South Korea's Costco Has Us Ready To Pack Our Bags

Americans love Costco, and for good reason; in what other single store can you get a TV, a mega-pack of toilet paper, and enough frozen waffles to build an accurate-to-scale replica of a 19th-century Bavarian castle? But one of the biggest reasons we love Costco isn't even the bulk goods, it's the surprisingly good food. From pizza to BBQ brisket sandwiches to the company's signature hot dog deal, not even IKEA can compete with Costco's food court.

But that food isn't the same everywhere you go. International fast food chains like McDonald's and KFC often cater to their local audiences, and Costco is no different. One of those countries is South Korea, where to say the brand has gotten creative would be a wild understatement. South Korean Costco customers can get foods that would both baffle and delight (assuming they were willing to try them) the average American consumer.

South Korean Costcos don't lack American staples — the hot dog deal exists there, as well. But the selection beyond that, as documented via Business Insider, gets wild in the best way. There's a blueberry yogurt smoothie, which seems like such an obvious choice that it's baffling it's not present in American stores. There's a fried pork cutlet, and it's hard to see how that could go wrong. The sea snail porridge may be a little much for a lot of American taste buds, but it seems interesting for the more adventurous among us.

But it's the beef bulgogi bake that might be the most intriguing. Costco's chicken bake is one of their signature American items — basically a fried tube of dough filled with chicken, bacon, and cheese. Converting that concept to beef bulgogi is a natural progression and something that sounds absolutely fantastic.

Costco's rise to food prominence dates back longer than you might expect. True, it feels like it's been around as long as Costco has — but it actually dates back to the early 1980s when the chain's food court began with just hot dogs and soda. Pizza emerged on the menu in 1986, and things slowly grew from there. It can't be overstated how successful it's been, either; in addition to the hot dog deal everyone enjoys, Costco is one of the largest pizza chains in the United States (#14 overall).

Korean food, meanwhile, has seen a meteoric international rise in the last decade-plus, going from roughly 9,000 total overseas restaurants to over 33,000 from 2011 to 2017. America has been a huge part of that, as Korean food is now widely available pretty much everywhere. So will we ever see these South Korean dishes on American Costco menus? One can only hope.