“The meat makes it Korean,” said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue dishes. “The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers that this food is O.K., that this food is American.”
The link is here and I thank Roland Stephen for the pointer. I had read right over that passage and didn't even notice anything funny.
LOL. I thought it was funny Mr. Ban had to make Korean food approachable. What’s so intimidating about Korean?
I didn’t even notice the tortilla incongruity till Tyler pointed it out.
Hilarious. Yet the sober reality is that not a lot of the food served in or with tortillas in the US has any resemblance to traditional Mexican fare.
Interesting. ‘Eastern’ Asia (Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia etc) seems to be the only region in the world that does not historically have a plate-like ‘bread’ with toppings that can be eaten without tableware. Compare Mediterannean pita, Italian / American pizza, Indian Naan, Central American Taco etc.
Possibly the staple grain there, rice, is less easy to form into a large flat breadlike structure than corn or wheat, so it never took off until now.
Relationship to any aversion to eating with your hands, as for example in Japan, is unlikely, because Indonesia, where most food is eaten without utensils, does not have it either.
Gandhi’s comment about the Pizza Effect comes to mind!!
Along similar lines, there is the Bulgoki Sub. Take the makings of a cheesesteak hoagie (lettuce, tomato, provolone, mayonaise) and stuff it with Bulgoki, instead of the typical sliced steak. It sounds bad, but it is really very good. A place in Georgetown– Sugar’s–used to make a great one, but they are no longer in business.
Fusion and mixing of cultures’ foods strikes again!
YAY for mixing.
“Possibly the staple grain there, rice, is less easy to form into a large flat breadlike structure than corn or wheat, so it never took off until now.”
Google “Dosa”.
Didn’t catch on outside of India, but it’s a rice-flour flatbread.
Its funny to say it, but he’s absolutely right. The taco shell does in fact signal that the food is american.
What, exactly, is your message here, Tyler? Is it that Americans are so insular that they need food to seem somehow familiar before they will try it? Is that really such an odd thing? You’ve traveled I assume at least as much as have I, and aside from fast food staples (which are often heavily modified to suit local tastes), I don’t really recall American dishes being either embraced or known, particularly in Asia.
http://asiadognyc.com/#/menu
Adam, David:
Actually the northwestern Chinese (Xinjiang) do have a dish that is called “father of pizza” that involves a flatbread (naan, pronounced the same as the indian bread) topped with lamb, peppers, and peanuts.
I think this is a nifty idea because eating in a Korean restaurant, as “C” posted above, can be very intimidating. Most people are unsure of what to order and how to “correctly” eat it. And the Korean waiters/waitresses, at least in the Korean restaurants I’ve been to, seem to be a little rude to you if you’re not Korean. Having Korean BBQ in a taco makes it convenient and allows you to not have to deal with all that nonsense. I think Korean food will be exposed to a larger variety of people this way. Anyways, from my experience these tacos are very delicious.
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