Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

OK, something I've wanted to know about for a while, concerning raw meat. Now, in Canada, back home, I'd never eat anything that even touched a piece of raw pork. But I am going to a galbi restaurant where the ladies there serve you raw meat & serve you lettuce with the same prongs. Today, a lady used these prongs that had touched pig blood and raw meat & threw some more lettuce into my bowl.... I kinda just stopped eating the lettuce... and they also cut up my kimchi with scissors that were lying in raw pork meat.

I dunno, isn't it kinda dangerous? Aren't there things like parasites & bacteria etc? Or is it safe to eat? Has anyone else experienced this kinda thing at Ghalbi restaurants? I'm just not quite so sure about this, as it seems to be the Korean-thing to just not care about it... hmmm, it's just how I was raised in Canada... maybe we were too fussy?

[captain kirk]

Yeah, well, doesn't everyone have worms. Have you ever looked at your blood under a microscope? Chances are 90 percent of the people will see wriggling little filaments...worms, parasites, essence/vivacity sucking little scumbag inner paraphenalia!
Must calm myself. Koreans, traditionally, take deworming pills in spring and autumn I think the pharmacist said. Two pills in two days. Except children.

[Canucksaram]

That's one of my pet peeves over here, too.

When I mention how unsanitary this is to my Korean friends, they make light of it and tell me that they've been doing it "all their lives" and that they're (still) fine.

My next question or comment to them is then about trichinosis.

I politely (but firmly) take away the tongs for the meat and keep them as the "meat tongs" and ask for another set for the veggies. Ditto with scissors. They might be fine, but I'm not risking trichinosis (or another night with the squirts) for want of a second set of tongs or snippers.

Cheers, and enjoy yer tucker. Safely.

(To read more about trichinosis: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm)

[peony]

thats pretty gross, and yes I believe there are definitely hazards to that
e-coli, salmonella etc. not happened to me yet but if you see that again perhaps nicely ask for another pair of scissors/tongs, stop her before she puts the lettuce in your bowl?

[Dispatched]

I think in the west we are overly protective. We even try and protect stupid people, which kinda does away with natural selection, survival of the fittest etc.
Eating raw food, ie food not sterilised, *may* poison ya but usually the worst that will happen is ya get the trots. Of course it can be dangerous for the young, old and the pregnant. Cook ya food and you reduce (eliminate?) the risks, don't cook it and the risks are raised, how much exactly, I don't know.

Running with scissors has a risk associated with it too but seriously, has anyone died while doing it? Don't lick ya knife, have you ever cut your tongue off? Don't put that loaded gun in ya mouth, has anyone ever... ok forget that last one.

Anyway, live a little, be a devil, eat that lettuce that's been cut with unsterile scissors... ah the adrenalin is pumping just thinking about it!

[Canucksaram]

That's one of my pet peeves over here, too.

When I mention how unsanitary this is to my Korean friends, they make light of it and tell me that they've been doing it "all their lives" and that they're (still) fine.

My next question or comment to them is then about trichinosis.

I politely (but firmly) take away the tongs for the meat and keep them as the "meat tongs" and ask for another set for the veggies. Ditto with scissors. They might be fine, but I'm not risking trichinosis (or another night with the squirts) for want of a second set of tongs or snippers.

Cheers, and enjoy yer tucker. Safely.

(To read more about trichinosis: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm)

[Captain Corea]

Cross-Contamination is one of my major dining hang ups in Korea. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll say "don't let C.C. see the ajuma cut the kimchi with the same scissors that she used to cut the meat".

Back home, food safety was one of my fields.
Here, I just try to eat at home whenever possible.

[captain kirk]

Ah, it's Friday night; I think I'll read a bit about trichinosis. Thanks for that; may the worms be forever at your back, yet a yard at least from ye backside. Fine if they're somebody elses. Are you Korean yet? If not get worms, or dewormed, and so on....trichinosis, tricky that....

[Draven]

I think captain kirk is onto something here. The wife recently had me gag down a couple of pills to take care of the worms we've ingested over the past year...

That being said, I agree with the OP. Having worked in restaurants at home, and having taken some government mandated 'Food Safe' courses, I always get a little jumpy about cross contamination in restaurants here. To be fair, however, it has been years since I've had any food related illnesses here.

[eamo]

A lot of people all over Korea are eating Galbi everynight paying no mind to our western hygiene standards.

Do you see legions of sick people lining up outside the pharmacies and hospitals every morning? No.

Your stomach can handle a bit of something uncooked easily. Western food hygiene is way too fussy.

[Tiger Beer]

I'm a galbi-addict.

[Koreabound2004]

[The Bobster]

[coolsage]

Korea has the highest stomach-cancer rate on earth. Do you suppose that there may be some causal link here? Fortunately for my corpus, I don't take to Korean food,other than an occasional mess of dakalbi, which is 'famous' in my city, but only after it's thoroughly cooked. But that's just me. Every vacation I return to Thailand and eat genuinely spicy food, which quickly flushes my system of accumulated nasties. And that stuff is as hot going out as it was going in. It purges. I recommend it.

[AdamH]

To quote the link posted above:

"If you eat raw or undercooked meats, particularly bear, pork, wild feline (such as a cougar), fox, dog, wolf, horse, seal, or walrus, you are at risk for trichinellosis."

Damn. There goes my Saturday night meal of bear steak, cougar chops and walrus nuggets.