Beware of Fusion

Lately I've been craving food not available in Korea, specifically a New Orleans style cat fish po' boy and Ecuadorian food.  When it comes to doing foreign food, especially non-Asian, Korea just doesn't cut it for me.  Although it is possible to find Italian, Thai, Mexican, Indian, and various other types of food, I have learned to be very picky when exploring these restaurants in Daegu and Busan.  The word "fusion" when describing non-Korean restaurants is commonly used in the marketing of Korean owned foreign food eating joints.  This word honestly scares me.  If I see an ad or read a review of a restaurant that claims itself to be any sort of foreign food attached to the word "fusion" I judge it and may not explore it any further.  Yeah, maybe I'm being close-minded but I honestly can't take the Korean spin on the amazing global food that I believe to be ordering.  Let me tell you about it.

Mayonnaise and sweet mustard- Koreans love to pour mayonnaise and sweet honeyish mustard all over their foreign food.  I really don't understand why this is.  Maybe it stems from the fact that Korean food uses lots of sauces.  A friend was at the food court in Costco here in Daegu when she witnessed people taking a shit-ton of the free chopped onions they put out as a hot dog topping and piling them on a plate, then pumping ketchup and mustard onto the mound.  After creating an extremely unappetizing sounding "dish" they took a fork and ate the onion, ketchup, mustard mixture straight.  No, they didn't even have hot dogs to put their concoction on.  This love of condiments transfers to the foreign food they create. You're lucky if there is a picture of the dish so you can know in advance what will come on it.  It may be wise when ordering food to ask for no mayonnaise or mustard just in case.

Sushi-Korea has honestly almost ruined sushi for me.  I have been to one mediocre sushi chain that is actually a California franchise.  Although some places do have nigiri and rolls not doused in sauces, I would say the majority of the rolls in many sushi restaurants do come with some unexpected topping that takes away from the flavor of the fish and in my opinion, cheapens the taste.  These include, but are not limited to, melted cheese, frosted flakes, tobasco sauce, mayo and mustard.  This fact somewhat surprises me because Korea actually has it's own "sushi" called "kimbap."  Kimbap is esentially a roll of rice wrapped in dried seaweed with assorted vegetables (usually carrots, cucumber, radish etc.) and some sort of meat like ham, imitation crab or cooked tuna.  As far as I know there is rarely raw fish.  Kimbap is eaten as a snack or part of a meal and is super common.  One can purchase kimbap at almost any small corner store.  Unlike "Japanese-style" sushi that comes with all the toppings, kimbap almost never comes with anything slathered on top.  It's interesting that when it's Japanese sushi it gets coated in condiments but the Korean version is left untouched.

Frosted flakes- This is one of those toppings that gets thrown on your sushi.  If Koreans call something "fusion" your dish will often be brought out with a pile of frosted flakes blanketing it.  I have experienced this mostly on sushi and salads.  I guess the idea is that the sweetness of the frosted flakes makes a more delicious substitute for croutons.  Koreans tend to love to sweeten anything that is not sweet already or maybe just not sweet enough.  I don't know about you but I like my croutons savory.

Pizza toppings-I don't know if Koreans call their pizza 'fusion' per se but I guess that's what I would classify it as.  It's definitely not what we are used to back home.  This has been a big issue for me as on many occasions I have craved a legit piece of pizza.  This is hard to come by here and I have searched far and wide to find that little slice of heaven.  One pizza joint that is arguably the biggest and most famous pizza chain in Korea, does pizza fusion the best (or worst depending on how you look at it):  Mr. Pizza.  Mr. Pizza's tagline is "Love for women."  I asked my coteacher why this is and she said, "Because Mr. Pizza makes pizza that women like."  Apparently women like salad, raisins, cookies, nacho chips, and sweet potato mousse on top of their pizza.  Just take a look at this item taken straight for their website (make sure to read the description):

Here's the salad pizza:

I'm all about being adventurous with food but I think this takes it to another level. When ordering pizza you have to be careful not to accidentally order it with sweet potatoes inside the crust.  I did this once and I was at first shocked then disappointed when I bit into the crust and got a mouth full of baby food-like sweet potato.  If you live in Korea and have yet to find a good pizza, I would say that Mega Mart has the most American-style pizza at a really good price (no corn or potatoes ~14,000won).


I'm gonna gain 20 lbs when I get home.