School Cafeteria Lunches

Pictured above is something called dongass or dongasu in Japan. It came from England long ago. It's a pork patty, breaded and either fried or cooked in the oven. It's a very common food. You see it in certain types of restaurants which could be called Korean fast food restaurants. It's usually served with a good helping of rice and a little pasta salad, coleslaw or kimchi. 

At the university where I worked dongass with rice and pasta,  cabbage salad was on the menu everyday. Usually the dongass has some brown sauce on it which I think is made from powder. I'm sorry to see it's such a common food now, it's not healthy. Many of the foods they eat especially fast foods like this aren't healthy. 
I went into my school cafeteria and looked at the menu to see ja-jang rice, rice with a dark brown sauce containing soy sauce, oil, bits of pork, small pieces of cabbage and onion. I ate the same thing the last time I went to the cafeteria and it was pretty good so I ordered it again. 

The cafeteria worker also gave me some chap-jae which are noodles made of I think buckwheat. These are always good though sometimes taste too oily. This foods are often seen in the cafeteria. Other common options are rice with curry sauce and rice with spicy sauce. There are always meat and vegetables in the sauce.

As I was eating it I was thinking about what it is made of. Cafeteria food in Korea like everywhere else probably is not as high quality as restaurant or home cooked food. But low price. That's the way it is. Not complaining about that. However, I started to think that this food is really not healthy. First, the sauce has a lot of oil. How much? I can't be sure. Then I thought that the sauce maybe comes from a package. I sometimes buy packages of curry or ja jang sauce which contain small pieces of meat and vegs, ready to heat up and mix with rice. I also wondered whether the sauce was originally a powder. I see in shops but don't buy powdered forms of curry or ja jang sauce.

I thought about how often Koreans and also Americans eat foods like this, packaged foods which come in boxes or bags and so on. I know there are preservatives and chemicals in the mix. Can you expect a cafeteria to make everything from scratch? Of course not.

One time I was eating there with a Korean friend and we had small bowls of spicy soup with our meals. When you looked at the soup there was a sheen on it which my friend said was caused by chemicals.

Next time I go there I think I'll eat kimbap which is made of rice probably cooked the same day, vegs, ham or tuna and seaweed. It seems a lot more natural. Even the french fries seem healthier. And maybe the duk polki, pieces of rice dough in spicy sauce which must have some chemicals. I'm thinking to do some research about this.