Shou'er Journal: How restaurants work (Part 1)

Erma and I have been eating lunch out just about every weekday since we've been here. It's economical, healthy, and filling. The cost is between 5,000 and 7,000 Won per person (less than $5 to $7).

There are more than a half dozen restaurants on this block, a convenient three-minute walk from our office in Herren Haus.

Erma in front of our local "Restaurant Row", with "coffee" (more on that later)

The lunch crowd seems to be a mix of middle-aged ladies, elderly retired men, employees from the nearby hospital, and young businessmen.

While some of the restaurants have a few tables with chairs, most seating is on the floor, at low tables on raised heated platforms. You remove your shoes before stepping onto the platforms. Quite a few of the restaurants have multiple rooms separated by sliding doors.

Floor seating

The heated floors are really nice to sit on when the winter weather is cold. And because the floors are clean (no shoes), you can set a coat, purse, or backpack down without concern.

I should say also that these are very workaday places, with simple food and basic service. Korea has plenty of fancy, expensive restaurants too.

Until you get used to how these places work, you may be baffled by the lack of cutlery on the table. Nor do the servers bring you any. Indeed, if you are an ordinary American, you might not even notice this nondescript box resting serenely on the table:

You should open it.

Spoons and chopsticks!

In lieu of napkins, there is usually just a box of small tissues. Many restaurants also drop a couple of "wetnaps" on the table for each customer. These might be individually packaged, like the ones you get on an airplane, or loose. Only at one restaurant in the neighborhood have we seen this do-it-yourself version:

Need napkin? Just add water.

You also will be given a small cup and a plastic bottle of potable water, or sometimes warm or cold barley tea.

The restaurants almost all have minimal menus, specializing in one or two dishes. You're not expected to take time deciding what you want. It's assumed that you already know what you want before you walk in -- otherwise why would you be there in the first place?

This menu is pretty typical:

This place essentially has two dishes: knife-cut noodle soup (kalguksu 칼국수) and bibimbap 비빔밥. The noodle soup comes in a few variations.

There are also two dishes—braised pork loins (dwaeji suyuk 돼지 수육) and scallion pancake (pajeon 파전) that are meant to accompany alcohol and are sized for groups. They're essentially the "happy hour" menu, as these places turn into drinking establishments in the evening.

Here's an even simpler food menu, with only three items (all the items in the yellow box are alcoholic drinks):

Menu at one of the local loach soup (chu'eotang 추어탕) restaurants

We've noticed something else at these restaurants: they all have signs posted listing the country of origin of the basic ingredients. This is a legal requirement.

Menu on the right; on the left is the list of ingredients and source countries

These signs look surprisingly permanent. It seems that the restaurant owners commit to sourcing their ingredients from the same countries for long periods of time. This sign says

rice and kimchi: Korea
pork: Belgium and Chile
beef: Australia and New Zealand

Here's one more menu, from a slightly fancier restaurant that we ate at with Erma's mother. The selection is broader, the prices are more higher.

Left side is headed "Duck Menu"; right side is headed "Korean Beef Menu"

This is the place where we had delicious duck bulgogi. I didn't intend to post pictures of food on this post, but I can't resist.

Nearly every restaurant has a little "milk coffee" machine near the front door. They all say a cup of coffee costs 100 won (less than ten cents), but in fact they are rigged up to be free. They dispense about 3 ounces of low-quality coffee cut with milk and sugar into a small paper cup.

This one says "tea time", but it dispenses coffee.

Most people take them back to their tables, but Erma and I usually take ours to go for the short walk back to our office. (Refer back to first photo on this blog entry.)

I forgot to mention that the coffee machines are self service. Sometimes a sign makes this explicit.