Take-out

This is how take-out works in Korea:

You order your food. (In the old days—i.e. more than 5 years ago—you would have had to provide directions to your place, using only landmarks. Nowadays there are actual street addresses.)

A delivery person zooms over on a motorbike, running red lights, driving the wrong way down one-way streets, and zooming up onto sidewalks without warning. The motorbike contains a big metal case inside of which is your hot food.

A motorbike food delivery case. (If you are in Gyeongju and want samgyetang, please call the number shown.)

Said person, usually having arrived without killing anybody, keeps shoes on in the foyer, puts knees on clean inside floor, and slides food, utensils, and other objects into house. Then leaves.

The takeout includes real metal utensils and actual heavy, heat-retaining bowls.

Raw hot peppers, raw garlic, and raw onion, with a spicy dipping sauce, is a commonly seen side dish.

Yum, it's take-out samgyetang 산계탕 蔘鷄湯! (That's a classic ginseng chicken soup.)

The soup is tightly sealed with plastic wrap. Not a drop has spilled.

samgyetang close-up

After you are done eating, you collect all the non-disposable items—bowls, spoons, chopsticks—and leave them outside the front door. At some time in the middle of the night the delivery person will scoot by and collect them.
The second time we ordered take-out, the delivery guy didn't scoot all the food onto the floor. Instead, he left the entire metal case with us, so we got to see the inside. Shelves! Genius!

So that's how the magician does the trick!

This was much more convenient for us. We put all the dirty dishes back into the metal case, and had a lot less trouble carrying it downstairs to leave for pickup.