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Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
South Korea
Aired May 03, 2015 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST: All I'm going to say is, Bill O'Riley, if you like to experience a report from a real combat zone, you can come over any day in New York. You can get your ass kicked by a 59-year-old man. That will be danger zone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(SINGING)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): So we begin at the end.
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: After a wild week in Seoul, there was, I believe, something called social involvement. There were many strange and delightful things to eat. Things might have spun slightly out of control.
I took a walk through this beautiful world, felt the cool rain on my shoulder, found something good in this beautiful world I felt the rain getting colder.
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The biggest difference between Korean fried chicken and American fried chicken --
BOURDAIN (on camera): Chicken tonight.
I feel so clean. I've never felt so clean.
(SHOUTING)
(LAUGHTER)
(SHOUTING)
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next, we'll be performing a medially from flavor town. Who is everybody here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah, baby. BOURDAIN: Come to me, come to me. Powerful in a small girly way.
Is this what goes with food or is this food that goes with my triumphant return to Korea.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah.
BOURDAIN: IT should surprise no one that I'm in a happy place right now.
(voice-over): Maybe the best way to tell this story is to start at the end.
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: Like a dog returning to its own vomit, I keep flashing back to --was it last night? The night before? I smell fried chicken on my clothes so perhaps --
(on camera): Hello, Nari.
NARI: We meet again.
BOURDAIN: Am I glowing with health and pink, freshly scrubbed?
NARI: Yes. I was just going to say that you look like a better version of yourself. Why is that?
BOURDAIN: Because I've lost about eight pounds of dead skin.
(LAUGHTER)
NARI: Today, Koreans like the idea of optimal cleanness. We like to be the most clean possible.
BOURDAIN: I don't know. I'm OK frankly with soap and water frankly. And beer.
NARI: Yes.
Let me see if I can pour this properly for you. Yes, there you go.
Do you know about this?
BOURDAIN: No.
NARI: The Koreans have many eating traditions. If you have a very big production or a very big event that's important, you celebrate that in a proper way.
BOURDAIN: What are we celebrating?
NARI: We're celebrating the end of this Korea show. BOURDAIN: Oh, I thought you said something important.
(LAUGHTER)
NARI: This is important. This is the most important thing you've ever done.
BOURDAIN: OK, there's nothing involved with salt. I don't have to rub that into my raw, thick skin.
I'm a broken man.
(SINGING)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): I seem beneath the shame and a headache to be missing a few layers of skin, as if I've been rubbed somehow raw. I believe in clean, really, but this is beyond clean. This is sanded, stripped, filleted.
The beer is not helping. Well, maybe it is.
BOURDAIN (on camera): I think I've had enough.
The gleeful embrace of mixing whiskey, rice wine, beer, and it seems to tempt the fates.
Ooh.
NARI: Ooh.
BOURDAIN: Yes.
NARI: Let me ask you one more question.
BOURDAIN: Uh-huh.
NARI: What do you think about Han now after your trip?
[20:05:05] BOURDAIN: I'm brimming with Han. I mean, I could never actually have a Han because I'm not that Korean. This is a genetically cellular thing. I understand. But it's something I feel I can really relate to. I'm definitely -- revenge is a dish best served cold kind of guy. I'll take revenge any time I can get it actually.
(LAUGHTER)
I could eat some more chicken actually.
NARI: You eat a lot of chicken. You didn't eat all day, did you?
BOURDAIN: No, I did not love myself this morning.
NARI: But you felt better after your scrub down?
BOURDAIN: It was like punish the evil.
(MUSIC)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): This social contract, the confusion hierarchy of age before everything --
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: -- fades away. We are no longer Mr. Ha, Mr. Park, Mr. Noh, and Mr. Tony. We move as one, a band of bros through the night, the world our oyster.
(SINGING)
(SHOUTING)
(MUSIC)
BOURDAIN (on camera): I feel like a boy band.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: Johnny Cash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Johnny Cash?
BOURDAIN (voice-over): All I can say is thank god there was no karaoke.
(on camera): I must have blocked it out.
(voice-over): All roads lead to here. I knew that. No escape, only embrace. I am now, after an evening of cultural emersion, acutely aware of my role as big brother. My new friends looking at me to set an example.
(on camera): All right, guys. Let's party.
(SINGING)
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: Ah, soju.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice to meet you.
BOURDAIN: So correct me if I'm wrong here, it is dried squid, M&Ms, and mixing your alcohols?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: It seemed like a good idea back at the office. (SINGING)
BOURDAIN: Next, they'll be performing a medley from "Mama Mia." (SINGING)
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a low score. We only got 45.
BOURDAIN: Mouse? Mouse fish.
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony? (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: You got to go somewhere else. You got to go somewhere else.
(voice-over): Squid treats and M&Ms? Sure. Makes perfect sense. In fact, there were oysters somewhere along the route. But the tale that becomes increasingly worrying with our alcohol intake.
(on camera): Oysters, awesome. Nice. Competitive drinking and shellfish.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever played in Korean drinking games?
BOURDAIN: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, they have a lot of them. It keeps the energy up and keeps everyone kind of drinking.
BOURDAIN: Stop two.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We're going to play a little game first. Tony, we're going to let you start the festivities. You have to use a chop stick, hit everything forward, it's going to splash up.
BOURDAIN: What? A strike or a push?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A push.
(SHOUTING)
(APPLAUSE)
[20:10:22] BOURDAIN: They introduced a lot of games. We're not going to go through them all because it would take forever and we'd be really, really drunk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But this game is called the bottle cap game. We're going to pass this around in a circle and you're going to flick it as hard as you can.
(LAUGHTER)
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: No one wins or loses. We all get drunk. Very good.
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: That is brotastic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, this is chop sticking.
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: Don't play this game with engineers.
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: Oh, don't hurt the man. He's been hitting those oysters hard.
(LAUGHTER)
See you in flavor town.
(SHOUTING)
(LAUGHTER)
(SHOUTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty good.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's good. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: We got to go somewhere else.
Yeah, we're going. Let's hit the street, guys.
(voice-over): Well past soju bottle number nine, the idea that only an hour earlier we sat like gentlemen and had barbecue. A rapidly fading memory.
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony, how many bottles can you drink?
BOURDAIN: We'll see.
(SHOUTING) (voice-over): Yes, I remember now. Somewhere near the start of the evening, the moment little brother grabbed the reins of our soon-to-be careening chariot unfettered by the so-called good sense and the reality of work tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eat the egg. Eat the egg before it gets cooked too much.
BOURDAIN (on camera): That's good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good. You like the marinated one, right?
BOURDAIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(voice-over): This being Korea, beer is a must, as is apparently soju. I had forgotten that part.
(on camera): What seems to define Korea as I know it is it anticipates the future very, very well. This is a country that's famous for looking forward, looking into the future. Where does one go to see Korea's past, and are these guys sentimental about it at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
Younger brother.
BOURDAIN: Younger brother?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Younger brother.
BOURDAIN: All right, younger brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): My mission for purposes of television is to ingratiate myself with a total group of strangers, insinuate myself into their lives, observe what they call -- and please excuse my painful pronunciation -- (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). It's an expression combining the concepts of company and meal. In Korean business culture, this would be a regular thing. A one night corporate retreat, if you will, which is how I ended up at my appointment with the fates, a barbecue joint popular with the salary man.
(on camera): Who is everybody here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Noh, Noh.
BOURDAIN: Mr. Noh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name? BOURDAIN: Tony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony.
I think they like me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you drink soju?
BOURDAIN: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Here we go.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:53] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: This is Anthony Bourdain, CNN, good night. I'm being forced out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Good bye.
(voice-over): Notice the totally blessed-out happy look on my face. Observe the bowl with nothing left but fiery remnants.
Behold the magnificence that is budae jjigae.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN (on camera): Enough, enough. That's good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Geez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Oh, man. That's going to go straight to my hips.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, OK. Thank you.
BOURDAIN: This is a magical dish.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: So most people are not sentimental about their time in the military. Why do this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Everybody serves in the military, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's mandatory in Korea. BOURDAIN: All right. Well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Very happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want the recipe for this?
(LAUGHTER) BOURDAIN: I got the recipe now.
(voice-over): It's everything mama warned you about, and it's got it all, baby. And when the music is over, your life will have changed forever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
[20:20:14] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Kimchi. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK?
BOURDAIN: Yeah.
(voice-over): Dating back to famine years of the Korean War, scrounging and scavenging from American military bases, it is a classic example of necessity feeding the mother of deliciousness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Hot dogs, canned baked beans, Spam, instant noodles, put together with the every present goju jong (ph) and kimchi. It became an enduring and deeply loved classic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Baked beans.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Like I used to say to my first girlfriend, how could something so wrong be so right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: You got that right. (UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) OK.
BOURDAIN: No, no, no.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
BOURDAIN: Wow!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: I tell you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: I'm sorry about that.
(LAUGHTER)
Sorry, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Regrettable incident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Looks healthy.
Look at this thing. Look at the color alone. It's just --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: In go the noodles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Wow.
Yeah, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, baby.
BOURDAIN: Come to me, come to me, my love.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Little Spam in there.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: Good job, chef.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job.
BOURDAIN: Good chefs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: My pleasure. Any time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any time. BOURDAIN (voice-over): In a society reeling from conflict and deprivation, largely without meat or fresh ingredients, this was the gift of the G.I.
The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, but in many ways, it never ended. The country is split in half and in a constant state of alert. 120 miles to the north, a crazy dictator with an enormous standing army, a bad haircut, and a nuclear arsenal. This, we know.
But the war, in dividing a country and a culture also divided families, altered forever the Korean character.
Chef's Kin Berion's (ph) early experience working the mess hall during his mandatory military service led directly to super stardom. Now from this unassuming army surplus tent, he beams his cooking show live in more than 50,000 homes a day via something called the Internet. And he's not the only one. There's competition. Lots of it.
Broadcast eating, it's kind of a phenomena in Korea, which is how I suppose wound up in a tent on the outskirts of Seoul.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN (on camera): How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: Right here? All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
BOURDAIN: Classic indigenous ingredients.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no. Spam.
BOURDAIN: Oh, wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK?
BOURDAIN: Yeah. Excellent. All right.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:28:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(MUSIC)
BOURDAIN: It's a slaughter-fest. I've gotten the poor thing killed like 12 times already today, so I think I'm going to hang it up.
(MUSIC)
BOURDAIN: All right, I'm ready for some food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Korea, the food delivery system is really good.
BOURDAIN: Really good.
A whole bunch you can just order.
(CROSSTALK)
BOURDAIN: You can just order food while you're playing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Yeah.
BOURDAIN (voice-over): P.C. Bomb sounds like a male porn star. I know. But this one has a smoking lounge and a well-stocked snack bar. Energy drinks seems a popular order. But here in Seoul, given that there's an entire strata of professional gamers, more sustainable food is, from time to time, required. No problem. Anything you want right to your console.
(on camera): I'm sure this is an obvious question but, like real life, does it have any attraction?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real life?
BOURDAIN: Real life, you know, non-gaming world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People love it. Professional gamers, people love the professional gamers. They get a lot of fame for that.
BOURDAIN: Right.
Oh, man. Wow. This is too much. Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to get the sauce with the noodle.
BOURDAIN: Yep.
It's a black noodle. It should be all black.
Tasty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good?
BOURDAIN: That'll work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the games you can play while still eating. BOURDAIN: Yeah. Really, one handed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, you eat a little bit.
BOURDAIN: And play the game?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You eat a little bit and then play the game
BOURDAIN: The only game I've ever really gotten serious about and lived with a year -- I mean, I spent a lot of time, and it was GTA Vice City (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. And for my opinion, it is a little bit violent for me. That's my personal opinion.
[20:30:00] BOURDAIN: Look, there was a lot of bleeding out in this game. I mean --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's true.
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Over the mountain and through the woods to grandmother's house we go, blowing some shit up on the way. Was it right shift, left mouse click or the other way around?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (on camera): OK. I'm looking for the little guys with the red over them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: That doesn't look good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. You got killed.
BOURDAIN: Oh, geez. I'm re-spawning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, re-spawning.
You could target. You can pull long distance or short distance depending on where your target is.
BOURDAIN: I'm just learning how to move here.
Oh, poor Little Red Riding Hood. She's not good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BOURDAIN: If I'm shooting something, it's me.
(LAUGHTER)
Oh, no. Little Red Riding Hood, you're bleeding out again.
(SHOUTING)
Oops. Didn't make it.
I don't see any bad guys.
Are these friends?
Oops.
(voice-over): Back in the old days, before time itself, spending 17 hours a day at places like this was frowned upon by family. Now gaming has become a respected and often lucrative profession in Korea.
Simon has pretty much retired from gaming, per se. Instead, he makes a living advising rising stars in the industry.
(on camera): You do this for a living?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
BOURDAIN: How many hours a day?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The professional gamers, they spend all day playing this game. They wake up, play a game, practice. Have lunch, practice again, have dinner, and go to sleep.
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Today, the game is one of those multiplayer kill fests where mighty avatar boast a range of abilities, raining death on each other from remote consoles across the globe or just other there.
(on camera): There we go. This is all about love.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really cute. Little girl.
BOURDAIN: That's me? Oh, geez. Can we choose another avatar maybe? Something more killy?
I don't know if I'm going to strike fear into my enemies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah. It's done properly.
BOURDAIN: Powerful in a sort of small girly thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very amazing where, you know, little girl comes around the corner having a big fireball on your head.
BOURDAIN: Right. OK, well, I'll try to keep up with you for a few minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
Basically, press "W" for throwing and press right and left clicked together. Right key on the mouse and then the right "P" on the mouse --
BOURDAIN: To go forward is "W"?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-huh.
Yeah. "E" shift and left together.
BOURDAIN: Shift and then --
And press right and left clicked together. Right key on the mouse Left together, yeah. Then space, right click, left shift with left click together.
BOURDAIN: Brutal.
How long did it take you to figure out how to move around in this world?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 10 minutes.
BOURDAIN: 10 minutes, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): OK, me and Simon are going up against these kids and I'm expecting to pistol whip some bitches unless time has once again passed me by.
(SHOUTING)
BOURDAIN: The life of a professional video gamer is a concept that's not easy for me to grasp. These young nerdlingers are famous. They have TV shows where they compete and are making actual cash money. They have sponsors and super fans? They probably even get laid off this shit?
And that explains how Little Red Riding Hood ended up bleeding out on the cold, hard, virtual floor.
(on camera): Should we start the game?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, let's have a game.
BOURDAIN: Sure.
OK, where's our opponents?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(LAUGHTER)
[20:38:] BOURDAIN: What fire you have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't say anything about Wayne Newton. He's the man.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: He's early 90s west coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm an east coast guy.
BOURDAIN: I know.
(LAUGHTER)
I'm not entirely convinced that Korean food is healthy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you always been a food guy?
BOURDAIN: I think sometimes I've appropriated the Han. I'm very happy here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last one?
BOURDAIN: Yeah.
Is this drinks that goes with food or is this food that goes with drinks?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The culture is you have to have something that goes well with that drink.
BOURDAIN: We should probably be drinking that, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Have you had soju before?
BOURDAIN: Oh, yeah.
How often can you come to a place like this acceptably per week? Would you come every day after work?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once.
BOURDAIN: Like when someone slumps to the ground and goes to sleep, would that be OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wouldn't be, but I've seen it too many times.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: What's good to eat here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to recommend the soup of death. It's a soup, but the main ingredient in that is silk worms.
BOURDAIN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That OK?
BOURDAIN: Yeah, sure. Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice, huh?
BOURDAIN: Oh, yeah. (voice-over): Eating bugs, that is so last network.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you like the soup?
BOURDAIN (on camera): The soup is awesome. I'm going to go home and have benisans (ph) tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the old days, they didn't have the soup.
BOURDAIN: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. They just ordered it. They put in like just paper cups and just eat it like a hors' d'oeuvre BOURDAIN: I'm going to get the silk worm out of my soup and make me a sweater.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even Koreans don't eat this all the time, but I guess this country makes you feel like if you can't eat this, then you're not Korean.
BOURDAIN: What were you born?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was born in New York.
BOURDAIN: You were born in New York?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOURDAIN: And were there until --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until roughly 21. I grew up on the streets and grew up in New York City. It was automatically, you're a chink. Wait a minute, a chink, isn't that supposed to be Chinese? I'm Korean and that's where the whole number-one Korean comes from. Hey, I'm Koran and I'm proud to be Korean.
[20:40:25] BOURDAIN (voice-over): Mark is what's called (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), meaning Korean who has lived abroad. As things get brighter over here, more and more people are, like Mark, moving back home for the ever more numerous opportunities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I came here, it just felt right to me. I'm here. These are my peoples. This has what I've been missing. But I was considered not really Korean. I was considered an outsider in my own country. I had like this thing going on because I was like, OK, am I not Korean enough if I don't do this, if I don't drink this, if I don't eat this. But there was a sense of I want to learn this if that makes me feel more Korean.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Nice. Is this so hard to walk in and eat delicious food and get hammered in the street? Being Korean is pretty awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last one?
BOURDAIN: Yeah.
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Nighttime in Seoul and everywhere you go, it seems, food and drink.
This is what they call a (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). I guess it's kind of like a pub, if pubs could operate in the street. You can have drinks, and, well, I guess you could call it, pub food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're about to go eat something really, really good.
Welcome to Seoul. Let's do this.
BOURDAIN: My new friend, Mark, helped popularize Western-style hip- hop in Korea, an event that led me to eating silk worms in a tent.
(on camera): Hi. How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to meet you.
BOURDAIN: Good to meet you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for having me on.
BOURDAIN: Oh, man. So where are we?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:45:53] (SHOUTING)
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: Do I have the position correct?
Are you complaining about your hours?
(SHOUTING)
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN: Number-one selling liquor in the whole world.
(CROSSTALK)
BOURDAIN: Get many my mouth and stay there.
(LAUGHTER)
NARI: She's already dead.
BOURDAIN: Come on.
I'm getting this weird sense of deja vu.
(LAUGHTER)
I have been in a fish market in Seoul at some point?
(CROSSTALK)
BOURDAIN: Some previous life.
NARI: What should we toast to this time?
BOURDAIN: To a triumphant return to Korea.
(CROSSTALK)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): There's something I'm increasingly crazy about, that I've been craving, bon Chong (ph), the spicy, pickly, delicious snacks that accompany your meal in Korea.
(on camera): Ah, I miss this. This is, for me, one of the most exciting things about Korean foods is the Bon Chong (ph), yeah.
NARI: Doesn't that make you want to drink more soju?
BOURDAIN: Is that a hint or something?
(LAUGHTER)
NARI: Oh, no, no, no, no.
BOURDAIN: Oh, yeah, right.
NARI: I know the formality of it all.
BOURDAIN (voice-over): The appetizers, yes, I remember these guys.
(on camera): Ah, again.
NARI: Those are familiar.
BOURDAIN: Bringing back memories. Oh, here we go.
NARI: So this is spicy stew.
BOURDAIN: I need it to burn.
NARI: It has everything under the sun seafood wise. You can find crab, all kinds of fish.
BOURDAIN: Fishermen stews all over the world.
NARI: Exactly. This bowl for me, that's the perfect example of Koreans in general. We love being together in a space, huddled around a bubbling pot of something. BOURDAIN: What can I tell you? This is good.
You are failing your duties as a young assistant.
NARI: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. OK?
BOURDAIN: We don't have to drink it immediately, do we?
(LAUGHTER)
Face planting.
NARI: Koreans, they just want each other to drink as much as possible. Peer pressure drinking is kind of a big deal.
May I have another glass please? BOURDAIN (voice-over): Korean drinking etiquette 101, you never pour your own drink. Younger pours for the older and you never drink alone.
(on camera): How come all the Korean guys are so tormented? Like they're all carrying around an unseen weight.
NARI: Every single Korean person is born with this thing called Han, which is a deep sorrow and anger. It has nothing to do with your upbringing.
BOURDAIN: It's genetic?
NARI: Yeah. It's in our blood.
BOURDAIN (voice-over): Han, my favorite Korean word. It has many implied and specific meanings. But generally speaking, it is a mixture of endurance, yearning, sorrow, regret, bitterness, spite, hatred, and a grim determination to bide your time until revenge can at last be exacted.
(LAUGHTER)
NARI: Revenge is a very, very sweet tasting thing for Koreans because there's been so much wrong that's happened to us.
BOURDAIN (on camera): Right. What about little Timmy McMaster who is made fun of you in second grade for bringing Kimchi to school? He laughed at you and said it smelled like garbage. Is there vengeance coming their way?
NARI: My greatest vengeance would be that those people think about that time that they made fun of me. I want them to actually love Korean food now.
BOURDAIN: But doesn't sound anywhere close to personal suffering.
NARI: Well, that's my personal story. BOURDAIN: I was thinking more along the lines of electric nipple
clamps. And then I would drive over them. And not kill them, by the way. They slowly bled to death from thermal artery --
NARI: The reason that Koreans are able to just not wallow in that is because of this other emotion called Chung. It is a deep fondness that you have for your other Koreans. And people all focus on Han and I'm like, yeah, I know, like, Han, yes, yes, yes, it exists. No one is denying that. We all have it. But Chung, no one talks about that, and it's equally strong.
[20:50:21] BOURDAIN: OK. I believe you.
NARI: I don't think you believe me about this Chung thing.
BOURDAIN: No, I believe you. I like the whole idea of Han. I totally get that as an engine. I like that. I like that dark side. The fact that this word exists is sort of awesome because a negative emotion has been converted into a number of very, very, very positive developments.
NARI: Absolutely. Koreans are, you know, this amazing group of people that don't curse, and eat amazing food, and we like to drink and have fun.
BOURDAIN: Oh, stop sucking up.
(LAUGHTER)
So, to the Han.
NARI: We need to make a serious toast.
(CROSSTALK)
NARI: We're unique and we're amazing.
BOURDAIN: That describes me.
I'm not drinking this.
NARI: No, you don't have to drink it.
(LAUGHTER)
BOURDAIN (voice-over): My relentlessly cheerful friend and colleague, Nari. She loves Korea and all things Korean and wants nothing more than to make everybody love it as much as she does. That's why she brought me here to the Garak (ph) Fish Market where you find the kinds of casual joints that I love.
I will have, let me see, perhaps the fish.
(on camera): I want some enchana (ph). I want some spicy stuff and we'll start off by drinking some soju.
NARI: Yes.
BOURDAIN: I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu.
(LAUGHTER)
Like haven't we been at a fish market in Seoul or some place --
NARI: Walk down memory lane.
BOURDAIN: -- in some previous life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:41] BOURDAIN (voice-over): The past, the present, the future, in Korea, they all bleed together. If you're there for the whole ride, one explains the other. Drop in, in the middle, and it makes no sense at all.
Korean culture, as far as I can tell, is defined by the drive to succeed, a churning engine fueled by decades of Han, a remarkable ability and remarkable willingness to anticipate the future. It reaches back across time and binding Millennials and generations long since passed.
Last time I was here, I was working for some other network, the bacon channel or the competitive eating channel. What was that old show called? It was so long ago. Back then, I was dragged around in Nari Ki's (ph) tiny but powerful wake, as I recall. That was nearly a decade ago. Things have changed since then. I've changed. And I'm guessing Nari's changed, and Korea, Korea has certainly changed.
The Korean War ended more than half a century ago, but in some ways it's still going. The North and South have been on perpetual war footing ever since. It's a psychological and physical scar. Korea is literally split in half.
But that's not what this show is about. There aren't many comparisons to South Korea's stratospheric rise over the last decade. One of the poorest countries as recently as '60s, today, it claims one of the world's fastest growing economies.
The government has been extremely shrewd and forward thinking about selling the world all things Korean -- underwriting, encouraging, financing and supporting the export of intangibles, things like music, movies, TV show, food, the whole Korean sensibility. And the world is responding, learning to love what Koreans have always loved.
The heart of Korea is Seoul, capital city, a bustling metropolis, futuristic in look and character, population 25 million.
(on camera): Look at that. They have a selfie stick.
Everybody is taking pictures of their food. They feel right at home.
(voice-over): In October 2014, I went back to Korea. This is what I saw. (on camera): This makes me so happy. The kimchi. Make room for the
noodles. Oh, that's good.
It should be no surprise that I'm in a happy place now.
Oh, yeah.
First night back, right to the market. A bunch of unrecognizable but invariably and inevitably delicious food.
Good to be back, man. Good to be back.
(LAUGHTER)
(SINGING)
