Every day except the first day of work I have eaten lunch at the Samsung cafeteria with the Samsung engineers. It has been a great way to get the true Korean eating experience. According to Newton’s third law of motion every reaction has an opposite and equal reaction and this applies with the cafeteria food. Some foods have been rather exotic to me including “Acorn Jello”, seaweed soup, and whole fish. Other days I clear my plate faster than the Koreans with foods such as fried chicken cutlets, tuna fish bibimbap (salad with rice, tuna, lettuce, and seasonings), and chicken noodle soup. Although the cafeteria is a fun daily adventure, I wanted to share an American lunch with my coworkers.
Eating in the cafeteria with Ms. Kim
Acorn Jello and seaweed
What to make for lunch was a tricky decision:
1 – Lunch had to be made without refrigeration (the offices at work don’t have refrigerators. My best guess is that “left-overs” are rare in Korea. It is very common to leave a restaurant after only eating ¾ of the dinner without bringing home a doggie bag.)
2 – The meal had to be used with pure American ingredients. (Everything and I mean everything in Korea has its own distinct flavor. It takes about two weeks to get used to it and I am no longer bothered by it. Steaks, pork chops, donuts, coffee, eggs, milk, and much more have their own Korean kick to them that sets them apart from the U.S. Think of it as pizza in NY vs. Chicago vs. LA. They all are the same concept but the local ingredients make them taste a little different.
As the title of this post states, we had PB&J. The menu consisted of crunchy and creamy peanut butter, strawberry and grape jelly, bananas, white bread, Ritz crackers, Pepsi, and fun size Snickers bars. Three engineers joined for lunch and I showed them how to make the classic PB&J. It was interesting to watch them try to make it because they were taking the peanut butter in small ¼ tsp bits and spreading it very slowly. They were on pace to finish applying the PB in about an hour. Eventually I took the knife from them and just put a large glob of PB on their bread and explained that in America this is a common food because it can be made in a few seconds. I told them how you can make it with bananas too and soon after Changsoo Lee was making a double-decker PB&J with bananas. His style sandwich was quickly referred to as “animal style” and it was fun explaining to them what real “animal style” meant when you order a burger at the world famous In-N-Out. Everyone really liked the PB&J and Ms. Kim was quick to point out that she could tell the peanut butter was very high in calories. It was too bad I couldn’t find any Fluff; getting them to understand what it was never quite crossed the white board sketches and sign language translations that have been working for other tough American concepts.
In Korea it is very polite to always serve others, mostly when drinking Soju. You never pour your own drink and you always use two hands when pouring for others and getting your glass filled. Ed was making himself a few PB and Ritz crackers and it was really funny to watch Changsoo Lee stare at him expecting him to offer an American amuse-bouche. After a few minutes he asked Ed to make him one and then Jongil chimed in asking for one too. The lunch was a lot of fun and it felt great to be able to share part of America with our coworkers. Ms. Kim and Jongil have never been to America so we brought America to them.
The spread
If you look closely you can see Changsoo Lee's animal style PB&J.
On Thursday evening three Pratt engineers arrived at the hotel and they will be staying here for at least a week to help with some critical processes on the development hardware. So far they have handled the time change well. We worked together all day Friday and a half day on Saturday at Samsung before going to another virtual golf facility. I shot worse than before but we all did so it was OK. On the last hole I was tied with a Samsung manager for the lead and I put the ball right into the pond in front of the green. He went on to win by one stroke. Saturday evening we all went downtown and ended up finding a live American band at one of the bars. Being able to share my knowledge of the area and Korean culture has been a lot of fun. My only wish is that my friends and family in the U.S. could come out here to see what it is I’ve been experiencing.
FYI - For the older people reading this post, the title comes from a viral youtube video, attached below for your viewing pleasure. It has over 20,000,000 views and has been referenced all over American pop culture including the popular show Family Guy. No baseball bats were used in the Samsung PB&J.
No comments:
Post a Comment