Korean Job Discussion Forums

[RyanInKorea]

I ventured over to the Costco in Sangbong on Sunday. It seemed like a normal visit as I gathered the items I came to purchase. As a special treat to any Costco visit I always plan on grabbing something from the restaurant. Cheap pizza, soup, bread rolls... how can one go wrong? It was at this point that I started to notice something strange with the way everyone else was eating.

It was actually my bird who first noticed the couple beside us. The girl had a pile of chopped onions with some ketchup, relish and mustard on it (all of these items are free and self-serve, though I imagined them to be for the hotdogs). We're not talking a tiny pile here. It took up a majority of the plate. That's a substantial amount. She then just mixed them all together into a nice consistency and ate it like a meal. We were joking about the uniqueness and strangeness of it. Then I noticed that everyone was doing it. At least 80% of the customers had this onion mix on their table.

I couldn't understand why people were doing it. Is it a food fad? They're abusing the service items and creating their own side dishes. Not particularly appetizing ones at that.

In any event, felt like I should share, thanks for listening,
Ryan

EDIT: They're-their-there

[Goku]

I've seen that mentioned a few times on the site.

I think it has to do with the fact that onions + sauce = some kind of appetizer.

Usually Korean appetizers I've seen pickles, daikon, onions, etc... all seem to be toppings to our hot dogs.

So I'm actually not suprised they would eat it... Just not like that though, I still find it kind of strange that they take the condiments to be like a freebie appetizer.

[jotgarden]

I hung out with a Canadian girl once who ate a hamburger with a fork and a knife. Why do all Canadians do that? Is it some sort of popular thing there?

[seoulsucker]

Yeah, this happens at every Costco in Korea and has been covered a lot on Dave's.

The general consensus is that it's a combination of Koreans' absolute necessity for side dishes when consuming a meal and a cultural hangover from leaner times when it was every man for himself, free food was a godsend, etc.

I still get a kick out of it, and it's always one of the highlights of my trips to Costco.

[justaguy]

[Michelle]

[Benicio]

-Pickles & onions are popular in side dishes. Koreans love side dishes.

-It's free! Well, we know it's not really free. It's supposed to be toppings for paying customers, but no one is stopping them from doing it.
Koreans love free stuff! We all love free stuff, but for a Korean to get free food is like a junkie getting free smack!
Next month is Buddha's Birthday. All the temples give away a free temple meal on that day. The food isn't actually that good, but it's free, so you will see people lined up a mile long to get a bowl.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't taste all that good. If it's free, it's amazing!

[Sapa]

They do it with the food samples in supermarkets too. I've seen people hovering around the samples for ages just taking piece after piece of whatever they were giving out. It's like they were treating it as a free meal with no consideration to others who may also want to try it. I would feel too ashamed to take more than one piece.
I don't understand why they don't get sent on their way by the sales people.

[Benicio]

Just like my a$$ hat first roommate from Canuckistan.
He was one of the cheapest bastards I ever met.
He would go to Lotte Supermarket every weekend and try to fill up on free samples so he wouldn't have to pay for lunch.
Apparently 1,000 Won for kimbap was a little more than he wanted to part with.
The guy was a total jacka$$. Probably still is.

[endo]

I mocked the Korean for years for abusing their condoment privilages at Costco.


Then a few weeks ago I decided to try it out for myself. I had a nice little pile of onions with ketchup, relish and mustard and it tasted pretty good

[Ilsanman]

Koreans are this way with anything free.

The other day, at Homeplus, they put out a huge tub of strawberries, washed and the tops cut off, all ready for samples. A small group of 10 or so people hovered over to them and between them, ate just about all of them. We're talking more than 10 strawberries each.

That's what happens when you put out samples and don't supervise them. or even if you supervise them. My wife and MIL are bad for that too.

[tefain]

Yeah the workers there fill the onion server about every 5 minutes.

One time I asked a Korean I was sitting by why this was so popular. She told me the regular food there (pizza, chicken bake) was oily and the onions provided balance.

Of course then you're left with mustard and onion taste, but I didn't press her on that!

[Xuanzang]

It makes me want to puke sometimes. Quite noxious - the smell. They lap it up like hotcakes though.

[Benicio]

Can't imagine this "dish" inspires a great, big kiss!

Of course, you could say that about plenty of Korean dishes!

[Straphanger]