1. Thai-style Vietnamese Noodles from ‘King The Land‘
King The Land tells of the unlikely love story between a hotelier (played by Im Yoon-ah) and a chaebol heir (played by Lee Jun-ho).
Released in June of 2023, the show currently only has 1 season under its belt, but it garnered a decent following with its impressive 80% Rotten Tomato score.
And we reckon the show is quite popular among Thai folks too considering the entirety of episode 10 was shot in Bangkok, and it featured many cultural sites, and a few culinary hotspots as well.
In this episode, the cast dined at a popular Vietnamese noodle joint called Khun Daeng Guay Jab Yuan and the team looked to be enjoying bowls of pho, topped with pork balls and poached egg.
Thai-style Vietnamese noodles vary slightly from the original pho – the broth tends to be thicker, and pork meat is used in place of the more traditional beef.
2. Gimbap from ‘The Glory‘
In this revenge drama, the protagonist Moon Dong-eun only eats rolls of kimbap throughout the show. She does so with no emotions on her face, almost as if she’s eating only as a means to fuel her mission for revenge.
In a way, The Glory shines light on kimbap as a dish no Koreans can live without; even if the person has no other motive in life but to seek revenge, kimbap remains the choice of food for sustenance.
The snack is typically made with cooked rice, rolled with dried seaweed on the outside, and vegetables, pickled radish, meats, and even cheese slices on the inside.
Packed with so much nutrition, it’s easy to see why the gimbap is all our protagonist needs.
3. Sandwich Stack from ‘Doona!‘
If you’re a fan of K Drama, Doona! should be a familiar title to you – it’s consistently ranked within the top-10 most-watched shows on Netflix since its release in October 2023.
Spoiler Alert: In episode 6, Jin Joo serves up a perfectly-stacked plate of sandwiches to her roommates before Doona unceremoniously emerges from Woon-joon’s room, to the shock of everyone. This is a major development in the story, so we’re not delving into it further; but let’s instead talk about that delicious-looking sandwich tower the actors were demolishing.
In the show, we could really only see pieces of lettuce sticking out of triangle-cut bread with no crust. No meats or sauce were visible but a good guess as to what those sandwiches were, it would be if we had a guess it would be an Inkigayo Sandwich – a mix of cabbage, scrambled eggs, and jam.
The version shown in the show could just very well be one that’s made with generous portions of lettuce instead while eggs and jam were very present.
4. Namsan Tonkatsu from ‘Moving’
Along the slanted slopes of Namsan Mountain, Seoul lives a smattering of tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) restaurants that have been around since the 90s.
While the Japanese dish has lost its lustre in Korea in recent times, the joints here on this scenic summit have gained a boom in visitors this year thanks to tonkatsu being featured in Disney+’s Moving.
In the show, our star dish appears in episode 8 when Doo-shik introduces Mi-hyun to his favourite tonkatsu place along the scenic hillside while on a date. For a brief moment, we see the dish in all its glory – a hefty piece of deep-fried, breaded pork cutlet doused in sweet brown sauce, with thinly shredded cabbage on the side.
Due to the show’s huge success, that one scene was enough to send flocks of locals and tourists atop the mountain in search of tonkatsu, and we’re all for that.
Conclusion
This year’s K-Drama shows have been featuring some great variety in food –and we’re sure 2024’s entries will be even more drool-inducing, and you can bet we’ll be here to talk about it!
