I rented “Minari” last week and watched it a couple of times. I’m still thinking about it. I love books and films that linger and don’t vanish like cotton candy. The film focuses on a Korean-American family settling in the American south in the 1980s. I grew up in that region, and I have been an immigrant in Korea for almost two decades. I saw a lot in that film, and I need to punch it out on the keyboard. So bear with me.
Many have commented that they were tense, thinking that a film of immigrants in the “South” would reach for that trope of the racist confrontations between the protagonists and the locals. Yet we didn’t get that. Rather than portraying rural Arakansans as weirdo racists, it just portrayed them as weirdos.
There were some micro-agressions. The church lunch crammed a bunch of them. From the white boy staring at David and asking why is face was flat as a conversation opener to the girl going “ching ching chong” to try to guess a word in Korean to the church ladies telling Monica she was “so cute.” It was ignorance that meant well. They weren’t mean spirited. They were noting the Kim family’s otherness to make connections.
And I cringed.
Director Lee Isaac Chung has said that the film was a tribute to his friends in Arkansas. You could tell that even though the Americans were treated as oddballs, it was done with affection. But I did like seeing Americans through Korean eyes. I think American viewers should get more opportunities to see how foreign they come across.
We’ve come a long way from the “I love America! What a country!” immigrant/foreigner tropes portrayed in “Coming to America,” “Perfect Strangers,” and the entire oeuvre of Yakov Smirnoff. It’s refreshing to see that people are in America for a better life, but they don’t fall for the illusion that the streets are paved with gold. It seemed for the Kims that they were leaving to get away rather than coming to get something.
This was during the mass migrations of Koreans to the U.S. in the ’80s. Right-wing Dictator Chun Doo-hwan had just replaced assassinated right-wing dictator Park Chung-hee. It was a turning point in the economy, in politics, and in social structures themselves.
Maybe it’s self-absorption, but I found a lot of myself and my immigrant experience in this film. I have no illusions that I’ve generally had the gentler white collar version, but the themes rhymed. I came to Korea as both a fan of the culture and out of financial necessity at the time.
Like Jacob, I chased a dream that I thought would be the future. For him, he wanted to grow Korean vegetables in anticipation that the large Korean migration would create demand for Korean produce. I myself produced this blog, podcasts, and tours in anticipation that Korean food was about to hit the big time. And I was making blogs and podcasts back before either of those media exploded in popularity.
Like Jacob, I put my wife through hell as I chased the dream she didn’t understand. She had no interest in my work and only reluctantly went along with my windmill chases. Like Monica, she’d push me to go return to my fallback job and to give up on my dreams. For Jacob at that time, it was chicken sexing. For university graduates in South Korea, it’s ESL teaching. In fact, it’s extremely hard to completely get out of the ESL teaching gig. Even those who own bars or do voice acting for a living still teach some English. You don’t find many foreigners in Korea owning convenience stores. They aren’t running large supermarket chains like Koreans are in Atlanta and other American cities. The best foreigners in Korea can do is hustle–if they don’t want to fall back on ESL teaching. And that gig generally doesn’t make more than $36,000/year.
Just pointing out that Jacob’s desire to get out of chicken sexing and to become successful doing his own thing reminded me of my desire to get out of ESL–to become one of the few English speaking foreigners to do something different.
I connected when Jacob looked at that smokestack at the hatchery, where they toss the male chicks. I’ve been reminded by society that I’m useless if I can’t succeed.
And I’ve been burned while chasing my dream. My restaurant ventures in 2016 crashed, the stress of which brought on a seizure which cracked my vertebra. Like the storeowner in Dallas, I was cheated by people I’d made deals with and worked very hard for.
Also, like Jacob, I started out looking down at local customs. I’d made friends with Koreans that other Koreans would have suggested were not good–maybe similar to how Jacob made friends with Paul, who was a pariah in the community. At the beginning, he thought the locals were ignorant hicks for using divining rods to find water. Then his character grew to accept even that odd local custom in the end.
I’ve done the same. “Why would you open all the windows in the middle of winter?”
But now I have done just that. I open the windows to air out our house, even in winter. I back into parking spaces. I refuse twice before accepting a gift the third time (like Monica does when her mother gives her money). I’ve been rightly called out for condescending towards local customs and beliefs. These days, I don’t think I’ve totally converted and been baptized in all Korean customs, but I find more comfort in them.
I see Anne and David in my child Jian. She mostly speaks Korean in the household while I mostly speak English, though we both switch up. In the film, David wears cowboy boots. Jian dances K-Pop. They both relate more to the countries they were born into, and they both get a bit of the outsider treatment. Jian hasn’t as much, thankfully. She did get it more when she was a baby. But we were conscious that she may be singled out for her–genetic diversity–so we prepared her for years to fit in and to stand up for herself.
Minari is the plant that symbolizes Chung’s version of the Korean immigrant experience. It’s hearty and grows well wherever it’s planted. This is indicated later when the Oklahoma City storeowner says that Korean communities are growing in Oklahoma and other locations closer to Jacob’s farm than way off in Dallas, where that untrustworthy store was. Koreans are placing more roots around the U.S.
Like Monica, my wife has had conversations with me about whether I cared more about my dreams or about my family. In fact, she literally said, “That’s you and me,” when they were having that hard conversation at the end.
But I’m American. I think in Korea, Americans aren’t minari. We’re tumbleweeds. Most hardly last two years in Korea. Because of this, we don’t form much of a supportive community. The networks to help newcomers are threadbare. There aren’t support centers, like churches. Though I did get a laugh when the Korean worker said that many Koreans fled to Arkansas to get away from “Korean church.” There was a lot of subtext in that.
My daughter visited her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Alabama last year. She loved it. Though my family lives in an area that doesn’t fit the podunk Alabama hicktown stereotype. It’s a pretty cool waterfront town. BUT–in my previous life I was married into a farming family in the Alabama countryside, and I witnessed the culture portrayed in “Minari’s” rural Arkansas. I connected with that side as well.
The extreme cult-like forms of religion practiced there, honestly, was not much different to how much religion is practiced in South Korea. The extreme fundamentalism, the xenophobia mixed with warm generosity, the commitment to tradition for the sake of tradition–I’ve noted so many similarities between Alabama and Korea over the years.
Sorry.
I’m being really personal and confessional.
“Minari” hit me in an unexpected place. Last year, I wrote about “Parasite,” and it reminded me again of how much I love Seoul, down to the gritty parts. “Minari” reminds me of my life in Korea. It’s been tough to plant roots here. I’m the consummate outsider. I’m well aware that I’m more privileged than others–and I still can’t get a Korean credit card or qualify for a housing loan.
For the past year, I’ve been considering becoming a naturalized Korean citizen. My largest obstacle is my constant struggle with the Korean language Balrog. Lee Isaac Chung’s film has helped re-energize me to work towards becoming a true American immigrant in Korea.
I’m getting so tired of ignorant people associating modern Korea with eating dog meat. Or even worse, portraying the entire country as dog eaters. In modern times, associating Koreans with eating dog meat is racist. It’s contributing to food stereotypes.
Where are all the dog meat jokes about these countries?
FACT: Other countries eat MORE dog than Korea.
Again, China. So why is Korea getting all the blame?
Over 70-percent of adult Koreans in a 2017 survey don’t eat dog. That’s a rapidly growing number as well. In fact, it’s hard to get exact figures these days about actual dog meat consumption. You can see it with the closing of the dog meat restaurants, markets, and farms. Not because of Westerners shaming Korea. It’s because Koreans just don’t eat it anymore. Particularly young Koreans. It’s a habit for the elderly.
FACT: Koreans have been actively eliminating the dog meat industry.
According to Wikipedia, the number of dog meat restaurants have gone down by half in recent years, and even that figure is outdated. It’s declining more rapidly than that. This has been possible through media and activist awareness BY KOREANS. Not by Westerners shaming Koreans.
I’d argue that the condescending stereotype from Westerners has had the opposite effect, causing some Koreans to become defiant, circling the wagons to defend a cultural practice that goes back to the fall of the Roman Empire. It takes a little time to change an almost 1500-year tradition. I’d say things are going rapidly.
The Korean president adopted a dog, rescuing it from slaughter. There’s a bill in the works to close down the farms. But even without the legislation, dog farms are closing.
Why?
There’s no more business.
The Moran Market, the infamous dog meat market, has closed down. In 2015, there were 17,000 estimated dog farms. Two years later, that went down to 2,800. That’s an over 6-fold decline. Farmers are trying to get out of the industry. They’re accepting compensation to move to different types of farming. It’s not like these folks have the funds themselves to just switch over. That requires a lot of capital investment. And these guys want out.
But sure. Cling to your old stereotypes.
FACT: Modern Koreans overwhelmingly consider dogs to be pets, not food.
One-third of Korean households have pets.
We have TV shows all the time about cute and mischievous dogs. We have active and growing pet sale and pet accessories industries. Have you seen all the cute dog clothes we have in Korea?
FACT: There is no Korean dog meat festival. That’s in China.
People are confusing this with Boknal, which are three days scattered through summer that are considered the hottest. There was a time when dog soup was considered a medicinal necessity to help with those days. Or frankly, to help with a flaccid penis.
In modern times, ginseng chicken soup (Samgyetang) has replaced that on the medicinal side. The little blue pill on the other side.
It’s China’s Yulin Festival you’re thinking of. Modern Chinese are mostly against it. But I understand. You made a mistake. Confused China and Korea. All those Asians look alike, huh?
FACT: The few who still eat dog meat don’t need White Saviors
Don't Let Them Die for Dog Meat Soup
Strung up by their necks, electrocuted, and boiled into dog meat soup. during the Boknal Dog Eating Days in Korea.
It feels SO GOOD to set yourself in a morally superior position. I get it.
Congratulations! You don’t eat dog. You’re a good person.
Congratulations! You think dog eating is cruel. You’re a good person.
Congratulations! You are morally superior to these backward Asian people.
EWW!
Yes, Karen, step away and respect that your finger wagging is another form of colonialism. Koreans are doing fine in taking care of the dog meat issue. They don’t need White Savior Becky to set the natives on the correct path, especially if you’re hijacking benign Korean food posts to scold the Korean race.
All this does is make you feel good. It’s moral masturbation.
This racist stereotype is beating a dead horse.
The Koreans-eating-dog-meat thing is old. It’s stale. And considering that hardly anyone in Korea eats it anymore, it’s racist. It’s another way The West can feel superior.
I’m not even going to go down that rabbit hole about the questionable morality of how humans decide which animals are fit for consumption. (Oh, and the French eat cute bunny rabbits.)
Whenever South Korea rises to prove that it went from a poverty stricken country to one of the most high tech countries in the world–with much faster internet than you got, Douggie–y’all gotta go back and do the dawg thang.
Don’t you find it hypocritical that it’s racist to stereotype certain ethnicities with certain foods, but it’s okay to stereotype one ethnicity for eating a food it barely eats anymore?
The dog farm in the piece was slated to close anyway, due to pressure from KOREANS. Gus didn’t close the damn farm. Really? You thought that?
Gus didn’t adopt all those dogs. He adopted one. He adopted more in Sochi.
It was a publicity stunt by The Humane Society. Though I agree with the cause, this wasn’t some random White Knight rescuing dogs. It was planned.
There is still some road to go. But I’ve been seeing so much ignorance on the internet, like people saying they won’t visit Korea because Koreans eat dogs (though they’d visit China and other dog eating countries).
This isn’t 1988 anymore. There will definitely be a time when saying, “Koreans eat dog,” will be as minstrel as making slanty eyes and bucked teeth.
I have watched “Parasite” a few times now. During one viewing, I broke out my laptop to take notes. There were a lot of cultural details in “Parasite” that people outside Korea wouldn’t get. Darcy Paquet (Hi, Darcy!), who translated the subtitles into English, as he’s done for many of Bong Joon-ho’s projects, worked hard to make the script more international. Translation isn’t just about robotically changing one word for another. A good translator translates cultural cues. On top of Darcy’s great effort, I noted a lot of things that would still get missed. Here are my notes.
Needless to say…
****SPOILER ALERT*****
The Half-basement Apartment
This was personal. I actually lived in a half-basement my second year in Korea. At first, I didn’t think it was so bad. Some friends of mine also lived in a roomy half-basement, and I thought it was just an adjustment to living in the city. When I moved there, and my girlfriend saw it, she broke down in tears at the shame I was bearing for living there.
I learned during my year there why. My sub-basement was right next to a playground, and kids were always peaking in my windows and kicking balls against them–no privacy. The musty basement smell permeated everything. I had bought a dehumidifier, and it helped a bit but not a lot. Clothes had a hard time drying. Weird bugs crept in. That said, I didn’t have problems with drunks pissing on my window.
I had to be extra vigilant during the rainy season. I didn’t get flooded like the Kims did in the film, but I was constantly checking and making sure the drains were cleared. The water almost went up to invasion levels. Got lucky.
I have some nice memories of that time, but those are the memories you get when you’ve filtered all the bad. My blog started hitting its early stride during that year. It was the only Korean food blog in existence then. You can go back to those early posts in 2005-2006 and see what the apartment was like.
IPTime
In the beginning when Ki-woo (pronounced GEE-oo) is trying to get wi-fi, he mentions he can’t get IPTime to work. IPTime is a local brand of wi-fi router. When hunting for wi-fi in Korea, IPTime routers tend to not be password protected. I used to have one, and if I remember correctly, that was its default setting. It wasn’t the most user-friendly device to set up. So people would just plug it in, and strangers could sip off their wi-fi.
Korea isn’t as miffed by privacy as other societies. We hear calls for more CCTVs, not less. I’ve learned to expect no privacy at doctor’s offices, where they’ll announce the results of my drug or HIV tests (used to be a requirement for foreign teachers) in the waiting room.
In the movie, the lady upstairs figured out how to password protect it. I found it funny that they tried to use “123456789” because it coulda worked. It’s been a personal frustration of mine how even large organizations are cavalier about passwords. I used to work for a major broadcaster in Seoul, and I was appalled that the main password to get into their system was similar to that.
Kakao Talk (WhatsApp)
You didn’t hear “WhatsApp” in the dialogue. If you listen closely, you can hear “Ka-talk,” which is short for “Kakao Talk.” Korea’s answer to WhatsApp. It’s how everyone communicates, just like China uses WeChat and Japan uses Line. It’s become so synonymous with Korea, that there are multi-storied Kakao stores selling character merchandise based on their emojis.
The Silver Medal
First off, it’s not an Olympic medal. It translates to “National Classification, Athletics Championships, Korean Federation of Athletics” in 1992. What’s significant is that it’s silver, not gold. There’s no glory in second place.
The Fumigator
Even the Kims said, “They still do that?”
In summer, fumigator trucks would ride down neighborhoods to rid the areas of mosquitoes. Children ran behind the trucks because it was fun to play in the mist. Don’t ask me about the health hazards of that. When I lived in my half-basement, I remember the fumigator truck going by. I didn’t open my windows.
The Food & Drinks
I’m sure most picked up on how food showed the Kims’ class progression, starting with a bag of white bread. Then the Drivers’ Cafeteria (기사식당), which I personally like. They’re cheap but good buffets. Then they’re eating proper rice, egg, and kimchi at home. Then grilling L.A. Beef Galbi at home.
When the family is sitting around and drinking the first time in the film, they’re sharing a bag of chips opened like a bowl as “anju” (pub grub). They’re also drinking FiLite, which is the cheapest malt beverage on the market. It’s nasty.
When we return to that same get together as the Kims are moving up in income, everyone but the mom has switched to Sapporo, which is considered an expensive import. Mom stuck to FiLite.
It peaks when they’re indulging in the high end liquors at the Parks’ house. They fly too close to the sun because everything falls apart after that moment.
Status and Character
This one shot here conveys a good bit of character. The much younger pizza boss didn’t resort to banmal, a form of speaking when talking to someone lower than you in the hierarchy. She respected her elders in a sense, even though she was chastising them. The shorthand way to tell is to listen for the “yo” at the end of the sentence. That’s considered–well–not impolite. Later, when Min is yelling at the drunk, who is older than him, he uses banmal.
Ki-woo tries to appease the boss and get a part-time job. Note how he tries to keep his head at her level or lower to show respect. Yet his sister Ki-jung does not. It’s their version of Good Cop, Bad Cop.
Language forms and body language add this whole rich layer to the class message. I’ve been reading articles about how “Parasite” could be made in any country. Yet I feel it works so well in Korea because of the many layers of hierarchy present in simple things like verb endings, head height, eye contact. A Hollywood remake (PLEASE DON’T) couldn’t do this with this much subtlety. It would have to be BONK BONK on the head.
The Cash
If you haven’t lived or visited South Korea in the past ten years when the 50,000 won note was introduced, you may have missed this amusing contrast between the pizza boss’ payment and Park Yeon-kyo’s payment later. Going from green 10,000 won notes (~$10 USD) to golden 50,000 won notes (~$50 USD) and just flipping through them like they were nothing. I could feel Ki-woo’s heart leap at that.
Shoeless Feet
I didn’t notice this until just watching it now. When Min walks in, he takes his shoes off because we are a civilized country and take our shoes off when entering a home. But he steps in something strange and shakes it off. I found that funny.
That ain’t a nice wood floor. It’s linoleum.
Oh, and I’m sure you want to know more about the rock. I’ve seen these in Samgyetang places and old people’s homes. It’s better explained here.
Convenience Store Bars
One of the great charms of living in South Korea is the convenience store bars. Tables usually sit outside convenience stores and bodegas (called “Super” in Korean). Just grab some drinks, cups, and snacks. You have yourself a cheap all-night drinking spot.
Note Korean drinking etiquette. Pour for your elders. And when it’s friends, you usually pour them for the first drink. Also note that they still have some nuts to eat. We always have something to munch on when drinking. As I said, civilized society.
Just a small thing. The translation says “frat boys,” but he really says neukdae, “wolves.”
My Korean is okay. I recently had a level test, and I’m 3 out of 5 levels in TOPIK, so my ears still need much training. But I’m sure when Ki-woo calls himself a “loser” in the subtitles, he says, “Baeksu 백수,” in Korean. Literally, it means, “white hands.” It’s one of the first Korean idioms I learned. My first girlfriend had lost her job, and she called herself that. Her hands were white because she wasn’t working. So “loser” in this sense really meant “unemployed.”
Yonsei University
That was surreal. I just cropped an image of Photoshop in Photoshop.
Yonsei is translated as “Oxford.” It’s one of the top three South Korean universities everyone wants to get into. It’s one of the SKY universities: Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University. Or SKYE if you include Ehwa University.
Faking one’s education credentials has been a running series of scandals for decades. Every few years we get rocked by these. Educational credentials mean a lot. Even more than experience. Even rappers have gotten in trouble with rumors that they faked their college degrees.
Yes, in Korean hip hop, university cred trumps street cred.
Ki-jung and Ki-woo make the forgery in a PC bang (PC room). They were ubiquitous. They’d be crowded with gamers playing Starcraft. With the advent of smartphones and the banning of smoking in PC bangs, they’ve dwindled to endangered status. More character development with Ki-jung smoking even though it’s banned. Getting a used Shin Ramyeon cup to flick her ashes in.
Am I bad that every time I watch this, I get a bigger crush on Ki-jung?
The Neighborhood
I don’t know where this neighborhood is. I’m sure if I did a little online research I’d find out. Or maybe it’s not a real place in Seoul. I’ve seen areas that look like this in Gangnam (Sinsa-dong or Banpo-dong, specifically) and in Hannam-dong, near Itaewon. I also feel like this could be in Buam-dong, in northwest Seoul, where there are a lot of nice houses. Some more small evidence to point to Buam-dong is that there are no subway stations there. It’s the only part of Seoul without any. The Parks mention it’s been a long time since they’d taken the subway. In Seoul, basically EVERYONE takes the subway at one time or another.
Western audiences outside big cities wouldn’t appreciate how rare it is to live in a house with an actual YARD here. A yard is an indicator of wealth. A freestanding house is another indicator. A two-car garage. WHOA!
One hint was that the driver later took Ki-jung to Hyewha Station, which is in northeast Seoul. I’m wondering if the Kims sort of live near there. It is hilly and has some old “villas.”
Towards the end, there’s this brief shot with the only recognizable Seoul landmark in the film, N Seoul Tower. I’m definitely calling this, saying it’s north of the tower looking south, which does place it closer to Hyewha.
Please tell me if you know in the comments. I’ll update.
UPDATE: The long stairs they climb down in the rain and the tunnel are in Buam-dong. A lot of the filming locations for the Kims’ neighborhood are near Chungjeongno Station. Seongbuk-dong has been regularly mentioned as the likely neighborhood the Parks live in. Either way, it’s in very north Seoul, just north of the palaces.
In fact, we now have a tour that goes there. Check it out
The Parks
There are a few notable class cues when Ki-woo gets his first impressions of the Parks. Nathan Park runs an augmented reality tech company, and there’s an article about him in New York. As they say, if you can make it there…
When taking English classes or going overseas, most students adopt English names, which is why Mr. Park also goes by Nathan and later Ki-woo goes by Kevin and Ki-jung goes by Jessica.
I don’t know what a “Hybrid Module Map” is, but he got some innovation award for his company, Another Brick. Take whatever you wish with that name.
Pets of the Noveau Riche
Mrs. Park has a lapdog. They have a few little dogs. Pet ownership was almost unheard of outside university areas when I arrived in Korea in 2004. My first year, a friend of mine had this large gorgeous dog. While he was walking it, a man walked across the street and kicked my friend’s dog.
Now we have chains of pet supply shops. Mostly small dogs because of apartment living. It’s been fascinating to watch this cultural shift to shunning pets to embracing them.
Random aside. I just found out a friend of mine was university friends with Jo Yeo-jeong, who plays Mrs. Park. Small world.
English + Foreign Brands = Cosmopolitan
She implies her daughter Da-hye isn’t a good student. She also implies it doesn’t matter. She’ll get into a good school anyway.
English itself is a status symbol. Like how nouveau riche Americans think dropping French phrases makes them sophisticated. When I co-hosted an English education radio show, there was a lot of posturing in the message boards about grammar and pronunciation. Petty stuff. It amounted to netizens jostling for status based on their technical English knowledge.
The Korean general public knows more English than it shows. One of the reasons Koreans may not speak English to you is fear of being judged and taken down a notch if their grammar isn’t perfect. That’s an uncomfortable subject many will not admit.
Mrs. Park dropping her phonetically pronounced English phrases were stabs at making her look sophisticated. She’s also impressed by anything western. Even just Ki-woo saying, “Illinois,” impresses her when he’s selling her on hiring “Jessica.”
Foreign brands, names, and such, emit a cosmopolitan vibe. Even the dog food is Japanese. I could spend a whole series of blog posts on this. It annoyed my wife when we first moved to these nice apartments that one show-offey woman kept bragging about all the stuff, including detergent, her international businessman husband brought from America.
Nonetheless, this brought back memories of me tutoring for wealthy families. And yeah, they were all very nice people, like they are in “Parasite.” It’s eerie how similar my past clients were to the Parks.
The Parks’ and the Kims’ family structures are similar. Two parents, sister, brother. Even though things have been changing, having a male heir was very important. In my old teaching days, I remember a lot of families, especially middle to upper class families, had older daughters and stopped having kids when they got to having a son.
The University Entrance Exam
Ki-woo’s sample English lesson gives us a glimpse of the notorious Korean university entrance exam–Korea’s SAT. It’s taken in November, and they release the questions and answers in December. The English section always has the most stupidly difficult gotcha questions that even native English speakers would have difficulty with. I bet the test creators copy and paste some dense academic paper and make one word a blank. The test taker must guess which word they left out.
It’s ridiculous.
The Jessica Jingle
All you need to know about this song is that it’s a common children’s song, like “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” that they’re using to memorize “Jessica’s” back story.
Okay. It’s a nationalistic song about Dokdo, the disputed islands off the east coast. “Dokdo is Our Land.” “Dokdo Uri Ddang 독도우리땅.” My daughter sings it.
It’s used by children a lot to memorize things.
Hot Sauce on Pizza
Koreans are surprised to see that people outside Korea generally don’t put hot sauce on their pizza. Or rather, pizza shops don’t offer hot sauce in ketchup packets. The Korean palate craves the sharpness of hot sauce and the astringency of sweet pickles to cut through the greasiness of pizza.
I loved how clever this was. They connected the pizza box folding job to them later being served by their former boss in the pizza shop to the inspiration to use the pizza hot sauce packet to bloody the tissue to get the housekeeper fired. Long, long con by Bong Joon-ho.
The Hospital
Just a small guess that this looks like the main reception area of Severance Hospital. After my seizure and spine fracture in 2016, I’ve spend a lot of time there, so that waiting area looks familiar. Especially with the airy light. Then again, I’ve been to a hospital in Ilsan that sorta looked like this.
TRIVIA: Severance was the first modern hospital in Korea. Founded by American missionary doctor Horace N. Allen in the 1890s.
They mention that Korea has the highest tuberculosis rate in the developed world. That’s true and has been in the news. It’s another way Bong Joon-ho throws the Korean zeitgeist into this film.
Braised Ribs
I’m glad Galbi Jjim got this translation. Other times, it’s called “Stewed Ribs.” Technically, that is true, but the feel of the dish is more braised than stewed. It’s a special occasion dish that takes a long time to cook. If using beef ribs, they’re also expensive. South Korea has some of the highest beef prices in the whole world. Another subtle nod to class difference that Mr. Park craved such a luxury.
Here’s a video on how to make it.
The Business Card
Business cards are big deals in East Asia. Western businesspeople need to learn the proper business card etiquette in this part of the world. If someone hands you their business card, you treat it with respect. Receive it with two hands. Feel the paper and admire it. Note the job title of the person on the card. In a meeting, put it on the table, not in your pocket. Even better, place the business cards in order of status if you’re in a group meeting.
I’m serious.
Mr Park comments how the business card is a sign of class. Not only is the design good, it’s printed on thick paper stock. Those types of business cards are pricey to make. Patrick Bateman would be envious.
Dishwasher
Even today, most Korean homes don’t have dishwashers or clothes dryers. Ovens are still penetrating the market. Bidets as well. Oh… I love bidets…
Family Register
When Mrs. Park calls the fake agency for a housekeeper, she’s asked for documents, including a family register. Koreans have documentation of their ancestry dating back centuries. My wife’s family goes back to around 700 A.D., and I just recently got entered into the register after ten years of marriage. Asking for the family register shows how ridiculously excessive and elite this agency is.
500 University Graduates
Mr. Kim praises that they’re doing well when even “an opening for a security guard attracts 500 university graduates.”
Recent articles have come out about the over supply of university graduates and how hard it is for graduates to get jobs.
Summer
It’s obvious to anyone not in Korea that all the events take place in summer. Well, they do mention it’s June. But there are other touches I found that signify it.
Glamping
The Parks go glamping. They ain’t camping. No roughing it. There was no serious camping as a past time in Korea until the 2010s. And the camping public when straight into glamping. Being able to go camping in Korea is considered a trendy activity. The Parks are even bringing a BEAM PROJECTOR to go CAMPING!!!
Peaches
Our fruits and vegetables can be extremely seasonal. Peaches are only available during a window of June to late July. Sometimes I’ve seen the season only last a couple of weeks.
Rainy Season
The rainy season, jangma, hits its peak in July, but I’ve seen it start in June. We haven’t had a bad one in a while, but when it hits, it hits hard. Flooding. And yes, overflowing sewage.
Caught a Bouquet
Ki-jung says she once caught a bouquet for someone she never met. In Korean westernized weddings, everything is done for the photos. It’s as if the Korean idea of a western wedding came from watching Las Vegas weddings on TV.
Catching the bouquet is just another photo op. A friend of the bride is chosen ahead of time, and she throws the bouquet to her for the photo. Sometimes it takes a few tries.
Click here for more details about Korean weddings.
Sis
To show our bonds, we call each other by familial names. Big sister, big brother, auntie, uncle. You hear girls call their boyfriends “Oppa,” meaning, “Big Brother.” I call the owner at the Two-Two Chicken I frequent “Hyung,” also meaning, “Big Brother.”
Moon-gwang calls Kim Chung-sook “Unni” here, which offends her for being so familial.
A little later, Moon-gwang gets on her hands and knees, rubbing her hands. It’s an extreme form of begging for favor. I’ll admit I’ve been in a situation where I’ve done this.
Bunkers
Yes, they do exist. For different reasons. But many to hide if North Korea attacked, or even worse, government prosecutors want to do a raid (as she states). There are other bunkers around Korea. There’s one that was built for former dictator Park Chung-hee that’s in Yeouido. There’s a WWII Japanese bunker hidden in plain site next to Gyeonghuigung Palace.
FUN FACT: Many Seoul subway stations go deep underground because they double as bomb shelters.
Taiwanese Castella Shops
This is the line that prompted me to make this post. It’s an inside joke Seoul foodies would catch. Castella shops were one of many flash-in-the-pan food trends going through Seoul.
As with all these trends, many people lost money trying to get rich quick. Usually men forced into early retirement, which is why there are so many fried chicken pubs. Many of these men feel they have two choices: driving taxis or opening a restaurant.
The most recent trend has been Taiwanese black sugar bubble tea. This summer, there were hour-long waits for this Instagrammy drink. Now the cafes are empty.
Ram-don (Jjapaguri)
When the Parks cut their trip short and return home, Mrs. Park asks Mrs. Kim to make her some “Jjapaguri.”
This is a recent junk food creation that came from a TV show that follows celebrity dads as they take care of their kids. One of the dads said his go-to dish was mixing two popular instant noodles together, Chapagetti and Neoguri (pronounced NUH-goo-ree). It’s kind of a Homer Simpson type of dish, but it got popular.
Chapagetti is ramen style noodles with black bean sauce. Neoguri is thicker udon style noodles with a spicy seafood flavor. Mrs. Kim, I guess, hadn’t heard of it because she didn’t have a TV to see the program.
Mrs. Park wanted it with “sirloin,” which classed it up. That’s the translation. She really says, “Hanoo,” which is high end Korean beef, akin to Kobe. So imagine making something like Honey Boo-Boo’s sketti with lobster.
It’s not in the translation, but when Mrs. Park is telling Mrs. Kim to quickly make the noodles, she finishes by saying, “Fighting,” which is a kind of cheer.
It’s an easy dish to make, and you can get the ingredients at most Asian and Korean grocery stores. It’s quite salty. I had it the other night at a bar during a BBQ tour. We ate the whole thing.
Stress Positions
This is an old-fashioned way to punish children. Have them kneel or stand with their arms up.
Moon-gwang then impersonates the famous North Korean newscaster we always see.
Saeng Cream Cake
Mrs. Park talks about when Da-song was traumatized by the “ghost.” He saw the ghost when we went down to get some Saeng Cream Cake. It’s a popular cake in Korea that uses whipped cream for frosting. Recipe is here.
In the meantime, Mr. Kim and Geun-se are talking about Geun-se’s life in the bunker. He talks about how it’s home. SO MANY DETAILS in these shots that I’ll have to pause and pause to catch them all. I particularly found it funny the stack of used condom wrappers on a spike with two hopeful unused ones.
Jangma
The floods hit. The Kims escape. Some say this is a little too on the nose, but so what. It showed the Kim’s going down and down the hills of Seoul to their half-basement. The trickle down of the rich’s filth reaching them. In old poorer areas, you see the spaghetti tangle of utility cables.
I’ve been in floods like this. In 2011, many of us were trapped in a neighborhood after a mudslide blocked all exits. Cars were floating and all.
The Birthday Party
Everything went to shit, as you know, for the Kims. The Jangma rains flooded their apartment as they narrowly escaped being caught. This isn’t a cultural point but some have been surprised about the ending. Pay attention to the wording used when Mr. Kim is helping Mrs. Park shop for Da-song’s birthday party in shops his family would never venture. She talks about how refreshing and cleansing the rain is, when we know how devastating it was to the Kim family. How the rich viewed the rain contrasted so sharply from how Mr. Kim’s class viewed it.
“The sky’s so blue and no pollution.” <–we do have pollution issues in Seoul
That’s when the knife struck down in his mind and permanently split him from the Parks.
Note that all the food and drinks they prepare for the party are foreign–pasta, gratin, salmon steak. The Korean elite, especially the nouveau riche, shun Korean foods and drinks when they want to impress.
Table Arrangements
Mrs. Park wanted the birthday table arrangements to mimic Admiral Yi’s crane formation in defeating the Japanese navy–back in the Imjin Wars of 1592.
One could REALLY be reaching out on a limb when she says Da-song’s tent is the Japanese warship. There have been accusations many times that South Korea’s current elite has ties to collaborators during the Japanese colonial period of the 20th century. Eh–forget I said it.
The Cars
Any car that is not Korean is considered luxurious. Mini Coops, Mercedes. When the guests arrive, one arrives in a black taxi, which is the most expensive taxi out there.
The Ending
I don’t have any more subtle cultural notes for the jarring ending. Other than this movie really portrays Seoul well without even showcasing a single landmark. That’s what Seoul is in my opinion. It’s like Los Angeles– a city with a feel to it that doesn’t need landmarks. A living breathing creature.
One Final Note
Don’t be the daughter of actor Song Kang-ho in any movie. They tend to die.
This post has gone through many edits and additions thanks to our amazing community.Special thanks to William Cho, Kent Matsuoka, Eugene Whong, Jieun Park, Andy Kim, Shawn Morrissey, Sam Henderson, Steven Ward, Rob Ouwehand, Karl Mamer, and Hayne Kim for helping with the editing.
The spicy stewed pork ribs emerged from the kitchen. Two attractive TV hosts gawked at them in wonder. They gazed at a dish of decadence. A dish that broke all the rules. A dish that was Korean but smothered in mozzarella cheese. With small tongs one woman grabbed a meaty rib and wrapped it in stringy ribbons of dairy.
This was the hit Korean TV show “Tasty Road,” which featured new hot restaurants around South Korea. This episode sparked Korea’s current love for cheese, but it goes deeper than that.
Koreans love cheese
The conventional wisdom has been that Asians don’t eat dairy. I remember a short story I read in elementary school in the 1980s. It focused on a Korean-American girl adjusting to two cultures. She considered herself American, but her relatives pressured her to be more Korean. They forbade her to eat pizza because they said, “Koreans don’t eat cheese.”
That was true in the ‘80s.
Foreign influence and crisis developed the love of dairy on the Korean peninsula, starting with Seoul Milk. The largest dairy company in Korea started during its Japanese colonial period. After that time, Japan would figure again in the 1970s with Yakult Korea. This Korean-owned branch of a Japanese dairy sold yogurt drinks to school children. They’re notable for intentionally hiring an all-woman staff of salespeople, known as “Yakult Ajumma.” These iconic ladies in their mustard colored uniforms pushed carts near schools and were the Korean equivalent of the ice cream truck.
After the Korean War, the U.S. infected Korean cuisine with surplus from military bases. Hot dogs, Spam, and processed cheese became part of the culinary landscape. Cheese entered the famous Budae Jjigae, the “Army Base Stew” Anthony Bourdain raved about. Cheese Kimbap populated local diners. Sliced processed cheese found its way into instant noodles. Manufacturers marketed special “Einstein” cheese slices for babies.
In the early 1960s, a Belgian monk created Korea’s first domestic cheese industry in the rural southern county of Imsil. The curds from this village have become a source of pride for South Koreans, enjoying Imsil Cheese on pizzas and grilling it. In fact, some Korean BBQ places offer grilled Imsil cheese as an option alongside shaved brisket.
We can also talk about how Pizza Hut introduced pizza to Korea in the mid-1980s with ads of stretchy cheese. Yet none of those examples explain why cheese has become so dominant in Korea. These just paint the backdrop. The prelude.
It all comes down to crisis.
When Koreans feel stressed, they want to eat something spicy. It’s a form of cathartic endorphin-laced release. Whenever there has been a national crisis, spicy foods have flourished.
The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis fired up Buldak craze, an intensely spicy chicken no sane sober human should consume. It used to be all over Korea, but these days, it’s hard to find.
Then came the 2008 financial crisis. It took a while to hit Korea. When it did, the stressed masses turned to spicy foods.
A small mom-and-pop shop in the blue collar Sillim-dong neighborhood experienced a surge of customers craving their spicy smoky stewed ribs. The owner of Hahm Ji Bak was thrilled. When he had a breather, he ventured into the dining room and checked in on his customers. They said they loved his ribs. When he offered to get them more, they said that they were having spice overload. They wanted to eat more, but they physically couldn’t.
The owner experimented by melting a mixture of mozzarella and other cheeses with the ribs and dipping them as a fondue. The dairy countered the spice so that the customers could control their level of heat. Word spread about this place, sparking the new influential show Tasty Road to do an episode there.
This coincided with the rise of the “Matjip” movement. This was a renaissance of young people rushing to find the best and newest hot restaurants through social media. Hahm Ji Bak got slammed with new customers.
Soon came the copycats, not only copying the dish but the name of the restaurant itself. The hipster Hongdae area proliferated with restaurants serving spicy dishes overloaded with cheese. Lines formed outside each of these. The craze spread through Seoul and then throughout all of South Korea.
“New Iron Plate Chicken” at Flying Chicken 닭날다 in Hongdae
Now Korea is the fifth largest importer of American dairy and growing. It consumes so much cheese, it affects U.S. dairy prices. Yes, your milk got more expensive because of Korea.
When Koreans’ love for cheese in Korean food is influencing global dairy markets, is it too crazy to claim that cheese is now a Korean ingredient?
Tom’s Pizza in Hongdae has been making the rounds in the foodie community because of its high quality New York style pizza. It’s now my go-to place for business meetings. It’s just a small operation with Tom and his wife running the place.
Tom messaged me last night, saying he was worried. He suddenly got 6,000 followers on his Instagram account. He felt that something was about the happen.
Then the robot attacks began. (Click to see the original size.)
The origin looks Korean or Korean-American, considering the content of some of the messages. Then again, it could be some expat who has nothing better to do than to pretend to be Korean–after almost 15 years of blogging in Korea, I wouldn’t be surprised. It could be a disgruntled customer or another restaurant playing dirty. I’ve mentioned in the past how difficult it is for foreigners to run businesses, especially restaurants, in Korea because of dirty xenophobic tactics by some businesses and government officials. I know a couple restaurateurs who left the country because they just got tired of fighting it.
Today, there are over 7,000 followers. Someone is paying a company to do a coordinated attack. I’m just posting this here for future reference.
I also teach English a little in my free time. Because of this, I was required by the Gyeonggi Provincial government via the hagwon association to go to a “teacher training” seminar wa-a-a-a-ay out in Icheon.
Not Incheon.
Icheon.
I like Icheon. Pottery. Rice. Makgeolli. Seo-il Farm. It’s also WAY on the eastern edge of Gyeonggi-do. Far away from where the majority of foreign English teachers live.
The stated purpose of this seminar is to train foreign ESL teachers to be “better teachers.” The real reason is more sinister and clouded with xenophobia.
We’ve had waves of xenophobia since I’ve been here. The big one was Anti-English-Spectrum (2005), which was a vigilante group of men who didn’t like Korean women dating foreign men. They got the ears of the media and politicians, rebranded themselves to be an organization to make schools better, and orchestrated a lot of the questionable immigration policies South Korea. This includes the HIV/AIDS test for E-2 visas, which the U.N. Human Rights people said violated international treaties. That took around a decade to finally get rid of. They fueled this perception of foreigners as being sexually deviant drug addicts. The group is no longer active, but their stench still exists in the public mindset.
In 2007, pedophile Christopher Paul Neil was arrested in Thailand. It hit the news in South Korea that he was a teacher here while committing those acts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Add pedophilia to the list of traits the Korean public attached to foreign English teachers.
I should note that a lot of people much smarter than I have documented that the crime rates for Koreans in Korea is TWO TIMES higher than foreigners.
[box] The MRTC analysis said the average crime rate for Koreans is more than twice that of foreigners at 3,649 crimes per 100,000 people. For foreigners it is 1,585 per 100,000. [Source: Yonhap News][/box]
Against this backdrop, another wave of xenophobia occurred in 2012. There was a journalist strike at the TV stations, so the stations were picking up whatever dreck pieces they could. That was the year the Korean media went all out, warning Korean women about the dangers of foreign men.
It was around this time that a group claiming to represent concerned parents convinced politicians to establish these seminars to teach foreign ESL teachers about Korean law, visa restrictions, and how to assimilate in Korean culture. That’s what this seminar was.
I call it “The Dirty Foreigner Seminar.”
We were on the phone with the people in charge. We explained that I’m an F5 visa, which is like a green card–one step away from citizenship. I have a business to run. I have 15 years of experience, and I don’t need an introductory seminar. They were insistent. I had to attend or the school would be fined. I was hoping to go to a pumpkin carving event with my family, but I cancelled it for this.
What follows is for your entertainment. It’s an illustration of how out of touch a lot of people in charge in Korea are. It’s an example of a giant waste of taxpayers’ money. I just coughed up W3 million in taxes this month, so I’m conscious of that.
Everyone was required to be in Icheon at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday. Quite an early time when most teachers, especially E-2 visas, don’t have cars. The subways don’t open until 5:00 a.m. There was no way a teacher from my area in west Gyeonggi could make it out there without hitching a ride with someone.
The reason for the time?
So they could finish at lunch time. Then they wouldn’t be obliged to supply food for the attendees.
I closed down my Friday night tour so that I could go to bed early for this. Got up at 5 a.m. and drove in thick fog to Icheon.
I stood in line for registration, and this was what the itinerary was.
Here’s what happened
I live tweeted and live posted on Facebook what was going on. The following comments were from my Facebook wall. This wasn’t just foreigners making fun of this. Koreans were also blasting this clown show. I’ve covered up their identities.
Opening Ceremony
Everyone was called into the auditorium. All Korean seminars have to follow a set formula. No deviations, no matter the subject or audience.
Which meant this.
All foreigners had to stand for the South Korean national anthem. They didn’t tell us to salute, which would have meant that we were pledging our allegiances to a foreign entity. Some friends have been forced to do so at other functions.
Confrontation #1
This was just funny. I mean, it was dumb to bring food in the auditorium. E2 visas don’t have a reputation for common sense or even hygiene. Many tend to look and act like they just got out of their college dorm rooms hungover. The guy was like, “I had no time to eat breakfast.”
Sorry E2’s. I was one of you once. Still a scruffy bunch.
Welcome Speeches
Every event like this you are required to have dignitaries give speeches.
The round peg in a square hole solution?
Have these dignitaries speak in Korean while the English versions of their speeches were projected on the screen.
Cultural Performance
A little entertainment for everyone.
Performance: “Beethoven”
A group that was an offshoot of Nanta made a performance. They worked hard, and they were good. They played that upbeat synthesizer version of Beethoven’s “Pathetique” that you hear all the time in Korea. Even my daughter’s kindergarten class performed this while beating to drums.
The cynical long-term expat in me got annoyed. It’s bad enough that we were forced to attend this. But when the newbie foreigners start acting like they’re having a good time, it only encourages them, guys.
We all drove out to Icheon to see what we could easily see in Seoul?
Welcome to Icheon Sing a Song
Oh man, poor guy. The mayor of Icheon chose to sing “Some Say Love.” I guess because it’s one of the only songs he knows at the noraebang. We all were feeling stressed for him, as his voice cracked and muddled through.
The emcee also said that the mayor loved each and every one of us. Good to know I’m loved.
Performance: “Arirang”
Every single performance that has foreigners in the audience, I think it’s mandated by law to play “Arirang.”
Lectures
Immigration Office Control Law Guide
I’m sure the above title makes sense in Korean.
This is what upset a lot of us. The seminar is really for newbies. A lot of us long timers, including F4 visa “Koreans-by-DNA” (not my wording, Korean-American friend uses it tongue-in-cheek), were forced to attend this thing that had NOTHING to do with us.
Confrontation #2
An F4 visa holder got the microphone in the middle of the immigration guy’s lecture and asked if there would be any information for people with F-series visas. Those are people like Korean-Americans, spouses of Koreans, and permanent residents like me.
“No, I don’t have any information here for you.”
“Then why are we here?”
I started clapping.
There was a back-and-forth while the immigration guy was sweating. The F4 visa holder offered to explain in Korean for him to make it easier.
It’s sad because even the people running the event don’t want to be there. The difference is that they’re getting paid, and we’re not. I’ve given one of these types of lectures before for EPIK. I got paid well.
Everyone just wants to get through this and go home.
The people who need to hear what the F4 visa holder had to say weren’t there.
Back to the “Don’t Be Pedophiles” Lecture
Coded Language: We still remember that foreign pedophile from 2007. MANY more Korean teachers have since been caught diddling students, but that doesn’t matter. That one guy from 2007 makes ALL OF YOU guilty by xeno-association.
Re: Swine flu
In 2009, the H1n1 Swine Flu panic had hit Korea. Their first solution was to quarantine foreign teachers who had just flown into the country. Koreans were allowed to go home.
The drug case study was of American soldiers smuggling Philopon in cereal boxes.
Since posting this, someone clarified what the Korean media covered up. The source for the Philopon was a Korean-American operation using the U.S. military postal service to smuggle it into the country for Korean use. But the rule in Korea is that if Korean-Americans are good, they’re Korean. If they’re bad, they’re foreigners.
They weren’t English teachers, but you know, they were dirty foreigners.
So don’t do this.
Then someone from the audience piped up to much laughter…
ASSIMILATE!! Resistance if futile. Sure. Koreans have to eat Korean food when traveling abroad, but you’re in Korea. Eat only Korean food. Be an obedient employee.
Study Korean laws, which are only available in Korean, so you’d better learn Korean quickly.
That was true 20 years ago.
Learn Korean in that short free time you get, even though you can’t use it in your workplace as an English teacher. How better to learn those Korean laws so you won’t be in a big trouble?
Icheon Rice Festival
I had a feeling there was an ulterior motive to forcing everyone to go to Icheon. They were at the tail end of a Rice Festival. So the promoter went on stage to talk about it.
They forced us all out here to help supply the Icheon Rice Festival with foreigners for photo ops.
The presentation was all the usual embarrassing pictures of awkward foreigners being “introduced” to Korean culture. Talking about trying rice and bibimbap as if people who’ve lived here for years had never heard of it.
Introduce Korean Propaganda Culture
One of the Korean propaganda organizations made this video about Korean history. This is VERY DIFFERENT from the history we share on The Dark Side of Seoul Tour (shameless plug).
The British narrator was obviously outsourced outside Korea. We have a lot of professional voice actors here who could do it with proper Korean pronunciation, but we got this narration that talked about “King S’jong.”
In the middle of the video, it stopped and restarted.
The video itself was about King Sejong. I actually own and run the Twitter account @KingSejong. But this isn’t all about me.
It was more cultural masturbation and chest beating. What better way to make people appreciate your culture than to talk about how superior yours is to theirs?
So, Korea had invented all these things before the West had.
A Japanese encyclopedia stated that by around 1500, Korea had made around 15 scientific achievements while Japan had zero.
Cue the audience laughing.
The interesting part was the story behind Kind Sejong’s water clock. Even that had to go off the rails with Small Man Syndrome. By trying so hard to make themselves sound big, they were revealing how small they were.
Yes, the video said that. Sejong started the digital revolution. Not Alan Turing. Not Bill Gates. Not Steve Jobs. It was King Sejong.
Korean bronze diningware prevents more e.coli than Chinese or Japanese diningware.
According to them, scientists say that bronze can have a maximum of 10% tin. But somehow Korean bronze makers defied that scientific law!
Learn How To Be a Good Teacher
Finally! The crux of the program!
He lost us immediately.
The speech was a winding journey of the professor’s English learning.
It started with his story of lusting over his English teacher in middle school, especially when she wore short skirts. Yes, this is another person that people should be eyeing closely. Creeeeeeepy.
None of it was about being a better teacher. No methods or anything.
He asked for questions at the end. Everyone wanted to leave, but of course, someone had to raise their hand and ask about methods. There was someone here who was still under the illusion that this was a serious training seminar.
The professor’s answer?
Board games.
We also learned this
OBEY your boss, you lowly employee.
No one cares! So shut up, already! (But at least the mayor of Icheon loves me.)
Hang out at the WA Bar and drink away your pain and loneliness. Because NO ONE CARES!
And yes. Somehow they think an E2 visa making $24,000/year with elementary Korean language skills and no credit can attain a car.
The more I think about it, the seminar is up there with the HIV/AIDS test in its racist xenophobia. It did all start from a public panic over foreign English teachers molesting kids and smuggling drugs.
Let me flip it over and give this thought paradigm.
Over the years, there have been many stories of Korean-run brothels in the U.S. The U.S. government, especially these days, has been egregiously awful in its treatment of immigrants. Imagine if they also did this.
All Koreans on visas in the U.S. had to attend an annual seminar.
Yes, I know that the seminar in Korea is for English teachers, but in Korea, that’s pretty much the ONLY non-factory job foreigners can get. You don’t see foreign doctors, convenience store owners, and accountants here. Even the foreigners who do own restaurants and such still moonlight as English teachers to make ends meet.
This seminar contains the following:
Stand for the American anthem
A local country music act singing “Edelweiss”
A video about American baseball
Benjamin Franklin invented EVERYTHING. His electricity experiments made K-Pop possible.
An introduction to a local hot dog festival with “Do you know hot dogs?”
A lecture telling Korean women to not be prostitutes
A job training lecture told by a former ESL teacher from Korea about all the partying he did and how hard it was to learn Korean
A few things have bring floating around this week. The big one, even getting tweeted by the Blue House, is this jaw-dropping video of Seoul by independent filmographer Brandon Li.
He also has a directors commentary, and he’s putting together some classes to learn how to make videos like this.
On the other end of the spectrum, a Facebook friend posted a mock ad one of his young students made to promote Korean food.
Photo: Jason Cutler
Simple. Provocative. Effective.
MEANWHILE…
We’re getting more silly crap from the Korean government. Keep in mind that the top two didn’t have the ample budgets of the video below.
I was disturbed when a member forwarded me this email from a restaurant that was soliciting reviews in exchange for gastronomical compensation. By request from the recipient, I’m paraphrasing and not quoting directly.
The free meal is given if:
1. the customer gives the restaurant 5 stars on TripAdvisor 2. the customer likes the restaurant’s Facebook page 3. the customer uploads photos and positive comments on “Restaurant Buzz Seoul” and other social media platforms
I run the above-mentioned group on Facebook, “Restaurant Buzz Seoul.” As of this writing, we don’t charge anyone to post (though that’s being brought into reconsideration). We DEFINITELY do not play favorites nor allow fake reviews.
RBS has a team of admins with our own private secret FB group, where we discuss these matters. We have a vigilant group of members who police the group for fraudulent posts.
It’s standard practice with bloggers–and even with journalists–to ask for reviews or articles in exchange for freebies. Where it gets unethical and downright fraudulent is when they dictate the quality of the review in exchange for compensation.
Distinguishing Fraud
On TripAdvisor, any type of compensation for any type of review, good or bad, is fraud.
These are what TripAdvisor considers fraud (emphasis added):
Writing a review for their own business, or for any property the reviewing party owns, manages, or has a financial interest in.
Utilizing any optimization company, marketing organization, or third party to submit reviews.
Impersonating a competitor or a guest.
Offering incentives in exchange for reviews of their business, including discounts, upgrades or any special treatment.
Asking friends or relatives to write positive reviews.
Submitting reviews on behalf of guests.
Copying comment cards and submitting them as traveler reviews.
Selectively soliciting reviews (by email, surveys or any other means) only from guests who have had a positive experience.
Pressuring travelers to remove a negative review on TripAdvisor.
Asking guests to remove their reviews in return for a discount or incentive.
Prohibiting or discouraging guests from posting negative or critical reviews of their experience.
On RBS, we ask that reviewers state if they’ve received compensation for their review. We do this on this blog as well. Gemma at Fat Girl does it. That’s the ethical standard.
This pisses me off personally.
It devalues the reputation of RBS, a group I’ve worked on for years. All we have is our reputation. You won’t believe the headaches we put up with to maintain this crowd.
I know that tour companies in Korea game the reviews on TripAdvisor, as I’ve heard the owner of one Seoul tour company drunkenly brag at a party about doing so. That may also be why ZenKimchi Korea Food Tours went from #5 to #11 in a short span of time–because we don’t play the review fraud game.
In Nothing We Trust
If you’re keeping count from past posts, this knocks out the following sources to trust in Korea:
At RBS, we’re getting even tougher on posts to filter out this behavior. It may be a hopeless battle, but we’ll do our best. We may change our system soon in an extreme way to filter out the crooks from the honest restaurateurs.
To the owners of the restaurant
Listen, I know how hard it is to run a restaurant in Seoul. I’ve run two of them. Even though I created Restaurant Buzz Seoul, I resisted the temptation to stuff it with fake positive reviews. I didn’t delete the negative ones, even from the people I knew have a personal beef with me.
That’s called ethics.
I’m sure you’re good people. I’ve heard privately from someone I trust that your restaurant is good. I’ll assume you weren’t aware of how bad this is. Even if other Korean businesses practice this, you are above this. You may have contracted services of an ethically questionable promoter, which my ex-partner did.
Here are some best practices:
It’s okay to offer free meals. Just don’t require positive reviews in exchange.
In fact, don’t even require reviews. I’ve been on both sides of this, as a reviewer and a restaurateur. Trust me. This works.
Tell customers that they can win a free meal if they add their names to your newsletter. Have a business card jar at the checkout counter with a sign stating that. Make sure the customers KNOW they will be on an email list. Then open a free MailChimp account and update your customers frequently. Send them friendly reminders to review your restaurant honestly. This is free, and it works.
TripAdvisor has a feature where you can email your customers for reviews ethically. Use it.
Don’t be afraid of negative or mediocre reviews. In fact, people generally only give reviews if they’ve had extremely positive or negative experiences. Negative reviews I see as opportunities to turn things around. If you respond professionally and address the issue promptly, you won’t believe how this positively affects potential customers’ view of your business.
The first interviews British critic Andy Hayler, who claims to have eaten in all the world’s three-star Michelin restaurants, including Seoul’s, and confidently states that they don’t deserve their stars. He then makes some statements about Korean cuisine itself in the world pantheon of food, though he emphatically states that he’s not an expert on Korean food.
The other article attempts to rebut what he said about Korean food, including interviews with two Korean food experts. What they both have in common is that the Seoul Michelin Red Guide sucks dotards.
I’m trying to figure out how to focus my thoughts here. I’ve already written my feelings about the Michelin Guide Seoul in this blog and in Vogue Korea. There are so many arguments shouting in my head. Mostly, it’s this guy.
Where I agree about the Michelin Guide Seoul.
He concentrates on the two three-star restaurants in Seoul, Gaon and La Yeon (sometimes Ra Yeon). He flat out states that they don’t deserve three stars. He’s saying this not as an expert on Korean food. He’s saying this as an expert on Michelin three-star restaurants.
The Korean experts in the other article agree. Those restaurants aren’t worth three stars. People on my tours who regularly dine at three-star restaurants were highly disappointed when they dined at the three-star restaurants in Seoul.
The price is what matters. I’ve said many times that when a fine dining restaurant charges high prices in order to give it some false sense of prestige, it should expect to be compared to other global restaurants in that price range. Hayler hasn’t been the only person pointing out how ridiculously high Gaon’s wine list is. Restaurants do put large margins on wine. Korea isn’t Europe. Yet they charge rip-off prices even by Korean standards. Cho Tae-kwon, the owner of Gaon, does the same with his personal brand of soju. It’s a good soju. It’s like Andong soju. He charges way more than you would normally pay for Andong soju. He has a version aged in oak casts that tastes similar to whisky. He slaps on a higher price domestically for this than the import price of single malt Scotch. It’s that old notion that just putting a high price tag on something automatically makes it classy.
Hayler compared the restaurants to Japanese kaiseki cuisine. He said he felt the style didn’t feel like it was coming from a “centuries-old tradition,” like kaiseki. For one thing, kaiseki itself is a modern mash-up of older cuisines. Supposedly the Korean three-stars are taking influence from Korean royal court cuisine. But even what is considered royal court cuisine is suspicious. As one of the Korean experts said, “‘Even kings did not eat a course meal in Korea.’”
I’m tempted to say, again, that Cho Tae-kwon and company don’t respect Korean cuisine enough to let it stand on its own. They have to make it like Japanese and European dining, to the point of pissing on its spirit.
Hayler is not a Korean food expert, but he does have experience eating Korean food in L.A. and New Malden. There’s even a contingent of L.A. Korean-Americans who vocally swear that the Korean food in L.A. is better than the Korean food in Seoul. I agree with him that the flavor of Gaon’s food is not much different than a mom-and-pop restaurant. It’s just given a pretentious makeover. If you take a Choco-Pie and put in on a fancy plate, you have Gaon’s approach. It’s just Kimbap Cheonguk diner fare with pretty plating.
Where I diverge.
I started having a problem when Hayler started wandering the rabbit warren of comparing Korean cuisine with European. They had to have been gotcha questions. I have enough experience with this to say, “No comment.”
But he commented.
Let the cringing start.
I’ll lead with a quote from Hayne Kim, who I find to be an interesting voice when it comes to Korean and western cultures.
I’m no nationalist (grew out of THAT unpleasant phase years ago) but I found his tone problematic and, as he admits, ignorant. I’m not one of those kimchi-philes (must use kimchi to take over the world is one of the stupidest ideas the Korean gov’t has had) but found it weird that he compared it to white truffles. Also the fact that he says Korea has no uber rare and exotic ingredients. Korean ginseng has a huge following from what I understand, as does the Jeju black pig–albeit, the pork is more domestically known.
And a quote from my friend Dan Suh. He is the top Korean food importer in Europe, based in New Malden and currently living in Seoul.
Michelin was lobbied to come to Korea, and there is a particular bias towards one businessman. I had an argument with the Chairman of the Michelin Guide about it, and although I was very open-minded to what he had to say, my opinion still stands.
Korean food is intricate in its own way but lacks the refinement in cooking techniques that French cuisine possesses. There are something like 14 main ingredients to Korean food, which means you can make so many dishes from those ingredients. That, in itself, is a fantastic achievement and shouldn’t be devalued. But at the same time, Korean food needs to advance and realise that it is pigeon-holed and isn’t refined. That’s why I like what some modern chefs are doing (successfully and unsuccessfully), such as at Jungsik, Mingles, Ryunique, Exquisine, by combining classic French techniques with Korean ingredients and flavours.
As for Andy Hayler, he’s from the same bunch of critics as Jay Rayner and Fay Maschler, who had a critique removed of a Korean restaurant after she criticised it for not having coriander (cilantro), fish sauce, and chillies in the japchae, and her review was bombarded with hundreds of people laughing at her. So, in truth, British critics are completely ignorant of some of more niche cuisines, such as Korean.
I’ve eaten at Ra Yeon, and in truth, it was extremely delicious but the prices do not justify the quality of the food.
What this does, really, is throw the integrity of the Michelin Guide into doubt.
I’ve also noticed a good bit of condescension (maybe leftovers of an colonialist POV), from British and European expats regarding Korean food. Heck, try to get any Brit to pronounce Korean words like Pyongyang correctly.
A bad week for Brits and Korean food credibility this week, along with Gordon Ramsay praising Cass in an ad.
It is not unusual for local governments to lobby and help pay for the Michelin Guide to publish a guide on their city. The question is whether they felt pressured to award three stars in their first Seoul Guide, when some cities don’t even have three-star restaurants. According to the other article, Michelin is claiming it had Korean inspectors for their Seoul Guide. Part of me still wonders, with my experience with Korean food critics and bloggers, that they thought more about impressing western elites than honestly evaluating restaurants.
The ingredients claim kicked everyone in the gingko nuts. Started a lot of arguments. Truffles are great. I loves me some truffles. Foie gras. If you want to be nerdy, you can point out that the French got it from the ancient Romans. They are only great if prepared well. Boiling a truffle isn’t going to taste as nice as shaving it into a risotto. I’ve had badly prepared foie as well, where it had the texture of crispy snot.
Unlike even one of the Korean experts interviewed in the article, I believe Korea has some great ingredients that the three-star restaurants ignore.
Ginseng regularly gets slammed into dishes. When eaten straight, it’s like licking dirt. Yet I’ve had an amazing interpretation of Samgyetang that was a consomme heightened by a kiss of ginseng, served with a little twig of ginseng tempura. The dirt flavor gave way to more complexity and had a cooling effect on the palate.
Deodeok is an unsung hero. It’s a root, mostly grown in Gangwon Province that, to me, tastes like a light horseradishey carrot. Why aren’t more restaurants playing with this? My first pop-up, we made a makgeolli cream cheese start and topped it with candied deodeok. It was a revelation.
What about naengi? It’s spicy, pungent, and smells like a crackling fireplace. This is an herb that the world has yet to discover the joys of.
I could list more–Ddeul-ge (wild sesame), perilla leaves, omija, pine mushrooms, Korean pine nuts (which have a higher oil content than Italian pine nuts).
The real strength that distinguishes Korean from most world cuisines…
Fermentation.
Yeah, we all know kimchi (of which there are over 200 varieties and counting). doenjang, gochujang, and soy sauce. These take skill and time to make well. Maybe more skill and definitely more time than Hayler’s comparison to French demi-glace. We also have artisanal fruit and vegetable extracts. Jangajji, fruit and vegetable soy pickles. Why don’t we see more of these in fine dining?
There is one restaurant I know of that features artisanal ingredients like these. Congdu. They have a dish that showcases a flight of different aged soy sauces. I’ve even gotten to try a teaspoon of 100-year soy sauce. They have a bean sauce that was revived from the Goryeo period (918-1392 CE). They source their ingredients from Korean masters, who have been perfecting their crafts for generations. The flavors transport. It feels like, “I thought I knew Korean cuisine. Now I’m into something deeper.”
Last time I was at Congdu, I ran into Hyeonseo Lee, author of The Girl with Seven Names. She said she had been eating there every night for a week because the food was so moving.
I don’t think Congdu has any Michelin stars.
In the end, those two articles pointed out the weakness of the Seoul Michelin Red Guide. Hayler may not be an expert on Korean food, but he is an expert on Michelin restaurants.
There are much better restaurants in Seoul than the Michelin suggests. And Korean ingredients have more unlocked potential than people think.
I knew of people coming over and taking pictures of the food, trying to take it apart. I remember back when people were doing that at Vatos when they first opened.
Last year, after I left the BBQ Pub, a friend invited to me for lunch at VIPS buffet. They had a barbecue section with a white barbecue sauce. Odd, since my old BBQ Pub was the only one in town showcasing North Alabama style white barbecue sauce.
There are now companies that specialize in restaurant espionage. They have teams that will figure out the spices and the techniques and copy them. I mean, why try to do something from your heart when you could just “benchmark” off of someone else’s hard work?
The latest blatant example comes from a place down in Busan called Gourmet Zip. The “Zip” is supposed to mean “집” (Jip, or “house”). It’s annoying enough that some people think Z can easily substitute J, but that’s not the point.
It’s not the point that this is another restaurant relying on Instagram gimmicks.
Credit: 꿈꾸는 애뚜’s 블로그
It’s also not the point that this is another bad restaurant culturally appropriating whatever trendy foreign food it can.
Ceviche
Pasta (for some reason, Caesar Salad is under the Pasta section)
Fajitas
Steak cooked on a hot stone
Detroit Pizza
Detroit Pizza???
For those of you not familiar with Detroit pizza, here is a description from the guys at Motor City Pizza in Seoul.
Detroit-style pizza is a deep-dish pizza developed in Michigan known for its thick crisp crust. The square shaped pizzas are the result of being baked in well-seasoned blue steel pans, which were originally made to hold small parts in automobile factories.
OR…
You can read the Korean description WORD-FOR-WORD on Gourmet Zip’s menu.
Credit: 꿈꾸는 애뚜’s 블로그
Okay, not precisely. They dropped the word “처음으로.” I guess that makes it kosher, right?
Here’s a wider look at the menu. (MexicanTown’s toppings are fairly random.)
Credit: 꿈꾸는 애뚜’s 블로그
Even better, here’s
Motor City’s Original Menu
We see that they copied the name “Detroit Red Top” and added pepperoni and bacon.
Gourmet Zip
Then they copied the “Jackson 5” with the addition of pancetta.
But come on, Zen. Pizza toppings aren’t that original.
I agree. But how often does one see RANCH as a sauce on Korean pizza?
I’ve talked to one of the owners of Motor City. He is happy that his beloved Detroit-style pizza is spreading throughout Korea. In fact, other respectable pizza places do Red Top pizzas now.
What is troublesome is that the copycat copied the menu text, the garnish, and they’re getting credit for Motor City’s appearance on the TV food show 수요미식회 Suyo Mishikhwe.
Yes, that’s right.
Motor City was featured on a popular food show, and Gourmet Zip is trying to take credit. Bloggers are stating that it was GOURMET ZIP’S pizza on the TV show!
There’s a narrative logic you can pull from it. Motor City started in June-July 2016. The TV show aired in November 2016. Gourmet Zip opened in March 2017.
I wonder where they got their ingenious menu ideas…
Stop, stop. Don’t rip your hair out.
No, no, no. Please don’t bang your head on the wall.
This is happening all the time, and it’s getting worse. Like I said, there are companies whose bread and butter is to steal recipes and concepts from restaurants.
This is why I’m not opening another restaurant here. At least until there is either some legal protection in place or until this is shamed by the public. It’s hard enough to deal with inefficient corrupt suppliers, local business owners who don’t like foreigners in their territory, cheating partners (I was lucky enough to only have that happen once).
But once you overcome ALL THAT and start becoming successful, there’s some rich bored asshole waiting to steal your whole concept and take credit for it, even if they’re making a shitty version.
