When in Rome...Eat Korean BBQ!

Today, we had the Hanyang University welcoming ceremony and orientation.  High up on the 7th floor of the business building, 600 international students representing 385 universities sat in the auditorium and listened to the many exciting aspects of the Hanyang International Summer School.  

HISS Welcoming Ceremony

I thought this only happened in Ada.

After the welcoming ceremony, we took a campus tour in the wind and rain.  After the orientation, several students and I navigated our way through Seongdong to E-Mart, unveiling an entire community nestled behind the university dorms that I knew nothing about:

Seongdong

These tiny cultural districts are so overwhelming!  Ohioans, there is nothing like this back in our state.  There are restaurants, bars, stores, and homes stacked and crammed into the smallest alleyways imaginable.  It is a sensory overload of smells (both good & bad), sights, and sounds.  Turn around and a car may be inching along quietly behind you, ready to quite literally nudge you out of the way.  Places like this demand attention that is impossible to maintain.


Tonight, we tried Korean BBQ for the first time.  My preconception of this reputable Korean experience included an upscale, Western-looking restaurant with menus and exotic fish in fish tanks.  Instead, a group of us ventured back into Seongdong, down a quiet street, and into one of the dozens of tiny BBQ joints in the area.

Trying Korean BBQ for the first time.

At this restaurant, customers sit on pillows after leaving their shoes at the door.  This idea was much more appealing to me than it turned out to be in reality, as my long appendages did not fare well underneath a table standing a foot high.  In order to eat Korean BBQ, the Lonely Planet Seoul City Guide notes that customers "take a leaf in one hand, and with the other hand, use chopsticks to load it with meat, side dish flavorings, garlic, and sauces.  Then roll it up into a little package and eat it in one go" (95).  My friends, this is exactly what you do - with extreme emphasis on the "eat it in one go" part (which was hard!)  

I, Abbie Sterling, hater of most things meat-related, ate BBQ pork wrapped in lettuce filled with spicy sauces, mushrooms, bean sprouts, rice, onions, and kimchi.

The meat, onion, and garlic is barbecued on grills set into the table.

The grills are set into the tables.

Little, naive me, unsure about the meat. 

I had told myself (and everyone else) that I was going to stick to the vegetables and rice. However, as I sat at the foot-high table, my legs cramped in a very flat Indian-style pose, I wondered when I would ever get another chance (outside of this trip) to eat authentic Korean BBQ.  As the pork sizzled on the grill, I realized that the logical option would be to consume it in mass quantities.  Now I'm paying for it, full of BBQ and rice up to my uvula.  I may never eat again.