Jin My Introduction to Korean Cuisine

After class today, while I was roaming around the uni area waiting for my next one and still unsure where to have lunch, I bumped into a classmate whose name I didn’t know. We got through the usual awkward exchange, the “hey, I just saw you in class, and I’ll see you again in the next one” kind, and then he casually invited me to lunch at the food court inside the building we were both standing in.

I said yes, why not, and asked him to remind me of his name.

Jin. From Seoul, South Korea.

“What’s good here?” I asked.

“I usually eat there,” he said, pointing at a stall with a name I could not remember but a logo I could: a blue and red ball above the counter.

“What’s good there?”

“Sizzling plate. I’m getting pork. Maybe you can get something else, and we can share.”

So matter-of-fact, which I respect. So I did. I got the spicy squid.

While waiting for the food, he shared that he had been here a few times with Fia.

Fia!

I realised I hadn’t seen her in class earlier and hoped she would turn up to the next one. For a split second, I wondered whether I got the invite because Fia wasn’t around. But who cares? I got to try this yummy food, and maybe it would be fun to do it again as a group.

The plates came out hissing, cast iron on wooden boards, sauce popping little red bubbles. Jin slid his towards me without being asked, took a bit of mine, and kept talking as if we had been eating lunch together for years. The squid was small, chewy, sweet and hot.

“This is really nice”, I told Jin, and I meant it.

And that, my readers, was my introduction to Korean cuisine.

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