My Korean School Lunch

Clockwise from top left: seokbakji (pickled radish, thickly...

koreaclearinghouse — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:43:23 +0900

Clockwise from top left: seokbakji (pickled radish, thickly sliced); baked potato wedges sprinkled with parsley and parmesan powder and half a tomato; stir-fried seafood udon; samgyetang; rice with mixed grains.

One of my students told me that seokbakji is a “new paradigm of kkakdugi,” but my Korean co-workers and I think that it’s more likely that kkakdugi is a new paradigm of seokbakji.

석박지, 웨지감자, 토마토, 해물볶음우동, 삼계탕, 잡곡밥.

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; peanut ssamjang and five-spice...

koreaclearinghouse — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:21:59 +0900

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; peanut ssamjang and five-spice boiled pork; lettuce, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts and cherry tomatoes in honey mustard dressing; chard and potato soup; chlorella rice and raw perilla leaves.

배추김치, 땅콩쌈장, 오향장육, 베이비채소샐러드, 근대감자국, 클로렐라밥, 깻잎.

Clockwise from top left: hamburger nugget in vegetable sauce;...

koreaclearinghouse — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:51:25 +0900

Clockwise from top left: hamburger nugget in vegetable sauce; seafood pancake; kimchi; daikon and other vegetables in perilla broth; rice with mixed grains and strawberries.

I could have taken more than one hamburger nugget, but I only wanted one.

쇠고기찹스테이크, 해물파전, 배추김치, 들깨무채국, 잡곡밥, 딸기

This lunch was insane! Clockwise from top left: stir-fried duck...

koreaclearinghouse — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:49:27 +0900

This lunch was insane!

Clockwise from top left: stir-fried duck and onion; lettuce, perilla leaf and an unnamed other green; ssamjang, kimchi and raw carrots and cucumbers; udon soup with skewered fish cakes; rice and a fried cheese stick.

Clockwise from top left: soy sauce, sesame seeds, chopped...

koreaclearinghouse — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:23:11 +0900

Clockwise from top left: soy sauce, sesame seeds, chopped scallion; fried chicken with lightly pickled scallion; tiramisu Denmark Yogurt; cheonggukjang; fried rice with bean sprouts, shredded seaweed and kimchi.

Cucumber and Chinese bellflower pickled in a spicy sauce was available, but I didn’t take any. Some days I just don’t want so much red food.

콩나물밥/소스, 청국장찌개, 파닭, 배추김치, 덴마크요구르트

Clockwise from top left: brownie; baked chicken with...

koreaclearinghouse — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:26:31 +0900

Clockwise from top left: brownie; baked chicken with honey-mustard sauce and sweet potato mat tang (caramel and black sesame sauce); pickled radish; egg and scallion soup; curry rice.

브라우니, 베이커드치킨, 고구마맛탕, 깍두기, 달걀파국, 카레라이스

Clockwise from top left: cheese buldak (a mixture of gochujang,...

koreaclearinghouse — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:59:28 +0900

Clockwise from top left: cheese buldak (a mixture of gochujang, chicken chunks and joraengi tteok baked under a thick blanket of cheese food); young pumpkin and shrimp pancake; kimchi; yukgaejang; sorghum and white and brown rice.

치즈불닭, 애호박새우살전, 배추김치, 육개장, 현미수수밥

2ndadolescence: goawaywithjae: mykoreanschoollunch: This is the final lunch that I ate at my...

koreaclearinghouse — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:26:57 +0900

2ndadolescence:

goawaywithjae:

mykoreanschoollunch:

This is the final lunch that I ate at my previous school. Clockwise from top left: kimchi and ssamjang (a mixture of fermented soybean paste and red-pepper paste); raw perilla leaves; raw green pepper; sauteed duck and onions; fermented soybean paste soup containing greens and tofu; white and purple rice.

전 학교에서 마지막 먹은 점심: 김치, 쌈장, 깻잎, 고추, 오리야채볶음, 된장국, 밥

Is this what the serve the children as well, or just the teachers?

Anyhow…Wishing this was what I ate when I went to school… Wishing this was what I ate every day at lunch, actually!

Did you work at an all-girl, co-ed, or all-boy school? My school is all-boy (high school), and our school lunches never have this much balance. It’s mostly heavy meat side dishes with rice and kimchi - rarely other veggies. This looks decidedly more awesome. (I started bringing my own 도시락, because the school food, although delicious, was making me gain weight :-/)

This was from an all-girls school, which had also been designated a “green food zone.” At first I thought that the green-food zone designation would be mostly symbolic, but anecdotal evidence suggests that green-food schools actually do get healthier food. When I worked at a boys school, the lunches were heavy on the 부대찌개, which we ate about once a week.

goawaywithjae: mykoreanschoollunch: This is the final lunch that I ate at my previous...

koreaclearinghouse — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:23:12 +0900

goawaywithjae:

mykoreanschoollunch:

This is the final lunch that I ate at my previous school. Clockwise from top left: kimchi and ssamjang (a mixture of fermented soybean paste and red-pepper paste); raw perilla leaves; raw green pepper; sauteed duck and onions; fermented soybean paste soup containing greens and tofu; white and purple rice.

전 학교에서 마지막 먹은 점심: 김치, 쌈장, 깻잎, 고추, 오리야채볶음, 된장국, 밥

Is this what the serve the children as well, or just the teachers?

Anyhow…Wishing this was what I ate when I went to school… Wishing this was what I ate every day at lunch, actually!

This was for both teachers and students at a girls high school. In my experience, Korean schools usually serve the same food to students and employees. I’m going to start posting pictures of my current school’s lunches, which are vastly inferior to my previous school’s.

This is the final lunch that I ate at my previous...

koreaclearinghouse — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:13:00 +0900

This is the final lunch that I ate at my previous school. Clockwise from top left: kimchi and ssamjang (a mixture of fermented soybean paste and red-pepper paste); raw perilla leaves; raw green pepper; sauteed duck and onions; fermented soybean paste soup containing greens and tofu; white and purple rice.

전 학교에서 마지막 먹은 점심: 김치, 쌈장, 깻잎, 고추, 오리야채볶음, 된장국, 밥

Clockwise from top left: green onion and radish salad; peanuts,...

koreaclearinghouse — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:18:00 +0900

Clockwise from top left: green onion and radish salad; peanuts, figs and black beans boiled in sweet soy sauce; pork duruchigi; fermented soybean paste soup containing greens and mushrooms; rice with black beans.

실파무생채, 무화과땅콩조림, 돼지두루치기, 근대된장국, 검정콩밥

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; battered and fried slices of...

koreaclearinghouse — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:30:12 +0900

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; battered and fried slices of sweet potato; sliced pineapple; eggs, mushrooms, bean sprouts and slivered hot pepper in chicken broth; bibimbap with egg, gochujang and ground-beef sauce, and steamed vegetables including squash, carrot, greens, and bean sprouts.

My breakfast today also included egg and pineapple.

Instead of eating cafeteria food, today I went out to lunch...

koreaclearinghouse — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:46:57 +0900

Instead of eating cafeteria food, today I went out to lunch with some co-workers. We went to a famous, traditional mussel-rice (홍합밥) restaurant in downtown Daegu. On the table there is mussel-rice, cabbage and perilla (들깨) soup, stir-fried baby anchovies, burdock boiled in sweet soy broth, steamed greens with sesame oil, fried pancake, two sauces (one for the pancake and one for the mussel-rice), pickled radish, and kimchi.

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; chicken jjim; ground-beef and...

koreaclearinghouse — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0900

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; chicken jjim; ground-beef and garlic-chive pancake; soup with squares of fish cake, mushrooms and leeks; rice.

I don’t know why this picture turned out so terribly.

Clockwise from top left: lightly pickled radish and cucumber...

koreaclearinghouse — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:36:58 +0900

Clockwise from top left: lightly pickled radish and cucumber with sesame seeds; breaded fried pork cutlet with mushroom sauce; sliced apples, bananas and tangerines in sweet mayonnaise dressing; fermented soybean paste soup containing greens and mushrooms; rice.

One of my co-workers liked the fruit and mayonnaise concoction so much that she filled her lunch tray’s bottom-right soup zone with it. She used a separate bowl for her soup.

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; soft taco containing one strip...

koreaclearinghouse — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:20:00 +0900

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; soft taco containing one strip of breaded chicken, one tomato slice, shredded raw cabbage, apple-flavored dressing; tangerine; steamed greens in fermented soybean paste dressing; fermented soybean paste soup containing mushrooms, tofu and (too) many sea squirts; rice with bean sprouts and seaweed, topped with soy sauce, scallions and red pepper flakes.

Clockwise from top left: radish kimchi; unidentified-meat...

koreaclearinghouse — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:59:00 +0900

Clockwise from top left: radish kimchi; unidentified-meat dongaseu with honey mustard; spaghetti Bolognese; kimchi and bean sprout jjigae; rice.

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; cold steamed bean sprouts with...

koreaclearinghouse — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:00:00 +0900

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; cold steamed bean sprouts with ham and crab stick; fried yam slices in sweet sauce with black sesame seeds; ddeokguk; rice.

Clockwise from top left: radish kimchi; sea-squirt jjim; fried...

koreaclearinghouse — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:30:46 +0900

Clockwise from top left: radish kimchi; sea-squirt jjim; fried fish-skin in sweet sauce with sesame seeds; kimchi subeji guk, or dumpling soup in kimchi broth; rice.

I typically don’t mind my school lunches, and sometimes I even enjoy them, but today’s lunch was pretty bad. Sea squirts may be the only food that I don’t like. I haven’t eaten them enough to say definitively.

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; calamari rings with soy sauce;...

koreaclearinghouse — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:48:03 +0900

Clockwise from top left: kimchi; calamari rings with soy sauce; sliced mushrooms and Korean chives in gochujang sauce; generic “Korean” vegetable soup; rice and patjuk (red bean porridge). As you may see from clicking the patjuk link, patjuk is eaten to commemorate the winter solstice.