On 11/3/2010 7:25 AM, George wrote:

> You do know that appetizers and desserts are a non-Asian concept?

This is true - how unfortunate. :-)

>
> Anyone who knows anything about a typical Korean restaurant menu would
> not expect either.

I went to a Korean restaurant in the 80's with my wife on the mainland
and it was pretty funny. They thought I was the Korean dude because of
my Asian good looks but I didn't know crap about Korean food back then.
My wife who is a white person that was raised by a Korean step-mom, was
familiar with the menu items but the waiter kept looking to me to order.
The only thing I was able to give him was dumb looks. My wife had to do
the ordering which was the first surprise for the staff. My wife was
pretty disappointed with the hot sauce that she requested - it was some
sort of watered down stuff. When she asked for some real hot sauce, the
server looked disoriented and embarrassed and ran off to the kitchen.

The first time my wife ordered bibimbap it was jarring to see her mix up
the whole thing before eating it. I thought she messed up the dish! I'm
too wild about the Korean's fondness for stainless steel serving bowls
either.

The stone pots are actually carved out of sold rock and is kind of a
nice gimmick for restaurants. Near as I can figure, the whole point of
the heated bowl is to produce the crispy rice at the bottom of the bowl.
If I recall correctly, the stone pot is a relatively new introduction to
Korean cooking. Even the Koreans think it's a cool idea. Personally, I'd
rather go to a Korean fast food joint rather than a restaurant.

>
> Also they would know that the fried rice is an entree not the scoop of
> fried rice you might get in an Americanized place down at the mall.