What is samgyeopsal? It is pork belly, and it is the meat Koreans eat more than any other. Not a special-occasion dish, not a tourist experience — the default answer to what is for dinner. Most English-language writing about it describes one thing: a restaurant table with a grill in the middle, thick slabs sizzling … Read more
A young woman of low birth falls in love with a nobleman’s son. They marry in secret. He leaves for the capital promising to return. A cruel official arrives and demands she become his concubine; she refuses, and is imprisoned and beaten for it. Then, at the last possible moment, a stranger reveals his true … Read more
Most visitors to Korea never think of Incheon as anything but the airport. But if you follow the subway a few stops inland, you arrive at a neighborhood that hosted one of the most euphoric nights in Korean sporting history — and that, on an ordinary evening, turns into one of the loveliest quiet corners … Read more
What is kimbap? Rice and fillings rolled in seaweed, sliced into rounds. Structurally it resembles sushi, and that comparison is where most English explanations stop. It is not a useful place to stop. Sushi is a restaurant tradition built on raw fish and a chef’s precision. Kimbap is something a mother made at five in … Read more
If you discovered games like “Red Light, Green Light” or the paper-flipping ddakji through Netflix’s Squid Game, you’re in good company — the show introduced millions of people worldwide to Korean childhood games. But for those of us who grew up in 1980s Korea, these weren’t exotic curiosities. They were simply how we spent every … Read more
Most first-time visitors to Korea see the same polished places: the shopping streets of Seoul, a palace or two, maybe a day trip to Busan. But the Korea that locals actually live in looks different — and you find it in ordinary neighborhoods that never make the guidebooks. As someone based in Incheon, let me … Read more
Ask any Korean, from a teenager to a grandparent, about a short story called “Sonagi,” and watch their expression soften. For more than sixty years, this brief, aching tale of first love has been taught in Korean classrooms, so nearly everyone in the country has read it at the same tender age. It is arguably … Read more
Here is a question worth 350 years of thought: if you could have everything you ever dreamed of — top honors, wealth, military glory, and the love of eight beautiful women — would it actually make you happy? The Nine Cloud Dream, often called the single greatest classic novel in Korean literature, follows one man … Read more
Imagine a hero so famous that his name became your country’s version of “John Doe” — the placeholder scribbled onto every sample form and blank application. That hero is Hong Gildong. He is often called Korea’s Robin Hood: a magical outlaw who robs corrupt officials, outwits royal assassins, and eventually founds his own kingdom across … Read more
Most visitors to Incheon head straight for Chinatown or the airport and never see the city where people actually live. But in the heart of Michuhol-gu, the Juan-dong neighborhood around Citizens’ Park tells a quieter, richer story — one of a vanished cultural landmark, an underground shopping maze, and a modern complex full of restaurants … Read more