The way food is prominently featured in kdramas can make you hungry and if you don't live in Korea, you may crave food that is not found in your supermarket.
What are some of these classic kdishes?
There's Hangover Soup, which a kind character often prepares for a friend when they spent the previous night downing soju. Hangover soup or haejangguk consists of dried Napa cabbage and vegetables in a hearty beef broth, which contains ox blood.
And then there is kimchi. If you want to make a kdrama character happy, show up with a few months' supply of kimchi, which is fermented cabbage, coated with a mixture of pepper flakes, garlic, chives, onions and pear juice.
In the drama "Boys Over Flowers," Goo Jun Pyo has fun helping Geum Jan Di's family make kimchi. In "Flower Boy Ramen Shop," Yang Eun Bi has a kimchi-making party and winds up getting a kimchi kiss as Cha Chi Soo tastes the pepper paste on her cheeks. In "Mary Stayed Out All Night," Mary obligingly makes kimchi for her boyfriend's mom. Homemade kimchi also serves as a good excuse for a character's mother or prospective mother-in-law to drop in unannounced. In this situation, kimchi is not so welcome.
Another ever-present dish is Jjajangmyun, a black bean noodle dish. The Chinese style noodles are coated with a thick mixture of black beans and onions in a soybean paste. The dish is served with pickled radish. In the first episode of "Coffee Prince," Go Eun Chan eats plates of Jjajangmyun. Warning, this is not the best food to eat on a date, as it can be messy. The same goes for ddeokbokki, the spicy rice cakes that kdrama characters eat from street stalls.
Everyone in dramas seems to eat ramen whether it is instant or homemade. In "Flower Boy Ramen Shop," the difference between the two serves as a metaphor for living a real life and an artificial one. To make a quick version of ramen, cook the noodles in broth, drop in the egg, careful not to break it and then top with diced green onions and kimchi. Eat it right out of the pot or off the lid.
Seaweed soup is a kdrama staple that people eat on their birthdays. Made with seaweed, sesame oil, soy sauce, stock and garlic, its served up in "Reply 1997," "49 days" and "You're Beautiful." In the latter Jang Geun Suk's character refuses to eat any because he is allergic to sesame oil.
Braised pigs feet or jokbal form an important plot point in "I Do, I Do" when one character arranges to teach another how to properly prepare jokbal to satisfy his pregnant girlfriend's cravings. Jokbal is cooked in red peppers and then grilled.
Hungry yet? You may have to cook up some of these dishes. And then you may want to end your meal with one of Kim Sam Soon's lovely spun sugar cakes.
