#StreetFood
#TravelTheWorld
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#StreetFoodAdventure
#TravelTheWorld
#FoodTravel
#FoodieTravel
#StreetFoodAdventure
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Short filmTranscript
00:00In this video, I'll attempt to survive for 24 hours eating only what I can find inside a Korean
00:05PC bong. But wait, what is a PC bong? Well, a PC bong is basically an internet cafe. PC means
00:11computer and bong means room. And here in the city of Seoul, there are over 20,000 PC bongs to choose
00:17from. Today I'll be visiting two PC bongs. The first is very cheap, where you can stay for a
00:21full day for just $10. Then later we'll visit a much more expensive PC bong that could cost you
00:27up to $120 for a full day of gaming. All right, folks, our first PC bong is right behind me,
00:34a place known as PC9. On the outside sign here, they advertise three things. The first and most
00:39important for all the addicts here in Korea, game. With no game, no reason to come. After that,
00:44you need sustenance. Eventually you will get hungry, you will starve, and you will perish.
00:48Therefore, number two, food. Three, you need to be able to email your wife and kids every few days to
00:53let them know you're alive. So online, also very important. Here to use a computer, it costs only
00:57$1 per hour. What about the food situation? Well, we're going to go inside and find out.
01:03Right here is something that you're going to find at any of these PC bongs. First of all,
01:06hydration, water, coffee for energy. Then right here we have the snack center. Things that will last
01:11a long, long time. Unlike your relationship, the longer you're playing video games. Now here is the
01:16food and kitchen area. I'm kind of amazed because you don't usually go to a place like this and find
01:21meat hanging out in a cooler. So I'm pretty sure you can actually order delicious roasted meats to
01:26your computer. That's amazing. Beyond that, as I peek inside of the kitchen, I can see they have a
01:31bit of an oven here. Over here they have a ramen section, and down there they have induction ovens for
01:35cooking the ramen. Not on the ground, right there. Beyond that, we have a soda fountain machine here with
01:42Mountain Dew, Pepsi, and a soda I've never heard of before. Tams. Nice. So far, the food selection looks
01:50promising, but there's a problem. You actually don't come up here to order. You're supposed to
01:54be ordering from your computer. All right folks, I am at my PC. I am ready to be entertained. First
02:01of all, they have stuff you can watch. Netflix, YouTube, Disney+. The best part though is when
02:05you're hungry, you just pull over this menu here. Right here are all the different items available
02:10here for you to consume. They have the prices, and they have an online ordering system so that when
02:14you order here, the kitchen gets notified, and you don't have to be interrupted from whatever
02:18you're doing. These are the more simple items they have here. Everything from churros. They have
02:22duck bokeh with cheese, fried chicken, chicken skin. We have mandu or dumplings. Right here is what this
02:28PC bump is really known for. This is barbecued meats. I'm going to build up to this. First, I want
02:33to start with what we see on this page. Right here, we appear to have a cheese corn dog. Am I going to
02:38order a cheese corn dog? Absolutely. Right here, we have chicken. This is Wang Galbi chicken. So it's
02:43king short rib chicken. Let's try some of that. I think we should try this too. This is a cheese
02:49donkasu dokboki. Donkasu is like a fried pork or chicken cutlet. And then at the base, we have
02:55the classic Korean pounded rice cake. Let's get that too. This is how they get you. To come here
02:59and use this computer, it costs about $1 per hour, but look how much I'm spending on food already.
03:04$17,500. It's a steep price, but listen, me as a gamer, I have to keep myself fed. I have to stay
03:10sharp. As the kitchen prepares my order, let's get a better look at this PC bong.
03:15These are the gaming consoles. These are the centers where you come and where you pay $1 per
03:20hour to jack yourself into the video game system. In a moment, I'm going to be speaking to a PC
03:31bong expert, a Korean who understands who is coming here, why they're coming here, and what is the big
03:36draw between Koreans and these internet cafes. But first, let's check out our first food course and
03:41try it out.
03:45All right, folks, course one has arrived, and I got to say, I'm going to be eating a lot better
03:48than I thought today. Let me take you back to 2008 when I moved to Korea. And at that time,
03:53when you went to a PC bong, they had kimbap and they had cup noodles. That was it. Now,
03:58they've got meat, melted cheeses. First of all, this is a cheesy dog. It's so much ketchup.
04:04That's nice. Wash it down with a little bit of the sweet nectar from the gods.
04:17Go, Zero.
04:20Oh, what the hell? I found a wiener. I was not expecting that, but that is delicious. From here,
04:25let's get into this tray right here. First of all, this is fried chicken. It has wang galbi sauce. This
04:30is a sauce that would most commonly be put on beef, but here, they're putting it on chicken.
04:34Oh my God, it makes me want to keep gaming. How do I jump over this? Wow, all this gaming is making
04:43me hungry for another bite. This is very spicy. It's very sweet, but it has a delicious kind of
04:49tang that would work perfectly with beef, but then your mind goes, wait, but this is chicken. And
04:53that's the fun of Korea. This is the donkasu. This is a fried pork cutlet. The pork has been
04:58flattened out. The best part is it's been filled with cheese. Oh, there it is. That's nice. Then
05:03on the bottom beneath the pork cutlet, we have duck bokeh bathing in the gochujang sauce. Let's give
05:08it a shot. It's fried. It's crunchy. It's porky. And then there's cheese. The best part is they
05:18don't bring you any napkins. Like why am I supposed to wipe this off? No, no, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
05:23here this is the rice cake itself that's good all right so that is course number one but i want to
05:34build up to something even more substantial right after doing some more gaming oh i love gaming oh
05:39there we go how come i could pick a black guy or a white guy but no korean guy seriously what's
05:43going on here all right that's enough gaming what's unique about this place is their barbecue
05:47offerings right here this is the pork belly one of those prized parts of the pork pig i mean pig
05:53so i think we should get one of those right here they have something called moksal moksal is like
05:57the pork neck it's a very delicious cut of pork i'm gonna get that too listen some people like gaming
06:02this is my gaming if i came here in real life i would just come here and i would win the high score
06:06for high calorie count of the day here we have nakji bokumbap like a octopus fried rice i think we'll
06:12go with that so that is my order it is surprisingly expensive 29 000 so from here i'm gonna head to
06:17the kitchen and see how they make this in a pc bomb let's go this is the owner of this establishment
06:22right here the owner's name is john jean sir i cannot believe that in this tiny kitchen he's
06:28making everything you see on that menu like more than 30 different options it's amazing right here
06:32we have the sam gibbs hall or the pork belly i need to stop pointing at my own belly when i say pork
06:36belly step one he dials in the perfect dose down to the gram just like my friend who used to also deal
06:42drug uh meat meat meat dealer next the pork neck joins the pork belly then all of it heads to the air
06:49fryer as the owner it's going to be very difficult to hire somebody to replace you here you have to
06:54understand computers and you have to understand about 30 different menu items beyond that i mean
06:58they're probably having technical problems all the time so he's kind of a half tech guy half chef guy
07:02when the meat is done he adds a bit more spice then plates each meat separately
07:06now aside from the octopus rice i ordered a different type of rice it is white rice with an egg that also
07:13has soy sauce and butter it's something i've never tried in korea that's become a bit trendy lately so
07:18let's give it a shot first two eggs are cracked into a container with oil then a little bit of
07:23soy sauce is added for flavoring before it's handed off to chef mike i do admire this man as a chef
07:28because the food quality or the organization you don't find this at some restaurant this is what
07:33you'll find at a lot of nice restaurants and the idea here is that the food should be laid out the
07:37same every time this is a way of creating consistency for your menu items and he's doing it here at a pc bar
07:43jimmy thank you for joining me
07:47no problem on your channel you go to these different internet cafes and people are really
07:52interested in this yes why do you think people are so interested in learning about different types of
07:57internet cafes i think it's just that a lot of people have fond memories about going to internet
08:01cafes especially when they're younger in many countries it's not as popular as it used to be
08:06just because a lot of us can't afford to have a pc at home now what are the type of people
08:09coming to a place like this i want to say a lot of young people as a group they like to play video
08:15games side by side because that makes it more fun i also heard that recently a lot of people that are
08:20not very well off would just spend the whole day in a pc bank because you know it's only like a dollar
08:25hourly and their food is cheap so it's like one way to have a full day of entertainment with low budget
08:31so what do you think about the food they're serving here and how is it similar or different from other
08:34pc bongs today you could find something like this fried rice or just plain white rice
08:39and other pc bongs too but this proper korean barbecue now i haven't seen that before come
08:44take a look we've got pork belly right here we have the pork neck and they both look delicious i think
08:49we should build up to the pork but first let's talk about this is this a dish you've seen before in
08:53korea i have not should we give it a shot let's do this cheers
08:56it is good it almost tastes a little bit like caramel for a second there's something great about the rich
09:04butter and then that very savory salty soy sauce i love it so right here we have like a octopus rice
09:11yes certainly they're very intelligent too yes these octopuses are so amazing they're so smart they can
09:17solve simple problems and also even more amazingly they can be chopped into little pieces and be put
09:22into rice cheers here we got that spicy gochujong i have the sense the flavor of octopus but i've not chewed any actual octopus
09:32there's a little teeny bit of a piece of him oh there he is fried rice in a bag microwave that's what that is
09:38meanwhile this was cooked on site this was cooked in an air fryer and i'm thinking this could maybe be the future of
09:43barbecue in korea they don't do the charcoal each table has an air fryer they dump the pork in and this is what comes out
09:50technology let's start with the pork belly oh take a look at that little guy right there let's take a
09:55moment and just appreciate where we are we are in a giant computer internet cafe and we're about to
10:00eat delicious korean barbecue cheers that's really good crispy there's nice kind of crunchy fried bits
10:07there's a good chewy texture to it it naturally has some delicious flavor of it so without any sauce i like it
10:12i personally would like it to be grilled on a pan just because more oil means more flavor i do think
10:20it's a great way to cook inside an internet cafe just because it doesn't smell bad let me try this
10:25one with the sauce now that's called samjang which is a mix of soybean paste and gochujang sauce
10:30actually i take back what i said about air frying it it is really good it's really good let's try this
10:39pork neck
10:39that's good what do you think a little dry it's a healthier option out of the two
10:47i also like that you hit these both with a little bit of seasoning so even though it's nice to have
10:51the sauce here you kind of don't need it i thought today i was destined just to see sad people playing
10:56sad video games eating sad food so far only two of those things are true but the food is excellent but
11:00here's the thing this is our first of two locations this is our cheapest location but from here we're
11:05going to go to a very expensive location what does that look like and how is the food going to be
11:09different from this let's go find out we have arrived at our final and most expensive pc bong of the day
11:13a place known as base camp if you look at the sign it says base camp but just beneath it it says pc
11:18cafe console goods and snack they have one snack better be a good one at our last location it costs
11:23about one dollar per hour but here if you rent their biggest private room it costs over 12 times
11:29that price we're talking a staggering 12.88 cents per hour so is it possible that this place is 12 times
11:35better and what about the food we're gonna head inside now to find out all right folks we are
11:39descending away from the sunlight and into the darkness of the basement now as far as i understand
11:44this is a pc bong owned by an e-sports team here in korea koreans they're really good at shooting in
11:49the olympics and they're really good at computer games shooting in real life not so good unless
11:54it's in la and there's some riots all right let's head down base camp wow this place it already feels
12:00better lit it feels more modern but i doubt they have pork in an air fryer oh wow look at these hot
12:07dudes these are the e-sports elite of south korea look at these guys young agile handsome
12:13are these different people
12:16so first of all this place is well lit and it is gigantic compared to the last place we went that
12:25was a dungeon yes a delicious dungeon but here i mean take a look at this as you walk in right here
12:31there's a huge projector screen showing some of the games available here i would say one big difference
12:36between the last place and this one is that was all pc but here you can play pc or you can play
12:40console games too there's xbox ps5 and there's nintendo switch as well oh right here it looks like
12:47we have the caffeine bar here you can double down on your red bulls you can get some lattes you can get
12:52espresso shots anything you need to keep the focus maybe they even sell a little bit of adderall
12:58they don't inside here you can actually see where some e-sports teams compete here computer parts all
13:04of this stuff uh fans cooling systems lights it looks very cool i know a little bit more about food
13:13than computers can you tell walking around here i would say there's got to be 100 to maybe 200
13:18different places to sit down and play now if you want to save money you can grab a pc out here with
13:22everybody else like these guys but if you want the vip treatment you're gonna go inside of here
13:27this is the room that costs an astounding a staggering 12.88 cents per hour it has a couch
13:35it has two computers it has a large curvy flat screen tv it has the height and air filtering technology
13:42that's some nice air and listen you have seen the gamers typical diet so far today you need one of
13:49these filters if you're gonna survive hanging out with five other gamers in a room like this talking
13:53about farts people this right here the fart killer the fart destroyer the fart annihilator
13:59so listen i can't wait to jump in i'm a huge gamer i love games i love solitaire for example so i'm
14:06gonna fire this baby up i'm gonna see what kind of games they have and then 10 seconds after that i'm
14:11gonna check out their food menu 12 seconds later already i can notice that this pc is much more sleek
14:17modern and fast also it comes pre-loaded with my favorite game called menu so here are all the
14:22different levels i'm gonna start with this level right here and then there's like okay listen i'm
14:26just fat this is the same exact ordering system as a last location what's fun about this place is that
14:31since it's sponsored by a professional esports team you can look at the foods and you can see
14:36which of the members like which of the foods now is it true i don't know it's marketing they're trying
14:41to make a buck i get it so just like our last location we're gonna start small and build up to
14:45something much more substantial on this page there are a ton of fried foods they have french
14:49fries they have fried chicken they have waffles wait hold on a second they have fried chicken
14:55they have waffles i think they have chicken and waffles right here mini waffle order two right here
15:00chicken tender four piece yes i'm pretty sure i just invented korean chicken and waffles nice i think
15:07to go with that i want something sweet this is something you don't see every day it's a loaded french
15:12fry but it's honey butter french fries let's give it a shot for our last fun snack i found something
15:17i've never seen before in korea this is a type of dumpling it says cone cheese fried mandu so we have
15:23our order here i want to send it to the kitchen and i'm gonna go to the kitchen to see if it will let
15:27us get a glimpse of the magic behind the counter all right folks we have round one right here at the
15:35most expensive pc bottle we could find in seoul and this spread looks amazing now i am right now
15:40watching one of my favorite gamers this is uh baker staring right at me oh there he is hey oh he's
15:47gotta keep playing this game but we were chatting all right i'm gonna keep eating what now let's talk
15:53about this food this is cone cheese fried dumpling how cheesy is it let's try to rip it open and find
15:59out okay there's cheese but uh there's other stuff in there too
16:04it tastes like processed cheese and onion it's very heavy it tastes a little chemically it's okay
16:12bigger bro the cone cheese not my fave know what i'm saying no no keep gaming keep keep doing the game
16:22moving on to our next course this right here is the honey butter french fries is it possible that
16:28they mixed honey butter and cheese together and that it's good let's find out
16:32it's okay french fries they're hot they're a little bit crispy but that sauce is confusing this is a
16:41cheese sauce that's having an identity crisis it doesn't know if it's cheese it doesn't know if
16:45it's honey it doesn't know if it's butter a few years ago honey butter chips they were all the rage in
16:51korea and then they tried to honey butter everything and here they went a little bit too far
16:55so this is an okay start but this right here looks much more promising those are korean chicken and
17:00waffles baby so here's my move they take these little waffle bites right here already covered in
17:04syrup the next move from here is to break up the chicken strips oh that is looking good if i own an
17:10establishment like this with over 200 expensive computers the last thing i would do is give people
17:15bowls of syrup this is wildly dangerous the keyboard is right there all right be careful dear god
17:21hold my hand steady as i pour this syrup oh there we go that is nice from here we've got that syrup
17:27in there but we want to get a little bit of chicken a little bit of waffle we're going to toss it back
17:30in one delicious bite let's go for it
17:32that's a big win oh dude oh nice this is faker when he's focused as heck look at his eyes and you
17:43can see his heart beating through his neck a little bit that kind of focus that's like me when i was
17:47looking at the menu earlier pure determination what's great about this is the chicken strip is
17:52nice and tender and juicy you combine that with a nice carby waffle it's already sweet because it's
17:57soaked in syrup but then we put even more syrup on top
17:59it's delicious but this is just our appetizer right now i'm going to step out i'm going to meet jimmy
18:08again and he's going to tell me a little bit more about the pc bong culture but after that we're going
18:13to be ending with the biggest most substantial meal that you could find at any pc bong in all
18:17of seoul south korea let's do it we've upgraded from a very entry-level pc bong to like the top
18:23level pc bong when you look around what are the big differences that you notice i noticed that there
18:27are a lot more pcs here apparently they have 234 pcs here oh wow all the gears like the mouse and the
18:33keyboard their headset these are very reputable brands also the pc bong itself is owned by
18:38the most popular esport team in korea t1 well let's talk about esports it's my understanding
18:44that these esports team members usually men these are really like the sex symbols of korea is that
18:51right they might as well be the most popular athletes in korea playing league of legends right now is like
18:58something that a lot of kids want to do when they grow up like the team member of t1 faker he's literally
19:03the most popular athlete in korea right now i was literally just hanging out with him while i was
19:07eating faker yeah yeah yeah faker so what is the dream for young people who see these gamers who
19:17are doing this full-time as a job and not just doing it as a job but making millions of dollars
19:22it's got to be a very attractive thing like me as a boy i wanted to become a professional gamer too
19:27to be able to play video games do that all day be good at it and become popular become famous make a
19:33ton of money that's a dreamlike scenario when i started out today i did not think i would be seeing
19:37a feast like this before my eyes in a pc bomb let's get into it this right here is a classic
19:42of korea the combination of pounded rice cakes and sausages
19:46it's all about the combo crunchy rice cake and a snappy dog in there beyond that this is so over
19:56sauced can i ask you something take a look at this there's a nice sweet chili sauce on here but in
20:01general folks in korea they way over sauced everything why this is not very flattering towards
20:05my country but using a lot of sauce it's one way to complement a food that is not very tasty
20:13all right brutal but that said i do like this food even without the sauce moving on we have a couple of
20:17other foods here this is bulgogi with egg this is not the type of food i would expect to find at a
20:21place like this a food that you're gonna find at a higher end pc bomb it's meat it's marinated it's
20:27sweet it's delicious right it requires a kitchen to make this juicy fatty super thinly sliced beef and
20:36then the signature bulgogi sauce which is always a mix of sweet and savory it's kind of like korea's
20:41answer to japanese teriyaki absolutely like this is just good beef with soy sauce a touch of onion
20:50sounded like he was gonna say a third thing now that makes me feel more patriotic
20:54nice perfect so in a moment we're going to try these noodles but first i want to ask you one
20:58more question about these korean pc box tragically i'm told that this part of korean culture is
21:04it's disappearing and that in the future there's going to be fewer and fewer pc box why is that well
21:08there's many reasons to that i think the first reason is because a lot of us koreans we have pcs at
21:14home we have internet we don't have to come here now it is nice to come here every now and then with
21:18friends and have food it's just not the most efficient way to play video games it has become really
21:22difficult to operate a pc bank just on running those pc's which is why they started selling food
21:27items right here this is some kind of a cream noodle on the top here it essentially looks like a dry
21:32noodle and then you can see all that cream down below and then a smattering of beef throughout
21:37meanwhile you have your comfort food usually a black bean noodle in korea that would be like a
21:42jajangmyeon is that what that's based off of it is so it's like the instant noodle version of it ah
21:47i set out on a mission today to survive 24 hours in korea eating only in pc bombs and can i tell you
21:53i've not just been surviving i've been thriving and when i say thriving i mean gaining weight and spiking
21:58my sodium levels that said i think we should give each of these a shot i'm gonna go first oh my god
22:02there's so many calories go for it that might have been too big of a bite surprisingly spicy i thought this
22:12was gonna be something like a carbonara biting onto it oh it's full of green chilies it's instant
22:17noodles but they've been jazzed up a bit and you get a little bit of beef flavor in there too for me
22:21if this was pass fail this is definitely a pass what about you yeah it's been sitting there for
22:24some time like to grab mine with some cheese and a piece of egg be honest this is exactly how i would
22:36make it at home but with an extra touch the egg the cheese i typically wouldn't do that at home so
22:41there's a nice addition now it is better because we can have this while we're playing video games here
22:46just in terms of the food itself is this something that's gonna blow me away not really it's just
22:51consistently decently good and you know what that is a good slogan for the food at any pc bong consistently
22:57decent all right guys so that is me eating no it's just cheese sticks that's from me off camera
23:01okay listen i'm just fat all right guys so that is me surviving on korean pc bong food for 24 hours i
23:08did it i was successful but i only was able to do it through my help of my new friend here jimmy you
23:12can find jimmy on his youtube channel called jimmy kim go give him a follow and you can go check out
23:17his videos as he documents pc bongs or internet cafes and otherwise jimmy thank you so much thank you
23:23before we go i want to say a huge thank you to my friend and local guide joe thanks joe thank you man
23:28joe was instrumental in helping us find all of these locations for this video he is a guide he
23:32puts on food tours and custom tours too so if you're interested in doing a tour with my friend
23:36joe you can find his information downstairs in the description box
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