Kimchi Chronicles: Lunch Service
The recipients of my most charming-self: the cafeteria ladies.
My appreciation and gratitude runs deep for these beautiful women and for their service.
Lunch is literally a beacon of joy right smack in the middle of the day. When 12:30 hits, my shoulders start to shimmy, my head bops from side to side and I skip down down two flights of stairs in about 10 seconds weaving in and out of a line of kids waiting to be let into the cafeteria because surely they wouldn’t be so rude as to make their teacher wait in line.
School lunch service always includes rice, soup, a variety of kimchi, usually some fruit and at least 1 (sometimes 2 or 3) meat dishes. Most of the meals are traditional Korean food. Every now and then you’ll get something sweet like a red-bean bun or something Western like chicken wings.
Regardless of where you work, lunch service is extremely common in Korea. Bringing a packed lunch from home is not really a thing. If you chose to opt-out of lunch service, or choose not to eat the food provided - even just a dish or two (for example, you don’t like tomatoes) - you’re perceived as weird.
You’re breaking a societal code that says everyone eats together, whether you like it or not.
And we are going to eat the same thing, whether you like it or not.
And you are going to like it, whether you like it or not.
Waygooks (외국 - foreigners) are already different (and weird) so we can get away with opting out of this practice. It’s one of the luxuries of being an outsider.
Honestly though, why would you?! As long as you don’t have dietary restrictions and can get down with a little bit of spice, it’s truly a pleasure.
These meals cooked and served in the middle of the workday is one of the greatest experiences of my adult life!
Kimchi Chronicles are stories and memories collected while living in the rural village of Beolgyo and country-side city of Gwangyang, South Korea.