Korea Tour Afterthoughts

Looking back at my Korean tour, I noticed that there was a great deal of involvement from the diners when cooking the food. Unlike the other tours I had where the food is already completely prepared when served, the local Korean restaurants, more often than not, serve you raw ingredients.

There are certain advantages to this kind of method. First, and most obvious of all, the food is guaranteed to be cooked fresh (unless you don't know the basics of cooking). Next is that you can customize your food from how much spices you want to add to how well-done you want the meat cooked. Finally, a hands-on experience is one of the best way to appreciate the culture of a country and its people. Food is one of the objects that best reflects a culture. You get to experience an activity the people do on a daily basis. You witness not only their eating habits but also the creativity people pour into their cooking processes. The spices and flavors you taste can even tell you a lot about their preferences, the crops they grow and their necessities from which their culinary ingenuity was born. Having this unique chance to be behind the grill made me more open to and appreciative of the culture of Korea.