Snacks at school

Hello Friends!

I have a fun little school snack experience expanded into a talk about Korea culture. Enjoy!

In Korea it's common to share everything you eat. At the dinner table, people all eat from one main dish. You'll have a small plate in front of you to avoid slopping red chili paste onto the table, but it's rare to pile things there so you can eat from it. This sharing of food at the dinner table carries into the everyday process of eating snacks. If someone has a snack in their office, they will share it with you-even if you aren't there when they are eating it. I've come back from class to find a small pile of nuts at my desk or a quarter of a slice of cake. I have seen students break up one piece of hard candy to share with friends and adults split a tiny 6 oz drink with the person sitting next to them.

So, more often than not, if you're going to have a snack in your office, you'll bring enough to share. Which means that there are often snacks in my office. When people plan ahead and bring a big snack you get all nature of exciting things. I was once given a frosting sandwich. Yes. That's right. It was toasted white bread with white butter frosting as the filling. More often I'm given a tiny sweet potato or piece of fruit. Often someone will buy a cake and bring it to the office to share.

If someone is bringing in a Korean snack it's usually ddeok. Ddeok is any form of rice cake. (do not picture puffed rice in a round flatish form) Ddoek is glutinous, chewy, and heavy and it is THE go-to food for Korean snacks. (it's also pretty good) If someone is giving gifts to the whole school, they will give ddeok. If someone is bringing something that is not western in style for a snack, they will bring ddeok. I think one Native teacher has a ddeok count of 17. She's been given ddeok 17 times this semester! Most westerners like ddeok, but not to the extent that Koreans do. I can eat it once in a blue moon, but not once a week. More than once a month is pushing it.

Ddeok is usually given as a gift or for some special affair so, usually, snacks are a western variety. Chips, cakes, breads, sweet potato (kidding about that last one). Sometimes, however, aside from the usual snack like a tiny sweet potato or a cake someone will make something. Like I said, snacks are usually a western variety so if someone is making something unique they will make it from "western" style things. There's lots of western food in Korea, but in general it's new to the culture so people do fun things with it when they are making it. Like the frosting sandwich.

Jamie has a great snack to share. One of the teachers in his school brought a platter of little finger foods for people to eat. I'll leave you with the list of delicious that she brought in:

• dainty open faced tuna sandwiches topped with whipped cream and a dehydrated grape
• crackers topped with ham, "bugles", orange, and wafer cookies
• bread, topped with a cracker, spam, chili sauce, and orange
• cracker topped with ham, whipped cream, and chocolate
• Cracker, slim strips of cheese, two small cubes of bread, a slice of cucumber, sprinkled with crumbled tortilla chip
• bread, ham, whipped cream, pickle
  

One of the plates was garnished with what looks like loose candy.

Until next time!