Of course, one of the major adjustments with moving to any new country is going to be the food. Unless you move to Canada. Or maybe you wouldn't have so many issues if you moved to England or Ireland either. France might not be an issue. Italy wouldn't be too hard to adjust to. Who doesn't like pasta, right? Australia and New Zealand would be easy as long as you don't eat the vegemite - unless you like vegemite.
In any case, moving to an Asian country can present a problem as you're more or less forced to adjust to a whole new kind of regular diet. That's not to say that western foods can't be found. It's just expensive and sometimes difficult to maintain a sense of dietary normalcy. The best thing to do is - well really you just shouldn't go anywhere if you can't stand the food - but you're best off trying to make the adjustment gradually. Mix it up a bit. Pancakes for breakfast, bibimbap for lunch, and them maybe some asian-style italian for dinner. Then try adding more native foods to the diet until your body no longer hates you for messing up the works. But always temper your adjustment with foods you're familiar with. Not only will you feel better physically but also emotionally since you'll be able to turn to some of these homely comfort foods when you're feeling totally foreign and lost.
This is my advice to anyone moving to Asia. That, and be adventurous!
There is no way you're ever going to adjust unless you have a sense of adventure. Try new foods! Half the time I'm eating stuff I have NO idea what it is. Well, ok, I know what rice is when I see it. And I can tell if a dish has carrots or potatoes or if it's fish or pork or chicken. Sure. But most Korean dishes are a hodgepodge of ingredients stewed together in a red sauce of some level of spiciness. And they're generally delicious. Take my school lunches for example.
Both of my schools serve something different every day. As a teacher, I get to cut in line, which is curiously satisfying as an adult since I remember all those times as a child when some bully would shove in front of me because his bully-friend would allow him to "back-cut" or some crap like that. You get chopsticks and a spoon and a metal tray with five bowls in it - three small and two large (I'll post some pics when I get a chance to shoot a few in the lunch rooms). As with all Korean meals, you get side dishes with the main meal. Generally lunch will be a serving of rice (in the big bowl on the left) and soup (in the big bowl on the right or sometimes in a separate metal bowl - depending on the side dishes). You get three side dishes (one of them is always some kind of kimchi) and a sweet dessert like side. The lunch ladies are pros at portion control. The smaller children get much smaller helpings, the 4th, 5th, and 6t graders get moderate helpings of everything, and teachers get adult sized servings. Somehow or another, thought, they've gotten the idea that as a foreign male I somehow require extra everything to sustain my enormousness or something. I've already gotten used to turning down the extra heaping spoonful of rice they try to give me. I appreciate the hospitality but, come on!, I'm not even that big compared to your average Korean male.
Since I have no photos to share, yet, I'll try my best to describe one of my recent lunches. The rice served was a mixture of white rice, some brown rice, and some rice that made the whole thing purple. So it was purple rice pilaf, I guess. The soup was a chicken and vegetable soup. Very basic. Chicken drumsticks served in a plain broth with carrots, potatoes, onions, shitake mushrooms, and seaweed called kombu (at least this is what it's called in Japanese). There was a side of cucumber kimchi, a small side of vegetables with korean style spicy red sauce with bits of pork, and a side of mixed greens which were also mixed with another korean style spicy red sauce - but slightly bitter. The "dessert" was a kind of bread pudding baked into a little paper cup (like a shot glass sized cup) that had bits of some kind of sweet fruit in it. To me, this whole lunch was absolutely delicious! The bread pudding was an absolute bonus. I just about squealed with joy when I saw it. I nearly cried tears of happiness when I ate it.
So everyday school lunch is something of a culinary adventure. The only problem is that since I don't know what any of the dishes are called (and when I ask and they tell me I can't remember the names anyway) I have no idea how to find these dishes at a restaurant. Other adventures include day to day grocery shopping. As I said, finding western products isn't too hard but it is more expensive than buying native brands. The problem comes when trying to find a suitable substitute for a western product. Since I am slightly lactose intolerant I'm having to buy native soy milk. It's going to be a trial and error process until I find one that is closest to the soy milk products I preferred in the U.S. (such as Silk or even the Publix brand Greenwise). So far the soy milk hasn't been too bad. I've found sweetened varieties that aren't as bland but they all have a slightly stronger soy taste which isn't so great for putting in coffee or tea. So when I saw something different on sale I decided, why not give it a try.
I was curious as to why this particular carton of soy milk was black. It had also come with a smaller carton of coffee as a promo (which was delicious!). This and the fact that it was on sale was enough for me to give it a try. I now know that the reason for the black carton is because the milk comes from black soy beans. And when you squeeze milk from black soy beans you get....
Grey Milk
Yeah. Grey milk. It's not just the quality of the photo, it's grey milk. While the grey variety of soy milk does taste much like the regular milkish-beige colored variety, there is something unsettling about ones cereal floating in a thickish grey substance. I don't think I'll be buying anymore black cartons of soy milk again.
One product that Jenn and I have found may seem some what off the wall at first but is something that the U.S. needs.
Walnut Ice Cream!
It's a delicious ice cream bar of walnut flavored ice cream with walnut pieces in it. It almost tastes like the walnut and maple fudge you can buy at... well at places that sell such fudge. It has quickly become one of our favorite ice creams here. Actually, I think Jenn or I will have to write an ice cream post one of these days. Asians seem much more creative when it comes to ice cream flavors - some good, some bad. But I think that's another adventure for another day.
