Did anyone else catch Tony Bourdain's No Reservations last night? I did. He went to Korea and I was slightly disappointed.
First, let's do a little recap of the episode.
Tony has been to several places in Asia, both for the show he did for the other network, and for No Reservations. He's been to Vietnam, Japan, China, and India. Nari Kye, a producer on the show, has been hounding Tony about going to Korea, her Mother Land, so he decided to go, and takes her along as his tour guide.
Right away, it was obvious that Tony wasn't excited about being there. He admits that he's beat from the actual plan trip, and in the cab, he looks absolutely wiped out. Nari is chattering away because she's excited to be back in Korea, which she left when she was five. Tony looks like he wants to punch her to shut her up.
The first thing they do is stop off at one of the many street food stands that look like they are accustomed to having travelers as customers. Tony and Nari pull up to the "bar" with their rolling luggage and sit right down on top of their suitcases as seats. They eat bowls full of spicy broth, noodles, and a mix of fried things, including soon-dae, a Korean blood sausage. I have never eaten soon dae, and don't think I could stomach the stuff myself, though it's something that many people absolutely love. Perosnally, I would have gone somewhere for galbi-tahng, a brothy soup made with the same kind of shortribs that are marinated and used in Korean barbecue.
Nari and Tony visit one of the fish markets, which is similar to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, though I'm sure it's nowhere near as awesome. They watch the live auctions, Nari picks up a very pornographic squirting sea slug, and for a snack, the two eat octopus tentacles that are still wiggling. Hey, I think we've seen that before. In fact, you don't even have to go all the way to Korea - they serve live octopus tentacles at The Prince in Los Angeles, too. It doesn't seem like Tony liked it.
Later, they try tae kwon do with the K Tigers. Now apart from the obvious non-love that Tony has for his trip in Korea so far, here is where I started to get a little disappointed with the episode. There was way too much information about all this other stuff in Korea besides the food. Granted, the show is on the Travel channel, so the purpose is to show a lot of things, but I guess that's just something I miss - almost every segment about food.
Nonetheless, they did go out to the countryside to watch kimchee being made the old-fashioned way, fished near the DMZ between North and South Korea, ate mae-eun-tahng, a spicy fish stew, and even went out for late night food and karaoke.
The other thing I didn't love about the episode is that the food and activities they chose to highlight didn't seem to get the real experience of what it's like to be in Korea. Tony in Japan was fast and exciting! Tony in China was fast and exciting! Even Tony in India was fast, exciting, and funny with the whole bit on Bollywood. But Tony in Korea made the country seem so totally back asswards with disgusting food. Of all the things they could have eaten on a late night out, Nari chose dahk-ddong-jib, which is basically stir-fried chicken anus. It's sort of street snack, but why would they show something that doesn't sound appetizing, and also show the show's star cringing at the taste? It would have been different if he had loved the stuff, but it was clear that he didn't like it from what he said and how he looked on screen while chewing it.
They didn't show much that made Korean food seem incredible, which to me, it is. The only point at which Tony looked like he enjoyed hinself was at a charcoal factory where they ate Korean barbecue. But that again makes it seem like the only food worth eating in Korean cuisine is the barbecue.
I was disappointed.
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