"What's that?"

As we spend 5 out of 7 lunchtimes a week at school, school lunches have become something of a talking point for Luke and I. Let's just say what we have to say isn't always positive...

On the whole, I really like South Korean food. Most of the time it is tasty and delicious and lovely and fresh. It is also wonderfully healthy! There really aren't very many fat Koreans walking around and their diet completely explains that. Unfortunately, school lunches are not the best ambassadors for Korean food. If you came to Korea and said you really wanted to try the food, I wouldn't take you to my school for lunch. (Mum and Dad, the day you were here actually wasn't too bad but I'm still glad that it wasn't your only taste of the food here!)

Where should I begin? School lunches usually consist of the following: soup, rice, kim-chi and two main dishes. The soup is often really spicy (too spicy for my tastes, that's for sure) and quite frequently involves large quantities of tofu, of which I am NOT a fan. As I told Ellie the first time tofu was on the menu, I don't particularly enjoy chewing on a wet sponge. The rice, well, the rice is sometimes the only thing I can eat so even though our current chef doesn't really have the knack for cooking it so that it doesn't resemble glue, I can't really complain too much about it. Kim-chi is spiced, pickled vegetable, usually cabbage, sometimes raddish. Koreans LOVE kim-chi! I don't mind it either (I prefer it on the bbq) but I don't usually pile my plate with it. The main dishes can either be really yummy or just downright wierd and awful.

One day, as I surveyed the lunch trolley and found chunks of tofu in red-hot sauce, tofu soup and some unrecognisable dish that appeared to be some kind of insect, I thought to myself "well, unrecognisable dish it is... with rice and kim-chi. Hooray". I took my lunch back to my seat, took up my chopsticks and paused to have a closer look at what I was about to eat. As I looked at my lunch, and it looked back at me; I decided that I wouldn't ask what 'it' was until I'd had my fill of whatever it was. This has become my general rule at lunch time because if you find something you can eat, it's sometimes best not to know what it is until after you've eaten all you want. I tentatively held one of the little critters up with my chopsticks, took a deep breath and put it in my mouth. And you know what? It wasn't that bad! It was a little salty but not unpleasantly so and it certainly beat tofu! I ate a few more, and then a few more. Before I knew it I was tucking in quite happily and hardly even thinking about the fact that my lunch was watching me through tiny little eyes.... After I'd had my fill I dared to ask the question. I leaned over to Ellie and asked "were those things insects?" She cracked up laughing and informed me that they were just dried anchovies and I laughed too. Oh, silly me! Here I was thinking I was eating a whole bunch of tiny insects when they were tiny fish all along..... hang on, that still creeps me out a little. I could still see their eyes and their spines and I'm not sure I like that.... Oh well, like I said, it was better than tofu.

These days, I don't find myself asking "what's that?" quite as often. I recognise most of what is served now and I know what I like and what I don't like. Curry, stew and sweet-potato chunks in honey are some of my favourites and I love it when there are pieces of crisp pear for dessert. I don't think I'll ever get into tofu but I still eat those tiny little fish when they're on the menu.... just with a little less enthusiasm!

Lucy