A Christmas tale to share...

This week we had a farewell dinner with my English Buddy Program teacher and the District Head who we were reporting to. We went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant which I had been to before with a teacher from my school but this time I had my camera. I will try to describe with words and pictures further down

First we had rice paper wraps. You take what looks like a CD sized plastic disc, which is really transparent rice paper. You dip it in a bowl of hot water. This softens the rice paper and makes it flexible like a soft contact lens. Then you lay it flat and try to straighten it out on a plate. You place different shredded vegetables and sauces in the middle. Then fold the rice paper over like a wrap or samosa and eat it like a sandwich.

Next, we had shabu shabu which I had a while before. You have an open pot on a gas flame in the middle of your table. Bring the water to a boil and dip different meat and vegetable items. We had the seafood platter which was baby and giant shrimps, octopus, shellfish, squid. When the water is boiling slowly cook different items until its soft and tender. Then remove with tongs and eat in different dipping sauces. The seafood broth you also drink as a soup.

The next dish, they removed all the leftover seafood and vegetables from the pot until just the seafood broth was left behind. Then they dropped vietnamese rice noodles and cooked until soft and tender. This can be eaten as a noodle soup (kalguksu) or I added some of the leftover seafood as a topping

Finally, the leftover seafood broth was used again one last time after all the noodles were removed. The last dish was a rice porridge. First they mashed pumpkin into the pot before adding rice with other ingredients and absorbing all the broth. Usually I'm turned off any kind of rice after a daily staple for four months in Korea. But this didnt taste like rice and was quite tasty.

I was well stuffed by the second course and only had room to sample the third and fourth
korean phrases : mashisoyo - delicious, jalmeuk-guot-sumnida - I have eaten well!

Ms Park the District Head also explained the process of making kimchi, another daily staple with rice. Day 1 you wash chinese cabbage leaves, put salt on each leaf, and allow to sit for a few hours. Then you wash each leaf again and I think you add salt again maybe. Day 2 you add seasonings, garlic, and more steps in allowing leaves to sit for a few hours. Day 3 add something else and allow to sit. I'm sure I'm explaining it wrong but this is the jist of it. The finished kimchi can last in a regular fridge for 2 months or upto a year in a special kimchi fridge.

I tried to goto Korean restaurants in toronto before I came to learn korean food.. turns out that was a waste of time as their menus are all wrong. In the Standard Life Centre I would have glass noodles and fish katsu (battered and deep fried fish and vegetables). Glass noodles are not common here and only a side dish, not a main item. For some bizzare reason, koreans do not serve fish in restaurants, even though they are surrounded by water on three sides and fish are a plenty in markets. Instead they only cook fish at home??. Also the korean grill house on queen street offers shrimp, salmon, or squid bibimbab (mixed rice). That is a canadian adaptation and does not exist here.

After weeks of planning for christmas class, tuesday they cancelled classes for exams, wednesday they were on a shortened timetable, friday I was off sick. I showed a compilation of 10 christmas commercials then randomly chose four numbers which they had to remember in teams to win prizes. Campbells soup they kept calling pasta or noodles. M&M they think is Mentos. The smart kids started telling friends in other classes to write down the ten names when they watch them so I had to start taking their notebooks away. Then we watched some short christmas movies and sang christmas karaoke. I had a giant christmas stocking with goodies. For some reason they only want candy. Any time they got stationary they were upset and wanted to change it.

Anyway, hope everybody is having a good christmas! :)