The image of France in Korea, like in many other countries, is apparently that of an artistic and romantic country. The country of love, fashion, and cuisine. Which means that a lot of people go "wow" when I say I'm French, although I really don't get why. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Korean tourists too experience what the Japanese call the Paris Syndrome. But I haven't heard of any such thing here so far. Unsurprisingly, a lot of French products and brands are popular here. But there are also French or allegedly French products or brands that I didn't even know existed. A few years ago, in Boston, Her took me to a café called "Paris Baguette", which I had never heard of. Its name sounds French, it calls itself a French bakery, it has the Eiffel Tower in its logo, but it's a Korean chain selling French-inspired food, most of which I've never seen back home. They do, however, have croissants and baguettes, which are pretty close to the real thing (they lack a certain je ne sais quoi, though), but the rest is simply not French, not bad but not French. I
particularly like "bon délicieux", which is a kind of pound cake, with a
funny name that means "good delicious"...(funny, but aptly named if you
ask me).
Now, to be fair, the opposite situation can happen too : in France we found this "Korean" sauce whose label read "Want taekwondo in your plate?" and which of course couldn't be less Korean.
Getting back to what I was saying about Korean bakeries. I once explained to Her the notion of "aller au pain" in France (dropping by the bakery down the street to buy your daily baguette). So I did it in Yangsan, and we ended up having some kind of French-style sandwiches that were actually pretty tasty.
PaBa, as some Koreans call it, is very popular in Korea, actually you can't walk two blocks without running into one. It has even spread outside Korea, to the US for instance, and even to France, where you can find a few of their cafés in Paris. But PaBa is far from being the only such chain. One of the first things I saw on my first trip to Korea, was Paris Croissant (of which Paris Baguette is a subsidiary, if I got it right ) at Seoul Station. "Tous les Jours", whose croissants are really really close to what you would find in France, is pretty widespread too. Not to mention independent stores like "Paris" in Busan, which I walked past today.
In short, bread and pastry wise, I can easily survive here. Now, when I'm looking for other typically French products, that's another story. Especially when it comes to cheese and wine. Finding cheese in Korea has proved a tall order so far. The cheese aisles in supermarkets depress me to tears.You'll find mainly industrial cheese, and it will cost you an arm and a leg (we did find Raclette cheese the other day, but it cost about 15,000 won for eight slices...). As for wine, on the plus side there's a lot of choice. But on the minus side, it is also much more expensive than in France. So it looks like I'll have to revise my cheese and wine budget upward. Or I could also have less cheese and wine, which may turn out to be healthy too ;-)
One cheap altenative to wine as I know it is Jinro wine, advertised as "rich with flavor as it is made only using top quality ingredients from Spain". Her had me taste that the other day. It reminded her of her college days. Very sweet, and actually not that bad, if you don't think of it as wine, that is. Oh, and we also found "vin chaud" (mulled wine, typically found at Christmas markets in France) in several places in Busan, including some of the cafés I mentioned earlier. But I'm still not sure if there's wine in it... Probably not. Again, not bad, but this was simply not "vin chaud".
Anyway, Korea has a lot to offer, and I'm not feeling homesick, so I'm good. Apart from food and drink, I recently visited Alliance Française (French cultural center) in Busan which has a library and holds different kinds of events in connection with French culture. You can also learn French there. And several times a year, someone from the French embassy in Seoul comes and answers questions or helps French nationals with various administrative procedures they have to go through, which saves them a trip to Seoul.
And if I need real French food, there are a few good places, likes this one, where Her and I had dinner recently. But to be honest I'd rather have my mother in law's bulgogi. 맛있어! But if I don't want Korean food one day, I can have food from other countries, for instance at this German restaurant that we stumbled upon last year in Busan.
But surprisingly a German friend of ours said there was absolutely nothing German about that food...
