When I was living in Korea, my wife and I found an all-you-can-eat buffet like two blocks from our house. While in Korea we were deficient in something - we never knew what - but about every two weeks we'd get a craving for shellfish that left us nearly mad. We'd go to this buffet and absolutely devour shellfish like there was no tomorrow. We'd end up eating twice what anyone else would, most of that in shellfish.
And we'd insist on paying twice as much. Their is no "tipping" system in Korea (or most of the rest of the world) but we felt so guilty for tearing into their shellfish we'd insist on paying them again after we were done. We told them, in broken Korean and English, "we eat twice as much, we pay twice as much". They insisted we didn't have to do this, but we communicated it was a matter of "honor", and please accept our additional payment. Which they did, but just out of Korean politeness.
While we were in Guangju, our visits to this place became somewhat famous on the Korean version of "Facebook". Their were only about 100 or so foreigners in the entire city, and these particular foreigners came to this restaurant at least twice a month, and sometimes once a week, and insisted on paying double because they ate so much. It became something of a meme, I guess, in Guangju, and this restaurant became insanely popular because of it. But every time we walked in, no matter how packed the place was, they had a table waiting just for us, and we never had to wait long for something if it wasn't on the buffet line. And we loved this so much we always tipped insanely (way more than the meal cost) because we'd tell them "we eat too much, therefore we pay more, because honor demands it". It'd didn't, of course, but we told them that anyway - and they loved it, and we loved it. Eventually we ended up going to this place twice a week for the year that we were their, just to please the owner - and she did her best to see that we had whatever we wanted. It was insane, it was beautiful, it was awesome - one of the best times of my life.
Didn't care that I was a "white Guangju celebrity", only cared about the shellfish and the sweet woman and her family who ran the restaurant - hope they're still doing okay to this day....
i_hate_sodomites 0 points 2.8 years ago
When I was living in Korea, my wife and I found an all-you-can-eat buffet like two blocks from our house. While in Korea we were deficient in something - we never knew what - but about every two weeks we'd get a craving for shellfish that left us nearly mad. We'd go to this buffet and absolutely devour shellfish like there was no tomorrow. We'd end up eating twice what anyone else would, most of that in shellfish.
And we'd insist on paying twice as much. Their is no "tipping" system in Korea (or most of the rest of the world) but we felt so guilty for tearing into their shellfish we'd insist on paying them again after we were done. We told them, in broken Korean and English, "we eat twice as much, we pay twice as much". They insisted we didn't have to do this, but we communicated it was a matter of "honor", and please accept our additional payment. Which they did, but just out of Korean politeness.
While we were in Guangju, our visits to this place became somewhat famous on the Korean version of "Facebook". Their were only about 100 or so foreigners in the entire city, and these particular foreigners came to this restaurant at least twice a month, and sometimes once a week, and insisted on paying double because they ate so much. It became something of a meme, I guess, in Guangju, and this restaurant became insanely popular because of it. But every time we walked in, no matter how packed the place was, they had a table waiting just for us, and we never had to wait long for something if it wasn't on the buffet line. And we loved this so much we always tipped insanely (way more than the meal cost) because we'd tell them "we eat too much, therefore we pay more, because honor demands it". It'd didn't, of course, but we told them that anyway - and they loved it, and we loved it. Eventually we ended up going to this place twice a week for the year that we were their, just to please the owner - and she did her best to see that we had whatever we wanted. It was insane, it was beautiful, it was awesome - one of the best times of my life.
Didn't care that I was a "white Guangju celebrity", only cared about the shellfish and the sweet woman and her family who ran the restaurant - hope they're still doing okay to this day....