Korean Job Discussion Forums

coolsage

There's a good reason why one doesn't see Korean restaurants springing up on every street corner in North America: compared to other Asian fare, the presentation is (after the first time) frankly boring, the colors are dark and uninviting, and there's no variety to speak of. Beyond Dakalbi, Korean food ranks just above Scottish deep-fried Mars Bars, and way below the Hong Kong Chinese , or Szuechuan, or Vietnamese, or, my personal favorite, Thai 'imperial' cuisine. Number 4 in the world. Korean cooking ranks about #50. You can look it up.

raytownloc · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Location: Changwon

The King of Kwangju · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Location: New York City

SweetBear · Joined: 18 May 2003

[quote="coolsage"]There's a good reason why one doesn't see Korean restaurants springing up on every street corner in North America: compared to other Asian fare, the presentation is (after the first time) frankly boring, the colors are dark and uninviting, and there's no variety to speak of. Beyond Dakalbi, Korean food ranks just above Scottish deep-fried Mars Bars, and way below the Hong Kong Chinese , or Szuechuan, or Vietnamese, or, my personal favorite, Thai 'imperial' cuisine. Number 4 in the world. Korean cooking ranks about #50. You can look it up.[/quote

I LOVE deep fried Mars bars! Where is this food ranking you are talikng about, where can it be found?

Seoultrader · Joined: 18 Jun 2003 Location: Ali's Insurgent Inn, Fallujah

IMHO, K-food is generally pretty yummy. Too bad most of it looks like regurgitated eggplant that's been urinated on by Garfield (I swear, that's a quote from an expat chef at the Hyatt) And the soup color scheme (lol) red/orange ain't exactly Picasso.

If you like your panchang, there'e a neat little sigol papsang in the no-whitey zone 100m past the Holiday Hotel (alley on left after an antique furniture store).

You get about 35 (I didn't count but that seems like an accurate guesstimate) sides and have to order a main dish (Kalbitang is good). About 15-20,000/person.

Anyway, nothing beats Thai IMHO.

bucheon bum · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

speaking of presentation, I remember stopping at reststops in Thailand on bus rides and looking at the food they offered. To me it, looked disgusting. The colors of the curries were puke browns and greens and I really wondered how anyone could eat that crap. It was much different from the Thai food I was accustomed to seeing in a regular Thai restaurant. I just chose the one that looked the least disgusting. When I tasted it, it was pretty freaking good, at least compared to the way it looked. After my first couple visits to these restaurants, my reaction to the food improved quite a bit.

As for chinese, I'm picky about it. If i'm outside CA or some large city (ie Chicago, NY, atlanta) i won't even consider eating it. Why? Because 9 times out of 10, the chinese i've had in mid-sized or smaller cities has been total crap.

Personally I don't think Korean will become as popular as other asian fare. Not because of the quality of the food, but the price. Its pricier back home than Thai and Chinese. Personally I don't think its worth the extra cash.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:40 pm Post subject:

Yea, $8 for ddukboki is kinda ridiculous. I'll shell out for a big feast with friends, though, if I really wanna change up the Mexican/Chinese/BBQ rotation.

Seoultrader · Joined: 18 Jun 2003 Location: Ali's Insurgent Inn, Fallujah

Funny anecdote to that. I was on a business trip in Germany once and dropped by a Korean restaurant (of course named "Arirang") to quench my Kimchi withdrawals.

There was a bunch of K-tourists in there and one of the ajussis ended up getting into a fight over the bill and clocking the (Korean) owner because they were charging for each side dish.

ah, nomo ukyosso...