We’ve spent a couple nights in the last week trying some of the local cuisine with some of the other teachers. Both were different than expected, and we’re trying to learn to stop expecting, and just experience!

On Wednesday night, we told another teaching couple that we could drive them into town (Seogwipo) to do some shopping, since we have a car and they don’t. We went in around 7 to get dinner before hitting up the grocery store. We didn’t know anywhere recommended, so just wandered and saw a cool looking little place tucked behind a little garden. It was hard to see from the street, but there was another family going in right before us, so we gave it a shot.

Cute sign right out front welcoming us in.

We had to take off our shoes as we went in – pretty common for small restaurants and homes here. We were escorted up the stairs to a small private room by an older Korean woman who didn’t speak a word of English, but was willing to try to understand our charades.

The decor was beautiful – very intricate with tiny ceremonial tea sets, calligraphied paintings and carved tables. We sat on the floor at a traditional small wooden table, each grabbing a cushion. We tried to order a few dishes (thankfully there were a couple English words on each menu item), and the woman told us they didn’t have 3 of the 6 menu options. Okay, well I guess we’ll have the ones you do have!

Beautiful decor, including a ceremonial tea set behind Ben and Andrea.

And then we waited. We got one small pot of tea. When that ran out, we kept waiting. The woman eventually came upstairs again and we grabbed her attention for some water. And we kept waiting. (see a pattern here?). Finally almost an hour after we came in, we got our simple noodle dishes, but not our main savory pancake. She said, “coming” – we assumed she just didn’t have enough hands to carry, and would be right back. But no. We finished our noodles – hey were Japanese-inspired and tasty enough.

More of the decor during the waiting time.

We were clearly in a zen-focused place. Somewhere you should come only when you want to really get to know someone. Our pancake took another 45 minutes to arrive!

So I don’t have any photos of the food, because we ate it all so fast I didn’t get the camera out. On our way out, we found out that the woman was there by herself, and she was cooking, serving, bussing, hosting, all out of her tiny household-style kitchen. I guess that was an authentic experience!

Dinner 2: Friday night a couple of the leadership team at the school – Amos and Kristine – asked us out to some traditional Korean bbq. Another teaching couple (Jeff and Kathy) joined us.

Out for Korean bbq with Kristine. That’s a “salad” of green onions and red chili paste – and look at my chopstick skills!

Patrick and Kathy with tons of little side dishes, waiting for the pork to cook.

Traditional bbq on Jeju Island is made from black-skinned pig, and includes thick strips of fat with the meat, which you grill on hot coals right on your table. Then you get somewhere between 4-20 side dishes ranging from Kimchi, boiled bean sprouts, seasoned Burdock, garlic, three-spice dipping sauce, pickled cucumbers or zucchini, and more. Add a basket of lettuce leaves and chopstick up your favorite sides, a piece of pork and some sauce into a leaf, wrap, and eat! Delish.

Another Korean bbq night. This one was more traditional with a floor-height table – we sat on cushions on the floor.

Here you can see the cooking coals and our new friends Matt and Andrew. Check out those big strips of meat, mushrooms and tons of roasting garlic. Yum!