Korean food event set for Los Angeles

Home Forums Korean food discussion Korean food event set for Los Angeles

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #49121
      koralex90
      Participant

      I found an article today on the Korea Herald! Those that live in LA should definately check it out!

      “The Agriculture Ministry said yesterday that it will launch a three-day Korean food marketing and sales event in Los Angeles on Friday as part of the government’s agenda to boost the nation’s exports.

      The ministry said its sales target is $100,000 throughout the three-day event taking place at the Hannam supermarket, a major local retail chain, in the heart of Korea Town. The marketing drive will feature foods from over 20 categories, including seasoned seaweed laver, seasoned mollusks, yellow corvenia, seasoned canned tuna fish and dried squid. Four trading companies from Korea will be participating in the government-organized campaign.

      A major agenda of the Lee Myung-bak administration is to promote awareness of Korean foods abroad to help boost the nation’s overall export volume and contribute to sustainable economic growth. By establishing a stable distribution base abroad, the government aims to spur demand for Korean agriculture and fisheries products among the population of overseas Koreans, as well as raise demand within the local mass consumer market.

      The ministry highlighted that the Korea Fishery Trade Association is scheduled to sign a preliminary agreement with the Los Angeles-based Hannam chain store during the event to ensure steady expansion of the L.A. consumer market.

      It added that various events have also been organized to raise awareness of and popularize Korean cuisine among L.A. residents. Locals will have the opportunity to enjoy food-tasting events, such as with “gimbap,” or seaweed-covered rice rolls, and fried squid and other seafood.

      “We believe this marketing campaign will invigorate demand for Korean foods in the L.A. region and thereby help boost our exports,” the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement. “We plan to continue to aggressively support exciting export-marketing initiatives,” it added.

      In another government effort to globalize Korean cuisine, the ministry said a Korea-Vietnam food festival will be held from Oct. 24 to 25 during the Vietnam-Korea Week in Hanoi. The food festival will be taking place at the National Convention Center in the Vietnamese capital.

      The event, organized by the Korean Agriculture Ministry and the Korea-Agro Fisheries Trade Corporation, will feature tasting opportunities and food industry promotion booths.

      The ministry said the tasting event is specifically targeted at consumer groups with great interest in Korean cuisine, such as young college students and homemakers from the upper and middle class.

      Some of the Korean companies participating in the food-tasting event will be Daesang, CJ Cheiljedang and Fine Korea. They will be helping to promote the awareness of representative Korean dishes, such as kimchi, bibimbap, ddeokbokki, bulgogi, samgyetang, naengmyun and japchae. “

      (sohjung@heraldm.com)

      Tell us what you think of this event too!

    • #52864
      Pure_Hapa
      Member

      A bureaucratic BS PR effort. It’s clueless to try to introduce Korean food through a Korean supermarket chain in Los Angeles – doh! The government doing things to try to push Korean cuisine and tourism is so mickey mouse. But governments have been doing this forever.

      The growth of interest in Korean cuisine will continue the way it has – organically through growth in the Korean immigrant population. The Korean government didn’t start the Kogi truck. The Korean government didn’t start Maangchi posting on Youtube.

      They didn’t make the local soontubu restaurant a hit with non-Koreans. Etc…

    • #52865
      koralex90
      Participant

      They are not necessarily trying to create a successful chain of restaurants like Kogi by the government alone. I saw a video on the globalization plan and the guy said he only hopes to aid these efforts for Korean immigrants abroad because many

      Koreans find Korean restaurants a daunting task (thats why maybe so many japanese restaurants are owned by Koreans). They plan to standardize Korean food much like Chinese/Japanese/Thai/Vietnamese food has been done so that if a person eats soondubu in one restaurant, that a person expect a similar dish on the other side of the country. Standardizing Korean recipes and names seem to be an important step in doing so. Like japanese food, sushi, gyoza, ramen, udon, sashimi, and all these vocabs are pretty standard – spelling is the same everywhere. This kind of thing has to happen for Korean food to be successful. If you look on the internet, even the name kimchi is not standardized in spelling. Some say Gimchi, some say Kimchee, etc.

      Korean food has a long way to go but I believe with a little bit of creativity and planning, it can be successful like the recent boom of Thai food around the world. :)

    • #52866
      Pure_Hapa
      Member

      I understand where you’re coming from koralex90, but I completely disagree that “creativity and planning” is the method by which Korean cuisine will spread. Talk of “standardization” is futile as well.

      I doubt it was the Thai government opening up the hundreds of Thai restaurants out there – see what I mean?

      Koreans now own sushi bars and Pho restaurants and such because the audience is there, granted. It’s good business, that’s the bottom line.

      I have no doubt that the next 10 years will see a huge jump in the number of Korean restaurants abroad, and in Americans trying to cook some Korean recipes at home. It is just a matter of numbers, word-of-mouth and exposure, not government planning.

    • #52867
      SongMiru
      Member

      I think one of the problems is is that Korea lacks the brand value of many other countries. When people take tours of Asia, Seoul is often not a part of the itinerary. The majority of Americans mistake which country both Samsung and LG belong to. Samsung is often mistaken for Japanese, while most Americans think that LG is American. I found this hard to believe as well, but a friend of the family owns one of the biggest polling firms in the world…

      A sad fact, a very popular (and very busy) restaurant in NYC is a Japanese restaurant that serves Korean food. It’s always packed, and mainly with non-Koreans and your occasional celeb. Meanwhile, right down the street at an actual Korean restaurant, most of the patrons are Korean. The point being is that Japan has brand recognition. It’s a luxury brand, which people gobble up regardless of the product.

      In conclusion, I can’t see any harm coming out of the fact that Korea is trying to push its cuisine. Korea needs to find a product/name that can make its way into people’s homes and be recognized because lets face it, Japanese food is ridiculously popular but outside of sushi most people have no idea what Japanese food is.

    • #52868
      koralex90
      Participant

      Good points SongMiru. I totally agree with the brand image.

      Pure Hapa, I know standardization may not be the best thing for a cuisine but in order for it to spread, it needs to be standardized in my opinion. I mean, isnt that why mcdonalds is all over the world?

      if every mcdonald tasted different, i dont think people would go.. Chinese and Japanese food in America is highly homogenized – you can find kung pao chicken and sesame chicken in any chinese restaurant in the us. And its popular.

      They are sacrifices that must be made in my opinion for Korean food to be popular. Homogenizing is not good for anything – whether it be a cuisine, language, or culture – but in order for it to spread, and for foreigners to easily recognize korean food where-ever in the world they go, it must be done so.

      This is simply my opinion. I hope you do not take any offense. :)

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.