Korean Job Discussion Forums

[flummuxt]

Everyone that I have offered American hot sauce, made with fermented red peppers, have taken one taste and pronounced it terrible. Some have even said it is too hot (trust me, this isn't the real hot stuff). And those are the ones who actually opened the bottle. I have tried several brands, and no one wouldn't take a second taste.

It's made from the same stuff your kimchi is made from: red chili peppers.

I wonder what would happen if I replaced the real stuff, putting kimchi sauce in American hot sauce bottles? I wonder if they would like it then?

What are they afraid would happen if they ate some American food, that they would start singing "The Star Spangled Banner" in the shower?

[Lekker]

Hottest peppers I ever ate in my life were at a Korean restaurant in LA. I thought I was going to suffocate, they were so hot. In America, we get our chilli peppers from Mexico. In Korea, they get them from Korea. It must be a patriotic thing.

[weatherman]

Do they? The locals seem to love it on pizza.

[flummuxt]

Lekker said:

[nicholas_chiasson]

the lousiana cheyanne sauces are quite good. Miss them. Nice in salsa. Oh I'm in Korea. Don't have salsa. Or refritos. Or anything.

[tfunk]

[CentralCali]

I keep a bottle of Tabasco's habanero sauce for the times I attend those "departmental training" dinners. Even though these people have known me for over two years now, I still get the "Can you handle spicy food" query. In response, I put some habanero sauce on my food, eat the food with a smile, and then offer the sauce to the questioner. It's quite entertaining to see the reaction.

I've lived in California for years and enjoy that cuisine a lot. Korean food's just not that spicy in comparison.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[waltjocketty]

First of all, my girlfriend, her family, her friends, and my co-workers from last year all loved Cholula. They, like your friends, said it was too spicy. I don't think they really mean that it's too spicy, though. I think they're just surprised. I don't know.

Second, I have made gochujang before and the ingredients are very different from Louisiana's hot sauces. Sure, red peppers are used in both Louisiana hot sauce and gochujang, but gochujang also includes fermented soybean powder, glutinous rice water and lots of salt.

It's a very different flavor, and it's in so many Korean foods that to introduce Koreans to a hot sauce so radically different in flavor and consistency is to ask for criticism.

Finally, the question the OP poses is funny to me. It reminds me of the numerous conversations I've had with Koreans about the food they think is American. For example: when Koreans don't understand why we think their pizzas are so bad. "But you Americans love pizza?!" Yeah, we love pizza, and Korean pizza looks similar (sometimes) and has bread and cheese and sauce and veggies and meat. However, we all know that Korean pizza is an embarrassment.

[mindmetoo]

It's like someone who only has ketchup sneering at salsa.

Gochujang is fine. But Koreans dump it on everything. Asking Koreans to try, maybe, a different kind of hot sauce is like asking them to disavow their mother.

[ryouga013]

Can't we just have a public service announcement to Korea:

"You're gojujang isn't that spicy. Foreigner people have had much spicier. Asking us once is ok. After you've asked once, shut up."

or something along those lines

[Taggert]

Come on. Koreans only have a select few things that they can say make them proud to be Korean: food and cell phones. Why do you insist on attacking their world view?

Maybe you are offended because you expected them to love your hot sauce but it really isn't that good.

/jk

no. but seriously.

[Ukon]

Give them some endorphin rush....that'll fix'em

[Hollywoodaction]

[WoBW]