Cultural Differences of America and Korea I Felt-Part 2: Dining Culture
All about Korea
I split this post into 2 parts as there were so many things to talk on Dining culture. (Yeah, I love food, lol.)
Last post:
4. Dining culture
Dining culture would be the biggest difference. My mom and her friends cooked and set the table when Brady and Wesley came to my house. There were some foods that even I never tried, but the table setting was very Korean.
In Korea, we traditionally eat rice with many kinds of side dishes. The amount of each dish is usually not that big, so you can try all of them. However, the amount of some dishes might be big, specifically if they are popular like Bulgogi.
Plus, as a person who majored in Korean Living Culture, I’d like to explain something. Korea is well known for the way we share food as a group of people putting their spoons in a pot. A bunch of people believe this is a traditional thing, but it is NOT our traditional culture. During the Joseon dynasty, we rarely did that, thanks to our major cultural basis, Confucianism.
The root of Confucianism is respect for each other. Thus, our ancestors used personal plates and bowls as a means of showing respect. Actually, a lot of people used personal tables as well. Putting a few spoons in the same pot was regarded as vulgar at that time.
Since the 1920s, during the Japanese colonial era, people started sharing the table instead of using personal tables, as Japan took most of the rice from Korea. And during the Korean War, not having many tablewares or food, they had to share the pot with other people. (According to what I heard, dog meat culture began at that time as well; I’ll talk about this later!)
Anyway, on the other hand, American dining culture seems very distinctive from ours. When my sister and I went to their house for the first time, Brady’s mother cooked some meals for us. What was impressive was they don’t have many side dishes. They have this big main dish like steak or pasta, with some side dishes like salad or mashed potatoes. I personally liked it as I don’t eat side dishes much, and I loved her meatball spaghetti.
In Brady’s house, when they cook steak, they seasoned it with salt and pepper but didn’t use much sauce afterward. If you need some sauce, they just use A1 sauce while my family uses a lot of Worcester sauce. This may depend on the person but I felt like Americans enjoy the taste of meat itself rather than the taste of the sauce. Koreans use more kinds of sauce when we eat meats.
It was my first time eating corn boiled with butter. They put some butter and salt when they boil the corn, which was fascinating. And they had these tiny handles to grab! On the contrary, we normally don’t put anything when we boil the corn except for some salt and sugar. Then we grab those with our hands. Of course, those are insanely hot, so I cool them down for a while. The kinds of corn are different as well. American corn is juicy and sweet, while Korean ones are sticky and chewy. The main reason why they are different would be the climate, but I heard it’s also because of preference. Americans, in general, don’t like food that sticks to their teeth, and Koreans love sticky and chewy things. Which one sounds better to you? Juicy corn or sticky corn?
Home baking is getting common in Korea these days, but it would be fewer than Americans do. Brady said his mom makes his birthday cakes every year, which I thought amazing. I’ve never heard of anyone whose mom baked their birthday cakes! It takes a lot of time to bake, and you can see bakeries everywhere around the apartments in Korea. Actually, it would be cheaper to buy one at a bakery than to make one at home here.
So these are my ideas on the cultural differences between America and Korea. What do you think? Please tell me your idea in the comments!
Originally published at https://ariellelim.substack.com on May 11, 2022.
