School lunch - *NEW POLL!*

[raziel]

My school's lunch is awesome. I pay 70,000 won a month and its a bargain.
The teachers have a separate lunch line with a buffet like table. We often go back for 2nds and the super nice lunch ladies are always refilling it for us or giving us extra treats.

Regular meals: Kalguksu, galbitang, samgyeopsal, curry and rice, bibimbap dakkgalbi

I love it, everything is delicious! There have been TWO lunches so far in 7 months that i've hated. One day we had kimchi, rice, radishes with a sauce, raw radishes, and radish soup. I couldnt make that up.....annnnnnd another day we had this awful jellyfish salad with mustard. Enough people complained and they said they'd take it off the menu.

I got so lucky with my school!!

[marchingocelot]

Our nutritionist continues her rampage of awesomeness:

Rice
Kimchi soup with dumplings
Oranges
Mixed greens
찜닭!

[Yu_Bumsuk]

So 85% think their lunch is OK or good. That's pretty high as far as institutional cafeterias go.

[sambalina]

We had actual roast pork today. Big slices of meat! The rest of the meal was a bit naff, but the pork made up for it.

I've started brining cooked vegetables to work and swapping out the daily rice in an attempt to rid myself of the dreaded afternoon energy drop. Seems to be working well so far.

[rocketeerjoe]

I have really enjoyed most of the meals I've eaten at school.

I work at two schools. One has a better cafeteria than the other. The food has, at that one, always been really tasty and healthy with lots of emphasis on salads, which I really appreciate.

The other school has had blander food but I have been eating so as not to offend anyone as I was told that was really important.

Whatever was in the fish dish I ate yesterday knocked me out of my last class and had me vomiting for the rest of the day, or alternately on the toilet. I won't and can't even BEGIN to describe the pain I went through. Like, it was beyond agony. I have NEVER in my LIFE experienced anything this painful in terms of food poisoning. I had botulism once before when I was 16 and it was nothing compared to what I experienced this past day.

Let me just put this in ESL terms.

My (ass, toes) became a (fountain, firehose) of (liquid, gaseous) force that could compete with (Niagara Falls, the Everglades) in terms of how much it pumps out per hour.

Thanks, cafeteria staff for whatever diseased carcass from the ocean you fed to me. It was seriously frightening. I was emptying at terrifying speed. Should I call NASA? I wondered. Scientists might want to track this. I know they keep track of deglaciating Greenland rivers and whatnot.

I stayed home because I couldn't stop vomiting. I am feeling better now and have managed to keep down some yogurt but all I have to say is, whatever caused my body to resist the food could have been a parasite or worm or bacteria...who the hell knows? I have not heard if anyone else at school had this happen to them. Various friends have told me Koreans have built up an immunity to fish related illnesses in humans that Westerners just don't have. I am NOT eating fish at school again just to be on the safe side! I don't care at this point if I offend anyone.

[peasgoodnonsuch]

Yikes....

I'm here simply to whine :'( My school lunches used to be decent and even sometimes delicious, but ever since our nutritionist came back from maternity leave it's gotten worse and worse! Does pregnancy ruin your ability to taste and make sound judgments?!

It would appear that she's trying to be "creative" by adding corn to EVERYTHING. And she's doing lots of unhealthy pseudo-fusion food or "snack food" that she thinks the kids will like. How I crave just a plain old truly Korean meal that doesn't have corn, ketchup or mayo thrown into it. To make matters worse the soup is always too salty, the kimchi sucks, and she seems to be on a monotone meal trend. Yesterday and the day before everything was brown. Sometimes it's all red. Thus far we have yet to have a green day ㅠㅠ. These days we don't even get that many grain+rice days. It used to be that having only plain white rice was a rarity and now it's common! I feel soooo unhealthy after every lunch now, it's driving me crazy.

The weirdest part? A lot of the other teachers have been commenting on how much better the food as gotten!! Am I crazy or something? I've always been able to trust my taste buds, but it makes me wonder. Am I the only one disgusted by our menu? If I am, then maybe I'm the weird one, not them....

Today is our weekly "no leftovers day". I've yet to be successful as the food always sucks too much to eat it all. We'll see if today I have better luck!

[justanotherwaygook]

Today is our weekly "no leftovers day". I've yet to be successful as the food always sucks too much to eat it all. We'll see if today I have better luck!

No leftovers day?  They force everyone to eat everything?

[lotte world]

Today is our weekly "no leftovers day". I've yet to be successful as the food always sucks too much to eat it all. We'll see if today I have better luck!

No leftovers day?  They force everyone to eat everything?

You must be new here.  It happens at a lot of schools.

In some schools they simply don't have the waste bins at the exit, so you have to eat everything.  Usually it's self service so that you only take what you know you will eat, and they tailor the menu to popular easy-to-eat stuff (like bibimbap).  My school doesn't do it, but the food is good so it doesn't matter.

[justanotherwaygook]

You must be new here.

 ::)

Thanks..  I guess 15 months in public school counts as new.

We don't have a cafeteria.  Children eat in their classes with homeroom teachers and subject teachers/admin/staff eat in the science room.  Every class gets a cart with food and trays etc.

[peasgoodnonsuch]

This is a new tactic at my school. Mercifully, they don't force you to eat everything. They simply peer pressure you to. After 3 weeks of my co-teachers gently reminding me that it's no leftovers day, I finally just said it outright: I'm sorry, but I don't really care. They accepted that graciously and have since stopped pushing it on me. I suppose I'm being a bad example as a teacher, but whatevs...I personally don't agree with forcing people to eat more than they want or things they don't like.

For the kids, they get a sticker if they finish everything. They stick it on a chart in their homeroom and I think either their homeroom or the individuals will get a prize at the end of the semester.

[rach229]

Today was the first time since... probably since I got here, that I enjoyed everything and walked away overfull! We had sweet and sour pork and shrimp with cheese tteok, some sort of noodle clam soup dish (avoided the clams), yogurt and watermelon! The best part was that I finally got to eat something other than rice for lunch. There was no rice?! I was shocked because this is the first time in 9 months they haven't served rice at lunch!

[LemonWater]

Today we had chicken wraps! Crispy boneless fried chicken, with lettuce, apple, and sauce, wrapped in a tortilla. One of the best lunches I've had. I had to go up for more.

The bad part was the majority of students and teachers would just unwrap the tortilla, then eat the chicken with chopsticks, and throw away the rest . . .such a shame to watch.

[justanotherwaygook]

Our lunches on the whole have improved a bit.  Some days are actually pretty awesome, some are still not great.

Last week and the week before we had chicken wings 4 times (the company must have scored a deal with a chicken processor).

Today was rice with a few beans, seaweed soup, tofu, steamed greens, some kimchi (I don't know what it was, it has thick crunchy watery stalks and leaves; it's most stalk than leaf)

 

[justanotherwaygook]

Yummy today!

-Rice porridge with a few shreds of chicken
-Rice with some brown sugar, cinnamon and a few raisins (steamed in a tray like normal rice)
-Factory kimchi
-Watermelon cubes


So basically, a bowl of rice, a mound of rice, a bit of fruit and vegetable.  I was questioned as to why I took so little food, including no kimchi.   


As for the results of the poll; it looks a bit like suspicions were confirmed a bit.  Breaking it down into each school level, 26% of elementary teachers thought their food is bad, compared to 7% each for middle and high school.

[taewon]

I get screwed over on my lunch! The Koreans get to it first or there is to little to go around. If you show up 10 minutes late you can get some kimchi.

[sligotrac]

After having worked in a hagwon for a year, I have now upgraded to public Elementary and I must say the standard of the school lunches along with everything else has greatly improved which I'm delighted about! Fish, Chicken soup, vegetables, fruit everyday, pork, as long as they keep the squid away I'll be happy!

[LemonWater]

Yesterday had Samgyetang - like the real deal. We each got a full chicken (fair sized) in a bowl. Then it was buffet style to add your own rice, ginseng, jubejubes, etc. . .    on the side there was octopus salad, kimchi, and patpingsu for dessert.

Definitely got my 2700W worth of food that day!

[keirdre]

Yesterday had Samgyetang - like the real deal. We each got a full chicken (fair sized) in a bowl. Then it was buffet style to add your own rice, ginseng, jubejubes, etc. . .    on the side there was octopus salad, kimchi, and patpingsu for dessert.

Definitely got my 2700W worth of food that day!

 :o

[rach229]

I finally told my school I was done with the meal plan. I got sick of barely eating and that's not good for you anyways so I finally told them I was done and "going on a diet" which was a good excuse to bring in my own lunches! Today: tuna noodle salad and yogurt! :D Lunch will be good from here on out!

[travis1983]

as one who eats lunch now part of the week, I was curious if anyone else sees the pros and cons in the lunch system here? I like the fact that the food seems fresher than the American version, however a few gripes

please dont harp about "you dont have to eat it" or "its korea"...its just observations

1. No fresh fruits.  My school (public) has no fresh fruit or canned fruit ever. Big let down
2. meat has bones, etc.
3, no breads ever. yes i know we have rice...but still
4. no dairy served...ever
5. No desserts!!!  not even a cookie
6. no drinks, milk, etc. i bring my own can of coke...the odd man out