Anyone watched this? It’s on my list but I haven’t gotten to it yet. I’m worried it will make me want Korean food which is a problem where I live! Thanks.
Saw it earlier this week and didn’t start because I didn’t want to get hungry late at night 
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I don’t watch TV…but this might make me turn over a new leaf (I’m still trying on Season 2 of Stranger Things!)
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We watched Season 1 Episode 1 last night. The first half got our tummies rumbling for food (and we had just finished eating dinner!), but the second half, not so much, at least for me. I think Mrs. ricepad would be game for a lot of the featured items from the latter part of the episode, but I’ve had enough of [no spoilers] in my lifetime for me not to want to try most of it. I still think that you could run a successful Korean restaurant with just a bowl of rice and an assortment of banchan on the menu, ie no entree.
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That was the original idea behind Atoboy in nyc
Now there this place from another favorite local Korean chef (I’ve still to get to it but I just saw they’ve started delivery so yay!):
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My parents used to try to talk the owners of a local Korean place into putting rice & banchan on the menu as a stand-alone option, and owners would just laugh it off. I don’t think the owners really thought people would order only that, but sometimes my folks would order their entrees, just eat rice and banchan, and have the entrees packed up to go for dinner the next day. One of the servers knew them so well that she’d bring the rice and banchan, but bring the entrees already packed in takeout containers toward the end of the meal. They were on a first-name basis with the owners, who didn’t mind their behavior. It probably didn’t hurt that they went there probably twice a month on average, and frequently introduced friends and family - who might not otherwise try it - to the restaurant.
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Your parents are/were wise.
The other day I went to a new place and after I ordered (which I I had intentionally overdone because I was taking out a friend’s dad who was visiting) they brought out the banchan — including an almost-entree-portioned fried whole flounder. The server was so impressed non-Koreans decimated the lotsa-bones fish, he offered me another (I would take him up on that next time). We were about 80% full before the mains came.
I love banchan! Am still miffed I can’t find wanja-jeon anywhere anymore: I first tasted them as banchan, but had to teach myself to make them because the place stopped serving them and no one sells them here 
My dad grew up in poverty, and sometimes dinner WAS a bowl of rice and whatever vegetables my grandmother could scrounge. A lot of those veggies got pickled one way or another, so the rice-and-banchan idea was sort of nostalgic for my dad. As for mom, well, she’s just cheap! She’ll stretch a buck any way she can!
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In case you don’t already know, there’s also " A Nation of Broth" and “A Nation of Kimchi”. All seem to be two to three 1 hour episodes and all star the three “foodies”. I’m enjoying them all – it doesn’t seem to be aimed toward a casual consumer of Korean cuisine and I’m learning (and forgetting) a lot.
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Thanks. Just added those to my list!
Watched the first part today, and boy did it make me hungry!
I liked the pure enthusiasm of all three of the folks being filmed, though I’m pretty sure I missed a lot because translation never gets things right, and they didn’t even bother to translate many things (when they’re in the fancy chef place where each course and ingredient is being explained, for eg, they just didn’t do it in the subtitles).
Some basic questions: why is the woman constantly giggling? who is the older guy - is he a food authority? who is the younger guy? where I can eat these things immediately (ok, that doesn’t have to do with the show )
I had to stop watching 5 mins before the end because I really needed to eat something, and of course it had to have some Korean aspect to it. So, dinner.
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I asked my two besties who are both Korean if they’ve watched. One hasn’t responded, and the other started watching “Broth” and found it tiresome. She said she much prefers “Kimchee Chronicals,” if anyone remembers that chestnut.
Me, I’m too busy watching the Beckham PR piece on Netflix.
