Ordered often, seldom finished it testers on the stove bubbling ferociously upon its stove. Jjigae's primary purpose is aromatic; filled with seafood, beef, onions garlic and obligatory kimchi (the national cabbage) it wafts an amazing smell of vitality. This mass of tastes both retain their individual flavours while having an awesome power to cleanse the sinuses. I am assured that Koreans have over fifty words to describe spicy food, English is an inadequate tool for capturing the subtly of the sauce which both burns and refreshes. In this steaming volcanic stew, a tentative spoonfall may reveal a mussel or clam which exudes their own delicate tastes. This dish reveals so much about Korean cooking because it is the only way of demonstrating the confusion and clarity that is inherent in her culinary culture.
Upon ordering any meal you are confronted by such a range of little bowls it is difficult to know what you should eat first. The mass of small dishes make eating at home complex and expensive. You quickly learn that you can combine and mix the dishes in whatever way you choose. The freedom is liberating and exciting and leads to experimentation. Core dishes are called banchan and are complimentary this normally includes spicy kimchi, radish which is ghostly white and crunchy, a small green beans in a soy sauce (Namul) as well as diced chilli and meaty hunks of garlic. A bowl of rice is the staple of all three meals and is delicious when placed on thin slices of seaweed. The combination of which makes the best Korean snack-the Kimbap, a large and more satisfying answer to sushi which does not rely on wasabi to carry it. These side dishes are all very simple components with almost no 'cookery techniques' and would be howled with derision in Masterchef as unambitious. Taste seems to be of more value than technicality.
Koreans also have the alarming habit of standing up, going to the door paying with a fistful of won and marching you onto another place. This fickleness is totally unnerving to Western shyness but reflects the health and range of Korean food on offer. It is a testament to the relatively recent explosion of prosperity and low-cost rental leases that it is no exaggeration to write that on every street it would be possible to dine out at a different place for every meal for a week. You should be careful as though the claim they want to change style normally from a BBQ to a seafood or other specialist places, convivial Koreans have an alternative motive which I discovered later..
The facade of complexity reveals a very simple desire for powerful and wide ranging taste. Yet some of the more seemingly simple ideas are fraught with difficulty. For instance, the glorious BBQ which seers meat much thinner than expected such as tender brisket and gloriously rich beef tongue. You are expected to cook the meat yourself Confucius has saved me and my bacon by allowing older men to cook it for me. It is a huge responsibility cooking the meat ensuring each person gets one piece a time. Having received the meat you are expected to intricately dipped the meat in a seasame oil and salt sauce, wrap the meat in salad having dipped that in a bean seed chilli sauce as well as garlic and chilli in a nampla chilli sauce in about twenty seconds. Luckily this is allowed to be done with hands and rather alarmingly other hands will help shove the exploding wrap into your mouth. The intimacy of eating makes everyone an honorary family member and means much sharing hands and interaction is required. Squeamishness about using one spoon to slurp Jjigae is openly mocked and cannot even be explained by blunt Korean humour.
The intimacy and stimulation of so many senses creates a powerful sensual experience. One person I met assures me that they will only go to bed with someone depending on how skilfully they can prise pork from the bone of a stew after a night out. This pursuit for fulfilling all senses leads to some terrifying encounters with textures. It is tempting to claim it is the Ying Yang pursuit for hard and soft but some fall out of this category entirely. One of the most delicious street foods I have tried is essentially twisted dough on a kebab stick and dipped in a red bean sauce with has an ambiguous softness both mouth watering and difficult to swallow the sweet but boiling honeyed pancake cum sweet piece demonstrates this. Most alarming, however, is the live baby squid which is such a terrifying prospect my impression was only of relief that my stomach is not an aquarium of floundering (name for squids). The tentacles are an even more formidable prospect unnervingly they writhe off the plate and sucker stick to your face as you eat it. However, the panic striken adrenaline as you chomp is counterbalanced by a firm rubberyness which utterly eclipses its poor, saturated, fried, well-dead cousin Calamari.
The point of all this eating is not for its own sake. Food is even referred to by Koreans as the chaser for the far more important task- drinking. This might explain the need for such powerful tastes and sensations as inebriation blurs the simple interiors to hazy swirls of laughter and the clattering of chopsticks. Any country where the spirit of choice is cheaper than water has clearly got a passion for drink. It is the medicine of choice the antidote to a lifestyle of total pressure and competition. It is the premier source of all fun and all nightlife from the noraebang (karaoke bar), nightclub or even the jjimjalbang (day-long saunas) to recover resolves around the social lubricant of the city. Fizzy soju and flavoured soju are far too similar to alcopops to be treated seriously but soju is lethally easy to drink either as a shot or mixed with watery lagers. To give an indication as to the importance of inebriation huge clubs of older men and women hike in the mountains in order to sweeten the taste of Makolli which is a rice wine typically drunk from a bowl and like a cat has the unhappy tendency of requiring four legs and nine lives to get home. Presumably these hiking clubs roll down the hill safe in the knowledge they will probably land in an enormous bowl of spicy chicken (dakgalbi).
Drinking is almost integral to eating and adds an element of chaos to a very structured society. Even this contains customs which complicate the seemingly simple task of obliviating the stresses of work at Hyundai or Samsung. The customs of serving the drinks in order of seniority, complete with bows and two handed holding of the cup. Hyongyim is the magic word, roughly translating as 'elder brother' or 'uncle' it guarantees that when the bill mysteriously appears it is gone in an instant with a benevolent chuckle. I always forget the difficult task of hiding my drink by turning my head contorting as much as a Tantric Buddhist.
Korean food balances both complexity and simplicity an achievement probably only possible for a people one soju away from bursting into song or tears. A people express themselves through their dishes and the eclectic, powerful, overwhelming and contradictory nature of Korean food serves as the perfect mirror for the madness of Seoul.
