Towards the beginning of my ESL conversation partner meetings we decided that we would like to start going out to try different restaurants when we met each week. I thought it would be fun to try out several different kinds of Asian food so that maybe Myungseon could teach me more about the options and more of the traditional way to eat them. The first on our list was Piranha’s Killer Sushi. We went to one downtown and sat at the sushi bar. It was Myungseon’s first time at Piranha’s so she definitely got to try several new things. While I had been there many times it was fun going with Myungseon because we ended up trying sashimi and a new signature roll that I had never had before. We even ended up getting one roll for free because we made friends with one of the sushi chefs! One thing she taught me was to mix in some of the wasabi with the soy sauce to dip the sashimi in. It ended up being awesome and I will probably do that from now on!
The second restaurant we went to was the Korean Barbeque House. I found out more about the food here of course because Myungseon is Korean. It is most common to receive a “lunch box” of sorts for your meal that has the barbequed meat, rice, and several sides. There are several different kinds of meat used for the barbeque; three that Myungseon told me about were Bulgogi, Carabi, and Galbi. For one of the sides there’s a spicy sauce called Kimchi that is put on cabbage or cucumber pieces. For an appetizer we had a Japanese version of miso soup (the Korean version is called Deonjang) and Bihn dae ttuk which is a type of “Korean pizza”. The Bihn dae ttuk was made up of cheese, leek, octopus and other vegetables and was really good! The whole meal ended up being awesome!
I think Myungseon enjoys my willingness to try all kinds of things because she always seems surprised when I try something like the spicy Kimchi and chunks of octopus in cheese and end up liking it! I love learning about her culture and just getting to hang out. Myungseon’s English is so good so it makes it really easy to just sit and talk about all kinds of things. Having some kind of activity like going to restaurants has also helped keep the conversation going because I can always ask about the food we’re having and how it’s different of similar to tradition Korean food.
Next week we will be going out for Vietnamese noodles so more to come!
Camille, your experiences with your South Korean friend sound really exciting and rewarding. Its really cool the way you were able to connect with your conversation partner over food. I think that you were right in saying that eating with someone really helps to stimulate conversation. Basically, since enjoying food is universal across cultures, it is a great way to break down the barriers that would otherwise separate us. In my experience, I found that when I took my conversation partner and his friend to Dutch's I was able to have a common thing to talk about and the conversation just kind of worked. The Korean BBQ place was so good; they took me there the week after that. I can't exactly remember what I got, but I think it was the spicy chicken box. The manager said they did not put as much spice on it as they normally would because I was white. But eating was a good experience for me and Jacob, and I'm glad it was good for you and your conversation partner.
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