Korean Job Discussion Forums

banjois · Joined: 14 Nov 2009

Should I give her a heads-up on how cabbage makes me gassy, or is that something she'll have to find out on her own?

curiousaboutkorea · Joined: 21 Jan 2009

young_clinton · Joined: 09 Sep 2009

DorkothyParker · Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: Jeju

Personally, I think the food is good. The diner stuff is comforting in the same way diner food back home is. Most spicy stuff isn't spicy but it has a flavor. Smile

Local restaurants tend to be more exciting than the chains and you may run into the one thing that melts your face off.
If you're like me and you'll try anything twice, there is no reason not to just point on menus. Luckily, you'll have a rough idea of what you're eating because most places have suicidal/cannibalistic cartoon pictures of whatever it is they serve.

My recommendation your first week here? Try the orange place. I have no idea what this diner is called, but I have seen it in every city I've been to. You will know what I am talking about when you see it.

curiousaboutkorea · Joined: 21 Jan 2009

GreenlightmeansGO · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Location: Daegu

Ladies and gentleman, he's a natural.

GENO123 · Joined: 28 Jan 2010

Panda · Joined: 25 Oct 2008

Some people here can really write.

cj1976 · Joined: 26 Oct 2005

I've been here for 4 years and I had a culinary 'first' last weekend. I was eating in a seafood joint with some Korean fellas and they decided I had to man up. An eel was skinned alive and thrown guts-and-all onto the grill. Still writhing in agony, they extracted the liquid from it's gall bladder and gave it to me in a glass of soju, which I downed in one shot. It tasted as rank as I thought it might, but luckily they had cut out the poor creature's still soft liver for me to get rid of the taste. The actual flesh of the eel was quite good when it had finally stopped wriggling and had time to cook properly.
Now that's some good eating.

reactionary · Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Location: korreia

^

Nice of them to skin it! Sounds like a high level of preparation for that dish.

Bloopity Bloop · Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Location: Seoul yo

Bloopity Bloop · Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Location: Seoul yo

On second thought, I will post...

First off, my passion in life is food. Notice how passion was singular? All other interests lie far behind food. That being said, to answer your question, "or is the food good?" --> The answer is, "no, it is not good, and that's a plain FACT"

I had just come back from a 10-day trip to Tokyo, one of the world's premier food destinations. I ran into my school cafeteria's "head chef/nutritionist" (that's what they call her) and she wanted to know what I ate there. I told her I had the best bowl of noodles in my life (I went to the 3rd ranked ramen shop in all of Japan according to the Supleks ramen guide--Rokurinsha in Oosaki and ordered an oo-mori of their mind-blowingly delicious tsuke-men). She then told me, "But Japanese ramen is bad, very fatty, Korean ramyun is better. Korean food is the best... blah blah blah."

This sparked an inner rage within. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. She compared Japanese ramen, one of the world's perfect food forms, to ramyun--a total garbage food? What a joke!

I often have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Koreans GENUINELY believe their food is good, let alone the best in the world. \Korean food is never critically acclaimed nor are any dishes hailed as game-changing. Korean food is the definition of mediocre cuisine, at best.

I've tried everthing put in front of me and am normally very adventurous when it comes to food. So far, the only foods I have somewhat enjoyed are sundubu, takk kalbi/jjimdakk, KBBQ, jjapchae, and maybe a few others. I've never been so uninterested in food in my life... everything is blah.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like the food is revolting, it's just all very, very okay.

So don't start eating Korean foods now, eat the foods you like back home because you will be in for hard times if you love food as much as I do. Having lived in Japan, China, Brazil, and Europe, the food is the hardest thing I have to deal with here (my job is a piece of cake--which would probably be corn-infused here).

The foreign food here is basically comprised of mega-corporations like McDonald's, KFC, and BK. What passes for the pinnacle of the Western culinary world here is TGIF and Outback. Oh yeah, the Outback here douses baked potatos in sugar-butter.

In all honestly, I'd rather eat at any random cheap subway stn. restaurant in Japan than one the finest Korean restaurant in Korea.

I'll be taking a trip home in about 10 days and I'll probably come back 10 pounds heavier.