Teacher Appreciation Dinner

Dinner was crazy, but not in the way I expected...

First, we all loaded up in a bus.  Yes, a bus.  Driven by the restaurant's proprietor.  We drove for probably 10 or 15 minutes in a direction I have never ventured.  We ended our journey in the middle of nowhere.  Traditional countryside type stuff.

We walked into a small cement room with six stone tables and plastic patio chairs.  Each table was set with three sets of five different side dishes and three baskets of lettuce wraps.  The tables also had two green bottles, which I thought were soju, but turned out to be cider. which is the general name Koreans use for 7-UP / Sprite / lemon lime soda.  In the middle of each table was a stone cook top and under each table was a wood burning fire.  Table by table, the couple who ran the restaurant brought out platters of duck, potato, and white and green onion, which got thrown onto the cook top.  Three different times, the man smothered our food with more and more green onions.  Since Dionne is a vegetarian, they cooked a special meal for her as well, which she shared with those of us who sat at her table.  They brought her a potato pancake, special acorn jelly dressed with carrots, seaweed and a vinaigrette dressing and a bowl of very spicy kimchi and tofu soup.  We all ate together, talking amongst ourselves.  I wish I would have had my camera with me to capture the environment.  Everyone was happily talking and eating with one another.  Dining in Korea, especially with other Koreans is a jolly affair, to say the least.  At one point, the other four teachers at our table had to leave for some reason, so we moved to another table.  By that time, it was time for the rice.  The ajumma doing the cooking slung a bunch of rice and other vegetables (mostly seaweed and green onion from what I could taste) onto the cook top to cook in the duck fat.  It was literally the best fried rice I have ever tasted.  The girls at the table were so glad to see that I was enjoying the food and kept encouraging me to eat more and more.  So, I did. 

The principal, who was at the next table, was having an passionate discussion with the rest of her table about being the opposite of a vegetarian.  She leaned over and asked me:

Principal: Noelle Teacher.  What is opposite vegetarian?
Noelle: Hmm...  Probably carnivore.  But, that means they only eat meat.  Like a dinosaur.
(My whole table laughs...presumably over the dinosaur example, but I'm still not sure.)
Noelle: If you're talking about you, you'd say omnivore because you eat plants and meat.
Principal: Omnivore.  Thank you very much Noelle Teacher.
(Not two minutes later)
Principal: Noelle Teacher.  What you call me?
Noelle: Omnivore.
Principal: How you spell?
Noelle: o-m-n-i-v-o-r-e
Principal: Ah.  Thank you very much.
She turns to her table and says, in English, "I om-ni-vore.  O-M-N-I-V-ORE
(Whole table laughs)

Next, the restaurateurs brought out a small basket with several little shriveled fruits.  I warily took one because they looked a little rotten and no one at the table had ever had one before.  They turned out to taste exactly like kiwis, only much smaller - like bite size.  Interesting and so tasty. 

Then, when we were all done eating, we hopped back on the bus and the restaurant's owner drove us back to school.  Delightful, delightful (and free!) meal!  A night well spent, I'd say.