Food for Thought

I have always thought that you can tell a lot about a country and it's people by what their culture deems important with just a simple trip to the local supermarket. Italians have aisles and aisles of pasta, olive oil, and wine, where even the most impoverished citizens eat like aristocrats. Spaniards have wine, olives, and "jamon serano" (cured ham legs) hanging at the entrance of their supermarkets, both of which suggest a love for food and relaxing over long dinners while enjoying the company of family and friends. American supermarkets on the other hand cater to the fast pace rush of modern life and are juxtapose their selection of food in perfect harmony with the theme of American life: choice. Aisles of 50+ different brands of cereal, frozen food, milk, cheese, canned goods, beer, and depending on what state you live in, mounds of fresh veggies and fruit that serve as the primary foods one finds upon entering. Korean supermarkets are a different sort all together.
In Korea it is very common to buy your fruits,vegetables, and other various food items from the local street vendors, which, just to test your nerves, are usually located adjacent to pig heads left to dry in the sun. But, if you must buy from a super market, your selections are somewhat limited. First, you have the cabbages, radishes and chili peppers (the fixings for Kimchi), which are never short of stock. Next you have the fresh fish aisle where you can find anything from anchovies to squid to any other fish you could think of possibly eating, and even those you would have never thought edible, some with the fishing line still hanging from their mouths. They love their fish here to say the least.
Then there is the aisle of ramen which supposedly comes from Korea, but the only likeness to American "Top Ramen" is the noodles. The majority of Koreans eat like the most frugal or poor college students, subsisting on Ramen, really cheep beer or liquor, and chips in all varieties, none of it name brand, however. For two Missoula based health conscious adults in their twenties, the vast majority of Korean super markets are reminiscent to shopping at Kum and Go's sans the hot dog specials. Most dilemmas with food play out like bad fiction, as if someone was using us as characters in a world where communists, rather than taking over the government, took over the food industry, allowing no restaurant to serve any other variety of food than any other restaurant. Korean's literally eat for breakfast what they have for dinner, and always (ALWAYS), have gim-bahp for a snack. As with anything here, it is impossible to know how the food will taste, but you always know what you are going to get, less the menu isn't a point at one.
Much like life in Korea, food is very routine and unchanging for the most part. There is not too much variation in the daily meal nor in the daily schedule. It seems to be a culture where when something works there is no reason to ever vary.
With little diversity amongst the people, there can only be little diversity amongst the food. But we can't complain when what we desire becomes sparse. There is an art of tolerance you have to embrace when coming to a country as disparate as Korea, and we are becoming quite the artists.
We do look forward to becoming weak in the knees when we are to finally enter an American supermarket again. Though the theme of freedom may be played out in a vast number of aspects when becoming preachy about America, it is something to never take for granted that even in a supermarket in the USA, you are as free to practice your religion, cultural background, or heritage, as you are free to make the foods that go along with it, the most beautiful part about it being...you can.