The Joys of Food Deliveries

Now let's talk about the upside of living here in Korea. Food deliveries, yeah baby! Our family loves ordering out, especially on the weekends when Bill wants me to rest from all the cooking and chores. Of course having an American hubby and kids, the obvious choices are always - Pizza and Fried Chicken.


I have mastered ordering our favorite food and our address in Korean. Usually, our fried chicken order comes in 15 to 20 minutes after I place my call. The delivery guy buzzes our doorbell or sometimes gives a brisk knock on the door.


Bill likes Nene Chicken whose fried chicken comes in a pizza box style. Here is one we got last Christmas (it came with a freebie clock too... that died after a couple of days).



See the nifty slot where the small Pepsi bottle fits in? Such an ingenious design.


Ta-da! We have out fried chicken. It's pretty good, less oily than other Korean fried chickens (like BBQ or Pelicana). It comes with four little sauce boxes containing the usual macaroni-corn-raisins-smothered-in-mayo salad, pickled radish cubes, a chili-garlic sauce and honey mustard (shudder). There's also a couple of chopsticks and some pepper and salt mix you can sprinkle all over the chicken (as if you don't have enough sodium already).


Don't forget to keep the coupons. Usually 10 coupons saved means you get another fried chicken meal for free. Or what they call "service" in Konglish here. And the coupons here are magnetized which means you can tack them on your fridge with pride.


Here's our hoard so far. Only 2 more coupons for With Chicken (a garlicky sauce coated fried chicken that we usually dip in hot sauce) and 6 more for Nene Chicken (we just redeemed our free chicken a couple of weeks ago).


Last Saturday, we didn't only order chicken but pizza as well. Here's our friendly pizza guy with our order. Note, pizza shopss here in Korea bury their toppings under the cheese, which means you get soggy meats like pepperoni, ham, sausage, etc. We had to convince, more like beg, our local pizza chain to put our pepperonis on top to get them nice and crisp. Ah, the things we do for love...


And here's a peek of our pizza. It's from the Gurrogi Pizza chain and they have specials like 1+1 pizzas. Yup, two pizzas for the price of one. We usually order this. You can a small packet of parmesan cheese blend (meaning fake) and a small cup of pickles. In Korea, pizza ALWAYS come with pickles. I bet a lot of koreans get surprized when they order pizza in the US or Europe and find there are no pickles served with it.


My favorite type of food delivery is the korean food restaurant delivery. Almost always, I order Donkatsu Pork (Breaded Pork Slice) set for the kids and a bowl of Kalbi Tang (Beef Ribs Soup) for me.


The restaurant sends out the food on actual plates. Here's Billy's Donkatsu plate with its huge pork slice, a cup of macaroni salad drowning in mayo, a slather of korean salad drowning in mayo (can you see a pattern here?), a cup of rice and half a tangerine for dessert. This costs about $4 an order. Oh and it comes with a small bowl of clear veggie broth.


All the food orders are hermetically sealed with plastic saran wrap. Here is my bowl of Beef Rib Soup which always hits the spot when it is cold or raining outside. In this version, thin slices of omelet and a date top the soup. This bowl (along with a cup of rice) costs about $5.


And the restaurant also provides you with side dishes like kimchi, takuan (pickled radish slices, gochujang paste, salt and the best of the best, UTENSILS! And to top it all off, after you have eaten your fill, just pile up the dirty dishes and utensils and set it outside your front door. The delivery guy will swing by soon to pick it up. No washing the dishes (I HATE washing dishes) and no hassle. ;)