Kelley in Korea 2010: Korean Cuisine

Since our last post, the Emerging Economies class has had the opportunity to sample Korean cuisine on two separate occasions. The first meal was provided by the Tudor Room at the Indiana Memorial Union. Local foods were prepared from each of the five countries being studied in BUS-G 256: Korea, Croatia, Hungary, Ghana, and China. At that point in the semester, we had not yet learned about popular Korean dishes, so we piled our plates high with a mix of curiosity and excitement. Professor Nam was kind enough to also provide our group with chopsticks – and some of us could definitely use the practice!

The food was delicious – not just the Korean fare, but the meals represented by each of the other countries, as well. It was all very good! The experience at the Tudor Room also gave our small group an opportunity to mingle with one another outside the classroom. Conversation topics ranged from major and year in school, to travel and study abroad experiences. The dinner really gave us a chance to get to know one another on a more personal level.

You can hear more thoughts on the dinner from Anna and Maggie in the video clip below.

During our next small group class, Professor Nam was able to shed a little more light on what it was we ate during our trip to the Tudor Room. Staples in Korea tend to be bab (rice), bul-go-gi (grilled beef), bi-bim-bab (mixed rice and vegetables), gim-chi (pickled vegetable-oftentimes cabbage), as well as many other combinations of noodles, meats, and vegetables. Gug (soup) is also oftentimes served at mealtime, along with many side dishes, or ban-chan.

Fortunately, our small group was able to sample traditional Korean cuisine, yet again. This time, our class met at Mama’s Korean Restaurant in Bloomington. Our trip leader, Angie Perry, is the Manager of Exchange Programs in the Kelley School, and she was able to coordinate our dinner with the Korean exchange students from Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul!

The dinner was a tremendous success! Korean students and American students all paired up at various tables to discuss the food, as well as places to visit and things to look forward to while in Seoul. We sampled bul-go-gi, bi-bim bab, naeng-myeon (cold noodles with beef and vegetables), gim-chi-jji-ge (gim-chi stew), along with several ban-chan. (Have you learned your Korean yet? If not, refer to the descriptions above.) The food was wonderful and the conversation was even better. I think every member of our group became even more about our trip to South Korea next month after this dinner!