School Lunch

This week has been pretty good overall and not too eventful, which is perfectly fine by me. Because of exams at my boys' school, I only had one class with them, and that was an online lesson with a grade one class. All of my lessons with the grade threes were cancelled for the exam. At my main school, my grade three classes were online, so I uploaded a lesson recording and that was that. I only had in-person classes with the grade two students, and 2 of 6 classes were cancelled. Once in a while, an easy week is just what the doctor ordered.

I decided to take photos of my food this week to provide a sampling of what school lunch is like in South Korea. It's essentially buffet-style with the food laid out on the table. Teachers grab a tray and help themselves to the food. Sometimes there is a note next to the food indicating a limit per item. It might say "only 1 per person" or something like that, but it is possible to sneak an extra helping if you like.

Pork cutlet, gross salad, Wieners in spicy sauce, white noodles with kimchi, seaweed and veg.

It's essentially the same for the students, except each week a group of students are designated as the "lunch crew" and they serve out the food as their classmates proceed through the food line. The lunch crew is excused from class five minutes early before lunch to prepare for their duties in the cafeteria.

Students and teachers normally eat in the cafeteria, each in their own section on tables with plastic dividers for protection against COVID-19. These days, to prevent crowding in the cafeteria, the grade three students take their lunch to their classrooms. Also, some teachers, including myself, carry our lunch trays to a nearby English classroom so the teachers' section doesn't get too crowded with people. Of course, masks are removed during lunch, so it's a particularly vulnerable time, thus the reason for these precautionary measures.

Popcorn is a rare treat. White cabbage with spicy dipping sauce, spicy sprouts, kimchi, egg things with leaf cooked into it, cheap meat, seaweed soup.

In the English room where I eat, a group of Korean teachers arrange the desks in a circle, adequately distanced, and chat and gossip, while I eat off to the side by myself. Soon, lunch is interrupted by students coming into the room to do their English homework or document their reading progress for the English book club. Still, it's more peaceful than eating in the noisy cafeteria with trays clanging and students shouting.

The food is decent and by the time lunch rolls around I'm pretty hungry. I don't always know what I'm eating, but by now I've seen most of the food that cycles through the menu rotation. Rarely will there be a new dish that I haven't eaten before. 

Wieners, kimchi, tofu with oily sauce, pork, rice, and everything soup.

Sometimes the food has a theme, like "western day" when we get hotdogs, sandwiches or pizza, with some kind of cream soup, or "Chinese day" when they serve dumplings, Chinese style noodles and spicy sauce. No matter what the day or theme, you can be sure kimchi is served with the meal, sometimes twice: once as a side dish and also featured in the soup. I prefer radish kimchi, although cabbage kimchi is more common.

We're not always served a drink with lunch, but sometimes we get a juice box. It's rarely a standard drink like orange juice, but often some weird mix like mango-lime or carrot-apple. Occasionally we get yogurt or an odd milk drink like watermelon milk or chocolate strawberry milk.

Ham fried in egg, mystery meat with rice cake, kimchi, lime juice, seaweed soup.

Rice is served with every meal. Even when the meal is noodle-based, there is always the option to add white rice. I like when they serve fried rice, but sticky white rice is the standard. I try to limit my rice portion because I think too much white rice is unhealthy, contrary to what Koreans seem to think. But when I'm starving, sometimes I can't help but take a heaping helping of rice. I regret it later in the afternoon when I'm bursting.

Noodle soup with veg, radish kimchi, rice ball, wieners and rice cake skewer, and OJ.

Compared to the school lunches I received in Japanese public schools, I would have to say that I prefer Korean lunches. Of course, Korean food famously has multiple side dishes, which is great and adds variety to lunch that was lacking in Japan. It seems that the Koreans are served more food at lunch too, which I also enjoy. I got really tired of having to drink milk every day in Japan, so Korea gets extra points for serving juice sometimes. 

In terms of exotic foods, every so often in Japan, we were served whale. Nothing that crazy in Korea. We get duck once in a while, so that's another point for Korea.

The lunch bell rang. I need to record my body temperature and sanitize my hands, then I'm off to the cafeteria.