Compare Korean Kal-guksu with Vietnamese Rice noodle
There are many kinds of noodles in the world. The noddles differ according to custom, and tradition, and climate. They are made by various methods, also they can have different taste and smell. Especially Vietnam and Korea are famous countries as particular noodles.
Vietnam is the largest rice country in the world because of the weather. Thus, they can grow it two times a year comparing with our country and have an abundance of rice. Naturally, they’ve used it cooking and it is “Rice noodle”. There are many kinds of rice noodle in Vietnam now and it could be over 100 ways. Likewise, Vietnamese like rice noodle quite well, and the rice noddle is the staple food for them. Therefore, the people who live there enjoy eating it frequently, and they eat it when they have a special event or they serve it while some guests are visiting their house. Just as, rice noodle is already generalized for Vietnamese.
On the contrary, Korean Kal-guksu (“Knife-cut noodle”) is made by wheat flour. Because people think rice is expensive grain and a valuable food for a long time, so people can’t use rice instead of wheat for noodle. Nevertheless, Vietnamese Rice noodle is very strange for Korean at first because Korean people know that noodle is just made of flour and rice is expensive food. For example, our parents used to eat noodle because they were so poor, likewise they couldn’t afford to buy rice. Thus, I’d like to explain how similarities and differences between Vietnamese Rice noodle and Korean Kal-guksu (“Knife-cut noodle”)
One of the most similarity is both kinds of hot soup. As it were, they need gravy made with various ingredients such as chicken, seaweed, meat or vegetables, etc. Just as, both these noodles are made hot soup. Even though, there are some cold noodles, but they are a few. Therefore, we think to enjoy and want to eat noodle like this during rainy or cold because it is kind of the hot soup. Also, there are some sauces, sometimes hot spice or sometimes sweat. If we want to eat spice noodles, we would put the very spicy hot pepper. We also eat some vegetables with these noodles. For example, we would like to eat Kim-chi with Kal-guksu and onions or bean sprouts with Rice noodle.
However, there are very big differences between Rice noodle and Kal-guksu. Although they are both noodles, but Vietnamese noodle is made of rice, and Korean noodle is made of flour. Moreover, Kal-guksu is boiled to put all vegetables in the boiling soup at the same time, but Rice noodle puts on some vegetables apart in each noodle. Also, between Rice noodle and Kal-guksu are on the contrary viscosity. As it were, Rice noodle easily cut off because of the low viscosity and Kal-guksu is exactly opposite. They also have differences of the digestion. We feel comfort when we eat Rice noodle because rice makes digestion fast and comfort contrast with wheat. Even though they are similarly as noodle, but Rice noodle is expensive more than Kal-guksu. There are different costs in Korea. Kal-guksu is normally 4,000 won or 5,000 won, however Rice noodle is over 8,000 won. Sometimes it is around 10,000 won. Nevertheless, many Korean young people enjoy eating the Rice noodle in these days because of refreshing taste. On the contrary, middle and senior age people tend to like traditional Kal-goksu better than Rice noodle because of deep and spicy taste.
Likewise, there are many kinds of noodles in the world such as China, Japan Thai, Italy, Mongolia, etc. However, customs of food can be different and influenced by whether and environment. Therefore, kinds of noodle, and taste, and spice differ every country. Among them I think the Vietnam Rice noodle and Korean Kal-guksu are the most popular in the world because they have a special quality yet.