How do you say "Quesadilla" in Italian?

I had one of those "only in Korea" moments tonight.... I went out with a friend to celebrate her birthday. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Seoul. Everything I've ever had there has been delicious. Given this track record, I decided to try the quesadilla .

You have to understand -- Mexican food is nearly impossible to come by in Korea, and the recently opened Taco Bell is considered to be among the best available... I had low expectations going into this meal, but I had faith in this particular restaurant. Besides, I figured the worst case scenario, I'd get a flour tortilla shell with some chicken and cheddar cheese melted together. Oh how wrong I was....

It looked really promising at first! The tortilla shell was a lovely golden brown. It smelled pretty good, and I could see some green peppers peeking out. Given past experiences with Mexican food in Korea, I knew that it would be a fatal mistake to take a bite without opening the tortilla to look inside. I almost couldn't believe it when I first looked.

There was chicken that had been marinaded in something to make it quite dark. The first bite confirmed that it was in fact a balsamic vinegar marinade. There were vast quantities of red onions and green peppers, which I was ok with. But there were also vast quantities of garlic cloves and shredded cabbage, which is not something I typically associate with Mexican cuisine. But the kicker to this balsamic-garlic-cabbage quesadilla was the cheese. In my worst case scenario, I'd envisioned cheap cheddar cheese. What I was faced with was both terrifying and puzzling. There was ricotta cheese in my quesadilla. Ricotta cheese doesn't really melt well, it certainly isn't Mexican, and it is ridiculously expensive in Korea. I have no clue what it was doing in my dinner that was masquerading as a quesadilla, but there it was.

It wasn't bad, per se.... But it definitely wasn't terribly delicious. The mix of flavors and textures was just off... I will say it is definitely the most creative take on Mexican I've ever seen, and perhaps also the most Italian... At one point, it occurred to me that this was probably the kind of dish you'd watch someone make on the Food Network, think sounded interesting, but never actually want to make at home.

At least now I know for sure -- if I want Mexican food in Seoul, I'm going to have to try to make it myself.