::A Geek in Korea::

My wife got home exceptionally late from work yesterday. I had spent most of the time avoiding doing the dishes being being a generally lazy around the house. Since neither of us were interested in cooking, we decided to go out for dinner in our neighborhood.

We had been going to the same pork restaurant for the past few weeks, but instead of returning there again, we went looking for something new. It’s important to try new things from time to time to keep from being burnt out. Across the street from Nolboo, was a restaurant we had never been to before. The name of the restaurant was "Sea story" and it was a shellfish restaurant.

I’ve never really eaten shellfish. I’ve had them occasionally as side dishes. There are a few kinds of Korean dishes, like kalguksu (noodles with clams) that I enjoy, but I’ve never been a person that goes out of his way to eat oysters. I’ve had them before, cooked, but only as side dishes in a larger meal, never as the main course.

I’ve only started eating fish since I’ve gotten to Korea, and shellfish are more foreign to me. Growing up in Midwestern America, I’ve seen fish, caught fish, and even eaten the occasional fish from a lake or river, but our family never ate shellfish. Ever. Don’t know why, but it’s not like you see them in the grocery store in rural Ohio anyway.

My wife wasn’t a very big shellfish eater either. She’s obviously more of an expert than I have, but she admitted this is the first time she’s ever really sat down for an "all shellfish" meal. The waitress was extra kind and helpful to us. She gave us advice as to what to order, and gave us some free cheese to add to some of the dishes.

Unlike most Korean restaurants, the waitress cooked the food for us, told us when it was safe to eat, and arranged the entire meal. This is probably good, as we had no idea what was the standard procedure. She said this was because this was the first time we had been at the restaurant and we didn’t know what to do. Other people were fending for themselves and cooking at their tables with vigor.

I snapped a few pictures, because this was a new deal for me. Watching clams, oysters, and shell fish barbeque in front of me in their shells was really a different experience. The organs would shrink and cook, then get chopped up and coated with cheese and some red pepper sauce.

It thoroughly violated my "visual recognition" rule. I dislike eating fish when it has a head, and generally any animal when I can still recognize it as a whole. Since the things were cooking in their own shells, I just had to get over it if I wanted to eat.

We’d pick out clams and dip them in the various sauces.We filled up two plates or more with all the shells we had to dispose.The meal was pricey, but we left stuffed. We don’t do it often, but when we try something new, I like the feeling that I’m having an adventure, even if it’s something down the street. It’s easy to forget you are living in a foreign country some times unless you challenge yourself to try something new every once in a while.

technorati tags:oysters, clams, shellfish, adventure, restaurant, local, neighborhood