In South Korea the local delicacy is a seemingly innocuous looking picked cabbage called Kimchi.
Taken with almost every meal Koreans encourage Westerners who visit their country to sample it and then sit back and smirk as the potent combination of garlic, pepper and chillies deliver an experience that's perhaps best described as the culinary equivalent of bungee jumping.
For a group of UK technology journalists visiting South Korea and consumer electronics company LG this week, the results of the country's commitment to its other major obsession - technology can sometimes be just as difficult to swallow.
For it is hard to have a conversation with a Korean about any kind of device or innovation without feeling that the UK is a little inferior. And this is in spite of the fact that South Korea is still reeling from an economic downturn.
I discovered quite how wide the technological breach between the two countries is while sharing a lunch with LG's head of investor relations, Anthony Moon.
Wishing to avoid the full force of the Kimchi sitting ominously in front of me I began to quiz him about Korean's technological revolution. Did most Koreans have access to broadband?
"Of course. For most Korean homes broadband speeds of 3Mbps is more than sufficient. Yet the option is there if want faster connections. You can have 50Mbps for 50 bucks a month. Is it the same price in the UK?" he replied.
"Err about the same," I replied, managing to avoid letting on that the same fifty bucks buys internet speeds fifty times slower at 512kbps. Hoping to land on safer territory I nudged the conversation on to mobile phones.
"A British network called 02 has just launched a music download service via mobile phones. They say it is the first in the world," I told him with more than just a hint of patriotic pride in my voice.
"Is it like this?" he countered, pulling out a tiny clamshell mobile and then firing up a page where a selection of recent Korean pop hits were waiting to be downloaded. About thirty seconds later one of the tracks had arrived on his mobile.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that in 02's service tracks took seven or eight times as long to download and weren't actually stored on the phone but a separate music player.
Thinking that the fast download speed of the phone had to be provided by a 3G network I told him about our very 3G service, Three, and how it was among the first of its kind to launch.
"Oh no this is not 3G," he replied. "That launches next year. This is just standard CDMA [the local mobile standard which, incidentally, is completely incompatible with even the most advanced European GSM handsets]. It has download speeds of around 400kbps."
My heart sank as I realised that was even faster than Three's 3G network. There was nothing left for me to do but acknowledge defeat and load up my fork with Kimchi.
My sense of national pride took further dents when I got back to the hotel. Looking for a connection for my laptop I was offered a wired network with mega fast speeds of around 100Mbps, or not just one but whole array of free wireless networks. This really was becoming a bit of a joke.
The difference between the two countries was also apparent in the line up of phones LG is set to launch next year. For while many of the ten or so handsets heading for the UK are highly specified, they simply can't compete - in terms of design or functionality - with the handsets aimed at the local market.
The one that gets closest is the company's first 3G phone, the U8100. It has all the functionality of 3G phones, including the option of making video calls, yet is a tiny clamshell model that LG proudly claims is the smallest 3G phone in the world.
Three, whose range of handsets are often pilloried for being on the chunky side, would score a major coup if it could get the phone in the stores before other networks snap it up for their 3G launches later in 2004.
LG's other top-end phone, the G7200, also looks like a winner. Due in spring the handset features the same clamshell design and rotating display of the company's current phone, the G7100. Yet LG has improved the screen (it boasts 262k colours - a leap on from the current standard of 56K) added video capture, download and playback and thrown in AAC music playing software.
The other phones range from budget candy bar style handsets to a smartphone that uses the Symbian operating system that's also found on the Sony Ericsson P900 and Nokia 6600.
Also being groomed for a UK launch is a huge 52inch LCD projection TV that features both a digital terrestrial TV decoder and a 80Gigabyte hard disk for storing recorded programmes. A small MP3 player with 512MB of storage (enough for over ten hours of music) should arrive in the spring.
A new version of the company's infamous internet fridge is also on the cards. Expect a feature that e-mails you to let you know when Kimchi is at its most potent to be one of its main features...
-- Ashley Norris was one of a party of journalists taken to South Korea as guests of LG.
