I am Korean American also and like Rich K. I too found the post to be unfairly dismissive of Korean food and somewhat offensive. I’ve had Korean bbq and yakiniku as well and write about it extensively in my blog (liked to my name above). My conclusion was that yakiniku generally seemed more refined then Korean bbq, but that Korean bbq was more flavorful and satisfying. Both were very good on equal levels but for different reasons.

Regarding the Korean man who doesn’t eat yukke anymore in Korea doesn’t mean he thinks one’s overall cusine is better then the other and shouldn’t be lifted out of context and used as justification for such reasoning.

Korean bbq isn’t just mainly pork, but pork bbq in Korea may just be more widespread in Korea because it’s a cheaper meat then beef. Korean bbq in the U.S. for example, where meat prices are cheaper, beef is actually more popular.

The reason why Koreans have a sensitivity to blanket statements that one aspect of Japanese culture is superior, etc. is due to the difficult history that the two countries have had together, particularly in the first half of the 20th century. At that time, due to colonialism, Koreans were actively taught by the Japanese that the Japanese culture is superior in every way to Korean culture. The blanket and ill thought-out statement of, “Sorry to our friends in Korea, but we doubt that there is Korean food this good in Korea!” is like telling a black person back in the U.S. that there will never be a black quarterback as good as Tom Brady or Joe Montana. Obviously, such as statement would be considered inappopriate to be said or even though of today and to blacks it would harken back to a time that they would best like to forgotten when people thought that white athletes were inherently smarter and more disciplined then black athletes.

Regarding your comment “Sorry to our friends in Korea, but we doubt that there is Korean food this good in Korea!” . . .

As a Korean-American who has lived in Kyoto for the past four years and lived for a year in Korea, this sort of comment, while it perhaps is supposed to just be enthusiasm for what you personally endorse, strikes me as unnecessary. You can hold your favorite yakiniku place in Kyoto in the highest regard without speculating that something else is inferior, especially when it is apparent that you are not interested in engaging in more than speculation. One really should not not say things like “I cannot offer a fully informed opinion and I am really not interested in becoming fully informed, but I’m just going to assert I must be right anyway.” This is the sort of attitude that has got America’s present regime in a whole lot of trouble.

I have eaten a great deal of yakiniku. My wife is third-generation Zainichi Korean and two of her relatives run yakiniku-ya’s, including the very well-regarded Wakamatsu mini-chain in Kobe and Yakiniku Donguri in Gifu. We have tried Korean BBQ in Busan, Seoul, Koreatown in LA . . . we agree, it’s all good. I have yet to meet a Zainichi who has tried excellent Korean barbecue in Korea say that it does not have its charms that some people might prefer to even the best “Korean” barbecue in Japan. The quality of beef notwithstanding, I have yet to go to a yakiniku-ya in Japan that can match the quality of the banchan and soups at the better Korean and Koreatown BBQ joints. For some of us, it’s the total experience that counts. And as delicious as something like Matsuzaka beef certainly is, isn’t it possible that something more flavorful than beef-flavored butter might be preferred on occasion? I tend to think so, and my arteries thank me for it.

I love yakiniku. It is in its own right a brilliant food experience, and I am the first to admit that my Zainichi cousins have a better understanding of the cow and its myriad delicious components than some of us. But yakiniku cannot be “better” Korean barbecue, because it is not precisely Korean barbecue. Perhaps only Koreans can appreciate this difference (I doubt this, but for your sake I will offer it as a possibility), but it is a fact nonetheless. If these seem like irrelevant considerations to you, then I apologize for introducing nuances to which you are oblivious. But all we can do is try to develop a proper respect for non-native cultures, which seems to me the greater part of taking the trouble to live in a foreign land. That is a courtesy that need not be limited to those immediately in our vicinity.

(PS) Oh! Paku made an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G dinner tonight! We are going to post it on KF in the very near future. Stay tuned!