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Fair disclosure -- I'm a fierce Giuseppi's partisan.

Am I the only one scratching my head over the drivel that appeared this week? Searching pizza shops for guilt-free eating? :) (At least I think that was the thrust of the article which really didn't even contain more than a paragraph worthy of labeling it a "review")

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The review of Gamasot this past week was a little frustrating to read. While I realize it is written from the author's experience of the place, I got a very strong undertone of "other cultures are bizarre" point of view. It's a big reason I don't like Andrew Zimmern as compared to Tony Bourdain. While I appreciate the fact that she is trying to speak to people from a noob point of view that may be necessary - holding things up as strange does not generally encourage people to try them. If anything it may have been useful to draw parallels - it could have gone into more detail in comparing soon dae (blood sausage) to the blood sausages of other cuisines. Or she could have elaborated more on the acorn starch dish that seems to be a focal point of the introduction. The tea she drank was probably barley tea, which is also something worth noting.

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The review of Gamasot this past week was a little frustrating to read. While I realize it is written from the author's experience of the place, I got a very strong undertone of "other cultures are bizarre" point of view. It's a big reason I don't like Andrew Zimmern as compared to Tony Bourdain. While I appreciate the fact that she is trying to speak to people from a noob point of view that may be necessary - holding things up as strange does not generally encourage people to try them. If anything it may have been useful to draw parallels - it could have gone into more detail in comparing soon dae (blood sausage) to the blood sausages of other cuisines. Or she could have elaborated more on the acorn starch dish that seems to be a focal point of the introduction. The tea she drank was probably barley tea, which is also something worth noting.

Jamie, I totally agreed with you. I am glad you pointed out what the writer missed. She said that she is a big fan of Asian food but then she broadly defines what Asian food is. There are many different styles such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and so on. Even in Chinese cuisine, Sichuan style is different from Beijing or Shanghai cuisine. For the same reason, there is French cuisine and Italian cuisine but not European cuisine or Continental cuisine. I realized there are lots of common ingredients between European dishes and Korean dishes through my trips to Paris, Venice and Madrid. I saw that a pig foot dish is listed on the menu of Au Pied de Cochon in Paris, a fried blood sausage (morcilla) on the menu of Manolo in Madrid and a platter of mixed parts of boiled beef (bollito misto) on the menu of Ristorante Greppia in Verona. These dishes are just as easily found at Seoul Soon-Dae and Gamasot. People eat similar food all over the world but I am sometimes stunned by how food critics react differently. I don't understand how some foods eaten in one place are considered gourmet and the same foods eaten somewhere else are considered bizarre. I would like to see a more open-minded point of view from them.

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