Kimchi-Eating Gringos
Two evenings ago, my wife and I were not in the mood to cook, so we decided to go out to dinner. We headed over to the new sprawling Koreatown in East Providence (read: an Asian store run by Koreans and a small Korean restaurant across the street). The restaurant, if you can call it that, has an extremely homey feel to it. It is basically a kitchen with bar style seating around it, a big round table by the entrance and some extremely narrow two-person booths along the far side wall.

A middle-aged Korean couple runs the place. The husband is the waiter while the very mother-like the wife is busy in the open kitchen cooking for everyone. Rather than a restaurant, it seems like a place Korean university students can go to have a home cooked meal for the place is always full of them. They either come in large groups and sit at the one large round table or sit at the bar reading Korean newspapers as they partake of their food.

As we walked in, the man seemed surprised to see us there for we were the only non-Korean people there, but he also seemed pleased. My wife and I both rather like Korean food, especially because it is spicy. At Korean restaurants we almost invariably get warned that the food is very spicy and we probably won’t be able to eat it. My wife, in particular, gets these warnings, although her tolerance to peppers is probably higher than mine. We always respond that we are aware of this and that we indeed like the food spicy. The staff usually walks away not believing us.

The other night was no different. After the meal, the man asked us how it was. We responded that it was very good (it was). He asked if it wasn’t too spicy. We said no, that we liked it that way. He seemed pleased, but very puzzled. How could it be that non-Korean people liked and could eat spicy Korean food?

Another day, another stereotype challenged.

[Word to the wise: If you ever find yourself in a Korean restaurant, be sure to eat all your rice. As a staple, Koreans place an extremely high value on their rice and thus must be consumed in its entirety. My wife and I have been diplomatically chided for not finishing our rice at various Korean restaurants. For quite some time now, we always eat all our rice!]