Long Live Kimbap!

This week in the Expat Negro Chronicles:

Surviving til the First Paycheck!

In some cases, you will have to work and survive for a month or so before you will receive your first paycheck. That sounds pretty crazy, but with a little budgeting and a whole lot of kimchi, you can pull it off. 

Let me introduce you to kimbap:

I know what you're thinking: 

Uh...that's sushi.

But it's not. It's kimbap. Rice (bap) rolled in seaweed (gim or kim if you're pronouncing it correctly) with other vegetables and sometimes, if you're fortunate, meat.  It's quite possibly the ambrosia of the expats because it's palatable and it's cheap. I mean it's REALLY cheap. I'm talking I feel like a horrible human being when I walk into a restaurant and order only that cheap. The reason for that feeling is that most kimbap restaurants also offer unlimited side dishes. Which means you get a roll for 2,500 won (2.32 usd) and you fill up on kimchi and whatever other strange concoctions happen to be the sides for the day. Two days ago, I had what I would swear was hot dog chopped up, pan fried and covered in a spicy yet sweet sauce. Yesterday, I had some sort of battered pan fried crab meat. Along with the prerequisite cabbage kimchi, you'll get bean sprouts, mushrooms or whatever other non-starchy vegetable/red pepper combination exists in the lexicon that is Korean traditional food. There's usually four side dishes, and there are pans of them in the front of the restaurant. Don't be shy. This is survival. Fill. Up.

Expat Negro Tip: The sides are unlimited and free. Here's where you get to be tasteless and American for once and not feel guilty.

The first kimbap joint I went to had their five year old daughter waiting tables (bringing water and cups to the new customers) and for a moment I felt terrible because my voracious appetite would probably be the reason her family had to send her to bed hungry that night. Then I remembered they ran a restaurant. Surely she ate as much kimbap and sides as I did, if not more, every night and went to bed happy. Either way, I drowned my feelings in kimchi and left happy.

Kimbap is also a good food for people who are trying to avoid the spicier fare that Korean food offers. Another good dish to eat that isn't very spicy is the bibimbap. Bibimbap is simply vegetables, rice, and meat in one bowl which comes with pepper paste on the side, and while the owner of the restaurant will just about insist that you use the pepper paste (I've even had one slosh it on for me) you can be just as adamant that you don't want it. Everything else, I've realized can be measured in how red it appears. 

Expat Negro Tip: The redder the food looks, the more likely it is to BURN you.

And when I say burn, well...not to be graphic, but you're gonna feel it LONG after you leave the restaurant if you get my drift. Basically, brown is pretty safe, then you got the light brown which is starting off dangerous, and the color chart progresses up to "Oh my God, what did I JUST put into my mouth!!" red. Not to be overlooked is the clear watery soup with only ONE type of vegetable in it (either seaweed or bean sprout) which has been doused in pepper but still looks safe. I made the mistake of taking a huge gulp of it without tasting it. That one gulp will left me gasping for air as if Darth Vader had suddenly found my lack of faith appalling.

There's other food here that's far more Americanized, but depending on your level of "foodie", you may or may not appreciate the Korean take on the dishes Americans stole from other countries, though I did have two solid "New York style" pizzas, and a few uh...normal style (?) pizzas. Just as a heads up, the sauce focuses far more on the sweetness of tomatoes and unless you get really salty toppings, it's not going to NOT be weird. But it's palatable. 

Pricewise, mind your P's and Q's when it comes to anything Americanized, you can end up paying way more than it's worth. I managed to score an 18 inch pizza for 12,500 won (11.59 USD) which I then subsequently ate for three meals. 

No worries, though, you can make it, just remember:

Expat Negro Tip:  let the accountant in you plan your meals, not your stomach and you'll be fine.

Last thing:

The convenience stores here have kimbap triangles for about 700 won (0.65 USD). Two of those and a bottle of water will run you about 2600 won which is for those keeping score at home A) 2.41 USD and B) about three hours of a full stomach if you're pinched for time. Otherwise, press forward to a legitimate kimbap store and grub properly.