Bibimbap and Burgers for Breakfast

Although I arrived in Korea not much more than 36 hours ago, it seems like I've already eaten a week's worth of meals. It may have to do with the 14 hour flight which started with a 2 am (NY time) dinner of bibimbap and ended with a 2 am (Seoul time) breakfast of Korean fried rice, which was followed six hours later by an 8 am breakfast of homemade bibimbap, beansprout soup, and panchan, (side dishes, including homemade kimchi) on a low table in the 10th floor apartment of the Ahn family, my homestay hosts in Bucheon, a Seoul suburb. (Bibimbap is a hearty, everyday meal of rice, vegetables & bits of meat, topped by a fried egg and mixed together with a spicy sauce.)

Bibimbap for breakfast? I'm told Koreans traditionally have no distinct breakfast foods, which is actually fine with me, even though I normally love my eggs and toast. But then that was followed a few hours later by a hearty lunch of kalguksu, hand-cut noodles in a seafood broth, at a traditional restaurant on the gritty outskirts of town, apparently worth long waits in blue plastic chairs on a patch of dirt behind the restaurant, not far from the kimchi jars. Orange-aproned waitresses patrolled the low tables of the restaurants, topping up the water and the kimchi, while carefully eyeing the progress of the cooking noodles, one of only three dishes the restaurant offers.

That had to hold me till 7 pm, dinnertime in the Ahn house, when, practically delirious from staying awake all day and tromping around Seoul (I was seriously dreaming while straphanging in the Seoul metro), I sat down to a meal of homemade bulgogi, rice, and more panchan, followed by chunks of melon.

After that I gave in and slept like the dead for 12 hours, only to wake up to a special Sunday breakfast of ramen noodles, rice balls (jumabab, or rice fists), kimchi, multi-colored corn on the cob (which my hosts ate by wiggling the kernels off the cobs and popping them into their mouths), and beautifully prepared "hamburgers." I mean, literally, HAMburgers: a pre-formed square of ham on a bun, topped by relish, a slice of tomato, shredded cabbage, and some sort of Korean-style red paste.

I can't wait for my next breakfast adventure!