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cragesmure
Joined: 23 Oct 2010
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 Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 8:33 am Post subject: |
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| minos wrote: |
| NohopeSeriously wrote: |
1. Go to Geonguk University subway station in Seoul.
2. Walk 20 minutes to the Chinese kebab district
3. Have some authentic Northern Chinese cuisines made by actual Chinese
4. Be happy
5. Profit |
Bingo!
This is a china town. I know cuz I live here.
The reason nobody talks about a "china town" is becuase nobody wants to visit it in Korea.
Unless they like lamb(most don't it seems) they don't wanna go. Most of the authentic chinese restourants here focus on lamb BBQ. |
Haha. "authentic northern Chinese cuisine"? I think you are talking about authentic western Chinese cuisine. I'm not sure of the spelling in Pinyin, but I'm pretty sure "Chuar" is from Xinxiang Province. Order some in Beijing, then grab some in Kashgar. You'll see the difference. We are talking about a massive country with 55+ ethnic groups. It's pretty funny that people are comparing a Chinese bastardisation of Chinese cuisine to the foreign equivalents and asking which is the biggest bastardisation. That's like saying "Which country makes pizza most similar to Chicago?". Who cares? It's not Sicilian, but if both pizzas taste good, then rip in.
If it tastes good to you, eat it and shut up. Good food is good food, plain and simple. |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 9:14 am Post subject: |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
It makes me laugh and sigh at the same time when Koreans say they go to Chinatown to eat Jja jang myeon.
If you're going all that way, why not eat something good? |
If you're referring to Chinatown in Incheon, have you ever been there? The Chinese restaurants there serve all the same stuff that's in all the other Korean-Chinese restaurants at twice the price, plus shark's fin soup (which tastes lake mucus, but apparently it's medicinal). |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Yaya wrote: |
I like American-style Chinese food more than the Korean style, but it's a matter of personal choice. I grew up in the U.S. thinking jajangmyeon was a Korean dish.
The Chinese food in Korea is of the Shandong variety and Americans are most used to the Guangzhou (Cantonese) or Sichuan cuisines. That said, I hear Chinese food in mainland China is downright awful and nothing like the stuff in North America. |
I just had to log in to laugh at this post. Chinese food in mainland china is bad ahahahahahahahahahhhhaaaaaaaaah what a wanker.
and then to say nothing like the north american crap. aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa
makes me laugh when guys say chinese girls are not hot and think the ugly chinese girls in north america represent the looks of the mainland girls.
chinese food and chicks are friggin awseome in mainland china. |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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| tukmax wrote: |
I've been using bullet points lately. I like it so I'm going to stick with it. My thoughts on the issue
- If you ask Koreans what they think of Chinese food then 99.9997% will respond by saying 'Ewww, greasy!" while making a disgusted face.
- Seoul is one of the only large cities in the world that doesn't have a China town
- Canada has some of the best Chinese food in the world. Vancouver and Toronto most notably. I've known many Chinese as well as non-Chinese who have tried both authentic and westernized and agree that the Chinese food in Canada is better than in China.
- A big difference in North American Chinese cooking is that it uses more meat than Chinese food in China, hence appealing more to western taste buds
- I miss Chinese food! Growing up in Toronto (a city that is 1/4 Chinese/East Asian) I had easy access to delicious Chinese food. Ironically, even though Korea is neighbors with China, and in the same geographic region, I actually feel more isolated and farther away from Chinese culture then I did back home.
- Furthermore, I'm actually surprised how little Koreans know about other Asian countries like China, Japan, etc. Growing up with Asians and learning about their culture from them I sometimes feel I know more about other Asian countries then Koreans do, again ironic considering how close they are to China etc
- Many Chinese and Japanese restaurants in Toronto are owned by Koreans
- For a city of 20 million people, and one that wants to be a true global city, Seoul's international restaurant scene is pitiful. Other than Itaewon there are barely any good non-Korean restaurants considering a city it's size. A lot of Koreans just eat Korean food and wont even try anything else. I think this speaks volumes about the culture and mindset of the people here.
- I was surprised to find out that there is a Ho Lee Chows in Seoul, a Canadian Chinese food take out company. I use to order from this back home with my friends, but last I checked they were having financial problems. Weird to see them in Korea. Haven't tried them here though. |
chinese food better in canada than china-get a friggin life and then you say its because they use more meat-hahaha you just have no friggin idea.
live in many parts of china and then maybe you can have an idea-but for now you are talking out your arse. |
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johnnyrook
Joined: 08 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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| NohopeSeriously wrote: |
1. Go to Geonguk University subway station in Seoul.
2. Walk 20 minutes to the Chinese kebab district
3. Have some authentic Northern Chinese cuisines made by actual Chinese
4. Be happy
5. Profit |
Can you give more details on how to get there? Just looking at google maps, and it looks like if I walk for 20 minutes in any direction from Konkuk Station I'll either be at another subway stop or somewhere that's closer to walk to from another station. |
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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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| Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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| johnnyrook wrote: |
| Can you give more details on how to get there? Just looking at google maps, and it looks like if I walk for 20 minutes in any direction from Konkuk Station I'll either be at another subway stop or somewhere that's closer to walk to from another station. |
The last time I went to the Chinese kebab district (AKA Jayang-dong New Chinatown), I accidentally gone out to the 1st exit and went to the opposite direction....
Go out to 6th exit and go straight. It'll take 10-13 minutes.
Here's the map. http://news.donga.com/IMAGE/2009/05/04/7125578.1.jpg |
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SeoulNate
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
Location: Hyehwa
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| Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| SeoulNate wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Same with Jja Jjeon Myeong. |
lo. that is not even Chinese food. It is Korean.
The American take is way better. The Korean version is awful and there is no selection to speak of. With that said, there are a few places in Seoul that you can get decent American style Chinese food. |
Are you Korean? You sound like one of them. Every Korean person claims that, but a Chinese person told me they are full of ....... Jjam bbong was really close to Chinese from what I was told. I agree I like Canadian or American Chinese better than Korean Chinese. |
I have spent a lot of time in China and I have never seen anything resembling it. It is a purely Korean concoction, and nasty at that. |
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daojiao
Joined: 28 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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Hate to resurrect an old, dead thread, but the topic of China and especially Chinese food are near and dear to me, so here goes.
On Jjambong:
| Quote: |
| I have spent a lot of time in China and I have never seen anything resembling it. It is a purely Korean concoction, and nasty at that. |
After consulting a Chinese friend and doing a bit of digging myself, the dish known as "jjambong" in Korea originally came from Fujian and was known as 汤肉丝面 (tang2rou4si1mian4), or "shredded meat (pork) noodle soup." This dish is the inspiration for "jjambong," but it appears to have changed substantially. Here's a photo:
http://www.macrotravel.com.tw/gallery/40/previews-med/40-16238.jpg
On North American vs. Chinese Chinese Food
| Quote: |
chinese food better in canada than china-get a friggin life and then you say its because they use more meat-hahaha you just have no friggin idea.
live in many parts of china and then maybe you can have an idea-but for now you are talking out your arse. |
I've lived in China quite a bit myself, and both posters have a point. As an American who is used to eating meat, I enjoy the extra meat in Westernized Chinese dishes. However, authentic regional Chinese cuisine has much bolder, unique and interesting flavors compared to the oily, relatively bland (though still delicious) stuff in North America. And yes, I have had Chinese food in Canada. It's better than the U.S. (in my opinion), but still very different from the stuff in China. tl;dr both are very good but for different reasons.
On the Origins of Korean Chinese Food:
| Quote: |
| The Chinese food in Korea is of the Shandong variety and Americans are most used to the Guangzhou (Cantonese) or Sichuan cuisines. That said, I hear Chinese food in mainland China is downright awful and nothing like the stuff in North America. |
Shandong food focuses on very light, almost bland flavors, and steamed or boiled dishes. Since the province is a peninsula, seafood is slightly more popular than chicken and pork. I would imagine that a restaurant in Korea that sold these relatively "flavorless" Shandong would quickly go out of business, since Korean food seems to emphasize spice and strong flavors. The Chinese food in Korea is completely unrelated to Shandong cuisine.
As mentioned above, jjambong originally comes from Fujian's "Min" Cuisine.
Jjajjangmyeon comes from 炸酱面 (zha4jiang1mian4), a dish from northeastern China. Since the northeast was traditionally Manchu and Korean (read: barbarians) territory, their cuisine is not included in the "Eight Cuisines" of China (while Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu are "distinct," ha!). I've had Zhajiangmian twice in China, and it looked roughly like this:
http://a4.att.hudong.com/60/13/01300000291092129605130175611.jpg
Mandu dumplings are funny to me, since the Chinese word 馒头 (man2tou) means "steamed bun" in the north and is a generic word for "dumpling" in the south (which, I'm guessing, is where the Koreans borrowed it from, though Wiki says the actual dumplings came from the Mongol conquest). I'm not sure if these are touted as "Chinese food" but I see them a lot at Chinese places. Chinese people do eat boiled dumplings in soup, especially in the north (yes, in Shandong, too!). The flavor is actually pretty close, except that the Korean version seems more seasoned and has a lot of vegetable flavor (whereas in China the flavor focuses on the meat/seafood).
One last thing... "north Chinese food" is actually about four different cuisines. There's Xinjiang food from Xinjiang in the northwest, which is Turkic Muslim fare, often halaal, that includes lamb kebabs, certain rice/tomato/beef dishes, and thick broth soups among other things. There's Shaanxi food which centers around Xi'an and has lots of noodle dishes and specialties, as well as a good number of beef and lamb dishes (I only spent a few days there, but my impressions were of a mixture between Chinese and Uyghur/Turkic foods). There's Shandong food, covered above. And then there's northwestern Chinese cuisine, which (I've heard) has a lot of Korean influence due to places like Yeonbyeon--not too sure, since I've never spent much time up there.
Anyway, that's all. Hope this helped/interested somebody. |
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Squire
Joined: 26 Sep 2010
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I realised recently that dark brown sauce they use for all Chinese food here tastes just like gravy. I'm not eating that crap any more. Gravy is for chips, bangers and mash and Sunday dinners. End of story. |
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sadguy
Joined: 13 Feb 2011
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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| the reason why north american chinese food is different than chinese chinese food is because north american chinese cuisine was essentially created by the railroad workers in america. they used the products they had laying around. |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Yaya wrote: |
The Namguro and Daerim areas of Seoul have large concentrations of ethnic Chinese, though I hear the Yeongdeungpo area has the highest concentration. And Incheon is close by with its Chinatown and there are plans to build the world's biggest Chinatown in Ilsan.
Give it time and Korea will get there. |
Therein lies the problem. Chinatowns aren't "built" with the purpose of saying "the Chinese will live HERE". They grow by themselves from Chinese choosing to settle there. I see the Chinatown preparing to be built and it will be for the eyes only- nothing special about that place at all. |
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wishfullthinkng
Joined: 05 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:28 pm Post subject: |
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| while people are on this subject, does anyone know what happened to fat panda in noksapyeong? i strolled by the other day and it was gone much to my lo mein desiring chagrin. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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As an American, I can tell you that the best Chinese food is prepared by Mexicans.
In my hometown they had this one place that advertised the chef as being some bigshot culinary prize winner. People always thought he was making their food and would rave about it.
Well turns out he just made the original recipe and then flew off to some other city to open restaurants. The great chef turned out to be a couple of below minimum wage guys named Carlos and Rodrigo.
Every Chinese place I've been to with Chinese doing the cooking has been mediocre. Every place with Mexican cooks- sublime. The problem is all the people who grew up cooking are all semi-retired and have handed it off to their slacker nephew/niece who was too unmotivated to become a doctor/lawyer/engineer and grew up having their food cooked for them instead of doing the cooking. |
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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| Well, My Chinese buddy from Hubei thinks that Cantonese food (as well as North American Chinese) is horrible and disgusting. To each of his own, I suppose. |
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detourne_me
Joined: 26 May 2006
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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I'm glad you guys brought up the kundae chinese area. love the lamb kebabs there.
There are also some decent chinese restaurants in myeongdong.
i miss good dimsum though, with carts being rolled through the restaurant and plucking off dishes at random. |
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