Korean School Lunches

Food in Korea is always quite different, especially if your served it at school everyday. A year in a half later, I still find myself confused by the somewhat 'unique' combinations served up on our trays. Ever tried apple and strawberry salad covered in mayo? I have.

 Although the meals seem foreign to me, they are a far cry from the unhealthy fries and burgers I was so often served in my university cafeteria. The students and teachers always receive a balanced and mostly fresh meal at lunch time made with healthy local ingredients. In a number of provinces, meals are served to the students for free. 

Monday:

Manngchi – spicy cabbage and tofu soup

Potatoes in  Gochujang red chilli paste

Korean spinach and Kimchi

fried chicken

and purple rice

Despite its nutritious value, I still often find lunch strange and out of my comfort zone. You can only call yourself  fully assimilated into the Korean school cafeteria when you learn to look forward to things you can barely pronounce like Dduk Guk and Sollongtang. The top of the mountain is when you have come to terms with Kimchi and recite the various health benefits of it - or at least many coteachers have told you. 

Tuesday: 

Spicy cabbage soup

Sweet and sour pork

Seaweed, soy sauce and sesame seeds

Korean cabbage and rice with Yangnyeomjang sauce

Recently, I agreed to take some pictures of lunch at my school to send home to a teacher friend in South Africa. She wanted to show her students that not everyone had sandwiches and an apple brought from home for lunch. I spent a week in the cafeteria photographing everything I ate off my tray. The lunch lady still looks at me suspiciously - or maybe just more suspiciously than before. I rarely eat all of the rice she serves and frankly this leaves her at odds with my true character. 

Wednesday:

Maeun-tang (fish broth soup)

Dwaejibulgogi (Spicy pork and vegetables)

lettuce and cucumber

rice and kimhchi

small anchovies and peanuts

After showing the South African kids my weekly menu, they apparently had a lot to say. The grade 4's (11 year olds) were particularly surprised by the metal chopsticks I ate with everyday, as South Africa only has wooden ones that you can get at sushi takeaways. It took a while to explain that just like we have metal knives and forks that we use again and again, so do other people have chopsticks. They also seemed confused as to why Korean children had to eat soup every single day and were they not allowed any peanut butter?

A child wrote down on her worksheet that she couldn't understand why there was "spicy stuff on the cabbage because cabbage is already so gross". Another boy said that it was "soooo unfair" that the government makes Korean children drink a small milk carton every morning. They finally came to embrace the idea when they were told that school lunch was free for all elementary school students who didn't have the money to pay for it. "Free food? Cool!"

Thursday:

(Kongnamulguk)  Soybean sprout soup

Jjimdak (chicken, potato and glass noodles in a sweet sauce)

Cucumber and red pepper paste

A green chili and Gochujang (soybean paste)

Korean rice and a yoghurt

Friday:

Udon noodles in seafood broth

Spicy mini sauces in a red pepper paste

Kimchi

Fried crab sticks

Rice and seaweed with a side of spicy pepper sauce.

So for better or for worse, here is a week of meals at elementary school in Korea. My advice is to see things in a 40/60 ratio. If you like 40 percent of you meal - that's good enough and you will be fine until dinner time. Like on Friday when I ate the batter around the crab sticks but not the actual crab. Seeing things half full is key. Hey you could always ask for more rice right?