밥 먹어요 (in English: I eat rice.)

One thing that has been hard to become accustomed to is eating white rice. I know that it is a two way street: Rice doesn't like me as much as I don't like Rice, but it's so hard for me to understand how something so simple can cause me so much pain in my daily life. Koreans believe that bread is to America what rice is to Korea, but what Koreans don't realize is that there is not such thing as a "bread diet" in America; however, the protein diet sure caught on quick (in Korea there is such a thing as a "rice diet"). What I'm trying to say is that the concept of not eating carbohydrates at all or eating them as sides to your protein dishes does not seem to exist in a Korean's ideology about food. In reality there is nothing in American food culture that is comparable to the role that white rice plays at Korean meals. Koreans do not believe that a meal is a meal without white rice. Sometimes after eating all I can of fish, beef, pork, and side dishes of pickled vegetables, I find myself confronted with a large portion (approximately two and a half cups) of steaming white rice and a bowl of soup. It is just assumed that you would like rice at every meal, so I feel bad when it goes to waste, but the idea of putting a bowl of plain white rice into my stomach, when I already feel ready to burst is horrifying. Instead I end up digging strategic holes in my mound of rice with my chopsticks in the hopes of convincing the people around me that I actually ate some of it. I have been told that the custom of serving rice at every meal resonates with Koreans because there are still people who remember a time when white rice was scarce. The subject of white rice is not limited to eating, but also has significant meaning when speaking. A common greeting (mainly among the older generations) is "Have you eaten rice today?" This is a way of asking someone how they are or saying hello, because a person's well-being used to be directly linked to whether they had been fortunate enough to eat rice that day. The cultural significance of white rice was something that I learned quickly, and I'm glad I did because I could've offended many people had I not known the correct answer to the question: "Do you like rice?" This question is not merely an inquiry about your food preferences (as I quickly learned), but really a question about whether you like Koreans and Korea. For that reason, the polite answer is always "yes." The first time I ate at school, I was waiting in the lunch line when my co-teacher asked me if I liked rice. I was feeling particularly rebellious that afternoon and a little tired of etiquette; I just wanted to answer truthfully, so I said: "Not really." He muttered "huh" under his breath and preceeded to add a huge serving of rice on top of the small serving that I had already taken. "Rice is good for you; it keeps you from getting fat." I did not understand where he got this notion, but due to the particular mood I was in, I decided to ask. Asking actually only confused me more, because his answer was this: "Because people in places like Africa, China, and India eat rice and they're not fat." This is where I imagined going back to the U.S.A. and marketing a rice diet: "Just add one cup a day to your current diet and lose weight." Something just didn't add up; there is no way that Americans would be thinner if they just started eating rice on top of what they normally eat. In fact, it is hard to imagine that overweight Americans would lose any weight if they substituted rice for all the bread that they eat. At this point in the conversation I just let it go. I heard on the radio (English/Korean station) that Koreans have many different kinds of rice, just like Americans have many kinds of bread; however, to an American all rice is rice and to a Korean all bread is bread or 방 (pronounced pang). This is entirely true. Sometimes we get rice that is basically white rice with a few purple beans in it. Due to the fact that the coloring from the beans has bled onto the rest of the rice, the rice looks purple, but to me this is just white rice with makeup on. To a Korean, this is healthy rice and has a completely different name than just rice or 밥 (pronounced bap). It is funny because in some ways my relationship with white rice has been a bitter one and will continue to be. However, I still eat white rice with almost every meal. I take about 1 cup and eat it with other things so that I forget about its bland taste. I feel like this is all what I try to do with most of the aspects of Korean culture that I don't particularly like. Instead of fighting them, I try to incorporate them into my daily routine here, because it's part of the experience, but I know that I may never eat rice again once I leave Korea (I am only partially kidding). I also know that the occasional "No" response to the question: "Do you like rice?" although not polite, can sure feel good if the timing is right.