A taste of Korea

kimchi

So Friday night the secretary in our Primary Presidency invited us, as well as a couple other families (who happened to be the other members of the presidency) over for a Korean dinner and karaoke. She is Philipino, but she used to be a lounge singer (in her more wild years!) in Korea and that is where she met her husband! What a unique story of meeting! :) Anyway, everyone raves about her cooking, so I was excited to try it. I knew it would be a little different than what I am used to, but I was willing to try it. When we got there the table had all sorts of dishes with toppings in them. I guess the type of meal she served was one that is served during a holiday or special occasion, not just every day food.

So, this was the menu (I'll have to describe them b/c I don't remember the names of everything!):

rice
a mushroom, tofu, zucchini soup
an egg/onion "pancake" with soy sauce to dip it in
big lettuce leaves and toppings for a wrap


toppings for the lettuce wrap and/or rice
thin slices of marinated meat
pickled cucumbers
rice noodles
cooked spinach
sprouts
kimchi
a spicy bean paste
tofu



When I saw all the food, I have to admit that I was a little skeptical as to whether I was going to like it or not, but I went ahead and tried it all (except the tofu - I just couldn't bring myself to eat that!). It actually was quite tasty, especially with the kim-chee and bean paste to give it a little kick. I wasn't too sure about the soup, because I didn't like any of the ingredients, so I just tried some of the broth. Good thing I did because I seriously thought I was going to spit it out as soon as I tasted it! I don't want to be rude or too critical, so I'll just say that I couldn't bring myself to eat anymore of it. I took a "no-thank-you" bite and that was all I could handle! But I made sure I did that because before we went I gave Tyler the "its-rude-to-not-at-least-try-the-food-at-someone-else's-house" lecture. They actually had a rotisserie chicken and rice for the kids (and DOUGHNUTS!) for the kids, so they were fine. I think my favorites were the meat, the pickled cucumbers and the egg pancake with soy sauce. Oh, they also only had chop sticks on the table, so I had an interesting time trying to figure out how to eat without stabbing my food! I sort of got it in the end, but I'm definitely no pro yet!



This is the way the table was set up - a little bit of everything in lots of little dishes (except the meat wasn't in the middle of the table, but she did use a grill like this one!).

So after dinner we got out the karaoke machine. At first, one couple and myself were the only ones brave enough to sing, but after a while and finding the right song, we got the other couple and Kent to sing as well. The first song I sang was All that She Wants by Ace of Base. I didn't think about this until after I started singing, but the next part says "is another baby, she's gone tomorrow boy" so they all started teasing me that I was sending Kent a message! Very funny, guys! :) I also sang Lost in Your Eyes by Debbie Gibson, Footloose, Don't Cry for Me Argentina and I attempted to sing Survivor by Gloria Gaynor, but that didn't go over too well! They had all these pictures of The Phillipines on the screen as a background while you sang. I guess Philipinos are really into karaoke so they had a version that had Tagalog on it too.

We had a great time and it was fun to try out a new culture. The kids all had a ball playing together - especially Tyler b/c he and the older ones were able to stomp around in the creek! Morgan kept busy playing house and dress-up and Harrison couldn't stay away from the dog, even though he was scared of her in the beginning!


I wish I would have brought my camera, but I didn't.