always enter running races, which seem to very popular and are very easy to find.  If your interested, you can check out a couple of sources:

http://www.marathon.pe.kr/schedule_index.html/ (in Korean, but pretty simple)
http://www.seoulsynergy.com/seoulmarathonraces.htm (in English, but less comprehensive)

You can also set personal training goals and I tend to do this with trips to national parks around the country and hiking the full courses in a certain period of time.  Jirisan from West to East in under 24 hours was a particularly exhausting one.  But it need not be so far away from home; the mountainous landscape makes for some tough challenges and the trails up even the smaller mountains means there is an adventure pretty much on your doorstep. 

I am privileged to have a small mountain (400m) literally right outside my apartment in Korea with a fantastically maintained trail.  It means I can always do a hike for a couple of hours or a more arduous mountain run, if I feel up for it.  One of the things I like about Korea also is that they often put little exercise stations somewhere near the top of these mountains when they are in a city.  So I can do a run or a walk and then halfway through vary it a little more with some other exercises.

So - putting my personal trainer hat on again - come to Korea to work and enjoy the time, the food, the means, the environment and the motivation necessary to really make lasting gains in your level of fitness.  It is a great place to become fit and healthy.

The Korean Obsession with Being Warm

In many of my blog posts I have compared ways of thinking and doing things between my culture and Korean culture and come to conclusions that certain aspects of one or the other really are better.  I have come in for some abuse for saying this, not so much on my website but on sites that republish my blog or write articles for.

Sometimes I fall on the side of Western culture, but I have often fallen on the side of Korean culture too, much to some people's annoyance.

There are some issues, however, that are not really a matter of right or wrong or better or worse, these are the strange little things we perceive each other as doing that are simply culturally different.  This is not to say they are benign, though, they can often delight or regularly frustrate.  They are difficult to make a judgment about as they appear to be heavily rooted in culture and what suits one culture does not always suit another.

The Korean obsession with being warm is one of these little oddities, at least from my perspective.

Whenever I walk into a Korean's house I notice immediately that the temperature is about 5 degrees hotter than in mine, jjim jil bangs (kind of like warm relaxing communal areas, usually part of a public sauna or gym, for those with little experience in Korea) are popular, my wife sleeps on a heat mat along with many other Koreans I know, Koreans sleep on the floor which is heated, and in summer Korean people walk around with, what seems to me, excessive clothing - this has a lot to do with not getting a sun-tan but how they are not too hot has always amazed me.

Korean people also place a very high importance on warm food, of which they usually have three hot meals a day.  My Korean family doesn't understand how I can start the day without hot food and just eat cereal.

I came across another example of the importance of being warm (I think hot) when my wife was rushed to hospital the other day for emergency surgery.  She suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst, which meant that she had to go to a specialist hospital dealing with mainly women and pregnancy.

The doctors did a great job and she was fine, but when I visited the hospital I couldn't help but notice it was like stepping into a sauna.  The temperature in the room my wife was recovering in was 30 degrees on the thermostat.  When I went to visit the next day I came prepared wearing a vest and bermuda shorts as I sat at her bedside and I was still unbearably hot.  Needless to say my wife was fine and my mother in-law was sitting there still wearing a scarf and a jumper wondering what on earth I was complaining about.

It turns out that being extra-warm is particularly important with regard to pregnant mothers, new born children, mothers who have just given birth, and sick people generally.  This is fairly obvious, but I have never known the temperature to be so high in England for the sick in hospitals or when they are recovering at home.

I can easily theorize why this line of thinking appears in Korean culture.  Korea has harsh, freezing cold winters and I can imagine many people used to die because of them in the not so distant past, and especially the vulnerable like babies and sick people.  They have harsh summers too but, while it is possible to die from the heat, it is far more likely to die in the cold or exacerbate sickness through cold weather.

Keeping almost overly warm is a tradition that has lingered into modern Korean culture, and I would say that it has become a superstition and something that is now over emphasized and not necessary.  That is only from my point of view, though, and I have to admit I have rarely experienced Korean people showing discomfort in the kind of situations where they usually promote being warm.  Maybe they are so used to it, it is what suits them best and I am simply a cooler weather person coming from the famously inclement weather of the UK.

This problem with the heat I have could even be personal, I don't know.  Maybe Westerners coming to Korea love the idea of warm places like jjim jil bangs and being extra warm (over and above what we would normally do in the West) when they are resting or sick.  The only thing is, it does actually give me a few problems from time to time.

Last week my mother in-law was quite a drag, demanding that I sleep on the floor next to my wife at the hospital.  To keep her happy I said I would but it didn't take long for me to change my mind.  I felt a little guilty, but my wife was stable and at no risk after her operation and I did not see that it was integral to her recovery that I suffer with no sleep on a hot hard floor every night for 3 days, and neither did she.

It is also extraordinarily how hot my wife's sleeping mat is, which she uses regardless of whether she is sick or not.  I find it truly unfathomable that she can sleep on it, it makes me bake going anywhere near it and feels uncomfortably hot to the touch.

Needless to say, the issue of feeling the heat is a minor one, and the difference is because of culture and there is no right or wrong answer to the behaviour, it is just different.  Some cultural attitudes, thinking, and practices (whether Western, Eastern, English, Korean, or indeed religious), however, can and should be judged as right or wrong for logical and moral reasons. 

I am a cultural relativist when it comes to matters of what temperatures we find comfortable to live in, but not in all matters.  Finding the line between relativism, cultural bias, and truth is a tricky one but also of high importance.

Attitudes and Thinking part 2 Food and Health (let's get positive).

From the tone of my first post, you would be forgiven for thinking that Korea isn't that great.  Now this would be true, but it's not that bad either.  I think this is a statement that could very well be true for most countries.  Korea is just different, wonderfully and interestingly different.  I am not a relativist, which means that I do think some cultures are better than others and that some parts of different cultures are also better than our own.  I am English, but I think the ideal, and currently the best plan for culture made by any country is the US constitution. I am going to be brief, but broadly this is because it is essentially secular, allows freedom and rights for everyone, and in common with my own country a respect for freedom of speech.  Unfortunately, the US constitution is not always followed in the US, and in my own country (where arguably the great tradition of, at least modern day, freedom of speech originated), the best values are constantly under attack and not well understood by the large majority of the public and even worse the governments and politicians themselves.  This leads me onto the point I was beginning to make in my last post, the continuum of East and West.  If only we could pick and choose things from the East and West and have a happy medium, but it's never that simple, egos and traditions always get in the way.

In this blog I am going to attempt to explain what I think is great about Korea and how perhaps western cultures could learn from it.  There are some bad things too but if anyone who reads this likes a bit of a moan, please wait for a later blog.  I am sure I will forget some of the things but I will attempt to explain the ones that strike a particular chord with me.  For this part of my blog I am going to concentrate on food and health.

1) Health
Since I was very young I have always been heavily into exercise and in my early twenties spent a lot of time with professional squash players in England, and wasn't too bad myself.  For this reason health and fitness have always been important to me.  Coupled with this, is the fact that I have the worst constitution known to man; everything makes me sick, I get a lot of colds (in England), hay-fever, and I am an extreme lightweight when it comes to drinking.  I never imagined though just how bad my diet was in the UK and how difficult it is to eat well.  The attitude towards food and health in Korea is markedly better than in the west.  They eat for health and they exercise also for this reason.  Parents instill this into their children (generally) and do not tolerate and accept overweight children or obese people in general.  This can sometimes be taken to extremes of unkindness, however, and some balance of these attitudes needs to be achieved (note the continuum).  In the west we eat for pleasure, rarely for health, and our societies count the cost of this.  Just this morning on my YahooUK news feed there was an article about an american who had a cardiac arrest in a restaurant eating a colossal hamburger called 'the cardiac arrest burger'.  I know american people famously don't get irony, but this is a fairly obvious case.  My own country can ill afford to be smug either, as on the same news feed the was a story about England currently being home to the worlds heaviest man, as the previous, rather unwanted record holder of this position, had just died in Mexico   The west is in a huge rut of bad eating and bad thinking when it comes to food and health.  I am going to argue that, on the Korean model of eating you can quite literally have your cake and eat it.  The food in Korea is delicious, it makes you feel good after eating it, and it makes you healthier.  In the west, the food is just as delicious, but makes you feel terrible, lethargic and sleepy after eating it, and most of it is rarely beneficial and often detrimental to health.  Western food is, more often than not, about the here and now, it says 'I want to be satisfied now, I want that good feeling now, and who cares about later'.  Korea says, 'I want to be satisfied now, I want that good feeling now, and I want to feel good later too.'  Which is better?  The argument is over before it has started, Korea wins.  Japan shares this ethic about food, and maybe slightly less so in China.

Now I can begin to hear the murmurings of an argument from the other side in my ear, of those of you in the west that have never been to Korea and those also living in Korea, that either have never heard of Korean food, can't get it, or just hate it.  My argument, however, is not that we should all be eating Korean food, but that we understand why Korean food is beneficial and therefore can re-model our own foods and habits.  Koreans do in fact eat some crazy things, and trust me I wouldn't be advocating eating a small live octopus that can kill you by sucking on the inside of your throat if you don't chew it properly, or, quite probably the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten 홍어(pronounced hong-oh), which is fermented and rotten fish, usually served with heavily fermented kimchi and very gristly pork.  The one and only time I have ever gagged at the dinner table.  The trouble is, it is usually such a large piece that you have to put in your mouth, that getting it down takes a long time, it has to be chewed and pieces of gristle, cartilage, and bone have to be frequently spat out.  All this with a number of Koreans staring at you, and trying not to offend them with poor table etiquette.  On top of this Koreans have a nasty habit of ruining all the good work they do throughout the day, when it comes to their health, by drinking gallons of soju (like a weak paint stripper type alcohol) with their meals.  I am positive that this is the reason that Korea falls behind Japan in life expectancy, and figures in Korea showing high levels of bowel cancer and liver disease might back up my point on this.

It's not just what Koreans eat but their methods.  Back in England, I readily admit that cooking is somewhat of a chore and I really don't enjoy it.  The problem is that in England the only real way to be healthy is to buy and cook your own food.  I genuinely believe that there are not a great number of healthy restaurants around, certainly not a great number of affordable healthy restaurants, and it is still too expensive to go to cheaper restaurants regularly in England anyway.  In Korea, I have lived in three different apartments and at each one there has been a restaurant about a two minute walk from my house.  At these restaurants, called Kimbap shops, I can buy an extremely healthy meal, with side dishes, and be well satisfied for less than £2.50 or $4 in the US.  These places are the McDonald's of Korea when it comes to cheap and quick food, but the quality and nutrition of the food in the Kimbap shops is astounding, it might as well be from another planet.  The vegetables are plentiful and fresh, very fresh, you can taste the goodness with every bite, and when you are finished eating you are, full, well nourished, and not feeling like a stuffed turkey.  My energy levels in Korea are incredibly good, and I rarely get colds here, something which happens regularly in England.  I am positive that this is the effect of the food.  You might well say that this is just my assertion and that I have nothing to back this up, and you'd be right.  I am a bit of a skeptic myself and I like good hard evidence that what one person claims to be true is, in fact, true.  I would love to see some studies done by dietitians, but I suspect many have been done already, perhaps mainly on Japanese food, that I am unaware of.  The higher life expectancy of people in this part of the world may well provide some immediate evidence, if you need any.  But long life is not necessarily the best measure of quality of life, so I would like to see the effect of a western vs a far eastern diet on mood, happiness, energy levels, etc.  Again I suspect that some research may already have been done on the effect of processed food, and high glycaemic index foods on moods, attention spans, and happiness.  It should be noted that there are far less processed foods in Korea, and very few ready meals with added salt and sugar, and their penchant for sugary foods in general is not particularly high.  In fact they rarely do dessert, for example, and if they do it is usually fruit.

The Kimbap shops, provide proof that it is possible to make quick, healthy, and cheap food for the convenience of the people, and these places are one of the things I miss most when I am at home in England.  The fact that food generally is as expensive in Korea, and more expensive in supermarkets than in England, backs up my point that convenient and healthy food is possible to produce for profit in a restaurant, if one so desires, and if the population want to eat it.  The Kimbap shops even provide a take-away service, but it is not sandwiches that are the order of the day, but Kimbap (김밥), hence the name of the shop.  Kimbap, for those of you who are unfamiliar, are rolls of rice (밥) with vegetables, egg, and sometimes meat or fish in the middle, wrapped in dried seaweed (김).  When I made them in England and showed them to my friends, they all said they were sushi, which is technically not true, but that is how they would be viewed to those that are unfamiliar with it all.  They are nutritious and delicious, they are also inexpensive, and quick to make.  I regularly take a couple of rolls with me when I go hiking, which they seem to be the perfect food for.  It is also possible to take-away almost anything from the menu.  When it comes to food and eating healthily, everything is made as easy and convenient as possible.  On a side note (you know when it is possible to get all excited about silly little purchases), my wife has recently bought a set of thermos flasks, and she has said that it is OK to ask these shops to make some soup and then pour it straight into the flask to take-away.  I am therefore now possibly overexcited about buying soup the next time I go hiking.  The quality of the thermos flasks my wife has bought brings me nicely into another great area of Korea's culture of food, their equipment.

Korea is home to the biggest fridges in the world, of that I have no doubt.  The reason for this is that they make a string of side dishes, soups, and main dishes in one go and then refrigerate them for later.  Their food is often partly fermented and spicy, like kimchi, and it can keep for months and sometimes even years.  This habit is one that was formed in their poorer history, when the people had to make times of plenty last and store their food over a harsh winter, which I can assure you is freezing cold and very dry.  They made kimchi (there are many different kinds), as well as different sauces used in cooking, and they were stored in huge pots and left to ferment.  This made the contents of the pot edible all through the long hard winter.  The history of kimchi, in particular, may well be over 2000 years old.  I have if fact eaten 15 year old kimchi, and I can safely say that it has been the best kimchi I have eaten to date.  Fermented and spicy foods like kimchi do take some getting used to, however, and I confess to disliking kimchi when I first arrived in korea.  But, as is true with a lot of acquired tastes, I can no longer do without the stuff.  As I was saying they keep stuff for a long time in massive fridges with a lot of Tupperware.  This method actually makes it quite easy to come home and prepare yourself a meal, and is also coupled with the fact that their staple diet is rice, which can be cooked easily in rice cookers (terrific little devices) and the rice is also kept warm in the rice cooker for up to a couple of days.  These rice cookers are incredibly easy to clean after finishing with them, as is all Korean cooking equipment.  I heard a rumor that Tefal test all their new products on Korean housewives, and that would not surprise me in the least bit, these women from my experience do not tolerate sub-standard products.  The products that they sell are fantastic, and back to the (rather pathetic, I know) excitement over my new thermos flasks, they are like no thermos flasks I have ever seen.  I don't know how they keep the heat in, but they do, without the need for thick walls with just a small space in the middle, the space is massive and the walls are thin.  There is some ingenious stuff in this country when it comes to food at least.

That's probably enough of me droning on like an old Korean housewife, so I am going to move onto an issue that was a hot topic a few years ago in England and also in America, brought to the attention of the wider public by a British chef (from my neck of the woods in Essex) named Jamie Oliver.  This issue is school dinners.  I think a lot has changed for the better because of this man, in England at least, but I wonder if most schools and parents are still committed to the healthy eating of their students.  I think I might have to do some research on this one, and see what school dinners in England are currently like, but I am pretty sure that in America things haven't changed all that much.  I am guessing that things in America, and my suspicion about much of the UK too, is that school dinners are still mostly comprised of cheap junk food brought into schools by the government to save money.  Basically the cheapest, unhealthiest food it possible to imagine.  I always remember watching one of these programmes and chuckling about how school administrators counted the tomato topping on a slice of horrible pizza and chips (french fries) as a portion of vegetables essential for the child's diet.  Actually, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry with disbelief at just how willfully ignorant some people can be.  The claim by Jamie Oliver, backed up by a lot of research on children's attention spans after eating processed food, and childhood obesity rates in England, was that we as a country are doing a disservice to our young people, promoting unhealthy eating, and by this contributing to behaviour problems in schools, and general bad health in the population as a whole.  I think anyone with any sense whatsoever agreed with him wholeheartedly.  But the trouble he caused seemed to be significant both in England and in the US.  There are many reasons for this based on the power of money in government policy and just plain laziness and bloody-mindedness that I will not go into here.  So, what about Korean school dinners?  Talking with my other school teacher friends in Korea it seems like school dinners are pretty similar all over Korea, and without knowing too much about government policy, I will tell you what I think of them.  School dinners here are amazing.  Korean people do realise the importance of children getting a good meal at school, and parents have no worries about the quality of food available at lunchtime, it is spectacularly good.  I have compared it myself to going to my favourite 'all you can eat' restaurant everyday.  There is always enough food and it is very healthy.  Just one school meal in Korea would get a student their '5 a-day' (portions of fruit and vegetables) as we like to say in England.  A typical meal would be something like this; rice, a portion of meat and/or fish, 3 vegetable side dishes (kimchi usually being one of these), and there is always a very nutritious soup also.  The menu changes everyday, so you usually don't get the same meal twice in a two week period.  Lunchtime is genuinely my favourite time of day.  The students like this food and they eat it, and they don't know how lucky they are.  Sometimes I mention the average school meal in England to them and they are envious of what we eat.  But if they knew about the low-grade nature of our school food they might think again.  I don't know this for a fact but I suspect the food, especially the fruits and vegetables are all locally produced, it certainly tastes that way.

There really are so many nice things to say about Korean food culture, that I almost forgot to mention about the proper restaurants here.  Almost all of them are based around the theme that the food is cooked on the table.  In the case of meat restaurants this is like a barbecue style restaurant.  Meat is cooked in the centre of the table on a grill (without oil).  The meat is usually marinated in a delicious sauce, which really enhances the flavour of the meat.  There are a couple of methods of getting the heat, to cook the food, to the table.  Some restaurants have gas pipes running on the floor throughout the restaurant, and others actually bring a bucket of hot coals and place it in a well in the table.  Some restaurants, usually those where a hot fish soup is at the centre of the table, just use a portable gas stove with a removable gas canister.  I have yet to meet a foreigner living in Korea who doesn't love these restaurants, everyone likes them and even vegetarians usually come along and enjoy the authentic experience and atmosphere that eating this way creates.  The food is also rather good and not overly expensive.  Sometimes I think that these restaurants would be a great idea in the England and how popular they could be, given how popular they are with foreigners in Korea.  So why can't we have this in England?  Any guesses?  The Health and Safety police!  They would have a field day pointing out all the health and safety implications of eating in this way.  All the gas tubes running through the restaurants, 'what if there was an explosion?!'  The hot coals, 'what if they burn someone?  And heaven forbid a child might put it's hand on the grill or try to play with coals!'  The cooked meat being next to some raw meat being cooked on the same grill, 'what if someone gets E-coli, Listeria, or Salmonella?!  With this in mind, I seriously doubt if you ever see restaurants like this in England, and probably not in the USA, Canada, Europe, etc, either.  And what a senseless pity.  The tedious business of health and safety is another thing I will talk about in a later blog, which is not so prevalent in Korea.  I have been in Korea for almost 3 years at the date of writing this, and I have yet to get sick from one of these restaurants, I have never seen anyone burned by hot coals, and I haven't seen a restaurant go up in flames either, neither have I heard any news of it.

Food to Korean people has a great deal of importance and is embedded in their culture, so you would expect them to hold a high regard for all things culinary.  They really love it when foreigners eat their food and enjoy it, and it has been an easy way for me to impress lots of Korean people and make up for my deficiencies in the Korean language and etiquette.  Their attitude towards food is exactly how it should be, a lesson that everyone in the west should learn, but alas we are still not listening.  Japanese food is starting to get very popular around the world, maybe Korean food is next.  It's the Korean and Japanese attitude towards food that is what really needs to sink into western culture, though, and not necessarily just the odd foray into a strange food from the other side of the globe for something a little different on a Friday night with friends.  To put it simply the way that the Japanese and the Koreans eat is fantastic, the way we in the west eat is terrible.  It's time to change our ways.