Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

While I was pretty disgusted by Kyochon, that TV series on Korea sounds very interesting.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/food-trend-predictions-for-2011-2428460/

Could kimbap be the next sushi? Evidence is mounting that smoky, piquant Korean is America's next big cuisine. Witness the burgeoning obsession with double-fried, spicy chicken, as championed by New York's Momofuku Ko and Los Angeles' Kyochon, and the meteoric rise of the Kogi BBQ truck in L.A., selling kimchi quesadillas and short rib sliders. Finally, look out for Stop and Bap , a 13-part series on PBS devoted to Korean cuisine and culture, debuting next spring and starring Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his wife, Marja. If JG says Korean is where it's at, we are true believers.

[rumdiary]

If you watch cooking shows like Next Iron Chef or Top Chef you hear Korean food being mentioned more and more each season. California Pizza Kitchen now sells 'Korean Tacos'. There are also billboards all over L.A pushing Korean pears and galbi.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[AsiaESLbound]

America's palate has gone from roast and potatoes to a wildly varied one including spicy international themed choices. The Koreans are also entering a new age for food too with many new international choices like Italian popping up.

Take an iron pan and you got boekkembap possibilities beyond anything real Korean restaurants do. Gamjatang, dakdoritang, and boekkembap would go over well in the US. I'm adamant Korean food can be made much better through applying principals of good customer service and higher quality ingredients. You take a somewhat boring idea a step further and you got an exported cuisine. The best pizza isn't to be found in Italy, but possibly in Thailand or US. The best kimchi taco isn't in Korea, but probably in the US. The best schnitzel isn't in Germany, but could be one of 1000's of places far from Europe. I'm quite sure the best Korean food isn't to be found in Korea, but it's a good starting point that turned me onto gamjatang and boekkembap.

[Kimchifart]

[Alphabet_Stew]

After eating Korean oily/greasy food and stomach-colon-cancer-causing-kimchi dishes for the last 10 years, today I ate at "Everest (Tibet/Nepal) restaurant" at Dongdaemun and it was the tastiest, healthiest, succulent food I have eaten in ages.

Definately got to go back.

I miss Thai and Vietnamese dishes also.

these days I refuse to eat white rice, I only eat black rice, has the same anthocyanins in it as cranberries and black berries.

Bimbimbap is mainly white sticky rice - not so healthy.

[sheriffadam]

was shocked by the two MASSIVE Hite billboards randomly in the desert on the way to Vegas last year, something I missed?

[offtheoche]

To date I've lived in six different countries and hands down Korean food is at the bottom of the list.

Korean food is the thing I least like about living in Korea.

Thai, Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Vietnamese, even Japanese food blows Korean food into oblivion.

I suspect Korean food is popular with K-Americans and ex-pat Koreans in the US and THAT'S IT.

Once I leave Korea I will never ever try Korean food ever again.

This article sounds like yet more Kimchiland wannabe international propaganda to me.

[towl]

I must respectfully disagree with the article. Korean food will never catch on because it is terrible. Of all the countries I've been to Korean cuisine is by far the worst.

Now there are a few tasty dishes, like Dakgalbi and Kamjatang, but by in large, Korean cuisine is extremely limited in it's flavour base. And this for me is the greatest problem. The flavour base is repetitive, and lacks subtlety. 90% of Korean dishes are made like this:

1. Water in a pot.
2. Add red pepper paste.
3. Add a few vegetables (these are always the same vegetables)
4. Add your choice of meat.
5. Boil and serve.

That's it. Red pepper paste.

The Korean mind cannot appreciate food that does not have red pepper paste as it's base ingredient.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[Troglodyte]

I noted that the stuff mentioned in the article are more of a fusion of Western (American?) foods with Korean food. The Korean food is more of an ingredient in common American foods. Koreans don't eat tacos. Sure, we could probably put a bit of kimchi on a taco. I'd give it a try at least once. But that doesn't make it Korean. No more so than putting maple syrup on a baklava makes it Canadian, or putting corn on a pizza makes it Mexican. I have no big problem with Korean food. As others have posted, I don't find a large variation in the common dishes either. I think that if you fused it with something western to give it variety, you could market it. Otherwise, I think that it will remain one of those cuisines that people occasionally try for something different, not as a popular favorite of the masses.

[redaxe]

[lakeshow]

[redaxe]

[rumdiary]

Not all Korean food is going to be popular just as not all Japanese and Indian food is not popular in the west. No one will ever go out of their way to eat kimchi jiggae or samgyupsal . Galbi is already getting popular. Bibimbap could be too if they westernized it a bit (offer brown rice, different vegetables etc.). Soju coctails are already popular in restaurants that are only allowed to server beer and wine. The first thing they should do is stop pushing kimchi.