Well, I can identify what you had as japchae, but only as Americanized japchae; not-Americanized japchae has somewhat different ingredients. That's part of my basis.
Obviously, there are layers and layers of good ___ cuisine; there's what a purist would like, what people accustomed to a diasporadic community consider right, what people used to outposts beyond a diaspora-community think of as usual, and so on. (That goes for regional US foods as well, not only immigrant ones.) From the side dishes you describe, this isn't the kind of place where a purist would eat; though I'm not a purist, I'm probably closer to one than are the other people you know who like Korean food. But really, the beef and noodles as described == bad food preparation.
Pink, huh? Pickled and artificially colored radish. Not cool.
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Date: 2012-04-21 02:54 am (UTC)Obviously, there are layers and layers of good ___ cuisine; there's what a purist would like, what people accustomed to a diasporadic community consider right, what people used to outposts beyond a diaspora-community think of as usual, and so on. (That goes for regional US foods as well, not only immigrant ones.) From the side dishes you describe, this isn't the kind of place where a purist would eat; though I'm not a purist, I'm probably closer to one than are the other people you know who like Korean food. But really, the beef and noodles as described == bad food preparation.
Pink, huh? Pickled and artificially colored radish. Not cool.