Cafeteria Food in Korea

My favorite banchan was the japchae. It's a dish of mixed noodles, stir-fried vegetables, and shredded meat. If you've never tried these famous Korean noodles, you should! The texture is so chewy and smooth. The dish itself is very healthy because of the overwhelming variety of vegetables. This dish is very popular at dinner parties and holiday gatherings.
I was keeping my eyes open for some kind of change in my school cafeteria food because sadly, the lunch teacher who I secretly adored (and whose food I adored) transferred to a different school. :( We have a new lunch teacher and the menu hasn't changed much, except for today's soup. We've had soybean paste soup before, but the new lunch teacher added her own twist by adding a Korean root. I couldn't figure out which root it was, but it had a very strong taste. Roots are very healthy, but I wasn't very fond of it.

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 (clockwise from top left dish):
japchae,
cubed radish kimchi (총각김치),
kiwi juice,
marinated and fried Japanese Spanish mackerel (삼치강정),
soybean paste soup with wild chives (냉이달래된장국),
and rice (율무밥)