Yesterday...
My director told me 5 minutes before lunchtime that I was going to eat lunch with the CEO of our company along with the 4 other new hires in our team. I was wearing jeans and a striped sweater. Great. We meet up and the CEO didn't expect a 6th person. My director didn't even tell him beforehand, he just made me go. Great. So we walk to this restaurant and there are these fried fish cakes that I've often seen and ate before. Little did I know, the fish in there wasn't the fish I was used to. It was skate, a species of stingray. The first bite was overwhelming. Skate has the tendency to smell like ammonia and when you consume it, it has this spiciness that swells up to your nose....similar to wasabi...But I was VERY sure, this was NOT wasabi. I didn't want to eat anymore but there were about a plate for each group of 3 filled with about 13-15 pieces. I started to pick at the side dishes and it was probably the un-tastiest side dishes I've had since I've been in Korea. The main dish comes out, which was an octopus soup. It actually wasn't that bad. BUT the CEO said, we have to finish all the stingray before we drink the soup. By this time, I think everyone was feeling how I was feeling and we all just looked at each other with a look of dread. We couldn't say NO to the CEO..he is THE BOSS...very OG. plus he was treating us all out and stingray is pretty expensive. Regretfully, I finished my share of the stingray..hoping the lunch would end soon. And it did. Everyone was really intimidated and shy and so there wasn't much conversation going on. I don't think I EVER want to eat stingray again.
Today...
The team and I went to go eat lunch today. They asked me if I ever had soondaegook, (blood sausage soup). I never did so I said no. So then they asked me if I ever had soondae (blood sausage) in general, and I did. They asked how it was, I said it was okay. But I HATE soondae. The taste itself isn't that bad but knowing what it is disgusts me. I didn't want to make everyone eat something else because of me and so I said it was okay and so they said I must try the soup. The entire time I was dreading it. They ordered mixed soondaegook which basically had other weird body parts of a pig including the liver. I had no idea what anything in the soup was. I drank one sip of the soup while everyone stares at me, anticipating my reaction. I smile, reluctantly, "Mmmm, it's not bad. =]" I pick out a piece of meat and ask, what's this? The girl says Liver. I say ohh..and put it back in the soup. I only drank the soup..and to not seem like a brat, I forced down a couple of soondaes. I was so..so..so.. sad.
And those are my two strange consecutive lunch encounters in Korea. =(
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