I never ate school food when I was a student in America.  It was mostly cold french fries and greasy pizza with the occasional vegetable dish, maybe a tiny pile of creamed corn.  I brought my own lunch, not because I was a snob…well, I was probably more pretentious than I like to admit.  None of it looked appetizing to me and I brought my own boring turkey sandwich.

I realized I never took a single picture of the school lunch when I worked at Korean public schools.  I know it might be interesting to some people but most day-to-day occurrences are forgotten when you talk to friends and family because you forget you ever ate anything different for lunch after a while.  I actually enjoyed eating public school lunch and so far nothing at my new job has given me food poisoning.

I took some pictures of the teacher lunch.  The students that are here for kindergarten classes during the day eat something else.

1. We have pears in the top left corner
2. Right next to that is some artificial crab, cucumber, and carrot salad
3. Next is acorn jelly (it tastes better than it sounds)  and zucchini
4. The last food on the top row is fish cooked in a spicy red pepper sauce with some carrots.
5. Right below that is bean sprout soup, not my favorite but I will eat it without complaint
6. Plain white rice-I figured rice is self-explanatory
7. The white, almost opaque looking things are radishes, which I love!
8. The meat is roasted duck I think…it tasted like duck to me

1.  Apples are in the top left corner
2. The round patties kind of taste like meat loaf, except they are pan fried
3. Right next to the patties is one of my favorite types of kimchi, cucumber kimchi
4. The last food on the top row is boiled potatoes
5. The soup is kimchi soup with some tofu and pork.  I’m weird about my kimchi.  I like it as a side dish and that’s it.  I don’t like it in soup, fried rice, or Korean pancakes.  I think I had four bites of the soup, it just hasn’t grown on me.
6. Next to white rice are pieces of Korean pancakes called jeon “전”.  You mix flour and water and whatever extra ingredients you want and fry it up like a pancake.  This kind is a green onion pancake.

1.  The dish in the top left corner is chicken in a spicy red pepper sauce
2. Next to that are some strawberries, can’t go wrong there
3. Next is cucumber kimchi
4. The last food on the top row is some mini hot dogs, mushrooms, onions, and carrots in a light curry sauce
5. Instead of soup, we have fish cakes.  I am all about the fish cakes.  I would have grabbed more if there was extra room in my bowl.  Fish cakes are also a popular street food in Korea
6. Next to the rice is some seaweed, which always makes boring white rice exciting.

Overall, the lunches here have been nutritious and tasty.  The only thing I haven’t liked is the kimchi soup, I just can’t bring myself to like watery, fermented cabbage broth.