Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Katie26]

Hello all,

Happy Sunday am to you! Ok so self confessedly I'm a bit of a foodie and one of the things I miss most about home is the lack of decent lunch options. In my mind decent is non Korean food- I don't mind the occasional bibimbap but IMHO Korean food is average.

My penchant for Western food presented me (when I first arrived) with two problems. An increasing waistline and a decreasing wallet. Because let's face it (if you live outside of Seoul or Busan) your Western food is limited to TGI Friday type crap. A port in a storm but nevertheless unhealthy and expensive. It never ceases to amaze me that my kids think this is the only kind of food foreigners eat. Kiddies if teach-uh ate that everyday she would be a big fat lard ball.

Anyway, I digress. The solution I found for this was to cook often (sharing the food costs with a good friend here). We make a range of stuff including
Cous Cous salad
Hummus
Vegetarian Chilli
Eggplant Parm
A range of soups.
Our own Muesli
Plain yogurt etc

This has greatly increased our popularity with our friends and what really surprises me here is the amount of people who can't cook (or don't want to). I guess I just really enjoy it so for me it's not a chore.

So I was sprung with an idea. Why not start a small side business catering exclusively to foreigners. Make healthy lunches for the teaching crowd here.I don't use any processed crap in my food and use only veggies from the ajumma markets. I would probably start very limited with an aim to have everything contain 2 servings of fruit or veg.-
maybe
- a vegetarian chilli (with 2+ servings of your five a day)
Soups
-Potato and Leek
-Butternut squash, ginger and apple
-Broccoli and Pesto

So finally I'll get to my point-how much would you pay for this. I'd think about 6k won would be reasonable but your opinions are very welcome.

Thanks

[ChilgokBlackHole]

Sounds impressive, but I just want a sandwich. Bread. Mayo. Meat. Cheese. Lettuce. Tomato. Mustard. No apple slices, no sweet pickles, no potato salad, no mystery meat. A sandwich.

[Katie26]

mmm man I love sandwiches. With proper brown bread from costco. Interesting thought (wonder how cost effective it could be though?)

[Kaypea]

Hmm maybe I should get up some gumption and cook food I like (instead of only eating frozen mandu). I would appreciate hints/tips on making and eating healthy tasty western food...

But, if you can supply it ready-made to me, sure... how could I refuse it?

[ChilgokBlackHole]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking about the Costco bread. If I could get to Costco semi-regularly, I'd make the friggin sandwich myself. I can make my own bread, but it's a hassle, and kills a Sunday.

Actually, now that I think about it, I've got my mom's recipes here, I'm going to bake some infused garlic bread. Then what, after that? Where's my smoked turkey?

[cazador83]

lunch at my school is about 2,000 won a day, but i'd gladly pay extra for a healthy meal that i'd actually eat...

[ashland]

[jvalmer]

^ Rents pretty expensive, might have to double the prices. And Koreans expect and endless supply of free side dishes.

[mugen13]

How I miss dirty chinese food.......

[Kaypea]

I'd buy a cookbook with shopping guides (I'm really clueless with stuff like food. Boyfriends end up cooking for me).

[Dr. Whom]

Hmm, lets see. 1,000,000 foreigners here in K-Land. Of which about
30,000 are mightey whities. So let me get this right. You want to open
a business that caters to 0.06% of the population? This is not even
taking into account the teachers who don't live in civilization. A lot
live somewhere in the southern equatorial jungle regions of Daegu,
Daejon, Busan or worse.

I think you better brush up on your math. The only possible means
of success for a venture like this would be Itaewon. But be prepared
to invest 200,000,000 to 300,000,000 KRW. Itaewon is becoming
increasingly higher end and competitive.

[cazador83]

[Illysook]

A real California style salad with a few different kinds of lettuce, some radish and cucumber slices, shredded carrot, or whatever veggies are in season, plus a few walnuts or pecans, slices of apple, and a vinegrette style dressing.

These things are not hard to find in Korea, but if one lives alone, one isn't likely to buy all the stuff and not have a good portion of it go to rot.

[Aelric]

[AsiaESLbound]

Yes, Western foreigners are too sparsely spread out for there to be anything catering to us outside of a few exceptions in Seoul. Most notably Itaewon. Anything we find such as sandwhich and coffee shops are geared towards Koreans. Well, Korea is for the Koreans.