One of my favorite parts of living in Korea so far has been staying with a homestay family. We celebrate our birthdays together, talk after dinner and eat snacks in front of the TV like a real family. They've introduced me to a lot of my favorite foods in Korea, like ddeokkbeoki (spicy rice cake), samgyetang (chicken stew) and jampeong mandu (seafood dumplings). At the same time, there are some parts of living and eating with a new family that can be tricky.
For instance, a few weekends ago my host family and I visited their grandparents for Seollal, which is Korean Lunar New Year. There was a huge meal set up, with lots of new food I hadn’t tried before, including grilled beef, fried snail and a fish stew. I love trying new food, but I am always worried about disappointing my host family if I don't like a new dish.
At the dinner, my host family had a lot of traditional Korean food, with rice, soup, vegetables and kimchi, a side dish of pickled vegetable. They also had special food for the holiday including grilled beef, friend snail and fish stew. I tried a little bit of everything!
