There are a few culinary customs that come up a lot in Kdramas. Maybe the most famous one is seaweed soup, which is traditionally eaten on your birthday. You may remember that Park Shin Hye bought some seaweed soup or miyeok guk for Jang Geun Suk in "You're Beautiful." But he couldn't eat it since he was allergic to sesame oil.
In "I Hear Your Voice," Kim Hae Sook made killer Jung Woong In some seaweed soup for his birthday. Occasionally a character will pretend that a person made them seaweed soup because they like people to think someone cares about them.
The Korean tradition of eating seaweed soup on your birthday is supposed to remind a person of the day they were born. Traditionally, the soup is given to new mothers as their first meal after the delivery. The soup contains wakame or edible seaweed, which is high in calcium and iodine. Both are good nutrients for nursing mothers and will be passed on to the newborn.
There's a scene in "Two Weeks" when man on the run Lee Jun Ki helps a woman deliver her baby and although he is in danger stays he long enough to make her seaweed soup. It shows what a nice guy he is under his tough guy swagger.
Since it's the first food mothers traditionally eat after childbirth, eating it on your birthday reminds you to honor your mother for all she has done.
And then there's hangover soup, which you see in almost every drama in which people drink soju, which is almost every drama. There are several varieties and they work so well because the protein-rich broth re-hydrates you and is easier on the stomach than a fatty breakfast such as eggs. The pork-based variety is called haejangguk and its one of the most popular. There's a potato soup variety called gamjatang with the same broth. Beef-based seolleongtang has a milky both, while beefy yukgaejang is spicy and meaty.
But kdrama customs are not just limited to soup.
In kdramas when someone gets out of prison they are often given tofu. In "The Master's Sun" Gong Hyo Jin encourages So Ji Sub to eat some tofu after their unfortunate night in jail. In the drama "Dream" the troubled delinquent played by Kim Bum gets out of prison and encounters someone selling tofu. That's a good thing because no one cared enough to bring him some.
What's that about, you may wonder?
Giving tofu after a prison sentence is symbolic. Tofu is white and the color symbolizes purity, a fresh new start. And tofu cannot be changed back into the soybeans it is made from so it represents a resolve not to return to previous bad behavior.
It's also a good nutritious source of protein to make up for what must at one time have been a poor prison diet.
If you have any other suggestions for Understanding Kdrama topics, let us know.
