“This is the first time I have traveled to another country and communicated with something other than the local language or English,” mused Jacob. Finally we could order food in Korea, without pointing to a picture or fumbling through our phrasebook. Knowing Mandarin sure does help if you’re overseas, even if it’s just at the local Chinese restaurant.
The instance reminded me of visiting Montreal’s Chinatown in college, and ordering dinner for a large group in Cantonese because the waitor didn’t know much English or French. Or when my family lived in Puerto Rico and frequented the dim sum restaurants of San Juan; once inside, you would never have guessed that we were in a Spanish-speaking territory of an English-speaking country.
The owner of this tiny restaurant near the Korean War memorial was a very jolly third-generation Korean-Chinese whose family was originally from Shandong province. She spoke Mandarin in sing-songy Korean accent, which contributed to her jovial demeanor. She blushed when we asked to take a photo.
“You don’t need a menu. I’ll just tell you what we have. There’s only five things,” she said brightly. Which was a relief, and odd, since most Chinese restaurants have edited menus of no fewer than 100 items.
Everything here was about $4.50 US, except an enormous $15 platter of tangsuyuk (the Korean version of sweet and sour pork) that could have fed eight. Since we were only two people, we ordered fried dumplings, xiaolongbao, and jajangmyeon.
What Koreans call jajangmyeon is what the Chinese call zhajiangmian (spelled differently only because of Korean vs. Mandarin Romanization.) Everyone I had met in Korea goes crazy for it, which is unsettling because every bowl I ate there was pretty bad. I’m sure there is good jajiangmyeon to be found, but the Chinese restaurants in Korea I visited cooked the black bean sauce to a bland gelatinous mass, then pour it on top of wheat noodles. The noodles lacks the texture and flavor variety of the Chinese version, but for some reason it’s the most ubiquitous Chinese dish in Korea.
I also wouldn’t give any props to the xiaolongbao, which did not have a soupy filling as the name would imply. The thick skin and pork filling reminded me of a small steamed baozi (bun). What I found most interesting were the very large jianjiao, which were not at all like the Chinese fried dumplings I’m used to eating. The skin was thick and, like many many Korean snacks, deep-fried. Throughout our meal I watched the kitchen fried up enormous batch after enormous batch of sweet and sour pork. It seems that Americans and Koreans share the same taste in Chinese food.
At least the pickled radish appetizer was strictly Korean.
its awesome to be able to communicate in chinese in other countries. in the midst of paris’ summer festival, i was lucky to find accommodation because a singaporean chinese couple had an open rm to rent.
This is so cool and seems delicious. It is always feels great to communicate in chinese in a foreign country whose mother tongue is not chinese. I found you have a great love for foods and it is very vivid in the pictures you have shared.
Aloha from Hawaii!
I have good friends of Chinese ancestry raised in a region of Korea where there borders were close…So the influences cross culturally are strong. But coming from Hawaii where we are a melting pot…just reinforces the subtle differences or acquired taste we have for certain dishes..
If you ask a Chinese-American about zhajiangmian they know it for the brown-bean sauce and pork…But if you ask a Korean they like their Black bean version and vegetables and sometimes seafood.
So they find the Chinese version Bland…So when you were critiquing the food in Korea and called it bad…I find it funny that the jajangmyeon that was considered best by my Korean friends in Honolulu came from my Chinese friends restaurant who were raised in Korea.
So funny don’t you think that Koreans would like this dish made by Chinese who owned a Mandarin/Szechuan restaurant that also had Kim chee on the side as well as a separate Korean-chinese menu….Funny this world we live in.
By the way, they had excellent Northern chinese food also. Too bad they retired, and the Koreans that bought it can’t cook the same…They went on to bottle their jajangmyeon sauce and sell it a a Korean Market and doing quite well. Go figure!