Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ellamarie]

In case anyone remembers (or cares) I posted here about a month ago about my horrible experience at a Korean restaurant. I found a lot of the food to be inedible, especially the kimchi and the seaweed. I decided to give it another shot and I tried the only other Korean restaurant in town-and loved it. I had beef bulgogi, which was wonderful, and my brothers let me sample some of their seafood and vegetable dishes which were great also. I also liked the side dishes a lot better than I did at the last restaurant I tried. I really liked the potato dish and the tofu. We also had cucumbers, bean sprouts, and some sort of seasoned lettuce, all not my favorites, but still pretty good. No seaweed in sight. Unfortunately, I still hate kimchi. It's horrible. There is a combination of flavors in it that I just can't tolerate. Both of my brothers loved it and one swears he would eat it for breakfast and wants to learn how to make it. He's a chef, so he may seriously be burying cabbage in his back yard in the near future.

Of course I plan to go back so I can sample more Korean dishes. I just had a few questions about proper etiquette when eating in Korea.

What is the correct way to share the side dishes? My brothers and I just used our chopsticks since we weren't all that concerned about getting germs from each other but I'm sure that's not the correct way to do it.

Are there knives given at dinner in Korea? I had to cut a few things with my fork, which I'm guessing is not considered classy in Korea.

Thanks for any help.

[billybrobby]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Knives are indeed a rarity on Korean tables, but who needs 'em when there are almost always those handy dandy scissors?

And yes, it might be a little un-nerving the first four or five thousand times you see someone lick their chopsticks before diving into the samjang, you do get used to it, but need to remind yourself to get hepatitis check-ups. I used to have to remind myself that people swap spit when they kiss, so what's a little slobber on a chopstick? I'm somewhat less tolerant when someone spits in the ashtray and then slides it my way, but I try not to make a big issue of it.

I do find that as the blood alcohol content rises, my concern for Western norms of sanitary behavior declines. Perhaps you can benefit from that personal insight.