President Trump sat for a lunch in South Korea this week that paired local delicacies with some not-so-delicate plates: beef patties with ketchup and salad with Thousand Island dressing.
That was just the last stop on his Asia tour. Lunch in Malaysia on Sunday centered on U.S. Angus beef sandwiches. Lunch in Japan with its new prime minister on Tuesday featured American rice, instead of the local variety that is the country’s pride.
The menus reflected the culinary acrobatics that Mr. Trump’s host countries performed this week. They showcased local cuisine while making sure that his peculiar tastes and America First agenda were met, paving the way for what they hoped were successful trade negotiations.
Mr. Trump’s culinary preferences are well documented. He is a lover of fast food, well-done steaks and dishes familiar to Americans like Caesar salads, spaghetti and fries. He also shuns coffee, tea and alcohol.
The lunch he shared with President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea and business leaders on Wednesday was summed up by Mr. Lee’s office as “fusion Korean cuisine featuring regional specialties from across the nation and tailored to President Trump’s preferences.”
The White House picked up on the gesture, calling the Thousand Island dressing, tossed with South Korean shrimps, scallops and abalone, “a nod to Trump’s New York roots.” It appeared to be his preferred dressing. He also had the condiment, which hails from near the border between New York and Ontario, the night before in Tokyo at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence.
After the salad came braised short ribs made with U.S. beef, accompanied by Korean ingredients like kimchi, local rice, a root vegetable called deodeok and various types of jang, or traditional fermented pastes.
Then there were beef patties with ketchup, which Mr. Lee’s office noted was “a favorite food of President Trump.” It added that the dessert was citrus with brownies decorated “with the color of gold that President Trump favors.”
Edward Lee, the Korean American chef who prepared the dinner that night, created a special meal with Korean black chicken, halibut, caviar and pine mushrooms sourced from various parts of South Korea. Beef and rice from Gyeongju, the site of the APEC summit, plus lobster, a Trump favorite, were included.
Dinner was accompanied by chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon from Eric Trump’s winery, the South Korean presidential office said.
Mr. Lee, whose global popularity stems in part from Netflix’s “Culinary Class Wars,” described preparing that meal as a balancing act: showing Korean food in both its traditional and fusion form.
But part of the acrobatics was to satisfy Mr. Trump, said Vivian Han, a menu developer in Seoul who prepared the state dinner for him and President Moon Jae-in in 2017.
“This is a powerful man and an America First president,” she said. “It seems the world is concerned about how to accommodate him.”
Some food experts said they would have preferred to see more Korean ingredients at Wednesday’s lunch. “K-food is so hot globally right now, everyone’s dying to try it, and he came all the way here,” said Julia Ha, a food and beverage consultant in Seoul.
Park Hyo Nam, a chef and culinary professor in South Korea who had prepared a lunch for President Barack Obama and President Lee Myung-bak in 2010, echoed the sentiment. But he added that the chefs were probably working with tight constraints.
For diplomatic meals, menus are carefully orchestrated by protocol teams from both sides, he said. Sometimes, instructions could be so specific that the head chef has no decision-making power over the menu, he said.
Overall, Mr. Park said, using ingredients of the guest’s home country and catering to the leader’s palate were only to be expected.
“It helps create an atmosphere of being treated with care,” he said. “It makes you feel that a lot of thought went into it.”
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Gyeongju, South Korea, and Zunaira Saieed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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