Tuesday, December 14, 2010

At the Seoul Airport



Korea's campaign to promote Korean food is bigger and better than ever this year. They have a website, a blog, ads in Times Square and the sort of airport decorations that my ideal model home would have. When I stepped off what I can only describe as a hellish flight from Phnom Penh to Seoul recently I was delighted to get onto a moving walkway that sped me past a quick forecast of what my next four days would be filled with.



Luckily I was true to myself and did exactly nothing (save for the odd trip to Korean teenage nightclubs) other than eat my way through Seoul. I got started immediately without even leaving the airport with a giant bowl of kimchi rice porridge.



I was pleased to see a number of dainty Korean airline employees finishing off these giant portions (I'd estimate each bowl to have at least six cups of rice in it) at 6am. Watching other people gorge themselves--especially those who are genetically slender--is always something that cheers me up. Luckily there's no shortage of that sort of thing in Cambodia, but there's definitely a shortage of Korean breakfasts. More on this later.


7 comments:

  1. Glad you weren't in that water festival stampede!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would think that Korean cuisine would practically promote itself. Everything I ate in Korea was magical.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Red Faced Ambiguous - Thanks. Didn't go to that part of town because it was too crowded!

    BBQ Dude - I know! It's strange though because some people just don't seem to recognize the magic right away. So maybe the promotions will help.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The man friend and I had a running commentary on an imaginary advertising campaign for Korea which would be a series of scenes in which people are doing normal, everyday things, like shopping for new car tires or getting a root canal or whatnot and then they would get a blinded-by-the-brilliance look on their face and a voiceover would come on, using a really stereotypical "Stern Asian Father" voice that would say, slowly: KOOOOOOOOOOOREA. And then the scene would cut to these same people doing exactly the same thing they were at home but in Korea instead, but also while holding a bowl of bibimbap or eating kimchii or grilling meat. It's gold, I tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brock - That's a great idea. Maybe making kimchi as well? Have you submitted it to any agencies?

    ReplyDelete
  6. mmm... I love Korean food, but haven't been able to get my sig. other on the bibimbap-bandwagon yet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tanya -- Don't give up. Try bulgogi. SOs seem to take to it.

    ReplyDelete