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Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
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Hotpants
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
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 Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 12:32 am Post subject: |
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Ha Ya-Ta Boy! Well, regardless of my 'crabbiness' can you admit that I did at least have a point about a food question not matching the 'Job-related Discussion Forum'???  Read title. And Wanja does point us to an excellent thread in point - now, Ya-Ta, do you wonder about the thinking behind such questions???
Sorry, JamesandJessica. Sometimes there are just some things which I can resist picking (up) on. Just come on over - I'm sure you'll have a blast!  |
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yodanole
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: La Florida
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:45 am Post subject: |
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As usual, Ya-ta and Grotto are the voices of reason here on culinary matters.
__________________________
Soju goes well with everything,
Even Korean food. |
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SirFink
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 1:57 am Post subject: |
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I cook at home mostly and I really don't like the lack of items I can find at the store.
There is one apple here. One single type of apple and it is rather bland and flavorless. The typical American grocery store has 8-10 different types of apples. There is one type of orange. And there are strawberries and bananas too. Wow.
There is one type of onion and it is a pretty bland white onion. There is one type of chile pepper.
This lack of variety makes it kind of boring for someone who likes variety in their diet and cooking.
It seems typical of Korea though: like those apartment buildings that are all the same, Koreans seem to latch on to something that's good enough and just stick with that. |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:35 am Post subject: |
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| SirFink wrote: |
I cook at home mostly and I really don't like the lack of items I can find at the store.
There is one apple here. One single type of apple and it is rather bland and flavorless. The typical American grocery store has 8-10 different types of apples. There is one type of orange. And there are strawberries and bananas too. Wow.
There is one type of onion and it is a pretty bland white onion. There is one type of chile pepper.
This lack of variety makes it kind of boring for someone who likes variety in their diet and cooking.
It seems typical of Korea though: like those apartment buildings that are all the same, Koreans seem to latch on to something that's good enough and just stick with that. |
It has been said here, and in other places, many times, many ways: Korea is the land where imagination comes to die. For now, let's stay with the culinary aspect. The climate here would surely support a greater variety of fruits and vegetables, but evidently there's little demand for them. And when wants to break out from the one-apple, one-pear mindset, one avocado costs 4800 won. Excise and import duties shut down produce they don't even grow here. Every time I go to Thailand, I load up on spices and sauces that make living here more palatable. The last time I checked, a pineapple in Thai was going for 150 won. In GS Mart today, 2500 won. That kind of markup would be regarded as usurious anywhere else. Somebody's getting a serious rakeoff, and it's not the Thai grower. And it's not the freight. There's corruption afoot, and, damn, they don't grow pineapples here. It would seem that persons unknown have a vested interest in keeping 'foreign' produce out, and it's not just the rice farmers. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 4:11 am Post subject: |
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| coolsage wrote: |
| [. The last time I checked, a pineapple in Thai was going for 150 won. In GS Mart today, 2500 won. That kind of markup would be regarded as usurious anywhere else. . |
The more developed a country is, the higher the prices. Especially for imported goods.
I don't think pineapples go for 150 won in the West either. |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
| coolsage wrote: |
| [. The last time I checked, a pineapple in Thai was going for 150 won. In GS Mart today, 2500 won. That kind of markup would be regarded as usurious anywhere else. . |
The more developed a country is, the higher the prices. Especially for imported goods.
I don't think pineapples go for 150 won in the West either. |
You missed my point. The markup is going to middlepersons with dubious ethics. Why can one purchase an avocado in Canada (where they don't grow), for 3 for a dollar,and yet have to pay five dollars for one avocado in Korea? Yes, NAFTA could be a part of that, but to tax the crap out of a product that is not grown here is simply moronic. |
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