Recently I cooked fish and chips for just over 100 kids. We, the 3 British native teachers at my school, were granted the extraordinary opportunity of organising an event day, which translates as a day off teaching formal classes. After mere minutes of thinking, the idea came to us. Fish 'n' Chips. What could be more British? Well lots of things actually but we are going for the easily digested stereotypes and not the realities of what being British actually means, for the stereotypes are still closer to the realities than the perceived stereotypes. To read the rest of this post click here

Having waxed somewhat lyrically about sandwiches before, which included an article on this very site about the dreaded 'Korean Toast', I feel compelled to mention my most recent sandwich related discovery (read nightmare). As if romanising 'Flakes' with a 'ㅎ' isn't bad enough, Post, the producer of breakfast cereals in Korea, have decided that they are qualified to offer advice on how to make sandwiches. It is common practice on many products nowadays to offer a serving suggestion, but surely cereal is exempt from this, isn't it? I mean how many ways can you eat cereal, at least how many ways that are a legitimate attempt to eat a filling breakfast? Cornflake and jam tarts, however delicious, are not a legitimate attempt and neither are rice crispy cakes. One morning recently, as I was eating a bowl of cereal, I happened to glance at the back of the box. There was a huge picture of a toasted sandwich that contained peanut butter, bananas and almond cerea...

Photographs from a Japanese restaurant opposite my apartment. Excellent service, very nice setting and a lot of food even though it was a touch pricey. 80,000 won for 2 which included a bowl of udon at the end because, the chef said, Korean people kind of expect some rice or noodles to make it a substantial meal.The chef also threw in some free sushi, in fact he gave us o-toro sushi, the most prized part of the tuna, which, if I understood correctly would normally cost almost as much as the meal itself. More pics here

Herb Island is a lovely little restaurant precariously located at the entrance to Jinbuk tunnel in Jeonju. The place is only part restaurant however. The rest seems to be an alternative treatment centre with certificates all over the walls for aromatherapy and Indian head massage. The aromatherapy aspect is continued in the restaurant with herbs and herbaceous material forming the core of the menu. Today I ate the salad-flower-rice (셀러드 꽃 밥) and it was incredibly...flowery. They also have kal guk soo and galbi and those kind of things but the flowery rice is a spectacle and is worth a visit. After the meal you get a complementary cup of peppermint tea and a dab of eucalyptus oil on the back of your neck in the cafe come herby product shop upstairs. 063-272-8668 허브 아일랜드

A large percentage of expatriates in Korea have at some point taught English. Most of those teachers came to Korea, or were brought here to do just that. As a result most of us have gone through the same procedure of cultural adaptation. You arrive at the airport and are bamboozled by the pictographs everywhere. You are, if you are lucky, met by someone, a recruiter usually, and shepherded, like a piece of prized cattle, onto a bus or train. Someone else meets you at the bus or train station and takes you to your apartment, opens the door, shoves you inside and tells you to be in work tomorrow. As you settle in for your first night on a year long adventure you realise you have no blankets, no water and no means of getting any. Soon you are taken out by co-workers, desperate to see if you can eat spicy food and if you can sit on the floor. They decide you can do neither and take you to a pizza place with chairs, because at least you can eat some food from home, a sweet potato pizza mayb...

A small selection of pictures from a recent trip to Okinawa. The pictures fall into 3 categories. The first is called "Traditional Okinawan food", not too many of these. The second is called "A little bit silly", like the snoopy one and the third is called "We have them in Korea!"

photo by Rob McGovern I was very happy when Rob contacted me about writing for Groove Magazine and for Seoul Eats. Why? Because he's a great writer and he lives in one of my favorite food cities in Korea. Rob currently resides in Jeonju in the Jeollabukdo Providence of Korea. Jeonju is best known for their bibimbap, but there are many culinary finds in this city. I had amazing BBQ while I was there and there is a very famous Royal Court Cuisine Restaurant that I need to check out. Sadly when I was working with Gourmet I couldn't make it down their for their kimchi and Royal Court Segments. (You can see the kimchi segment by downloading it from itunes.) You can find out more about Rob on his blogs and again, thank you so much for contributing to Seoul Eats. http://robmcgovern.wordpress.com/ http://robguv.blogspot.com/ P.S. If you would like to contribute articles, pictures, recommendations, or events to Seoul Eats, just send me an e-mail at seouleats (at) gmail (dot) com Dan