Start with the number that moved. When South Korea’s culture ministry polled fans abroad this year, food edged out K-pop as their favorite part of Korean culture. That is a long way from a niche. In the U.S., Korean restaurant chains are now multiplying faster than nearly every other cuisine, and tubs of gochujang sit beside the ketchup in grocery carts.
From the screen to the shopping cart
The appetite started on television, with K-drama heroines slurping ramyeon at midnight. It ended up at the checkout. Restaurants followed. Atomix, the fine-dining counter in NoMad run by Junghyun “JP” and Ellia Park, ranked No. 12 on this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Their first restaurant, Atoboy, turned ten in July, and the Parks have since launched Nanro USA to take American chefs to Korea’s traditional markets, farmers and artisans.
The Gulf Coast version
The same demand has reached Florida’s Gulf Coast, where most of the cooks learned at a parent’s elbow rather than in culinary school. Bibimbap hisses in a stone bowl in Bradenton, pork ribs braise in kimchi in Sarasota, and Wagyu sizzles on a tabletop grill in Lakewood Ranch. Chef Clark Park at Kore Steakhouse still asks his mother for the kimchi recipe. At J’s Korean Food, brothers Jeffrey and Brian Choi cook their father’s recipes, and fried chicken is their top seller. Family recipes, scaled up one table at a time.
Canada, via Seoul
Traffic runs both ways. Tim Hortons has built a flagship in Seoul’s Seongsu neighborhood, called Banff Town Seongsu, with a lodge, a waterfall and a red canoe. It is set to open officially on Nov. 3. The menu leans hard into Canadian staples: chicken alfredo, spicy corn rib omelette banock, chocolate cream cheese BeaverTail, maple dirty chai and Nanaimo bars. An Tae-yeol, chief business officer at the Korean operator BKR, said opening many stores was not enough. The company wanted to show the Tim Hortons experience more clearly.
Halloween freebies
Chains that Korean-Americans know well are using the holiday to compete on price. Krispy Kreme is giving away an Original Glazed donut, no purchase needed, to anyone in costume on Oct. 30 and 31. Chipotle will sell entrees at $6 to costumed rewards members on Oct. 31 from 3 p.m. until closing. Burger King has a Whopper Junior 1+1 coupon for Royal Perks members on Oct. 31, and Paris Baguette is offering a free pastry with a drink purchase to rewards members that day. KFC has app deals running through the week. Sign-up requirements and store participation vary, so check the app first.
Sources
- Korean cuisine
- For JP and Ellia Park, Korean Cuisine Has Endless Possibilities
- Five kitchens and trucks across Sarasota and Bradenton cook their familiesâ Korean recipes, from tableside Wagyu to burial-pot kimchi
- Choi Soo-jong says “I love you” three times, chokes up in heartfelt tribute to late Choi Bool-am
- Halloween food deals — Free donuts, $6 Chipotle & more
- New Korean Tim Hortons is way more Canadian than your local Tims | Daily Hive | Dished
Photo: Mx. Granger (CC0)
