How about some roasted silkworm cocoons? Buy them in paper cones at the kiosk (like a popcorn stand in an American park) outside a Buddhist shrine in South Korea. The cocoons have been swirling in hot oil on a wok. The flavor? Surprising to an American palate: the unlikely combination of chocolate and fish.
Most Korean meals feature soup and rice; both are served at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even ordinary meals can be elaborate affairs; the tabletop will include multiple small dishes (banchan) complementing the main course. As the day progresses, the tabletop becomes more crowded with additional side dishes. Generally at breakfast there may be three or four small banchan on the table: pickles, soy sauce, sesame oil, chilies, garlic, ginger, fermented root vegetables, and of course, kimchi, Korea’s signature dish of spicy, pickled vegetables. At lunchtime you may find a half-dozen small side dishes, and at dinner up to 20. Dinner may be fish (remember Korea is peninsula), barbecued beef called bulgogi (the word means “fire meat”), or bibimbap, a bowl of warm rice mixed with vegetables, meat and egg, spiced with gokujong (red chili paste). Always kimchi. Most commonly the kimchi will be either fermented cabbage with red pepper or hard white radish with accompanying vegetables.
I describe this cuisine because it reminds us that we’re living in a big world, with a great variety among people and cultures that seem so different from our own. Christ has instructions for us about this big world: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Jesus said. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28).
(ELS mission work in South Korea is conducted by the Asia Committee of the Board for World Outreach.)
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Steve Petersen – www.worldmissionsouvenirs.com
