It happened a long time ago, when I was a novice in Korean culture. A bunch of Korean friends took me out to a good korean restaurant, famous for it's spicy potato soup with chicken. I was as happy as a little child with a bar of chocolate, munching on the white mushrooms and sweet potatoes, that I fished out of the big pot of boiling red stew.
During dinner a friend asked: “you don't like the food, do you?”. The question surprised me - I could not imagine why he would think that. I answered, that the food was delicious and to prove my point I put a new portion of chicken on the plate. With chopsticks I divided the chicken in smaller peaces, put a bite into my mouth and chewed slowly enjoying the taste. “You really don't seem to like the food...” my friend sighted disappointed.
Still surprised I looked around. Next to me a tiny girl, half my size, was shoveling rice with a spoon so eagerly, that her cheeks looked like little red balloons at the point of bursting. Suddenly I became aware of all the slurping, and chomping, and gulping that filled the air.
I asked my friend, why he thought, that I did not like the food.
“Well, you eat small bites, and chew on them endlessly, as if you had no appetite... maybe you have a bad stomach?”
But it was not a bad stomach, I just had cultural indigestion.
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