Training your taste buds

 The food that Korea is well known for is kimchi. There are numerous different kinds of kimchi and it is served with every meal. My kinders even say they eat this spicy treat for breakfast, as if it is some kind of morning food. But I guess in Korea kimchi can be served any time of day and is a staple, a must, a nonnegotiable when it comes to meal time. 

When I first realized my destiny was leading me to Korea I chose to look into what kimchi was. I immediately was horrified by the fact it was fermented and had no desire to ever eat it! I tried it at a local Korean restaurant in NC and was thoroughly unimpressed. I had no idea what all the fuss was about and no motivation to hop onto the kimchi train.

When I actually got to Korea I had the same lukewarm and halfhearted response. I would simply not take a bite of it when it was served as a side dish to every meal, and would choose not to comment on it when my Korean coworkers would ask me if I liked it. I didn't know how to tell them their precious pride and joy was quite disgusting according to my taste buds. My foreign coworkers who had been here for a year already would laugh at my dodging of the kimchi bowl when we were out to dinner and say, "Give it time, you will love the stuff after a while." I would reply, 

"Yea right, there is no way."

Well, talk about needing to bite your tongue. Now all I can do is laugh and marvel 

at how things change.

I have realized here in Korea that you can train your taste buds. If you eat something enough you can actually make yourself like it. But more than even like it; crave it, need it, and miss it when it's not around! When I go out to eat now at a foreign restaurant (not Korean food) and they DON'T serve kimchi as a side I actually get annoyed at the situation. I want kimchi with all my meals now, and I miss it when I don't eat it. I have no clue how I will ever live without it when I go back home to NC.

Another staple of Korean food is Kimbap. I remember when I first got here I ordered kimbap at a restaurant thinking it was a lot like sushi and was HORRIFIED to find radish, ham, and other unwelcomed ingredients inside. It was no where near any kind of sushi I had ever eaten and I was incredibly let down with the overall experience. It all tasted wrong in my mouth. It was a completely unholy union of ingredients and I looked for a napkin as an exit strategy. I vowed that kimbap was Korea's pathetic attempt of making sushi and I would never eat it again.

Once again, I have to bite my tongue. I have had this cheap Korean common food ordered for me so many times now that I have grown to love it. Often when I volunteer at the orphanage people will bring us rolls of kimbap and they have totally hit the spot. Some had tuna inside, some had beef, and low and behold my taste buds have changed their mind! 

 

It tastes like a perfect harmony now-a-days when I eat it. I feel very Korean when I'm walking around shoving it in my mouth from the tin foil wrapper it is wrapped in also making me feel totally in step with the culture here. It's like a healthy fast food option being quick to order and only 2 bucks. 

Now I crave it. Just in the past two days I have eaten 4 rolls......

So I guess the lesson to be learned here is that it's never too late to make your taste buds 

catch on to a new food or an old one you have determined inedible. 

Maybe I should give olives a second chance... :)