Cycle 15 – Item 190

13 (Sat) July 2024

(Hej) Hotdog

1.0

from Sibylla

at The Hill Café

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

solo

The Hill Café is a coffee shop.  Offers hot and cold drinks, made to order, as well ice cream and various cakes by the slice.  The only retail establishment within Wirye The Hill apartment complex.

Peeked inside after we’d moved in but never bothered going back – seem to recall that they used to sell only prepackaged products geared towards kids, like chips and juice boxes (it’s next door to the indoor kiddie playground).

Sibylla is a Swedish fast food chain.  Specializes in various forms of sausage, served as hotdogs in buns, as well as burgers, kebabs, and other items.  Founded in 1932.

The website notes that the brand expanded into Korea in 2017, but otherwise offers no information on who the local parters are, or where branches can be found.  The Korean website is merely a translation of the Swedish site.

While the staff confirmed that the hotdogs were imported from Sweden, the condiments appear to be totally Korean, in kind (honey mustard + ketchup + sweet pickle relish), in quantity (way too much), in style (that silly zig-zag squirting that Koreans seem to think makes food looks fancy – even dumber, the condiments were squirted over and onto the buns, which I had to wipe off with a paper napkin so that I could eat the thing without getting my hands messy).  The hotdogs on the Swedish website are shown with zero condiments.

It wasn’t good.  As noted above, the condiments were terrible.  The sausage tasted artificial, suspiciously Korean in flavor and texture, certainly nothing like a beefy American one (see for example 15.182 Top).  Too bad, because I would’ve really appreciated having access to a decent hotdog – from Sweden! – within walking distance of home.

(See also KSCX)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)