First Tastes of Korea

When we first got to our apartment, one of our good friends had left us a fruit platter and I was surprised to find that tomatoes were included in there...they definitely took the definition of "fruit" literally! They also left us a pound of strawberries, too, and they were the most delicious strawberries I have ever had! So far, I've found their fresh fruit and vegetables really great! I've learned that they do not import any fruit and vegetables, so they grow everything seasonally here or in greenhouses which makes them much more expensive. We've found that our grocery bill has increased significantly! We've had fun trying some of the new things that we find in the grocery store, though.

We've been trying a lot of the restaurants in town as well. One of the places that we tried recently is called "Michael Jackson's" - at this restaurant, they give you a pile of uncooked ribs and you cook them yourself on the grill at your table. To facilitate the quick satisfaction of hot ribs, they give you a white glove to wear so that you can pick them up hot off the grill...Michael Jackson's is not the actual restaurant name, but it was nicknamed this by the expats because of the single white glove. So...funnily enough, they added pictures of Michael Jackson to the front of their restaurant so that the expats knew where to go. The ribs were great! :)

 Ryan and I with our "Michael Jackson's" grill gloves! 

Ribs on the grill! They're spicy but the secret is to eat the coleslaw that comes with it and plenty of beer! :)

We took a trip to one of the big stores in the next town over called Home Plus. They have several stories of shopping - groceries, clothes, shoes, electronics, etc. They also have a big food court! This is one of the menus for one of the restaurants...they have a model of each of the dishes and then you let the cashier know which one you want and then wait until your number shows up on the screen in front of the food court stand to get your food. 

We decided to go with the pizza option instead of the choices in the picture...we wanted to see if Korea can make a good pizza or not and surprisingly, it was pretty good! It had corn on there and the sauce was a little sweeter which was unexpected but it definitely hit the spot that day! 

One of the funniest finds was...Dunkin Donuts?! We couldn't find one the 4 years that we lived in Houston but yet we find one in our first few days in Korea?! Haha...too funny. It was a great reminder of New England! Ryan was pumped as you can see in the picture! :)

 Afterwards, we did our grocery shopping and got a lot of the things that we needed. I tried to check the receipt to see how much some of the items cost, but quickly realized I would not be able to for a little while...at least until I learn the language!

For our anniversary, we decided to go out to dinner (celebrating 2 years of marital bliss!) and be adventurous. So, we headed into town and picked a restaurant as we were walking by - the woman did not speak any English and they did not have a menu with pictures, but we decided to try it anyway. We discovered that she did know one word: "pork" - so guess what we had? Yes, we had pork and then pointed to a couple of other items on the menu which turned out to be noodle soup and then plenty of side dishes. It was a lot of fun! 

I'll be sure and post plenty more pictures of the fun foods that we have been trying! We've also checked out the open air market - I'll bring my camera next time and blog about it because it's a completely new experience and very interesting!