Well that's one way to make kimchi

I went on a hike a with my Korean bosses. Afterwards, we had some great Korean barbecue on a rocky beach in a small cove on the north part of the island. We ran out of the prepared lettuce slices that are used to hold the meat, sauce, and vegetables before shoving the whole thing in the mouth.

My fellow American co-worker grabbed for a bunch of lettuce in a plastic sack. Even though the lettuce had beads of moisture on it, it apparently hadn't been washed (I'm pretty sure the moisture indicated it had been done at the store).

Well, long story short, one of the Koreans grabs the lettuce, walks over to the water, plops the bunch on the gravel and proceeds to dip the lettuce in the ocean--racoon style. Do raccoons live near the ocean?

I watched this, open-jawed. A number of things were going through my mind:

• this water is salty
• this water is in a stagnant cove
• this is the same water I was throwing rocks in earlier
• this water was right by shore with a bunch of sentiment etc.

This comes after the Koreans told us waygooks that the disposable wooden chopsticks we were using to eat were dipped in poisonous chemicals. That they were okay to pick up the food with, but we shouldn't put the chopsticks in our mouths.

When it comes to food safety, I guess Koreans know best.

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Thanks to Sabrina for the pic. She grabbed her camera while I was still paralyzed with shock.