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The Korean Food Diary Takeover 🇰🇷

The best place to start dealing with all I have eaten in about 10 days at the 38th parallel

K-Pop stars: Red Velvet

Welcome to Secret Breakfast / The best place to start dealing with all I have eaten in about 10 days at the 38th parallel, where napa cabbage rules, chicken gets fried, and dead molluscs still move at the rhythm of your favorite K-pop band

Hi there!
안녕하세요!

I spent a couple of weeks in Korea, and I was torn between the idea of sharing everything food-related I've seen (and eaten) and the absolute certainty that I had not have enough time to get to the core of that incredible place and people.

So what?

I decided to mix things up. A lot.

This is an issue where everything Korean happens everywhere, almost all at once—a cultural multiverse following the most iconic K-wave codes and trends we all know.

Things will be hot like the fried chicken at Kyochon 1991 (★recipe), or weird like cutting your noodles with a pair of scissors. Things will be fried and sweet like a honey and seeds hotteok pancake (★recipe), or unreal and cruel like an octopus sliced and still moving on your plate (be careful with the video).

I've warned you!

Piero

PS: I really could use some feedback about this issue, because 1) I wouldn't want to have fallen into some stereotype; 2) it's a very different issue from the previous ones and if something's wrong (or right!), I'd like to know.

Meet **TOASTIE** (**토스티**), Secret Breakfast Korean-Style's new mascot. Isn't she cute? She's 5 years old and holding a key because she's keeping a secret. Her favorite accessory is a limited edition backpack made of Danish salted butter. Her arch-enemy is every single hideous jam jar with a lid that's impossible to open when you're late for work.

Things you have to know about South Korea before we start

This one is clearly AI, but I'd say: rabbit!

51.8 million people packed into a territory roughly the size of Iceland (357k people)
Divided country since 1953 - South Korea is roughly half of the Korean Peninsula
4 distinct seasons with monsoon summers and freezing winters
From war-torn nation to tech powerhouse in just 70 years
Home to Samsung, LG, Hyundai - and the global K-pop phenomenon
South Korea's map is said to look like a rabbit or tiger. You'll be the judge of that.

Let's roll.

Seoul's Quest for Connection: Four Ingredients, Countless Bonds

The first ingredient is pronounced geimhwa. It's written 게임화. It's what we call "gamification", alas, the application of game mechanics - like points, levels, and rewards - to non-game activities to increase engagement and motivation.

The second one is pronounced deokjil. It's written 덕질. It's what we call "fandom decorating", namely the practice of personalizing everyday objects like bags and backpacks and Crocs with K-pop idol merchandise - or photocards, pins, kawaii keychains and stickers - to express fan identity and create social connections in real life.

Then we have han (written 한), the complex emotion of deep sorrow, regret, and unfulfilled dreams, historically rooted in Korea's tumultuous past with invasions, colonial rule, wars, and division. In this country, even traditional recipes carry collective memory and pain.

Finally, there's jeong (정), the deep emotional bond and affection that binds relationships. In food, the way sharing meals creates lasting connections between people.

In Seoul, the populace appeared to me as a delicate texture, a tapestry woven from these four defining threads.

Across this peculiar fabric, images emerged: women and men meticulously guarding their skin from the sun, their belongings festooned with countless keychains and charms. They find refuge in the innocent world of super-cute cartoons and plush figures, wear matching outfits, reside in small, standardized condominiums, and forge connections with friends in intimate cafes, all while striving to overcome urban solitude, fierce competition, and the insidious impostor syndrome that a deeply meritocratic society instills.

Everything happens all at once, while the eyes of the girls and boys are pointing to their smartphones, looking for the next thread, the newest shop event (a gamified chance to get some prize), tomorrow's talk of the town. No, better: tomorrow's DM of the KakaoTalk.

Seoul - I noted in a moment of superficial and guilty idiocy - is a kind of totalitarian playground for adults kept in a state of eternal adolescence by social media. But I was harsh and wrong.

ㅆㅆㅆ

Connection struck me as the ultimate key to understanding this country. It's a dual reality: the constant, sprawling connection this human swarm maintains via the Social Graph, juxtaposed with the human-physical connection they desperately seek with real people. This yearning is for moments where they can truly escape public rankings, the pervasive fear of judgment, and the cruelty of forced interactions.

Take this. In Korea, it is customary to pour drinks for others rather than yourself, especially when in a group setting. This act is a sign of respect and shows consideration for those you are with.

We can view this in two distinct ways. First: It's a charming display of romance, politeness, and class. Second: It's the frustrating experience of having water at your fingertips, yet being forced into a perpetual state of dependence, waiting for another to pour it for you (ok, gotcha: I'm an Aries).

ㅆㅆㅆ

Nevertheless, in no other country have I more profoundly appreciated the joy of sharing a simple meal at the table. Banchan, the array of small side dishes accompanying rice in a typical Korean meal, effortlessly fills every available space, bringing a vibrant kaleidoscope of color and variety.

They make your taste buds feel alive throughout the meal.

Often, they are fermented foods like kimchi (★recipe), or pickled like the super yellow danmuji (★recipe). Here you feel the heritage coming from the past of this country, where women and men learned a way to keep vegetables alive through the seasons. Using time and salt as magical ingredients to make things taste better.

While in Italy we typically focus on a single plate, in Seoul, you experience a dynamic 180-degree engagement, your chopsticks dancing as you meet the gaze of your table companions. It's connection, again.

It's the kind of connection no app will ever give you. A crack in the digitalized reality that will make your heart beat at the rhythm of your new, shared memories.

*Banchan*. Photo by Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash

✹Charlotte Cho, The Little Book of Skin Care: Korean Beauty Secrets for Healthy, Glowing Skin. Korea is still the world's capital of skincare, but they still fry a lot.

Ordinary acts of defiance

When Yeong-hye decides to stop eating meat, her simple act of refusal becomes a violent confrontation with a society that demands women's submission. Han Kang's devastating novel strips away the veneer of civilized life to expose the brutality lurking beneath domestic routine, transforming a woman's quiet rebellion into a haunting meditation on autonomy, madness, and the price of refusing to be consumed. Winner of the International Booker Prize, The Vegetarian matters because it shows how the most ordinary acts of defiance can reveal the most extraordinary truths about power, gender, and the human capacity for both cruelty and transcendence.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
→ Shortplot: 🥬 🌶️ 🐷 🔥