K-Drama Food Pairings For Next Binge Session

A romantic ending to a great date

Viewers of Korean dramas should know that ramen comes with some sexy undertones. In Korea, “do you want to eat ramen” has the same romantic connotations as the American “would you like to come up for a nightcap.”

Ramen is so popular in Korean dramas, you’d have to search high and low to find a foodie drama that doesn’t feature a scene with the main characters slurping away. A sweetly romantic moment occurs in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim when the main character serves her boss ramen. Ramen also played a starring role in Academy Award-winning film Parasite, when the main character requested her housekeeper prepare “Ram-don” or a mashup between instant ramen and udon. Unbeknownst to American audiences, Ram-don, or jjapaguri, was a term made up just for the film.

“On moving day you eat Jajangmyeon”

For an extra special noodle treat, jajangmyeon (자장면) is often called Korea’s favorite “Chinese dish.” But this savory pork and beans noodle dish is uniquely Korean. Believed to have made its early appearance in the port city of Incheon, Jajangmyeon was introduced back in the 1900s when Chinese immigrants first came to Korea. The Korean version is covered with a rich but slightly sweet black, bean sauce (the jajang) and then usually topped with diced pork and mixed vegetables, although variations are common. Despite its dark, earthy appearance, jajang is distinctly different from the more garlicky black bean sauce served in China. Its ubiquitous popularity makes Jajangmyeon popular choice for feeding moving-day volunteers, similar to pizza in the U.S.. Although it appears in dozens of Korean dramas, it is highlighted as a moving day treat in Season One, Episode Four of the popular Let’s Eat series.

Rice and spice in a Korean stew

While there are plenty of ways to serve and enjoy the tasty little tteok rice cakes, the most famous is tteokbokki (떡볶이), a rich stew cooked in gochujang. It is a little sweet and a little spicy and comes with plenty of vegetables to soak up all the intense flavors. In the stew, the tteok is usually shaped into a rolled log shape and the mild cake soaks up the accompanying gochujang sauce producing a satisfying mouthful of flavor..

This dish is featured in nearly every single Korean program that showcases Korea’s food scene. In 2021, there was even a drama named after the dish, The Oppa of Tteokbokki House (the Men of Tteokbokki house), which ran for eight episodes. The dish might be best memorialized in Season One, Episode Four of Let’s Eat, which has a very sensual (think When Harry Met Sally) version of the lead character enjoying the dish to the max.

Korean rice, three ways

In Korea, if you learn three simple syllables, bap, juk and tteok, you’ll never go hungry.

Bap, or cooked rice, can be served steamed or it can be mixed with grains and beans. It can be fried (bokkum-bap) or even kimchi fried (kimchi bokkum-bap). It can even be served mixed with other ingredients (bibimbap). Rice can also be boiled into a porridge-style dish known as juk. The most popular porridge is dak-juk (chicken rice porridge), but you can add almost any meat or topping to supplement the experience.

Finally, there’s tteok or tok. This hearty rice cake is somewhat similar to Japanese mochi, although mochi is usually made from glutinous rice and tteok is not. For newcomers to Korean food, tteok is probably best known as the base of the hearty tteokbokki (see next entry) stew, but it is also a staple during special celebrations like Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).

To watch Korea’s favorite rice dish shine, enjoy a sweet moment in the taekwondo drama, Fight For My Way when the main character serves kimchi fried rice with a ketchup heart painted on top to show her feelings.

Seventy years later, steamy budaejjigae is still going strong.

The only-in-Korea Budaejjigae (부대찌개) stew has been a highly sought-after meal for more than 70 years. Also known as Army Base Stew, Budaejjiggae first gained popularity at the end of the Korean War. During that time, when resources were scarce, many households would incorporate surplus items from Army bases into their traditional spicy noodle creations. Ingredients vary significantly but usually include some form of American processed food, such as Spam, hot dogs, canned beans and even American cheese slices. The American military base in Uiejongbu is largely credited as the source of Budajigae, and today the city of Uijeongu even has a Budaejjigae Street, featuring more than 20 vendors serving Army Base Stew. Let’s Eat has turned eating Budaejjigae into a full-on sensory experience.

A guide to Korean Guk, Tang and Jjigae

Here are a few more simple Korean words that will help expand your dining options. Guk is essentially a brothy soup that usually results from cooking simple ingredients for long enough for the broth to pick up their flavors. Guk soups generally consist of a brothy base and are generally, but not always less, less spicy than other Korean fare. Among the best-known dish is kalguksu, a knife-cut noodle soup.

Tang, also a broth-based soup, tends to be cooked for a longer time. Among the more famous is Seolleongtang (설렁탕) or ox bone stew. Seolleongtang is made by boiling beef parts like the head, marrow, or other scraps and the result is a distinctive milky white broth that is said to be good for your health. As Korean dishes go, this has a surprisingly mild flavor but it can always be augmented tableside, with toppings like coarse salt and pepper, green onions and kkakdugi (깍두기) radish kimchi. Another incredibly popular tang is samgyetang, a brothy soup made by boiling a whole, small chicken (often a cornish game hen) inside. Made with glutinous rice stuffed in the chicken as well as ginseng, garlic and jujubes, the dish is packed with healthy ingredients and considered the ideal dish to build health and stamina. It has become especially popular since it appeared in the Korean drama Descendants of the Sun. It is said that ginseng sales nearly tripled in Korea after the male lead prepared Samgyetang for his romantic interest.

If you’re ready to expand your vocabulary even more you’ll also want to learn the word jjigae which tends to be a thicker-consistency stew. Probably the best known is the ubiquitous kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew), which quite literally consists of kimchi boiled with tofu with other ingredients added in.