Kimchi, Banchan, and Tofu!

Saturday night we went to a Korean restaurant for the first time! Their menu features tofu, which we're not big fans of, but it's the closest Korean restaurant to us (about 25 minutes away). The whole dining experience was very different from what we are used to. We weren't asked what we wanted to drink, just given what we think was warm barley tea. Right after we ordered, we were brought rice soup and a little dish of kimchi. We expected the kimchi to be very spicy, but it wasn't. For the main dish, I ordered bibimbap, which is rice served with different vegetables and red pepper sauce. Travis ordered baby octopus and tofu soup. We also ordered a salad with crispy tofu that was delicious! With the main dishes, we were served about six side dishes, called banchan, in little bowls. This is tradition at every Korean meal. The side dishes were another type of kimchi, a cabbage salad, cucumbers with scallions, black beans in a sweet sauce, and bean sprouts.

Everything was really yummy--we were pleasantly surprised! (Well, I don't personally know that the octopus was yummy--I wouldn't touch it!) We definitely showed our inexperience with Asian dining when we had to ask for forks. Travis is very good at eating with chopsticks, but me on the other hand... He tells me I either need to practice or plan on carrying a fork in my purse when we travel!

Being the only Caucasian people in the restaurant, we were very aware of our "whiteness." We couldn't help but think that this is what our child will experience almost every day. They may be the only Asian child in their class, or the only Asian child on their sports team, or the only Asian child in our church. It made us realize even more how we need to be intentional about seeking out places where Asians are present. We have even considered moving to a nearby city where the Asian population is much greater than where we live. We want our child to grow up feeling comfortable with their Korean heritage. We have lots of plans to help that along, and this restaurant was a great place to start!