Korean Job Discussion Forums

[suki]

[Papa Smurf]

[indytrucks]

[bogey666]

more stupid NONSENSE about "branding" one's cuisine..
or branding a capital city.
or branding another city..(Hello Suwon! Bravo Ansan!)

branding branding branding..

land of morning calm.
soul of asia.

and more STUPID NONSENSE.

promote what you want to promote. If people like it, you don't need to market it.. or "brand" it.

Korea and Koreans must spend more money on idiots with fewer results than any other entity I can think of.

[theholyinnocent]

I agree that a lot of the problem with Korean food is that, at least among the restaurants I go to, they don't really do a good job of describing their food to non-Korean speakers. I would never have eaten half the shit I've tried if I'd gone by the menu descriptions, which are often either frighteningly vague ("seafood in spicy sauce") or as unappetizingly detailed as possible.

And I think that focusing on kimchi as a condiment/flavor, rather than a food in its own right, is the way to go. My boyfriend is not the most adventurous eater, having grown up in the American South eating where variety meant burgers vs. fried chicken -- but I made kimchi chigae for him one night and he really, really liked it. I made him smell the kimchi before I cooked it, so he wouldn't get freaked out by the smell of the cooking, and he was like, "I could taste it just from the smell, I really don't think I'm going to like this." But once it was the flavor rather than the focus, he thought it was great.

I think that Korean food suffers from the same problem as authentic Chinese food -- namely, that no one knows enough about it to know what to order, and the restaurants tend to be clustered in areas with high Korean (or Chinese) populations so they don't market themselves to those unfamiliar with the food. Honestly, I still get way intimidated going out to Flushing -- for either Korean or Chinese food.

Cheap Korean food is not really a problem here in NYC, at least. There are some swanky gourmet Korean places, but Koreatown is full of reasonably-priced restaurants right there in Midtown Manhattan (at least, reasonably priced considering the cost of most restaurants in the city). I mean hell, I can get a decent-sized cafeteria-style lunch at Woorijip for like $6. Granted it's not like how it sounds in Korea, where cheap kimbap places are everywhere -- you need to know where to go, and you need to know how to move fast once you're there, so it can be intimidating for first-timers. What I think would do really well here is if someone opened up a Korean fast(ish)-food chain in like four locations all over the city at once, with a really user-friendly menu and welcoming decor. On streets that the average person living or working in a given neighborhood will often walk down -- not all clustered in a K-town destination area. I wouldn't say to make it comfort food, but more the "cheap and fast" answer to sushi/Japanese, and the "healthy and tasty" answer to normal fast food. Some tables for people to sit at, but a focus on either carrying-out or eating in a hurry. Like Maoz ( http://www.maozveg.com/ ) vegetarian falafel fast food -- it seems like a few of them just popped up one day, and they always seem pretty full.

[bogey666]

seems to me that given the reactions of many, dare I say "the majority" of people here, you can take all the "branding" and marketing attempts of Korean food and throw them in the garbage.

Once they taste nastys squid in that sauce they insist on putting on EVERYTHING and get served "seaweed" and other grasses pasted in red pepper sauce.. your interest in "Korean food" will diminish rapidly.

"Branding" no longer works in the developed world.. certainly not in the US. Someone might try it.. then he/she will say/think - "this sucks / or not"..

and that's end of story.