<차원이 달라 병>에 대해서 : The "It's on Another Level" Syndrome

요새 SNS를 관통하고 있는 밈 중에 "차원이 달라"라는 표현으로 외국의 음식이 맛있다며 보여주는 컨텐츠들을 자주 볼 수 있다. 일본의 우동이나 카스테라, 터키의 케밥, 이탈리아의 젤라또 등등 우리나라에서도 종종 맛볼 수 있는 음식들이 현지에 가서 먹으니 훨씬 맛이 있다는 뜻에서 국내에서 먹는 것과는 '차원이 다른' 맛이라는 이야기다. 사실 서울의 어느 백화점에 나가더라도 세계 각국의 음식을 찾기 어렵지 않다. 하지만 그 나라의 특유의 분위기, 여행하는 즐거운 기분, 함께 하는 사람과의 나눔 등으로 오감이 깨어나 생기는 현상이 아닐까 생각해본다. 
 

Have you ever noticed that people often come back from a trip and say things like, "그 음식은 차원이 달라 : The food there was on another level"? In Korea, this has even become a popular joke. We sometimes tease people by saying they have "the 'It's on Another Level' syndrome : 차원이 달라 병 " The idea is simple: someone travels abroad, eats a familiar dish, and suddenly insists that it's nothing like what they can get back home. Of course, there are times when that's absolutely true. Local ingredients, traditional cooking methods, and regional recipes can make a real difference. But I don't think that's always the whole story.
 
Living in Seoul has made me wonder about this phenomenon. Seoul is one of the most international food cities in the world. You can find restaurants serving cuisine from almost every corner of the globe, along with countless global franchises. Whether it's American burgers, Italian pizza, Japanese ramen, Vietnamese pho, Turkish kebabs, or Mexican tacos, chances are you can enjoy a very authentic version without leaving the city. In fact, many international franchise restaurants follow standardized recipes, so the taste is often remarkably consistent no matter which country you're in.
Yet people still return from overseas saying, "It's on another level."
 

Maybe We're Tasting the Trip, Not the Food

 
That made me ask myself a simple question: Is the food really that different, or is something else changing the way we experience it?
I think the answer lies in the experience rather than the food itself. When we travel, we're excited. We're relaxed. Everything around us is new—the streets, the architecture, the language, the weather, even the sounds and smells in the air. We spend the day exploring unfamiliar places with people we enjoy being with. By the time we sit down for a meal, our mood is already different from an ordinary day at home.
 
English actually has a perfect expression for this feeling: "It just hits different." Interestingly, this phrase doesn't necessarily mean something is objectively better. Instead, it means the entire experience makes it feel better. The same song, the same movie, or the same food can "hit different" depending on where you are and how you feel at that moment. Maybe that's exactly what's happening when we travel. Perhaps we're not just tasting the food. We're tasting the city, the atmosphere, the excitement, and the memories that come with it. Our brain combines all of those things into a single experience, making the meal seem far more memorable than it would have been at home.
So the next time someone tells me that a familiar burger or pizza overseas was "on another level," I probably won't argue. Instead, I'll simply smile and think, "Maybe it wasn't the food that was different. Maybe the trip was."
After all, some flavors belong not only to the food itself, but also to the moment in which we experience it.