Cultural Immersion

Although I profess to be Korean, I realize that I more closely identify with being a Korean-American (obviously). Here are some quirky things I picked up today:

1) Korean employment policy dictates that the employer pays for your lunch during the work day. I think I love this policy. I know this is norm for all those Google, Facebook, and Microsoft employees, but a national policy of company-expensed lunch is a plus in my book. When you think about it, this policy encourages camaraderie, helps out local restaurants (most which are small businesses), and employment preference is dictated by an area with the most restaurants. Well, the latter probably isn't true, but now I understand why there are so many restaurants everywhere.

2) As part of the "going to lunch with your co-workers" experience, most traditional Korean restaurants require taking off your shoes and sitting on heated floors in front of low tables. Wearing a skirt for an hour meal sitting geisha-pouring-tea-style and not Native American-cross-your-legs-and-sit-style is not so cool. But, I'm a quick learner--I wore pants yesterday.

3) After the third day, I wanted something non-kimchi, so went to an Italian restaurant with my cousin Rosa. Ordered a delicious squid ink pasta, but cracked up laughing when a side of pickles came out with the dish. Yes, like sliced pickles that you would eat with sandwiches/burgers. I watched a Korean drama last year called Pasta, and the premise of the drama was the operation of an Italian restaurant in Korea. The exec chef was a Korean-born Italian-trained chef, and one of the stories was about him not understanding why Koreans expect a side of pickles with their pasta, and the other chefs told him that the Korean palate requires the pickles as an alternative to kimchi. I'm amused to see them really serve pickles with pasta--Snookie should open a restaurant here.

4) When I see "sausage" on the menu as an ingredient, I am thinking italian sausage, chorizo, bratwurst, etc. where ground meat is stuffed into casings. Here, "sausage" means "hot dog" (think Nathan's, Ballpark, Oscar Meyer). When Rosa ordered a pizza with sausage, artichoke, and egg, it came out with sliced hot dog meat, artichoke, and egg. Fail.