China town is touristy and there are restaurants and hundreds of little shops to get lost in looking at furniture, toys, and trinkets off all sorts. Korea town on the other hand is a smattering of travel agencies a comic book shop a video rental store, and a ton of Mexican stores. We eventually found a BBQ to stop in for lunch, I have been having a craving for 삼겹살, it was a buffet of raw meat that you just get as much as you want and go back to your table to cook, cool. So I go get my pork and start cooking, well the fire is too hot and I make a bunch of blackened, char coaled rock pork.
The 아줌마 was nice enough but she was watching Korean t.v. and eating a cheeseburger, beans and chips. So she was a bit distracted, she sent a young Mexican girl in with a pair of scissors to cut up the meat, but it was too late at that point. So i really didn't get my 삼겹살, there were only a couple cooked side dishes on the buffet, the rice was really good, it was kinda like Chinese fried rice but it had a better mix and a totally different flavor. She didn't offer us any drinks, just gave us some water and disappeared.
So anyway I was getting all depressed about the whole experience and ready to just drive back home, then my wife spotted a book/gift store, we stopped and it was a really nice store well stocked with Korean books and alot of religious knick-knack type stuff that the wife likes so she found a few things to buy and I found a few levels of workbooks that I narrowed down to one.
Overall it wasn't a bad experience, I was just expecting something different. Korea town(in Chicago) is basically a location for Koreans to go to Korean owned/operated shops, to hang out and do business in their own language.
I didn't really get much of a chance to use any Korean, the shop owners were not really happy to see us. At one beauty shop the 아줌마 was hovering over us just staring and made us uncomfortable.
I am happy with my new workbook, and I bought a R. A. Heinlein book translated into Korean, he was a favorite S.F. writer of mine in Jr. and Sr. High.
Chalk it up to life experience.
but thanks for sharing your experience 
