Me Cook? No, You Cook!
America-themed restaurant’s name riles some foreign Korean-language speakers
By Matt Van Volkenburg and Jon Dunbar
Years ago, I saw a birthday party ruined in spectacular fashion. An American friend, an advanced Korean language learner, was chatting with two Korean women who began ridiculing his pronunciation, repeating to each other “Mikuk” (not “Miguk,” which means American) several times. My friend became angry at them and the party ended early.
So it came as a surprise to find a restaurant chain with three locations in Seoul serving Western food, or fusion versions of it, under the same word, Romanized by them as “Me Cook.” With branches in Daehangno, Gangnam, and Gwangmyeong: “Me Cook” features Western-looking food, Americana on the walls, and signs boasting it is “Better than America.”
The sign makes one wonder if the restaurant is just overconfident or if it could even possibly be anti-American. As it turns out, there is more than first meets the eye to the name.
There’s a lot to parse in this image of the storefront:
-Obviously, that “Better than America” sign.
-The Korean name itself, and why it seemingly misspells the Korean name for America.
-The Chinese character “Me” (used to represent America among other uses) followed by “COOK”.
-The Statue of Liberty frill on the logo.
-The not-so-American blue-and-white color scheme.
Jon: There has always been a bit of naughty transgressiveness among foreigners in words with the Korean character “guk” meaning “nation,” as evidenced on the website waygook.org. Teasing Americans for their pronunciation, emphasizing the hard beginning consonant as “cook” instead of “guk,” seems a bit of a misfire, considering it is a racial slur used against Asians and in that context it is not mispronounced.
Matt: I tend to think the “Me” COOK sign with the Chinese character leads the viewer away from the negative interpretation of the name “mikuk.” If it was intentionally designed to mock foreign pronunciation of Korean words, it could be a means to ward off possible complaints by claiming it is simply a play on words that replaces “guk” with “cook,” and that it is just a bit of cleverness by the restaurant. It would certainly fall in line with episodes we have seen in the past where Korean TV programs featuring performers with faces painted black have been explained away as a “misunderstanding.” The “Better than America” sign could lead one to lean toward a negative interpretation. The incorporation of the Statue of Liberty Crown motif was pretty clever as a design choice, I thought.
The four sets on the left did not have prices listed, and they were not cheap. The dishes on the right were generally reasonably priced.
Jon: The food does not exactly scream Americana.
Matt: It is more “Western food” in general, but then “America” and “the West” are sometimes conflated in Korea.
We decided the best way to proceed was to go the Daehangno branch for the full restaurant experience. As neither of us is American, we invited an American friend who does not know much Korean, and a Korean friend.
Jon: Our arrival was a curious moment. When we walked in, the guy we interacted with seemed very apprehensive of our presence. At first I thought he might be refusing service, or that he was screaming inside his head, “The jig is up!” He told us there was a long wait time, so we ordered our food and sat in seats right at the front entrance. When I went upstairs to use the washroom, a girl working up there looked at me with the same kind of nervousness. But I proceeded as if nothing was unusual.
Matt: I tend to think it was just they assumed we couldn’t speak Korean. One possible reason for such apprehension was the self-serve aspect of the restaurant and the two-floor set-up of the Daehangno branch. At times when it is not so busy, you have to go to the second floor, grab a seat, go back downstairs, order, go back upstairs and wait for food, get up and bring your food, cutlery, side dishes, and drinks to your table, and then return the tray when you’re finished. All of this might seem daunting to explain in a foreign language.
Sitting by the front door was pleasant, as we got to see all the flames in the kitchen. Our American friend grabbed a Coors Light and seemed right at home.
Jon: Note the pictures on the wall behind Paul. It seems like they really like the Statue of Liberty imagery for some reason. Curious what their motivation is for the “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” message on the same wall.
Matt: At the same time, as is well known from the nonsensical t-shirts you encounter on the street at warmer times of year, English is often just there for decoration rather than being used to convey any meaning. A bit like people with tattoos featuring Chinese characters _ these people might not even know what the characters mean.
Jon: My bacon steak was a little more obviously grasping at local ingredients. The “bacon steak” was basically samgyeopsal, and if it were billed as ham rather than steak it would have made more sense. With a little modification, this also could easily have been easily served as breakfast food. It was fine. Note the plate design under the food.
Matt: My bread bowl tasted good, but it would have been nicer if they had scooped out a bit more bread and given me a bit more clam chowder.
Jon: What did you think that dish of cinnamon syrup, or whatever it was, was for?
Matt: From what I saw on a food blog, it seemed to go with your “breakfast-y” plate. Perhaps it was meant to go with the bacon?
Two more examples of the Statue of Liberty imagery: one on the beeper, another on this special offers sign on each table showing a chubby Statue of Liberty holding a soft drink or beer.
Jon: The chubby Statue of Liberty is both suggestive of negative stereotypical traits and kind of adorable.
Matt: The chubby Statue of Liberty gripping what looks like a beer and holding aloft a steak on a fork rather than the torch seems to epitomize the restaurant’s style, which I tend to see it as being a bit cheeky, featuring several plays on words in its name, one of which may be poking fun at Americans’ pronunciation of Korean in a wink-wink nudge-nudge sort of way. Is this something to be offended by? I don’t really think so.
Our Korean friend showed up late, and Jon had the following phone conversation with him:
Jon: We’re at Me Cook Shikdang.
Him: Ah, Miguk Shikdang? (correcting Jon’s supposed mispronunciation).
Jon: No, Me Cook. Cook.
The clientele there was young, with quite a lot of people considering it was winter vacation for university students. It must be a popular place.
Our Korean friend had the Hawaiian chop steak rice.
As we left, the same staff that seemed apprehensive when we arrived gave us a sincere farewell.
Jon: I thought this place was mildly entertaining, but not seriously committed to anything too racy to be truly anti-American. I wouldn’t call the food fusion, so much as a bizarro-world re-creation of American cuisine. It was certainly creative.
Matt: There was a lot of rather generalized Americana on the walls (vintage posters, license plates, signs reading “Las Vegas” or “My Way”), while the food names were peppered with American locations (Hawaiian chop steak rice, Arizona Quesadeya, New Orleans Seafood Jumbo). We didn’t try any of those dishes so it’s hard to know if they were authentic or whether they were closer to the fusion “Cajun chicken salads” one finds in Western-style bars and restaurants across the country. All said, it may project lots of American images but it doesn’t seem to claim authenticity _ and “better than America” may just be championing fusion food. And there’s nothing wrong with that, considering the role fusion has played in the development of many North American dishes.
Our vegetarian American friend had the macaroni and cheese, scooping out the bacon bits.
We contacted our American friend about this, and he reacted this way:
Jacob: Nothing quite sucks the air out of the room like having your pronunciation belittled. When an adult makes fun of the fact that someone speaks with a different cadence or pronounces a certain letter too strongly, it stings all the more because it feels petty. A vicious cycle is easily produced with bad attitudes. People are quick to quit when they feel immediately rebuffed in their efforts. Just as how a single bad experience at a restaurant is often enough to make a customer never return, the same is true for foreign language efforts.
It appears this “Me Cook” pronunciation specifically frustrates American learners of Korean language, with more-advanced learners suffering even greater “Me Cook” fatigue.
Is this a typical fusion restaurant with a bit of a cheeky Americana-influenced theme, or does the imagery and name reflect more critical or mocking attitudes toward Americans? We leave it to the reader to decide.