Everyone’s crazy about Choco Pies in Korea. Even North Koreans are. There is a lot of pride taken in this confectionery. It’s assumed in Korea that the Orion company invented this type of treat. That’s why articles like this irk me.
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Asian cuisine, and Korean food in particular, is notoriously difficult to pair with wine. Even wine-lovers agree that beer is easier on the palate, as it combats the ever-present chilli peppers and compliments the potent flavours without neutralising them. What’s more, wine doesn’t play a large role in Korean dining culture. Even...
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Wow, the conspiracy theories grow and grow about how we do things at ZenKimchi. And there’s a lot of willful ignorance out there. Here are some new things I’m going to add to our FAQ. Do you give good reviews in exchange for free meals? From the beginning, it has always been a policy of ZenKimchi that none of its...
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Now that we’ve had time to breathe and break our new year’s resolutions before Lunar New Year, also known as “Second Chance New Year,” let’s do an update on what food trends are going on in Korea. Of course, this is all unscientific, as all of these types of articles are. Yet, all of these examples I...
read moreNot to be outdone, legendary Korea pundit and one-time ZenKimchi contributor Andrew Salmon has a thing or two to say about Korea’s flaccid beer duopoly (flaccid in the taste, not the power). If the government lowered the ceiling on beer production, it could release a wave of entrepreneurial Korean microbrewers. Might we see...
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The opening of “the next Korean barbecue restaurant” in midtown Manhattan by K-pop star and producer Jin Young Park has generated some controversy. Some think the restaurant’s aesthetic is too antiseptic to provide an authentic Korean experience. Some reviews have viciously criticized the atmosphere, exemplified...
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Among the verdicts for the various Apple vs. Samsung lawsuits coming out, other events have been happening in my personal life that have gotten me again pondering why we see so much blatant copying in Korea. It’s unashamed, as in people are surprised when someone points out that copying may be wrong. NOTE: Feel free to upload pics of more examples in the comments.
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Banchan is as intrinsic to 한식 hansik (Korean food) as pork is to Spanish cuisine. It would be anathema to have one without the other. A Korean restaurant without 반찬 banchan might be called a Chinese or Mongolian restaurant by the culinary illiterate. Even if a Korean restaurant has mediocre banchan, the idea of not offering it at...
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Just when I thought my coffee-related posts at ZenKimchi had run their course, the Joongang prints this article about a study by the Korea Consumer Agency that made me spit out my coffee: Coffee chains skimping on beverage quantities That Starbucks Americano might come in a grande cup, but that doesn’t mean it’s full. In its...
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Let’s get the obligatory prefacing out of the way. I know there’s a cadre of people who say I shouldn’t say anything negative on this blog, especially if it’s about Korean cuisine. They say I’m condescending. They say I don’t know what I’m talking about. They say that despite living in...
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