Korean food takes over Kolkata as K-pop and dramas drive a new dining trend

Are you bored of Italian pizza, American burger, and Chinese chow mein? Then how about some tteokbokki, bulgogi or kimbap? These tongue-twisters are dishes of a cuisine that is fast gaining ground in our city. Over the past few months, Korean food has popped up in cafes, food courts, food trucks, and even at high-end fine dining restaurants among us.

So Yum, that is a sub-brand of Momo I Am, with an outlet in AC Block, had started as a cloud kitchen focusing on Japanese food. “But post-pandemic, the demand for Korean food has increased such that we were forced to diversify into it too,” says Dominique Li, the general manager.

Bizarre Asia in Primarc Square serves Chinese, Japanese, Malay, Indonesian, and Thai food, but Korean is certainly the hot favourite. “Like our phuchka and chaats, Korean food is a mix of sweet, spicy and savoury flavours, along with a mild fermented taste, so Calcuttans are bound to love it,” says executive senior manager Uttam Ghosh.

Music, drama & food

The sudden interest in the cuisine is no doubt bolstered by Korean pop music that is a rage among teenyboppers. Adults, especially women, love the Mills-&-Boon-ish feel of Korean dramas that they watch on streaming platforms too.

“The pandemic had a huge role to play here,” says Dibyendu Mukherjee of the Bento restaurant in CF Block. “Stuck at home during the lockdown, people turned to OTT platforms and got hooked on K-dramas, and food is an integral part of their stories. People were curious about the dishes, so I started a small outlet in the south, selling affordable Korean food — corndog, fried chicken, ramen... Within months, the cuisine had exploded everywhere, and I opened a larger, sit-and-eat restaurant in Salt Lake.”

Ankita Baid of BF Block has been hooked to K-dramas since 2010, when they had to be shared on pen drives. “OTT made it easy to watch, and we became familiar with their food and food brands, many of which were ‘product placed’ in the shows as advertisements. I also love a K-series Culinary Wars where chefs are pitted against one another in cook-offs,” says the lawyer, who knows about all the new K eateries around her. “But my options are limited as I’m a vegetarian. I can only have the Korean bun at bakeries. But I did try making kimbap at home once using seaweed sheets.”

Matter of taste

Hosea Kim, a Korean national who runs the Seoul Restaurant in IA Block, knows the high demand for vegetarian food here, but his hands are tied. “Korean food uses a lot of beef and pork, and going vegetarian is difficult as the vegetables we need aren’t available here,” he says. “IA Market will sell five kinds of saak, whereas the hilly regions of Korea grow 30–40. The only vegetarian dishes we have are kimpab (rice and vegetables rolled in seaweed) and ramen (a soupy noodle dish).”

Korea, being a peninsula, loves seafood. “But Bengalis seem to like only river fish,” Kim shakes his head. “We introduced sea fish like seer and shankar, but they had no takers. We’ve taken all fish off the menu now and retained only squid,” he says.

Ghosh of Bizarre Asia says that to cater to Calcuttans’ sweet tooth, they must tone up the sweetness of the dishes.

“We had initially kept our dishes as spicy as the originals, but our target audience is kids and teens, who could not stomach it. Parents would not let their wards binge on spicy food much either, so we had to tone it down,” adds Chandan Dutta of Korean Connection, a stall in the Axis Mall complex. Their best sellers include ramen and corndog (a crispy, deep-fried street snack of sausage or cheese, served on a stick).

Mukherjee of Bento says they do not claim to be the authentic, but they do try to stay as close to the original as possible. “Some ingredients are difficult to source and, at times, we intentionally replace them with an alternative whose taste is more familiar to customers. But certainly not something as Indian as garam masala!” he assures.

He is, however, acutely aware of how the once-exotic cuisine has been diluted to suit the lowest common denominator, and believes that is ruining it. “Sitting on the other side of the table, I know the cost of Korean ingredients. If a counter is selling these dishes at fast-food prices, the ingredients are certainly not of top quality,” he says, adding how instant ramen packets are being used at some places instead of higher-grade noodles. “But since most people have never tasted the real thing, they don’t know better,” Mukherjee says.

High street dining

In stark contrast is Sonamoo in Galaxy Mall, where the chef Jeongsun Noh is certified in royal culinary, cocktail and mocktail-making from Korea. “I am such a perfectionist that I am the only chef, waitress and cleaner at my three-table restaurant in Galaxy Mall,” she says. “And my ingredients are so specialised that customers need to pay in advance and pre-book three days beforehand. The dishes need ample marination, some must be slow-cooked over five hours, and I cut no corners, even if that means refusing customers,” Jeongsun says. For walk-in customers, she only has Korean momos, that have vegetables, an option of meat, and noodles inside.

Sonamoo (that is named after Korea’s national tree) does not do fast food. “My royal appetiser alone costs Rs 4,000, so we only get family crowds from high-income groups, and celebrities. Since some vegetarian clients come all the way from Alipore, I customise dishes for them too,” says the resident of Elita Garden Vista. When playing waitress, she also explains how each dish is to be savoured.

The K-look

Cafe The Sarang in New Town Plaza has a big screen playing K-pop or dramas, and also has traditional outfits for customers to don and click pictures in. “Besides Indians, we also get Korean customers here on business or tourists,” says Yuntai Nam, adding that her cafe’s name means ‘love’.

Korean food stalls at malls are full of posters of bands like BTS and Blackpink. Kim of Seoul Restaurant is often accosted by young customers asking why BTS isn’t coming to India. “They ask for BTS merchandise, and once on a trip back home, I even bought a poster for one of them,” he smiles.

Here to stay

So Yum says the ratio of young: elderly customers is 7:3, and at Bizarre Asia too, it is Gen Z that eyes Korean food first. “Customers older than that do not experiment much and want to stick to Chinese fare,” says Ghosh.

Doing brisk business is the Fluffy’s food truck that sells Korean food outside HB Block community hall in the evenings. “Youths are most excited to see our truck, but now some senior citizens have become regulars, too. Our speciality is our fluffy pancakes and Korean cream cheese buns,” says a staff Manoj Mondal.

Axis Mall has three Korean food options — Hi Bao in the food court above, and Korean Connection and K-Pop Cafe in the courtyard.

“Korean food has the potential to be tomorrow’s Chinese,” says Dutta of Korean Connection. “It may have begun as a fad among today’s youth, but if we can create an emotional connect, it will eventually turn into nostalgia. One day, these customers will bring their children to eat corn dogs — just as they once did themselves.”

Write to saltlake@abp.in