Food in Korea

Well we had the opportunity to go on a food tour.  The company that does the tours is actually owned by a Korean adoptee.  He was adopted to the US at age 5 and in his twenties moved back to Korea.  He joined us for part of our tour, as he knew we were adoptive parents, although our actual tour was lead by another girl.  On the tour were also two woman, who were friends, one woman was from Canada and one was from Uzbekistan - they met up in Seoul for the weekend.  The tour took us around to 4 different restaurants and explained different Korean meals, drinks and customs.  It was a total of over 5 hours of eating, drinking and experimenting.  All of the restaurants were ones we never would have gone to on our own.  Two of them were so tiny you actually entered through the kitchen and they only had a handful of tables.  These are local favorites and suppose to be some of the best authentic Korean.  We learned a lot, and enjoyed eating many things we wouldn't have even known to try on our own - although we did pass on the Anchovies mixed into one of our dishes.  The last restaurant we went to was tucked in this food market that was crazy packed with food stands and tiny nook restaurants.  There were so many people yelling and hollering and packed in you could hardly move.  I had a Korean man stretch his hand out to me and I gave him like a "high five" and he yells out, "I touch one!"  Our guide explained that many of these food stand had been passed down through many generations.  It was a really neat evening - and yummy too!  Here are some pictures: