Friends, Students, Chinese Food, and Leviticus 11

Yesterday I had lunch in the Kongdae Ibgu area at the China Factory . . . uhm, or is it Chinese Food Factory? In any case, it was a Chinese restaurant and “Factory” is part of the name.

(This photo is not a Creative Commons image.)

The occasion was to celebrate the birthday of a friend, Kim Jeong Seok. He goes by the English name of Chris. He turned 27. Chris was a student of mine last year. As a general rule I try to keep clear barriers between my students and I; I try not to blur the teacher-friend line. As my “sister” likes to say: “I’m friendly with many, but friends with few.”One way I keep the teacher-friend line distinct is by not inviting students to my apartment. Since all the foreign professors, like myself, live on campus, teachers would sometimes invite students over for lunch. I don’t do that. However, with Chris that line was somewhat blurred from the beginning. A close friend of Chris, who goes by the English name of Danny, had to enter my apartment to install my telephone. This happened when I just started with this job, two weeks before the classes started and therefore long before I’ve met any of my students. My telephone in my apartment wasn’t working so the university sent a student over to see what the problem was. That student, of course, was Danny, who was working for the university during the Summer break. The first day when I walked into the “Public Speaking”-class, there sat Danny.

Some weeks later, while it was quite cold one early evening, I saw Danny and Chris on campus and I invited them for Hot Chocolate. To return the favour they suggested we go see a movie together sometime, which we then did. This was a year ago. I don’t see Danny that much anymore, but I do meet up with Chris on occasion. He went through many life challenges recenty (he quit his studies, went to the Philippines to work, but things didn’t work out so he came back, and is now considering whether he should resume his studies or just continue job searching). A colleague of mine (Chris was also one of her students before) and I decided to support him during this difficult time. So we decided to go out for lunch on his birthday, which was yesterday – and that’s how we ended up at the China Factory.

I used to like Chinese food, but then I came to Korea. The version of Chinese food in Korea is sometimes a welcome variation to Korean food, but generally it is nothing like the Chinese food I got used to in South Africa. However, the Chinese food at the China Factory does not disappoint. It tastes like the Real McCoy.

The China Factory is quite a classy restaurant with fine decor and a relaxing ambiance. The meals are just under 25, 000 Won. You have an option of one large dish, or you can have three smaller dishes from a large selection. We all went for the latter. I had a delicious ginseng porridge, salmon, and smoked duck. I’ve had ginseng porridge in Korea before, but it was quite bland. The China Factory’s ginseng porridge is rich in flavour. Ginseng can easily taste bitter; however, this porridge was not bitter at all. The salmon was prepared with salads and a sweet dressing made of orange peel – likely a type of Chinese marmalade. It was quite good too. Finally I had smoked duck with fried mushrooms.

This is the first time in my life to eat duck. Generally I am vegetarian and never cook meat for myself. However, when I go out somewhere I may opt for something with meat, probably fish. The reason is that while I believe that a vegetarian diet is the healthiest, this is only true if you have a balanced diet with a great variety of grains, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. Since I know that the variety of foods I consume is rather limited, I will select a non-vegetarian choice on occassion, to supplement any nutrients I may lack.

Generally, the foods I choose to eat are what is considered “clean” foods, based on the Torah (or Pentateuch), i.e. the first five books of the Bible – specifically the food laws outlined in Leviticus, chapter 11. I’m not fanatical about this, but I figure that since God made both us and the animals, He ought to know best what type of animals are fit for consumption and which ones are not. I also find a sensible simplicity in these laws and have developed my own paradigm for what foods I prefer. It is as follows:

The closer the food is to the sun, the better it is for consumption. Let me explain: The foods that are closest to the sun are plants, which produce their nutrition from minerals and sunlight. I call plants “first level foods.” Second in line would be the herbivores that feed on these plants. The best foods for consumption, in my opinion, are first level foods, and if supplementation is necessary, it ought to come from second level foods. Not meant for consumption are the predators—third level foods. Lastly are fourth level foods: the “cleaners,” the omnivores and scavengers that eat practically anything, including feeding on carcasses and even the faeces of other creatures, for example the bottom feeders. Bottom feeders include most seafood, like shrimp and clams, which clean the “bottom.”

When I choose the food I feel comfortable eating I use this paradigm and augment it with Leviticus, chapter 11. Ducks, which are “clean” according to Leviticus, is a bottom feeder. They sift through the mud in pools of water, filtering the sludge for edibles. So according to my paradigm, ducks are not on my list of foods I eat, since they are partially a fourth level food. But since a friend and I had a long and heated discussion recently in which I insisted bottom-feeders are not good for food, and he insisted that since it is a “clean” food ducks are okay, I decided to give it a try.

This is how I got to eat duck for the first time in my life yesterday, and it actually was quite tasty. Smoked food is always flavoursome, but I am not too fond of red meat. Since this was my first time ever to eat duck I was actually quite surprised to see that duck is a “red” meat. I expected it to be a white meat like chicken. While this will probably be an isolated experience for me, for those of you that are meat lovers, I can definitely recommend China Factory’s smoked duck and fried mushrooms.

I look forward to a vegetarian outing next. I’ve been invited to a Thanksgiving lunch this coming Saturday, which will be a vegetarian occasion.