This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Western visitors to Korea and Japan might agree to love the sites, but there might be less of a consensus on the food. Live octopus and red bean paste make the Western palette recoil, but wait! What’s that tucked between the goat cafe and that eatery offering fermented fish guts. Can it be a Pizza Hut? It can. But before you say extra cheese please know this, pizza like other fast foods here has been adapted to suit local tastes. The name might be familiar but the ingredients, not so much. The Idaho special pizza has everything from potatoes to spaghetti piled on top, and the mayo potato pizza from Dominos comes topped with potatoes, sausage, and corn all drippled with a sauce made out of mayonnaise. Can you say this is so not comfort food?

With thanks to Paula Li for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.