Sister BBQ

After Seminar lecture on a Monday afternoon, our group decided to carry our appetite over to Sister’s BBQ Restaurant. There, we were able to look at the menu and speak to the waitress. We observed that although they were very hospitable,  all the waitresses were Korean and barely able to speak anything other than Korean.

Sitting down and observing the interior of the restaurant, we could not point out anything to make this restaurant a conformed “American” institution. The furniture, menu, and cuisines were very traditional to reach out to the Korean population of the area. We looked at posters on the wall that advertised Korean beer and liquor rather than the average American beer and liquor. The menu contained nothing that would be considered “American” food. The sort of food the restaurant specializes in is Korean BBQ, consisting of LA style marinated ribs, spicy pork, and so on.

A cultural aspect of the way the food is served is the BBQ grill right in the middle of our table. After we ordered our food, our waitress popped out a section of the table that happens to be a grill, and she cooked our raw meat right in front of us. Another preserved Korean aspect was all the side dishes that come out with the cuisine(s). These side dishes, which are also called banchan in Korean, are refillable, high in quantity, and brought out first before any of the main entrees.

Obviously, we are all expected to eat with chopsticks, which in fact is a very communal utensil. For example, if one of us needs help ripping a piece of kimchi into a smaller piece, one holds the kimchi down with his or her chopstick, while the other pulls the other half off. This resembles the communal aspect of Korean Americans.