lintse07’s Blog

Korean Restaurant Survival Skills Report

In the past two weeks, I've made some major developments in the Korean life skills department...

It only took two months, but I can finally walk into more than three restaurants and order food! The three restaurants I was previously limited to include a pizza restaurant, a Japanese/Korean fusion restaurant with an extensive picture menu and limited English descriptions and a Korean fast food restaurant called 'Lotteria.' Did you know that Korea is one of two countries where Mcdonalds doesn't dominate the fast food market? Actually I don't know that for sure but somebody told me that a couple of days ago. If you haven't heard of Lotteria, it was founded in Japan and also has restaurants in China, and Vietnam. If you haven't heard of it, you're not really missing that much either.

Another restaurant, 'Mr. Pizza' is a Korean pizza restaurant that has expanded all the way to places such as Korea Town in Los Angeles, California. I can't include Mr. Pizza in the three restaurants where I can successfully order food....one evening I walked in and was delighted to see a salad bar but was equally disappointed that it was closing time. I returned the next day, but even after the waitress spoke with me at length in Korean I could not understand what was required to somehow acquire access to the salad bar. I thought that though I didn't really want it I could order pasta and end up with salad...unfortunately there was a misunderstanding and I ended up with an edible but not delicious spaghetti dish. For some reason, though the majority of Korean food is fairly healthy, they seem to add an excess amount of sugar to their renditions of Italian food. When I pointed at the salad bar, my waitress gave me the Korean universal 'X' sign for no.

On another occasion, I returned with another American to try again. With the help of a phone call to a Korean we were able to negotiate the salad add-on. It only took 15 minutes to figure it out and then we couldnt figure out when it was acceptable to approach the salad bar. We each tried to take one of the plates sitting on the table. We were disappointed when we were redirected towards the single tiny bowl on top of the plates. Within the Korean culture, dining is typically a communal activity and the not so typical salad bar experience is no exception. Together, we visited the salad bar to decide what we ought to put in that bowl. We had the impression that it was a one time visit, until the waitress took the bowl away before we were finished eating what was in it and brought us a new bowl and gestured towards the salad bar. Mr. Pizza is a little bit stressful.

My employer has been great about taking me to different Korean restaurants. With the exception of the complicated process of attempting to eat fish soup with metal chopsticks and trying to get around the mental issues with the fish looking at me because his head is still there and the technical issue of bones and skin...I've enjoyed something about each of my authentic Korean dining experiences. I even become accustomed to the fact that 30% of the time, there might be silkworm pupae on the table next to the kimche and pickled radish. Just once, I ate one, just to say that I did and see if somehow I might like them. It was a one time thing.

It's been a good week in Korean restaurants as I am now competent enough to order 7-8 different items. I'm not bragging, I still don't know my Korean ABC's or how to say "toilet" let alone "where is the bathroom?" Last week, at the jjimjilbang, the best I could do was point at a pen and paper and draw a picture of a toilet.