Crazy Achmed posted:

Why is bibimbap bad?

Grand Fromage posted:

I was summoned to effortpost. Korean food is good but also extremely hosed. It is a land of contrasts.

Factors:

A) Some of the really weird poo poo like budae jjigae is the result of the Korean War and its immediate aftermath. During and after the war South Korea was hugely dependent on US food aid, and that wasn't fresh food since it had to be shipped over and all. So Koreans were introduced to things like Spam (which is still a hot ticket item) and canned baked beans and stuff. You couldn't be picky about food, so dump all that poo poo into a pot and eat it.

B) It's easy to forget nowadays, but Korea was an incredibly poor country for decades after the war. The economy didn't start to pick up until the 70s and it was still pretty poor and backwards until like the late 90s. The last famine was in the 80s. A lot of Korean food is from decades of poverty and deprivation. Korea is just starting to climb out of this, when I lived there they were getting their first kind of modern chefs trying to get Korean food back to its roots and make it better. Hipsters are fun to mock but think about how bad American food was before then. Korea's still in the equivalent of the 1980s steam table era.

C) The sugar thing loving sucks, yeah. Korean food is way too sweet. If you haven't been to Korea you may not know this, because most of the immigrants left before the sugar thing started and Korean food in places like the US is more like it used to be. Korea puts sugar and corn/rice syrup in or on loving everything. There's not a definitive answer how or why, but it started around when Korea started getting money so it's probably connected to that. We can afford sweets now, sweet everything! Unfortunately, it tastes lovely and is unhealthy--Korea has one of, if not the, fastest growing diabetes rates in the world plus generally people are getting fat at an American pace.

When you live in Korea and try a new food you get to play everyone's favorite game, Is It Sweet? and the answer is always yes. The funniest part is Koreans constantly complain that "foreign" food is too sweet, while dumping corn syrup directly onto a hot dog.

D) Korea is super into fads and fashions of all kinds. A couple times a year a new food fad would pop up and be absolutely everywhere. Last time I visited the big thing was cup steak, where you get a cup of soda, and there's a little plastic divider in it, and on the top of the cup is steak cooked well done and possibly some terrible waffle fries. Eat the steak and drink from the straw all in one package.

E) Instagram food. Yeah, this and D happen everywhere, but the scale in Korea is off the loving charts compared to most other places.

F) Nobody in Korea learns to cook until they get married and leave home. People just don't know food as well if they don't learn to cook. After a couple years there I was better at Korean food than any of my Korean friends since they were all unmarried, and only one of them had ever cooked something more complex than instant noodles before. I think this is also changing slightly as celebrity chefs become a thing.

G) What Korea does to foreign food is best not spoken of. I can't explain it. It's always a nightmare and I don't know why.

H) Actual Korean food, while good, is also very limited. There are basically zero herbs or spices used, there are only a handful of flavor profiles, at least half the cuisine is "put all this in a pot and boil it forever". There's a lot of resistance to altering traditional food, so I think there might be some pent up desire to do different poo poo that comes out as putting ice cream on a baked potato.

I) Korean food is actually not that old! Koreans insist everything is ultra traditional with a history of thousands of years but chili peppers weren't even used all that often until the 1980s. It was considered kind of gauche to make things spicy back in the day. I have no idea how Korea manages the kind of forgetting it does, like marijuana was a common part of Korean culture until the late 1960s then overnight became The Worst Thing In The World and most people have zero idea it was ever a thing. Same with chilies being new, all I ever heard living there was how Koreans invented the chili pepper 13,000 years ago and no other culture eats peppers or garlic.

Anyway that was a bunch of words. Korean food is good. Except bibimbap, never order bibimbap.

E: And while I'm here I will continue my crusade for learning Korean food. It's good and most is pretty easy to make. https://koreanbapsang.com/ is the best online resource in English. Maangchi's food sucks, avoid.

Picnic Princess posted:

Reducing the scourge that is mass food waste is a good thing, though

Aardvark! posted:

“Food”

DarkSoulsTantrum posted:

Love to eat food that is 90% bread and sauces

DarkSoulsTantrum posted:

Love to eat food that is 90% bread and sauces

ilovebeersooomuch posted:

I would at least try these all if I could identify the ingredients within +/-5%


What is this, just a giant sandwich? How is this expected to be eaten, as is or does it get ‘built’?



Yes, I often serve my food on plywood

Aardvark! posted:

the ones in the box are just stuff like these that have been grill pressed. 2 full hot dogs, though it's hard to see

Turrurrurrurrrrrrr posted:

Is this some kind of a sick spin on a romeu e julieta dessert, or am imagining things?

Stink Terios posted:

From a nearby place on iFood called Gringo Burger (lol), behold the Banana Solar Eclipse and the Red Strawberry Moon:






It's also the only place I've ever seen in Brazil that serves fried chicken coated in sauce. They even give you rubber gloves with the order!

Aardvark! posted:

as i mentioned in the pizza thread, im now blindly navigating a Chinese app to find content since they don't use Google maps.

Grand Fromage posted:

I was summoned to effortpost. Korean food is good but also extremely hosed. It is a land of contrasts.

...

E: And while I'm here I will continue my crusade for learning Korean food. It's good and most is pretty easy to make. https://koreanbapsang.com/ is the best online resource in English. Maangchi's food sucks, avoid.

mkvltra posted:

Can u chill with that? Honestly just trying to scope f*cked up dogs ITT.

Aardvark! posted:

as i mentioned in the pizza thread, im now blindly navigating a Chinese app to find content since they don't use Google maps.

Crazy Achmed posted:

Roti john is hamburger/hotdog-adjacent, I guess.

Junkie Disease posted:

I'm having a hell of a time trying to find awful food videos of this poo poo. Found only one of the steak cup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkr5jDWsPPY&t=371s

Mushika posted:

Yeah, the fear of "loose corn" is a weird goon thing, I'm pretty sure. It's fine.

e: I've had "loose corn" on plenty of things I didn't expect traveling around and it's usually fine. And why is it always designated as "loose" corn? Would it be better if it were still on the cob somehow?

SleepyK posted:

ilovebeersooomuch posted:

Jfc people are the worst and that is saying something being in the wurst thread

Big Beef City posted:

It was a good post

Aardvark! posted:

Meredith Baxter-Burnout posted:

Have a palette cleanser, thread. Although someone will probably hate this.

Mexican fruit cups.

ilovebeersooomuch posted:

https://happydogcleveland.com/food-drink/

knuthgrush posted:

what do they pour on top of the fruit? some kinda chili limon type thing or is it tamarind? i badly want to try these. there's a couple of these fruit cup joints in my region and they look really good.