Tonight Sonja and I went for Korean Traditional Rose Noodles. There is a restaurant not too far from where we are staying. The bus stops in front of it. We've seen it many times and one of our students told Sonja it is very good.
We walked in and asked for the menu, hoping that since there was English outside of the restaurant that they might have a menu with English, or at least pictures. She pointed to the wall where there was a large menu posted - all in Korean.
Okay, we were in that situation again where we had no idea what the restaurant served and the only clue was a bunch of squares, lines and circles.
I recognized neng myeon - which is cold noodles. There seemed to be several kinds of neng myeon. I was hoping to get the one with rose noodles.
I didn't think the noodles were rose, because I saw the sign outside of the restaurant with the big picture. The noodles were green, but I expected them to be floating in a delicate rose water.
I didn't know how to order rose noodles. We tried miming. I held my hand up with my fingers all together to simulate a flower opening. No luck. She didn't understand a word we said. Sonja said, "rose, flower" - she didn't get it. Finally, I got up and pointed to a rose hanging on the wall above the little window to the kitchen and said "rose". She made the big x with her arms and then said something to the cook, who showed me some green noodles.
Okay, I guessed they didn't have what I thought they had. I ordered neng myeon and a dongas (tonkatsu = pork cutlet) for Sonja.
My noodles came and were basically neng myeon. Nothing special.
It was then that I figured out what the problem might be. I think "Korea Traditional Rose Noodle" is the name of the restaurant and the rose motif is simply something to distinguish the restaurant from others that serve the same thing.
Who knows really. All I know is I am kind of getting tired of not being understood and having to grunt in order to eat.
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