food.

Korean food is comparable to other Asian diets, in that it has a lot of carbohydrates, fresh vegetables, rice and seafood. It's not as oily or diverse as Chinese food, and not as indricate or seafood-based as Japanese. It is frequently spicy. You see a lot of soups, stews, barbecued pork and chicken and kimchi. A hearty and satisfying meal can be eaten in a restaurant for about $3-5. No tipping necessary.

Kimchi is pickled cabbage (usually) fermented with red pepper powder and other ingredients. It's spicy and very tasty, and it is served with almost any meal as condiment. Beside it is a sweet pickled turnip, and beige sheets of something that used to be part of a fish. Also very tasty.

Korean rice is sticky, and actually expensive because of protection for local farmers. Got no qualms about that.

'Korean sushi' is an unfortunate term for Gim Bap. Gim Bap is turnips, tuna, egg and other ingredients wrapped in rice and nori. It usually is the size of a burrito and cut into smaller sections. No green wasabi is included.

Went to T.G.I. Friday's for some reason. Steak dinners cost $30, no lie. Fresh bread and butter accompany the meal, much like home. Hmm, butter has a dried out exterior, looks like it's been heated up and cooled down at least ten times. Guess it's not really popular. Butter in the grocery store goes for $6 and up.

Cheese is either processed crap, or costs about $8. After three weeks I broke down and bought some Swiss cheese. Bread is much cheaper, but is usually made from corn. Wheat bread is a little harder to find, but not prohibitively expensive.

There is a franchise called 'Paris Baguette' that absolutely nails the French bread. Delicious. Starts going stale in about six hours, just like the real thing.

Aloe juice is damned tasty, and has crunchy chunks of real aloe.
Kiwis are popular: they show up in yogurt, snacks, and so forth. Haven't found any blueberry yogurt. I bought a box of Jo Louis-type snacks that have kiwi-cream filling. Very good.

Pears are also quite expensive. They are shaped like apples and are a little larger than a grapefruit. The texture is much harder and crispier than Ontario pears, and the taste is different: more delicate, kind of like a honeydew melon. 4 pears for $5, but they keep well and are worth the price. Also: lots of mandarin oranges, also quite expensive.

Korea is like Japan in that there is no separation between personal life and work life. Thus, lots of workplaces involve going to business dinners and lunches, and, I don't know, complaining about the boss over Bul Go Gi and copious amounts of Soju. Soju is a grain alcohol, tasting like a watered-down vodka. These days it's completely artificial and is said to induce terrible hangovers. 400mL costs as much as a bottle of pop, and is enough to get two adults buzzed. Local beer is roughly equivalent to Coors or some other soulless American beer. It costs about a dollar per can in grocery stores, and 3-4 dollars for a 'pint.' (There are no pints, just 300-400 cubic centimetre glasses. 400ccs is more than a pint) Imported beers cost more. Lots of heineken and corona.

Finally, ginseng sweets are my favorite thing right now. Suck on one and the taste will stay with you all day. Tastes somewhere between ginger and caramel.