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I am completely perplexed by that statement. What exactly did you eat that you think is delicious? My experience with Korean has not been extensive, but as I said earlier in a post, I went to a Korean restaurant in the city (NY) with coworkers, and it was one of the worst dining experiences of my life. NOTHING tasted good. Everything tasted as though it should have been thrown away a week earlier. Or, is that just the taste and it's something that doesn't appeal to me?
I know about kimchi--I bought my condo from Koreans, and it took Stanley Steemer, a paint job, and a lot of cleaning to get that smell out of the place, but I know that's a food specific to Koreans and they like it and they're allowed. But when I went for a Korean meal, EVERYTHING had that rotten taste--the meat, the rice, EVERYTHING. I left the restaurant feeling sort of sick to my stomach from the odors of the restaurant, yet still hungry because I really couldn't choke any of it down.
Are there other alternatives in Korean food that don't have the "rotted" taste, or is that just the characteristic of the cuisine and people do like it?
Are you the same poster that had similar issues with Mexican food? It felt like deja vu reading the post.
As for Korean foods, it could be that the place you went to sucked. They do eat fermented foods like kimchee and other side dishes. They also use a lot of soybean paste in different forms. That's also fermented. Are you a fan of sauerkraut or tempeh or sourdough breads? These are all fermented as well.
Bulgogi is a slightly sweet, salty and spicy grilled beef. Their jigaes are spicy bowls of wonderful stews. Their hot pots are layered with good stuff including their infamous grilled meats. And often topped with an egg. All of these dishes don't ever have a "rotten" taste to them. I adore kimchee but I've only tried 2 restaurants and my own that I make. If you ever go again to a Korean place, try their bulgogi.
Portland and its suburbs used to be inundated with Chinese restaurants. Now, it's more Thai than Chinese, although Pho Noodle shops are all over the place, too.
Portland's "real" Chinatown is a long strip on SE 82nd, maybe 10 blocks, of one Asian restaurant after another - all kinds. And, just off 82nd, is a very good cajun-crawfish house run by some Vietnamese brothers from Texas - LOL!!! That's the place we go out of our way to eat at.
I've been to a few Chinese restaurants that I think offered more authentic dishes, but some of them looked and sounded very unappealing to me - no thanks! I like both Chinese and Thai and to me they're different. I tend to opt for spicy dishes and often request extra spice. Japanese food, I don't care for at all. I've seen Indian mentioned in this post but to me their cuisine isn't at all similar (although I love it).
Are you the same poster that had similar issues with Mexican food? It felt like deja vu reading the post.
As for Korean foods, it could be that the place you went to sucked. They do eat fermented foods like kimchee and other side dishes. They also use a lot of soybean paste in different forms. That's also fermented. Are you a fan of sauerkraut or tempeh or sourdough breads? These are all fermented as well.
Bulgogi is a slightly sweet, salty and spicy grilled beef. Their jigaes are spicy bowls of wonderful stews. Their hot pots are layered with good stuff including their infamous grilled meats. And often topped with an egg. All of these dishes don't ever have a "rotten" taste to them. I adore kimchee but I've only tried 2 restaurants and my own that I make. If you ever go again to a Korean place, try their bulgogi.
HAHAHA, yes, that was me. But I did learn that most of what is sold as "Mexican" that I don't like really isn't that authentic and that there are better choices. As a matter of fact, the food I was ordering that I assumed wasn't really Mexican was actually a more authentic dish (The spicy shrimp). I still don't like the gloppy meat/cheese-wrapped-in-a-tortilla choices, but I don't feel too bad about that anymore.
Thank you for the suggestions. That's the problem. I WANT to like some of these other foods that people seem to think are the greatest thing, but when I have a bad experience, I'm hesitant to go back.
I would actually not mind trying kimchi. (The reason my house stunk when I bought it is that they had a frozen rock of the stuff in the freezer, unplugged the fridge to let it thaw and arranged for a relative to come remove it, but the door was locked by the real estate agent and the relative didn't have the key. It was June, and so I had hot rotting kimchi sitting in my new home for weeks when I got the keys. That was five years ago--I think I could deal with it now.)
I do like sauerkraut and other fermented foods. I just wasn't expecting EVERYTHING on the plate to have that same taste. If there are three unfamiliar items on a plate, and you try one and don't care for it, you can move on to another item. Everything on my plate tasted the same--meat, rice, vegetables. Maybe it was just not a great place.
The jigaes sound like something I would like.
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 08-22-2015 at 11:06 AM..
Portland and its suburbs used to be inundated with Chinese restaurants. Now, it's more Thai than Chinese, although Pho Noodle shops are all over the place, too.
Portland's "real" Chinatown is a long strip on SE 82nd, maybe 10 blocks, of one Asian restaurant after another - all kinds. And, just off 82nd, is a very good cajun-crawfish house run by some Vietnamese brothers from Texas - LOL!!! That's the place we go out of our way to eat at.
I've been to a few Chinese restaurants that I think offered more authentic dishes, but some of them looked and sounded very unappealing to me - no thanks! I like both Chinese and Thai and to me they're different. I tend to opt for spicy dishes and often request extra spice. Japanese food, I don't care for at all. I've seen Indian mentioned in this post but to me their cuisine isn't at all similar (although I love it).
There are all different types of Indian food, too. I work with a number of Indian people. They are from different parts of the country, have different languages, cuisines, and religions. I'm just starting to try different Indian foods.
I am not big on Japanese food, either. Again, when I have a bad experience, I am hesitant to try again. I am of the age that I can remember when most people had never heard of sushi, and it took a long time to try it. It's still not something that would make me say, "Wow, yeah, SUSHI, let's run right out and get some", but some of the things I've tried have not been bad at all, and it does feel as though you are eating a healthier choice.
Where we worked until recently there was a Japanese place that a bunch of my coworkers went to all the time. They LOVED it. Invited me once, and I ordered salmon. It was OK, but really too heavy on the teriyaki sauce for salmon. It just didn't go with the taste of the fish, overpowered it, but still edible. However, it came with some little doodads on the side that I couldn't identify. They were small, oblong fried things, and when I bit into them, inside was a mushy substance with an extremely strong fishy taste. It turned my stomach, my throat closed, and I felt nauseated for the rest of the day. I am feeling a little ill just typing about it, lol. So, I never went back to that place. It just wasn't a good meal. Before that, I'd had a meal in a Japanese restaurant that was a tiny piece of steak, again with the overpowering teriyaki sauce, some very hard vegetables fried in a whitish batter, and some rice. I was hungry when I left. I did like the miso soup.
So, it doesn't sound as if Japanese is for me, either. I haven't had a Japanese meal I enjoyed.
HAHAHA, yes, that was me. But I did learn that most of what is sold as "Mexican" that I don't like really isn't that authentic and that there are better choices. As a matter of fact, the food I was ordering that I assumed just wasn't really Mexican was actually a more authentic dish. I still don't like the gloppy meat/cheese-wrapped-in-a-tortilla choices, but I don't feel too bad about that anymore.
Thank you for the suggestions. That's the problem. I WANT to like some of these other foods that people seem to think are the greatest thing, but when I have a bad experience, I'm hesitant to go back.
I would actually not mind trying kimchi. (The reason my house stunk when I bought it is that they had a frozen rock of the stuff in the freezer, unplugged the fridge to let it thaw and arranged for a relative to come remove it, but the door was locked by the real estate agent and the relative didn't have the key. It was June, and so I had hot rotting kimchi sitting in my new home for weeks when I got the keys. That was five years ago--I think I could deal with it now.)
I do like sauerkraut and other fermented foods. I just wasn't expecting EVERYTHING on the plate to have that same taste. If there are three unfamiliar items on a plate, and you try one and don't care for it, you can move on to another item. Everything on my plate tasted the same--meat, rice, vegetables. Maybe it was just not a great place.
The jigaes sound like something I would like.
Yeah, if you like sauerkraut, (I don't!) you would probably like kimchi. And the beauty of Korean cuisine is that you get all these side dishes that are different from each other and "cleanse" the palate from the main meal or you can mix and match. They often give you a bowl to do your "mixing" in too.
And don't get me wrong, you just might still not like it! There are cuisines that I have tried a few times and I just don't like any of it. People always tell me, "Well you haven't had authentic/or made right" but I have tried a few times. If you only tried it once, try and find a highly reviewed restaurant and start small, the bulgogi! Or get the bulgogi hot pot. It's what I always tell people to start with. Get that rotten taste memory out of your mind first.
Yeah, if you like sauerkraut, (I don't!) you would probably like kimchi. And the beauty of Korean cuisine is that you get all these side dishes that are different from each other and "cleanse" the palate from the main meal or you can mix and match. They often give you a bowl to do your "mixing" in too.
And don't get me wrong, you just might still not like it! There are cuisines that I have tried a few times and I just don't like any of it. People always tell me, "Well you haven't had authentic/or made right" but I have tried a few times. If you only tried it once, try and find a highly reviewed restaurant and start small, the bulgogi! Or get the bulgogi hot pot. It's what I always tell people to start with. Get that rotten taste memory out of your mind first.
I'll take your advice! I live in NJ, where we have a significant Korean population, and I work in New York City, where you can get pretty much anything.
In another instance of going out with coworkers, we went to a Turkish restaurant. I loved my lunch, a sort of spicy strips of lamb thing and these tasty red kidney beans, but to my surprise, no one else wanted to go back there. Most of them had ordered chicken, so maybe that dish just sucked, I don't know. Pretty much the same group went to another Turkish place when we were in Jersey City, and again, I liked the food and nobody else did.
Yeah, if you like sauerkraut, (I don't!) you would probably like kimchi. And the beauty of Korean cuisine is that you get all these side dishes that are different from each other
I never thought of that before, but that's a good comparison. I really hate sauerkraut - once I got past the smell to taste it - and I've never been able to get past the stench of kimchi to try it.
I never thought of that before, but that's a good comparison. I really hate sauerkraut - once I got past the smell to taste it - and I've never been able to get past the stench of kimchi to try it.
It's the seafood component in kimchi that makes it stinky. I use the "least" stinky kinds, fish sauce and salted shrimp. Mine just has a slight odor and the flavor is very clean, spicy, a bit crisp and refreshing. Even my oldest loves to eat kimchi.
I like american chinese food not sure I've ever had the authentic cuisine. thai I have little experience with but it does seem to be popular and plentiful. Korean is harder to find which is a shame because its delicious.
Which is my point is that Chinese food the way it is known today is no longer fresh and authentic, Korean food is harder to find because Koreans like to keep a low profile so they don't really care about marketing their cuisine to foreigners. Even other Asians have a hard time ordering Korean dishes properly which tells you something.
Thai has caught on because many of the Chinese Restaurant owners have converted to Thai and market specifically to American taste rather than staying authentic.
I've ate at many Thai places in NYC and I can easily tell if the place is authentic or not. I can tell by the way the food is prepared it was done in the Chinese or Thai way.
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