Ewha Sarang in the corner of Ewha-POSCO Building, a cafeteria selling various kinds of kimbap, has been famous for its tuna mayonnaise kimbap for years. (Kimbap is a Korean dish made with rice and mostly vegetables.) Due to its popularity, it has come to a point where Ewha Sarang kimbap has become a tourist attraction at Ewha. However, for the past several months, the prevalent opinion has been that the kimbap has degraded in quality.
Students’ primary complaint is on regards of the amount of tuna in the kimbap. At 2,500 won, its tuna mayonnaise kimbap used to contain a generous amount of tuna, up to half of the total dish. Nowadays, however, it is difficult to find Ewha Sarang kimbap containing that amount of tuna. Instead, sometimes the kimbap contains more pickled radishes than tuna.
“I think the quality is the worst during lunchtime, when a lot of students wait in line and put pressure on Ewha Sarang to work quickly,” said a student who often uses Ewha Sarang. “I can understand that the kitchen staffs are busy, but I get disappointed when I’m given kimbap with little tuna after waiting for 30 minutes.”
In addition to the lack of tuna in the Ewha Sarang kimbap, there are many other concerns regarding the overall quality of the food. Some students complain that the kimbap is not rolled properly, so it breaks apart too easily whenever they try to pick it up. Others say that the price is high compared to its taste. Hence, there is no benefit in buying Ewha Sarang kimbap anymore.
“I have been eager to try out the Ewha Sarang kimbap since entering the school,” said Kim Da-hyun, a freshman majoring in History. “However, other kimbap at convenient stores are just as cheap and tasty. So, I don’t really see the reason behind the popularity of kimbap from Ewha Sarang.”
Concerning these complaints, the owner of Ewha Sarang shared that he’s not turning a deaf ear to them.
“Ewha Sarang has been making kimbap for 15 years now,” said Kang Mun-ju, the manager of Ewha Sarang. “Throughout the years, the price of tuna fish has gone up, so it is natural for the price and the amount of tuna to be different compared to those in the past.”
Kang mentioned that the motto of Ewha Sarang is to produce delicious food with fresh ingredients. Ewha Sarang makes sure to get rid of all the oil within the canned tuna to ensure a better flavor. During this process, the tuna is squeezed, decreasing the volume of tuna in kimbap. To the students this may look like less tuna, but the actual amount of tuna is larger than it looks.
Kang ended the interview by saying that Ewha Sarang is always open to the opinions of Ewha students.
“We will continuously listen to complaints of students and improve our service, as we consider the opinions of Ewha students as our first priority,” Kang said.
As for improvements, students suggest that Ewha Sarang put more effort in upgrading the quality and maintaining the hygiene.
“I was once given a kimbap without a perilla leaf that should have been there. I was upset because I was not given the service that I paid for,” said Ma Ji-hyun who majors in International Studies. “Another time, I received kimbap with someone’s hair in it, which stopped me completely from buying any kimbap from Ewha Sarang. I seriously wish they would improve their hygiene.”