FatManSeoul

Well, ok, make that more like 8 doughnuts.  Dunkin’ Donuts is going global by introducing 6 new donuts and 2 croquettes to their lineup:  Greek yogurt filled (Greece – who’dve  thunk it!), lentil curry croquette and chocolate glazed with lentils donut (India), kimchi croquette (Korea), olive oil and garlic donut and coffee roll (Spain), and [...]

There’s nothing that makes Fatman angrier than being promised a “Death Burger” that will light our mouth on fire as if we’d just french kissed Satan and finding out that at best all we’re going to get is a “Mild Indegestion Burger” that’s more like a peck from a petulant djinn. Andrew Salmon and [...]

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article on the expansion of Dunkin’ Donuts in Korea today, saying that the chain was looking to almost double the number of stores in South Korea, along with turn Koreans into morning coffee drinkers. We ask you, do Koreans really need any help with that?
There’s a few [...]

It’s the first FatManSeoul play-along-at-home taste test!
We’ve long wanted to try something that our friends from afar could join in,  and found inspiration in Eat Your Kimchi’s ramen taste-test.

While they had lots of fun finding the most foreigner friendly of the reconstitutable ramens, they did have one utter failure:  짜장볶이.
What can account for this [...]

Yes, that’s right: Your favorite crisped rice chocolate bar has evolved not only into ball shape, but it’s running around sans clothing! SCANDALOUS!
Nude Crunky is regular crunky balls rolled in an extra layer of rice crisps, and available in pretty much every minimart and grocery store in the country. Chow down on [...]

Pizza Mall is pretty darn low on the totem pole of pizza parlors here in Korea. With fancy-schmancy international chains like Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John’s, and California Pizza Kitchen alongside domestic divas like Mr. Pizza, what’s the neighborhood tomato smasher to do? Pizza Mall has stayed in the game by offering very [...]

Krispy Kreme has helped clear up a few things about the legend of Tangun:

First, bears are tough. Real tough. The seasonal promotion of the Apple Bear doughnut isn’t garlic-y (praise Hwanin!) but it is dry and very, very, VERY sweet. The apple taste isn’t very pronounced, even with little tiny chunks of [...]

Fatman recently took a browse through Michael Pettid’s Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History and liked what we saw. Unlike most books about Korean food, this one is not primarily a cookbook. Pettid, an Assistant Professor of Korean and Korean Literature at SUNY Binghampton flexes his scholarly muscles to bring readers a nearly [...]

New in your local mini-mart, “American-style” california rolls are starting to show up on the shelves.  Unlike Korean gimbap, these rolls bear a superficial resemblance to the vinegary rice rolls of Japan, makizushi.  When sushi hit America, these rolls were tinkered with to suit westernized tastes, including introducing sauces and novel fillings like avacado and [...]

UPDATE: Official scores and judges commentary now up!
One of the special culinary pleasures of Korea, bulgogi (fire meat) ranks high.  Beloved by everyone from Koreans who have never left the peninsula to gourmands who’ve never made it to these shining shores, it has joined kimchi as one of the most symbolic foods of Korea.  [...]