Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Troll_Bait]

You should read it in its entirety. If you don't know, Mr. Salmon is the co-author of "Seoul Food Finder."

Japan succeeded by promoting what foreigners like (sushi, sashimi, teriyaki) and accepting that most foreigners don't like natto. By contrast, the Koreans keep pushing kimchi even though so many people don't care for it.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200901/200901100003.html

[JongnoGuru]

[jkelly80]

Korean BBQ is already the place to go in Chicago, so it must have hit NY and LA years ago, along with most of the West Coast. I don't know where this guy has been eating out.

[Illysook]

[Panda]

[moosehead]

those little plastic tubs of precooked rice you buy in the supermarket are pretty handy - I wish we had them back home in the U.S. - different flavors also - some w/black beans even. makes Minute Rice pretty nasty by comparison.

overall, tho, I would never call K food cuisine - it just doesn't make the grade. mostly it's just fungi and rooty looking things. there's some decent soups, but again, nothing spectacular.

the tea, now, that's another story - why oh why don't they export these wonderful teas???!!!

[roknroll]

[Big Mac]

I haven't met too many foreigners (aside from vegetarians) who don't like galbi (both beef and pork). I also think a lot of foreigners like duk galbi, as long as it isn't too spicy.

I personally hate kimchi and have no idea why Koreans think it's so great.

Kim bap could also be exportable. And perhaps bibimbap. Everything else is pretty ho hum.

I think the reason most people outside of Korea don't know much about Korean food is because, well quite frankly, it isn't very good overall.

[IAMAROBOT]

A lot of times, Korean food isn't very cost competitive. The places I've been to in the US charge a lot for simple things like bibimbap and sundubu. I doubt people are going to experiment at prices like that.

Also, people pay a lot for sushi because it looks nice and there's the aspect of an expert hand being behind its creation. Why pay a bunch of money for food you have to cook yourself? For some people, cooking your own food and smelling like smoke in the process doesn't seem to be that appealing.

They should play up the wrappables. That seems like something people would like. When I went to Korean restaurants in the states, the menus didn't really advertise that I could wrap my meat in lettuce, but it was available to Korean patrons who knew how to ask for it.

[wylies99]

The big winner, for western tastes, is the pork BBQ (sumgyeopsal).

The rest? Most can take it or leave it, but spicy octopus can be too spicy.

As for "table manners- sums it up.

[IAMAROBOT]

I think samgyeopsal would be wildly popular in the US at least. There's a big bacon kick and they could easily market samgyeopsal as some kind of Korean bacon barbecue since it's the same cut of meat. I'd never heard of samgyeopsal before coming to Korea...it was just galbi and marinated meats, which is too sweet sometimes.

[John Ep]

I think (and agree w/ IAMAROBOT) that one of the biggest obstacles for Korean food in the U.S. is the price, it's ridiculously expensive - charging for side dishes is absurd. Even a healthy dish like bi bim bop, which should be extremely popular in health conscious America, is too expensive.

Look at Chinese food, everybody in America eats Chinese food, its cheap and tastey (and most often not healthy). A family of 4 can eat a meal for 20 bucks and have tons of leftovers.

Also, Korean restaurants overseas are very bad at exoticizing and Americanizing their food the way the Chinese have. They need catchy names like "Admiral Yi's Spicy Pork (Jae Yuk)," or "King Sejong's Sesame Noodles (Jap Jae)." That kind of phony exoticism is what appeals to suburban Americans. With the right name and marketing, Americans will be eating dog in hot minute....

[Guri Guy]

I read that article. Pretty interesting read.

So South Korea wants to be considered one of the top 5 cuisines in the world eh?

I think they'd have trouble being in the top 5 in Asia alone.

Let's see...

Japanese food
Indian food
Thai food
Chinese food (such a variety that it's a same to lump it all in one category)
Vietnamese food

Then we have other cuisines like let's see....French, Italian or Greek. So it's an uphill climb at the very least and they have only 9 years to do it.

Then you have the idea of quadrupling the number of Korean restaurants abroad from 10,000 to 40,000 with an eye on increasing the South Korean agricultural industry. Hmmm....costly imports will cause prices to skyrocket at these places if that's their goal. Not a reasonably obtainable goal methinks.

The South Korean government seems to be totally out of touch with what foreigners want. They want to have Kim-chi as their focal point. Sorry to say it but...Kimchi stinks! Don't get me wrong. I like the stuff but it'll likely go over like a lead balloon. Stick with what is most popular. Korean BBQ is their best chance.

To sum up, I think the South Korean government is biting off more than they can chew. Well, that and they are out to lunch.

[John Ep]

the only problem w/ korean BBQ is that americans are lazy, and don't want to go out to a restaurant and have to cook their own food. if they want to barbeque some meat, they'll fire up the Grill King 2000 in the backyard.

[VanIslander]

boshintang and bondeggi

(the mere mention of which kills internationalization efforts)