The relative cost of food.

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Roll of kimbap – 1500 KRW ($1.28 USD)

Bowl of miso ramen + 2 different pickled radish side dishes – 4000KRW ($3.42 USD)

Awesome fish-shaped waffle + ice cream + sweet red bean paste dessert – 1000KRW ($0.86 USD)

One jar 462g of Skippy Super Chunk peanut butter: 5500 KRW ($4.71 USD)

…Sigh….

Wow, I look like Gollum, clutching his Precioussssssss.

American comfort food in a sea of rice and noodles: Priceless.

A girl in my class picked up two jars of Skippy for me from Itaewon, the “foreigner” area of Seoul. It cost almost twice as much as it would in the US, but perhaps that will prevent me from mindlessly scooping it out of the jar with a spoon or my finger.

Language and food are both strongly tied to one’s sense of culture and identity. Honestly, I can’t tell which one is more jarring here. On one hand, it’s disconcerting to encounter Korean in places where I’m used to seeing English: website buttons, receipts, nutrition labels. On the other hand, I’m also quite aware that I’m not in the US when I am served [really] fermented kimchi at 8am for breakfast.

Maybe I’ll go buy some bread and make myself a sammich.

2 thoughts on “The relative cost of food.”

  1. Food is so important. I remember when I was in Mexico (where the food is really not too different), I would sometimes go in my room and just devour a granola bar I had brought with me. I was so tired of having beans and eggs for breakfast.

    I really like that fish-shaped waffle.

    Also, thank you for your sweet comment on my blog. It made my day!

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  2. With the peanut shortage, even cheap PB is more like $3-4 around here. no worries.

    can you bring back fish waffles?!?

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