Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jamesandjessica]

Do most of you cook at home or eat at restaurants? Have you been able to pick up on cooking Korean food quickly? Are there any notable items you are unable to purchase in Korea for cooking?
Thanks,
James and Jessica

[Ya-ta Boy]

I think a lot of us cook at home, particularly the vegan types. All of us go out to eat. A lot. Again excepting the vegans that I know.

I have never learned to cook Korean food. It's too easy to go downtown and eat much better Korean food cooked by Koreans who have all the special ingredients for cooking Korean food and do a much better job of it than I would do. The problem with that plan, of course, is that when I visit home I can't have my �߰���.

When I cook, I prefer to cook what I can't get in a restaurant. To me, that is the whole point of cooking here. Variety on my dinner table.

One of the main complaints about Korean food is the lack of variety. Pretty much everything has red pepper (powder or paste) on it. It isn't particularly hot, but it does bring a sameness to everything.

Korean vegetables are a mystery to most of us. One description is 'weeds and sticks in a bowl'. No one seems to know what they are except they are 'mountain roots'. Anywhere you go except in downtown Seoul you will see ajummas out picking 'weeds' for supper.

Consider bringing any herbs and spices you like to use, especially if they are anything in addition to salt, black pepper and cinnamon. Those can be found anywhere. All others are much harder to find, and impossible to find if you are outside the big cities.

[Hollywoodaction]

I take it you will be coming to Korea for the first time.

Well, it all depends on what you like to eat and where you live, but, essentially, you don't have to worry about food. On thing, though. If you like to cook with spices, you should bring your own (on the bright side, you can buy potted varieties of rosemary, thym, and lavender pretty much everywhere for a couple of dollars).

You can find almost anything online, but be prepared to pay double. I also shop a lot a Cosco, Walmart, and Carrefour. They have a wider variety of non-Korean food than most places.

As for Korean food, some of it quite easy to prepare on your own. But, what really matters is how much time you are willing to spend on preparing a meal (for example, samgaetang (ginseng chicken soup) is easy to make, but takes an hour to cook). One quick meal that you can prepare at home is mandu (dumplings) that you can either fry on a skillet or steam over boiling water. There are some TV dinners and other frozen foods available, too.

If you like meat, you're going to love Korean food. Korean barbecue is excellent. You can buy marinated pork or beef at the grocery store. I also recommend the store made 'dok-kalbi' (not the frozen kind). It's basically spiced salsbury steak (pork or beef).

You'll also never find sashimi as cheap as in Korea...as long as you stay clear of tourist traps along the 'East' and 'West' Seas.

Soups can be tricky, so I recommend that you buy 'dadam' (basically, a paste with all the seasoning (red pepper paste, salt, garlic) to use the first few times you try to make kimchi jigae and tubu jigae (kimchi and tofu soups).

Restaurants in Korea can be quite cheap, and many of them deliver for free, so you don't have to cook when you don't feel like it. You can spend as little as 6000 won per person at a Korean barbecue place, or 4000 won for soup and rice. All Korean meals are served with vegetable dishes.

[crazylemongirl]

I cook food for myself. I prefer western food and don't really eat much korean food.

[CoolTeach]

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[Qinella]

[AbbeFaria]

I gave up trying to cook here because it's almost impossible to find the things I want to make. I generally stick to Italian food when I cook and the only noodles you can find here are some penne noddles, angel hair pasta or macaroni. Good cheese is also extremely rare. Maybe the pickings are better in Seoul, but I'm in Pohang and there ain't crap to be found. They've got some western pasta sauces in the jar, which is alright when I want a pasta fix, but I can't make manicotti or lasagna or tortillini or any of the other stuff I like.

And I would have to agree with the other poster about the red sauce. It definately makes things taste similar. There are dishes that don't have it, but if you can't do spicy you're in for a very limited menu. And it's not like western spicy food. There you can actually find some flavor beneath the heat. Here, depending on what you might order, all you taste is that damn stuff. I've increased my tolerance for spicy food significantly since I got off the plane, but it still annoys me.

Every neighborhood has a Gim-Bap restaurant, it seems. Cheap, but usually good food that you can go to at all hours of the night. It doesn't beat an I-HOP or Denny's after a night out drinking, but it has it's own things to offer.

I stopped buying groceries in general after the first few months. You have to recycle everything here and I'm to lazy to always sort my trash so I figured the best way was to just stop bringing things into the apartment that I have to throw away. Now it's just the occasional take out pizza/chicken box, lots of water bottles and the occasional bag of chips/cookies/"insert snack food item here" for when I get the munchies. Sometimes it's a drag to get dressed just to go around the corner to the gim-bap place, but it's cheap, good, and I don't have to do any dishes afterwords.

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[heydelores]

I don't cook a whole lot, but when I do, it's Western food. I don't have an oven--just a double stove top, and I think that's pretty common, and many of my recipes from home require baking. My school serves lunch on weekdays. On Wednesdays evenings, a man sets up a "hamburger" stand about two blocks from my apartment building, so that makes a good dinner. (Note: the hamburgers are actually hot dogs, but don't tell him that!) Other days I might fix something light or go out. Restaurants are fairly inexpensive if you like Korean food. Western restaurants can be very pricey, but there aren't any where I live anyway. I agree with what people have said about spices. I live in a very small town, and the only spices you can get are salt, pepper, cinnamon, and red pepper. If you're used to other spices or seasonings, bring them with you. Have someone teach you how to order food to be delivered when you get here. They bring it all--plates, utensils, everything--right to your door, and you just place the dishes outside when you're done. Little or no delivery fee! It's hard to beat.

[Grotto]

I cooked alot. I love Korean food(am i still sane? ) but I got tired of the same ol thing week after week. Being able to whip up a batch of my favorite meal helped keep me grounded and also helped offset some homesickness.

It was a bit difficult finding all the spices and ingredients at first but by the end of my second year I could find damn near anything I wanted. It was also fun cooking for some of my Korean friends and colleagues. Treating myself and friends to a turkey dinner with all the trimmings at xmas was great. It would have been cheaper to eat Korean but not as much fun!

[Lemonade]

I go in spurts of cooking at home for a week and then eating out for a week. Give or take a few days.

As for the notable items that we can't buy here in Korea, there are too many to mention. Some things are getting more common, but the quality cheese here is few and far between. When you do find it, you have to buy in bulk and it is expensive. I almost had a heart attack when I found fresh parmesan shredded cheese for the first time. I must have looked really silly kissing and hugging the bag.

Cooking Korean food? I cook my own Sum Gup Sol (sp?). I only buy the very expensive pork that is lean with very little fat. It tastes sooooo much better than the average cheap fatty stuff you get at 90% of the Korean restaurants. It's easy as can be to make it.

I miss rainbow trout from back home. As a small substitute, I found a type of fish that's already cut and frozen so all I have to do is add my spices with some oil in a pan and it's great. I still don't know what kind of fish I'm eating but oh well.

[cruisemonkey]

I hate Korean food, and cook myself - except weekday lunches when I eat the s*it they serve in the cafeteria because I have to pay W50000/month for it.

[cornie_man]

Is it just me or has the kimchi started to taste funnier and funnier these last few days; it's almost like they have been fermenting the cabbage and go-chu with clowns.

[Hotpants]

I recall you are the guys who were asking about whether we have ovens here....Yes, there are ovens, and there is food here too surprisingly enough. It was talked about quite extensively. Sorry if I seem patronizing, but are you coming here to teach or as chefs? From your questions, are you sure you're the type who can manage outside of comfort zones? Think carefully...

I also thought this was a job-related discussion forum. Perhaps you need to seek out the Carlton-Ritz or Martha Stewart forum on Korean peninsula issues...

[Ya-ta Boy]

Mr./Ms Hotpants,

Clearly you have never been sitting back home thinking about moving half-way around the world. You are more the sort that just up and does it and then spends the time lashing out at others because you are crabby because it isn't going just how you fantasized.

I'm sure your mother said, "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all." However, when she said it, you were staring off into space trying to think of a put-down for the kid across the room who didn't wear just what you thought was right.

Get over yourself.

[rothkowitz]

If you can find good,fresh ingredients then Korean food can be fantastic.

The vegetables are fine,but beef is atrocious.Korean beef is outrageously priced and Aussie beef(by the time you get to see it) is too dry.Fishmongers wouldn't have a clue how to fillet a fish and they will ALWAYS throw a handful of salt on it despite shouting at them in Korean not to do it.

Pork and chicken are cheap though.

General lack of variety of ingredients makes cooking korean a very unappealing prospect too.