- Soju - Talk about a multipurpose alcohol; it not only gets you completely trashed, but also masks the meat-smell in meat marinades, cleans engines, and the bottle makes a great vase!
- Anti-Hangover Honey Water (Ggool Mool) - Perhaps the greatest discovery ever during my stay in Korea - an anti-hangover drink! Ggool Mool is a syrupy sweet concoction in a little bottle sold at late-night convenience stores for the trashed businessmen and college students who need some pre-emptive defense from the imminent soju headache.
- Office Hangover Policy - Seoul (and Tokyo) is one of the few cities where calling in late to the office b/c of a raging hangover is actually acceptable. The downside - policy only applies to men.
- Drinking Food (Anju) - Koreans take "drinking food" so seriously that they gave it its own word - ANJU. Bars commonly offer a menu of fries, tater tots, hot dogs in chili sauce, seafood pancake, and a myriad of other greasy delights to help take the edge off the caustic ulcer-inducing soju.
- Before-Drinking Food (Pojangmacha) and After-Drinking Food (Ramen House) - This is a quick rundown of the eating sequence during a typical night of drinking in Seoul: 1) Eat spicy rice cakes (dduk bokgi) and fish cakes (odeng) at a street vendor cart (pojangmacha) before the hitting the bars (HOF) for soju and 2) anju; then head to a 3) ramen house or kimbap house (i.e. - kim bap nara) for kim bap and ramen; then go out for "second round" (ee-cha) at another bar! I miss Korea...
- Titanic! - I'm not 100% positive that this was invented by Koreans, but regardless, Koreans are great at playing lethal drinking games. Titanic is one of them; everyone circles around a half-full mug of beer in which an empty shot glass floats atop. People take turns pouring soju into the shot glass and whoever sinks it has to toss back the entirety of the god awful mix. In all likelihood, one person will end up being the unlucky one who sinks it time after time until he/she finds himself face down in a gutter. Fun times!
- The Pour Policy - And for those rare nights when drinking games are not played, you can guarantee that good ol' Korean traditionalism will ensure that everyone gets properly shlitzed. I refer to the "pour-policy" which demands that whenever an older person at the table has cleared his/her drink, one of the younger people must pour him another glass. Also, whenever an older person tells you to drink, you have to do so. These nights generally end in someone puking on the steps of a karaoke bar..
I'm sure I will think of even more bullets to add to this list, but I wanted to address a remark that made me write up this list in the first place. A friend texted me a message after going to one of the ubiquitous Korean BBQ restaurants in the area, for Galbi (marinated beef short ribs). He wrote: "Korean food is not drunk food." But what he was referring to, specifically, was Galbi. This is true, expensive beef short ribs are NOT good 'drunk food'. However, even Koreans would agree with this point, which is why they reserve sub-par "anju" for drunk-food. In fact, I have to confess that during my whole stay in Korea, I had Galbi but ONCE. Galbi and Bulgogi are much more common in the US, where it is both more accessible and palatable to the American consumer. This is not to say that I don't love BBQ Beef; it's awesome! But to equate Korean food with BBQ is just plain inaccurate.
And as a general rule of thumb, cultures that have historically suffered prolonged oppression and poverty (Russia, China, Korea) know a thing or two about harsh liquor and cheap eats.
