Korean Job Discussion Forums

[actionjackson]

I'm not one for bashing Korea, as when I'm there, I really don't have a problem with the place. However, I tend to get slightly annoyed by the-isn't Korean food too spicy for you? questions, as they usually come when I'm drowning whatever food I'm eating in the red spicy sauce stuff on the table. And as a long time reader of Dave's and knowing that this question comes up quite often for many of you, I thought I would share this little bit of my day yesterday. As she wrote it for all of her Korean friends to see, I thought it would be fine for me to post it here as well so that you could pass along to your Korean friends that there is in fact food spicier than what Korea produces. (For those who don't know Korean, the gist is this, we were in Tulum yesterday and the pico de gallo we were eating was causing her to tear up and gave her the hiccups. The waiter had to help her alleviate some of the hotness and felt a ding to her pride as she was Korean and was used to eating spicy Korean food.) It was nice because now she finally realizes what I'm referencing when I talk about spicy food.

[amnsg2]

I think spicy food dents everyone's pride just a little bit. One of my students was eating potato wedges with a spicy sauce on it, and he offered me a bite (as a joke, I don't think he expected me to take him up on it) but I took one. The entire class of boys shouted "Teacher! No!" With exaggerated hand gestures, which pretty much made me want to prove them all wrong and dispel the 'waegookins don't like spicy food' myth, plus a bit of Enid Blyton 'girls can be every bit as good as a boy' spirit. I then had to somehow keep teaching and pretend everything was fine, even though my tongue was burning and my sinuses were freaking out at me. Whatever that was, it wasn't Korean.

It's quite funny, me trying desperately to prove that waegookins can handle Korean spicy food and your friend trying to prove that Koreans are the best at eating it. Same same

[Squire]

Sometimes when Koreans tell me 'it's too hot for foreigners' I say it's okay, my favourite food is Indian which is too hot for Koreans

[adzee1]

[methdxman]

You guys need to settle down.

In the U.S. all cops think blacks and latinos are criminals, for instance.

I think you should take this "these whities cannot eat spicy food" stereotype with a bit of light-heartedness.

Sensitive much?

[methdxman]

And for every "badass" that Koreans see eating spicy food they see 100 pussies who cry at even the thought of it.

[adzee1]

[soomin]

[adzee1]

[Seoulman69]

I'm afraid that it's me letting the side down. When I eat gochujang I get terrible diarrhea due to my IBS. So I avoid spicy food.
Sorry everyone.

[lichtarbeiter]

I try to explain to Koreans that the notion that foreigners cannot eat spicy food is based purely on speculation by thinking about what traditional European/American food is.

I tell them that the perception they have of foreigners holds true mostly for my grandparents' generation, and less for my parents' generation, and even less for my own generation (who eat Mexican/Indian/Thai/Vietnamese food on a regular basis).

I estimate, in fact, that the average western male in his 20s or 30s can handle food spicier than the average Korean.

I was doing a cooking class with Korean kids a couple years ago, and one of the things we made was curry rice. We didn't execute perfectly, and most of the kids found it too spicy to eat. I took a bite, and found it moderately spice at best.

For the first time, I was successfully able to convince kids that I dislike ddokbokki not because it's too spicy, but because I hate chewing ddok (and also the flavour of the sauce is unimpressive).

Actually, I don't feel offence over it as much as I feel pity for the Korean who has zero to little awareness of the world around them and is confined to such absurd stereotypes.

[Dodge7]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[madoka]

I had a Korean come visit me so I took him to a local Mexican restaurant. It's the type of place where I'm the only non-Spanish speaking person I've ever seen in there. They have this green salsa that looks innocuous, but is really pretty deadly. It took me several weeks to build up enough tolerance to their hot salsa where I didn't tear up.

I ordered a bunch of tacos and offered some to the Korean. Never having eaten a traditional taco before, he mimicked what I did and slathered on the salsa. He took a big bite, starting chewing, and gave me a thumbs up of approval. Then the salsa hit. For a moment I thought he would projectile spit out his food. I have to say, he was a trooper though and toughed it out. He turned red, drank two cups of soda, and it took several minutes before he could eat again. I nonchalantly looked at him and said, "oh was that too spicy for you?" Inside I was doubled over laughing.

[GEOM]