If It’s Not Sweet, They Won’t Come

I've eaten pancakes in plenty of places, but the ones at The Original Pancake House in Seoul are my favorite. They're impossibly light, yet somehow rich and creamy at the same time. 

Getting them, however, requires commitment. These days, you can join a virtual queue on an app (CatchTable, if you’re interested). We were about a ten-minute drive away, so stood in line online. There were 48 groups ahead of us. We still had to wait another full hour before finally being shown to our table.

It was worth it. We ordered the pancakes, of course, and an Italian omelette.

The pancakes were flawless. The omelette was good too, except for one thing. The tomato salsa was surprisingly sweet.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend not so long ago. We were talking about the Netflix show Culinary Class Wars. An American who has lived in Korea for over a decade, she told me she didn’t watch the show because she isn't a fan of one of the judges, Baek Jong-won. In her view, he popularized recipes that called for huge amounts of sugar. Then she paused and added, “And yet, Korean desserts aren't sweet enough."

My dad feels exactly the same way. Whenever the subject comes up, he tells the same story about when he visited a nopo (노포, a term for old, time-tested Korean restaurants). He asked the elderly owner why her food tasted sweeter than he remembered.

She sighed. "If it's not sweet," she told him, "young people won't come."

Then I realized I’d grown a sweet tooth as well. Maybe we don't notice our tastes changing until someone points them out.

If you're planning a trip here, consider this a fair warning.

Things in Korea that may be sweeter than expected:

• Garlic bread

• Tomato salsa

• Pizza

• Salad dressings

P.S. Not everything is sweet. If you're looking for a bowl of properly savoury mandu guk, New Mandoojip (뉴만두집) is one of Seoul's true nopo restaurants. The dumplings are made in the traditional North Korean style.

*Disclaimer: I'd already shared a couple of my mandus with my partner before I remembered to take the photo.