I sat down to dinner with the 'rents today, and it suddenly dawned on me that I should probably do some research on the types of food I'll be eating in Asia (specifically South Korea) for the next year. I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily a picky eater, but food is definitely a big part of my day and an experience. I'm kind of a health fanatic. I'm a calorie counter, and a protein FREAK. I do admit I'm a little obsessive at times about reading labels, and working out. But I enjoy running and working out a lot, so I try to bless my body with the essential nutrients because I feel so bad about beating it up so hard during a hardcore work out.
I guess I'm not really nervous about what I'll eat, I'll pretty much eat anything. But I am concerned about eating healthy, and maintain that in Korea. It will certainly be much easier because I will be living on my own, and will ultimately be responsible for what I put into my body. Which was a different story than when I was living with my host parents in Sevilla.
I will never forget it. The day I saw a sight so stunning to the eye, so churning to the stomach. It was an infamous day, a memorable one of course. I come home from school one day for lunch, starving as I was on many days because breakfast was at like the break of dawn. The Spanish have very long breaks during their meals, and it was incredibly hard to get used to. I was constantly starving in between meals, and would often hide snacks in my closet praying my host mom wouldn't find them and throw them away!
So I come in the door and see what I think is a glorious, perfectly made carrot cake. The white frosting was shining in the afternoon sun. The carrot shaving's atop in a cute little pattern. I remember bursting into my room and erupting in excitement as I told my roommate about the delicious cake we had awaiting us. Meals were a huge struggle for our particular family, as was getting used to the food my host mom made. So these little moments of pure food bliss, were always to be remembered.
However this moment was short lived as we were called to lunch by Pablo our little host brother. As we enter the kitchen the most horrible site is sitting there staring at me blank in the eye on my plate.
The Mayonnaise Cake.
Yep. Mayonnaise. If you know me you know how much I HATE mayonnaise. It's the most vile disgusting thing on Earth as far as I'm concerned. So what I thought was going to be a dream of carrot cake in my mouth, was actually an oversized, giant, mayonnaise sandwich. Otherwise dubbed, The Mayonnaise Cake. It had bread on the bottom, a layer of tomatoes, carrots and mayonnaise, another layer of bread....and this goes on stacked three layers high. I was absolutely mortified. I looked at my roommate and said in English, "Dude...I don't think I can do this one".
It ended up being the longest lunch I ever sat through. I tried to scrape off as much mayonnaise as possible and eat the veggies, but they were just swimming in it. I couldn't just leave the mayonnaise there, globbed on the side of my plate, evidence of my disapproval for my host mom to see. I was torn. Do I just suck it up and eat it, surely I could hold in the gag reflex long enough to get down one piece. The entire lunch took me almost two hours to finish. As I would take one bite and three huge gulps of water to wash it down with. I wanted to make sure I didn't disrespect my host mom, and Spanish women take a lot of pride in their "cooking", I would be just devastated if she thought I was being rude. So, it took awhile, but I got through it. And thank God my host mother never bought that again.
I think eating in a foreign country and new foods, are some of the toughest things to adapt to. It's important to try new things, discover some of the greatest foods ever made. But sometimes those discoveries turn into disasters that are lessons learned. I also tend to eat way unhealthier while traveling/living abroad. I want to try everything, I'm unfamiliar with the nutrition and cuisine, my stomach and digestion are all out of whack for awhile.
So I think I'll be doing a lot of research on Korean foods, and hopefully hitting up fresh fruit markets daily! Yum! One thing I can always look forward to leaving America, most countries have tons fresh food markets lining the streets. I'll be getting used to much smaller accommodations, and probably grocery shopping for simply what I'll want for the day instead of an entire week like here in the states.
I look forward to the Korean cuisine, a little scared about the meat dishes, but inevitably there will be another "Mayonnaise Cake" so to speak. And I don't think anything can ever compare.
Yuck!
