Saturday, October 6, 2012

Food

Food, both quality and quantity, is always very important on tandem trips, and we began this trip with more than a little trepidation. We were most concerned about having to eat odd parts of animals, but this has turned out to be relatively easy to avoid (though we did find unexpected chicken feet in one dish!).

For the first few days, we would try to find restaurants with picture menus, but soon discovered that these bear little or no relation to what's actually on offer. We're now becoming a little more adventurous, and have a few tried and tested dining strategies. Sometimes, we search out restaurants that only serve one dish, which certainly keeps things simple. We've also identified a few staple menu items offered almost everywhere, which we can order by their main ingredients with the aid of our phrasebook. Of course the best results are obtained when we get invited into the kitchen to see the ingredients on offer and select by pointing and nodding.

With a few notable exceptions, we've done pretty well, and have enjoyed some really tasty (and very spicy!) food. Most importantly, we've learnt that the quality of our dining experience depends primarily on the friendliness of the staff and their willingness to work with us!

1 comment:

  1. I love this post. Stephanie, I remember some good stories of yours from being in Korea and Ari's stories about miming and drawing the ingredients he was not interested in eating.

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