A little bit ago I promised my best friend I would try the bulgogi burger at a Korean McDonald's for her, and tell her how it is. So, on my way home from a trip to Seoul, I stopped at the McDonald's outside the main gate and got one.
I'm not one to eat burgers very often. I only sort of like fast food, my wallet doesn't like fast food at all, and my body tends to react in annoying ways, like gaining weight. But occasionally I 'treat' myself, usually when I'm with other people. So it's not like fast food is a foreign concept for me. On the other side of this, however, most of the time when I do get burger-type fast food, I go for the chicken, instead of the beef. I don't know why, it's just been a thing I've done for the last couple of years. I don't think I've had an actually 'ham'burger in a really long time.
The McDonald's was a bit busy. It was about nine o'clock and the bars were all hopping outside, so of course the food places were full of people as well. And the girl at the counter didn't seem to understand my Korean, which left me a little disappointed, but oh well. I ordered a bulgogi burger meal with orange Fanta, got my food, and escaped the press of tipsy couples to finish my trip back onto base.
The line for a taxi just inside the gate was a bit long, longer than I was willing to wait, and so I walked. It's really only a fifteen minute walk, and while it was getting a bit chilly and I only had a light leather jacket on, I wasn't going to freeze to death walking back to my dorm. My hands were full of bags of treasures from my shopping in Seoul and my food, so I was worried that the burger and fries would get smooshed, but when I finally slid my key-card into the lock and got out of the cold into my room, everything was fine.
I set my treasure bags aside, to be gone through later, and put the McDonald's bag on the desk. The bag was a little crumbled from where I held it, and I was so sure that the food had gone cold. The only food normally hot that is also good cold is pizza, and I wasn't looking forward to trying a new food cold. I hesitantly reached into the bag and pulled out first the fries, which thankfully were still warm, and the burger.
It was small, or rather normal sized, compared to the burgers I was used to in the states. It wasn't hot, but at least it was still warm, which was more than I had been expecting, and probably more than I deserved after trekking through through the cold for fifteen minutes. The Hangul on the wrapper said 'Bulgogi Burger' and 'Anytime, just right for my mouth!' as well as some English I didn't pay attention to. I opened the wrapper with some trepidation: What kind of burger was it? What would it taste like? Would I like it?
It looked surprisingly like a normal burger. It was pretty plain, too, just the patty, lettuce, and some sauce, which is just how I like things. No tomato or pickle to pick off. I looked at it for a moment before realizing that the longer I waited the colder it got. Fearing it had already gotten too cold, I grabbed the burger, a little roughly, and stuffed it as far into my mouth as I could fit it. (Not very lady-like, I know.)
Immediately my mouth was filled with the most amazing flavor, like nothing I had ever tasted before. It wasn't like a hamburger, or a chicken burger, and it was definitely not the same flavor as Korean bulgogi, from which the bulgogi burger is supposedly derived. But that didn't matter because the flavor was so mouth-wateringly amazing that I couldn't find any words to describe it.
A lot of times I scarf down my food and don't take the time to really enjoy the flavor. It has a lot to do with the mindset I have that taking the time to eat, prep and clean-up included, is a waste of time, and is also a remnant of my time in Air Force Basic Training, when we didn't have time to eat like normal people. However, with this burger, I ate as slow as I could manage, savoring eat mouthful and wishing I had bought two. It was worth whatever I paid for it (it was loud and I wasn't paying attention) and if I wasn't so stridently against regular fast food eating, I would eat this every day.
If you visit South Korea, which I feel like everyone should at some point in their lives because it's a wonderful place here, the bulgogi burger is something you must try, along with bibimbap, kimchi stew, deokk boki, pickled radishes, and banana milk.
What is a favorite dish of yours that is from a foreign country? Tell me about it in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
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