Drinking Culture

So in the last week, I went out to drink twice; once with the lab people, professor included, and once more when everyone from Pittsburgh came down to visit me. Drinking is a large part of Korean culture. Every time I walk past this bar-like place on my way home, it’s usually full of people who are hitting it hard, regardless of the night it is. I think the reason for this is that we start at dinner time, around 6 ish, and by the time it’s midnight, we’re all pretty much drunk enough to call it a night, allowing for a full night sleep in preparation for lab, school or work the next day.

The drink of choice is soju, which apparently is the most consumed liquor in the world, if that gives you an idea about how many/often Koreans drink. It tastes like a little sweeten vodka and is consumed as shots, not mixed with anything else. It’s aight, at best.

Unlike USA drinking, drinking in Korea is more ritualized/proper. Younger’s pour for the elders first, always using two hands on the bottle or one hand on the bottle and one hand under your elbow, mimicking getting your clothes out of the way back in the day of lengthy clothing. To receive a drink, you must have 2 hands on the glass or your right hand on the glass and the other hand on your stomach. Once everyone has been poured, you clink glasses and say “Gombe!” or “One shot-ah!” Drinks are always served with food.

The other drink I had, this time with the people from Pittsburgh, was makgeolli (pronounced like broccoli but with an “m” instead of a “br”). It’s kinda like sake, though not as good (bias much?) and is much more drinkable than soju. It is sweeter and has a slightly fizziness to it, more like wine. The place we went served the makgeolli in a metal tea kettle sort of thing, and each cup was a small metal bowl:

Same pouring rules apply, though less stringent since we were all ignorant Americans. To get more, you bang a separate empty kettle to get the waiters attention and they bring another one for you. Sound rude? Yeah, that’s pretty much how I felt when I did it.

So far, the beer here is awful, like Naty Ice or IC Lite awful. Any imports have 100% import tax on them, so there are like $15 bucks for a bottle. Only cool thing so far about the beer is that one of the places I went to had cup holders which were sunk into the table and kept at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so it kept your beer cold for longer. The pitchers themselves had a metal rod through the center of the pitcher and extended into the cup holders so the beer in the pitcher would be kept colder. I think that was a special thing to that place though since I have yet to see it anywhere else.

I’m pretty home sick or suffering from severe Xbox withdrawal (or both). Just wish I knew my MCAT score....