Wangkon. Racially speaking, Indians are the vast majority in Mexico. It’s just that people who use Spanish as their primary language are not counted as “Indian”. The general rule for Latin America is: If your primary language is indigenous, you practice an indigenous form of Roman Catholicism (being replaced by Evangelical protestantism), and live within an indigenous community, you are an “Indian”. Otherwise, you are regarded as a Mestizo. Mexico does have some minority groups, to include Blacks. They even have a small band of Black Seminoles. In Mexico, you will generally not be able to spot the men, as they wear the same clothes as everyone else, but the women usually wear their hair in two long braids, which are intertwined at the bottom. Indians in the north of Mexico are racially and culturally distinct from the far more populous south. One group of “Mexican” Indians (the Tarascans of Michoacan) is believed to be related to the Indians of Northern Peru, as they were practicing metal working when the Spanish arrived and spoke a language unrelated to other mesoamerican languages.

Mexico city, by the way, also has a small Korea town, but it is virtually invisible. In 1997 it was estimated at 8,000 persons (in a city of 24 million).

I realize that. I am surprised to see Seoul go from zero to plenty in a matter of a few years. I hope Seoulites are taking full advantage of expanded culinary choices.

Yep, that’s right, most Latinos in Ktown are either Central American or part of the Indian minority in Mexico, thus do not consider themselves Mexican. A lot of Latinos in this area have started to pick up some Korean and many of them speak it fluently. There is also a sizable Mongolian population in Ktown, most valet parking attendants being Mongolian. Physically, I can’t really tell the difference between Mongolians and Koreans.

Be warned I’ll be blogging this tomorrow (right now it’s time to get back to my dear Harry ;-))

As for Arabic restaurants, Hwarang is correct. There are a fair number now on the hill in Itaewon. There are quite a few Thai restaurants too. Just because it’s not on Google doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist…

“Plenty”? Really? I googled “Seoul” and “Arabic restaurant” and found a link to one called the Petra Restaurant, which got a nice write-up in the Seoul Selection.

http://www.seoulselection.com/.....l?cid=2393

There are plenty in the It’aewon area nowadays, especially near the mosque.

There are getting to be a few Thai restaurants, too. Mostly in the Hongdae and Gangnam (Shinsa, Gangnam) areas.

Yup, you’re probably right. Korean palates aren’t highly adaptable to foreign cuisines. Even Beijing boasts a couple of Arabic restaurants, but I don’t think Seoul still has one. I remember how excited we expats were when the first Thai restaurant opened in the mid-90s.