Monday, January 21, 2013

K-food

A traditional Kimchi

Having a healthy diet means that you have to balance the go, grow and glow foods; however, most of us don't eat food complete with these foods that  our body needs. I for one don't like vegetables that much, but that was before I got interested in K-pop.

As a fan of K-pop, I really got interested in their language and culture especially their food. In K-pop Tasty Road - in where the hosts; Eli of UKiss and NS Yoon G, a solo artist venture around Seoul and tour the viewers in where the famous K-pop stars usually eat and date -I found out that Koreans really like to eat their food with kimchi (a spicy korean dish which is traditionally fermented with a variety of vegetables and seasonings), they had different ways of cooking it like making a kimchi stew and many more. When I first tasted it, I found out that it was a bit weird and spicy but then I got used to it and later on became one of my favorite dishes. Soon, I found vegetables delicious and I feel that my meals are not complete without it.



Eli and NS Yoon G in a famous dating restaurant in Korea
While I was searching for the benefits of Korean cuisine, I came across Joyce Hendley's  article of the Ying and Yang of Korean Cuisine (http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/food_travel/discover_the_health_benefits_of_korean_cooking). She said there that "among the traditions that may help keep Korean slim and healthy is including soup at every meal, which means filling up on a relatively low-calorie but satisfying food. Studies show that soup eaters tend to eat less high-calorie fare later". She also said that Koreans only treat meat as a condiment rather that a main dish keeping their saturated-fat intake low, they only get 20 percent of their calories from fat.

So based on my understanding in the article, Korean's food are naturally healthy making the Korean idols maintain their slim and fit body. Unlike other artists in other countries -especially in America which most people prefer meat as their main course- Korean idols can easily get the kind of diet they want. So one of the reasons fans look up to them is their physical attributes and one of their secret to that is the food that they eat; because of that, fans eat the same food that their idols eat.


And so I began to notice that fans, in general are slowly changing their diet into something close to Korean food. I had friends who loves to eat Korean food after they got interested in k-pop, most of them likes to eat kimbap (Korean style sushi). Fans also believed what the idols advised them to eat, if the idols told them to eat vegetables to make your skin richer, they would eat it.



Kimbap

I think that by slowly loving k-pop, fans begin to also love korean food, language and culture altogether. I also see that these days, k-pop idols became trend setters when it comes to their lifestyle which help promote Korea to foreigners.




No comments:

Post a Comment