Hamburger and Bossam

The most and at the same time the least familiar thing in a foreign country may be food. I had already had many American fast food even before I came to America and there was nothing new about American fast food to me when I got in Chicago. But ironically as a foreigner these foods still don't make me feel comfortable whenever I try it. One fast food meal may be O.K., but more than that will be a disaster for my stomack. One of them is hamburger. Strangely we Koreans eat burger-like stuff called bossam. At a first glance hamburger and bossam don't look different, but in fact they are quite different and I will let you know how hamburger and bossam are similar and different and why Koreans do like bossam so much. First, these two foods share many common things. Instead of bread, we Koreans eat rice. To make a hamberger, you put vegetables and meat between the bread, but for bossam we wrap meat, rice and some sauce in lettuce or other vegetables. So the total kinds of ingrients are similar and you can expect somewhat similar taste from both. Secondly, however, hamburger and bossam are quite different. Hamburger uses a fried meat pad but bossam, a boiled meat in marinated water. And we use hot redpepper sauce called kochujang. It is really hot. Furthermore many people like to add some garlics. So bossam can be much hotter and many eastern Asians or some central American like Mexicans will love bossam. Finally, hamburger sometimes is called a junk food because it has too much calory but has little good nutrients. On the other hand, bossam is called a kind of well-being food. First the meat is boiled and it has very low level of colestrole. And people will have various kinds of vegetables and herbs at the same time. So it is really good for many people and it is healthy. So we have got many reasons to try and know each other's food for fun and for health in this melting-pot society.