saturday i went to edae with lx and her sis-in-law who was in seoul over the weekend, and we decided to go for some waffles.
we passed by this cafe specializing in belgian waffles (MMMM!!), which according to lx has made quite a name for itself. my previous (and also first) experience with waffles in korea was at a waffle cafe in samcheongdong with suz, and sad to say, it wasn’t terrific. so this time, despite lx enthusiastically claiming that it’s pretty well-known, i went in feeling rather sceptical but kept an open mind nevertheless.
well. let’s just say that i don’t remember the name of the cafe not because i can’t remember it, but because i didn’t bother to take note of the cafe’s name.
the waffles weren’t that bad. they were ok, but not amazing; close, but definitely no cigar. it was too sweet, too heavy, neither soft nor fluffy enough, and its only saving grace was that it was served satisfyingly warm, and the gelato was placed at the side of the plate and not on top of the waffle so it stayed warm longer. the gelato, though, was heavenly–we had the tiramisu, yoghurt, and blueberry cheesecake flavours.
if even a supposedly famous waffle shop can’t even get it right, i think i will henceforth give up on waffles in korea.
the problem with food in korea can be summarized as such: native korean food can and does taste amazingly great, but i would suggest you skip all variations of international food, even if the food is cooked by native chefs (because, to survive, they would still have to localize the flavour to some extent to cater to local tastebuds, but the resultant concoction tastes neither korean nor what it was supposed to be; and to call it “fusion” is neither pardonable nor excusable because it was never meant to be fusion in the first place–the restaurant is marketed as serving indian/italian/mexican/____ food, and not fusion food.)
that’s not to say that authentic international cuisine can’t be found in seoul; they can, but you pay a premium for it and they are really hard to find.
another example: pizza.
i have a huge bone to pick with pizzas in korea.
now, this is my idea of a nice, yummy pizza:
picture credit: trufflepig on flickr
note the lavish, generous serving of tomato sauce, just the right amount cheese, and a relatively thin and crispy crust. mmmm.
and this, is korea’s idea of a good pizza (or at least what i gather it to be, as all their pizzas are made in this manner):
screenshot of a part of mr pizza‘s website, an established and popular brand here in korea.
note the lavish, generous servings of cheese, NO tomato sauce (?!?!?! what is a pizza without tomato sauce!), a thick (and rather tough, so it’s hard to chew) crust, and HUGE amount of chees–oops, did i already mention cheese?
if you go to their website, you’d see that ALL of their pizzas made in the same vein: no tomato sauce, lots of cheese.
i don’t like these korean pizzas because they give me a tummy ache. i think there’s just too much cheese. i do like cheese, but that’s just… whoa. -_-;;;
