Comments on: Mr. Pizza Factory Goes LA

By: WangKon936

WangKon936 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:51:39 +0000

I know the manager there. He tells me that he get’s a lot of non-Koreans come from the Ramada hotel across the street. They apparently like it and have hit him up for some franchise information.

My take? It’s okay. In my opinion the sweet potato crust works since they arrange the flavors in a way that doesn’t taste like a traditional American style pizza with all that tomato sauce and cured meat.

By: peninsular aborigine

peninsular aborigine — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:36:13 +0000

Speaking of carb overload: Now Budea-jjigae houses serve noodles, rice cakes, rice, macaroni salad, tater tots and rolls in one meal.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:09:53 +0000

I have no idea what your problem is with the sweet potato.

Robert, the problem with sweet potato (or potato) on pizza is not only the clash of the taste (as one poster noted), it is the fact that it creates a carb overload.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:07:10 +0000

I actually am tickled by the entry of Mr. Pizza and Paris Baguette into the U.S. More power to them…more choice benefits all. Too bad the prices at the U.S. outposts are higher than the ones here.

However, that’s a good point about how orthodox some Koreans can be about how Korean food is “properly” eaten. I’ve lost count of how many times a waitress has told me exactly how 삼겹살 is to be cut in order to achieve the proper “씹는 맛”, or the exact proportions of the various types of 간 that go into each kind of soup, or that certain foods absolutely cannot be eaten unless they are first dipped into a prescribed kind of sauce. The insistence of many Koreans on that last one drives me batshit crazy.

One of my favorite things to do when at a 고기집 is to take one or more of the raw green peppers they serve and place it with the meat and garlic to be roasted. That _never_ fails to draw a comment from the waitress.

In that context, it is funny if Koreans do not grasp the same sort of reactions to canned corn, chestnuts, and sweet potatoes on pizza, not to mention sugared garlic bread.

By: dissidentdave

dissidentdave — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:06:11 +0000

#11: yes, that was not an exaggeration or a typo. pissed off…

people here where i’ve lived for the past four and a half years frequently don’t appreciate and/or get miffed at my sometimes adventurous ways of eating korean food.

By: Renato

Renato — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:50:24 +0000

I was eating in a JAPANESE restaurant in Korea, making my own sushi: the raw fish was there, as well the rice. When I was about to eat, the korean buddy by my side took it from my plate, wrapped around kimchi and said: “now it’s MUCH better! Now you can eat it!”.
My reply was simple: “you turned the sushi into a korean thing. Enjoy it yourself”
What the heck??? Similar to the sweet potato aspect, this is another example of “bastardization” (I saw this word either here or in Occidentalism).
Destroyed my sushi…

By: peninsular aborigine

peninsular aborigine — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:27:44 +0000

My friend had the soysauce he was putting on his rice whisked from his hand and placed on a distant table.

Freedom to put corn on pizza is license not liberty.

By: cmm

cmm — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:14:18 +0000

@10 never seen anger for not eating the local food properly? My best experience with this phenomenon was when I was in Beijing about a year and a half ago at a Beijing Duck restaurant. I was making a 쌈 and added, as I sometime like to do with Korean BBQ, a little bit of rice. Before I could get the thing into my mouth a Chinese lady from two tables away rushed over, alarmed, and told me that I was doing it wrongly… rice does NOT go into the 쌈. She wasn’t mean, but her shocked and concerned reaction and subsqequent explanation of how to properly eat the dish made me afraid to deviate (until she left my table).

Come to think about it, she spoke pretty good English too… maybe Gordon Brown was right and there ARE 300,000,000 great English speakers around the Middle Kingdom?

By: Maddlew

Maddlew — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:48:53 +0000

NewYorkTom, I’m assuming you’re in New York. Don’t bother. You have access to some of the best pie in the world. You’d be disappointed.

By: user-81

user-81 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:27:45 +0000

In Beijing, Mr. Pizza’s popularity threatens Pizza Hut’s. “We… put in an ingredient that’s rare and hard to find,” says the brochure. “Our hearts.”

Does this mean Mr. Pizza employees are a heartless bunch?