Catch the Wave

Immerse in the current culture to impress business contacts in Seoul.

- By Richard Newton

The Korean Wave reached the English-speaking world belatedly. K-pop band BTS broke through in America in 2018, the movie Parasite won the Best Picture Oscar in 2020, and in 2021 the TV show Squid Game became the most-watched series ever on Netflix. Asia has been under the grip of Korean culture since the 1990s. Now the rest of us are falling under its spell.

But to think of the Korean Wave as traveling in one direction would be misleading. In truth, the dynamism of modern Korean culture resides in its willingness to absorb and transform outside influences. You gain an immediate sense of that when you go looking for breakfast among the street food stalls of downtown Seoul’s Myeongdong district. Although the stalls are most popular after dark, some of them open early in the morning to provide commuters with breakfast on the move.

Many offer variations on the theme of toast. There’s French toast, omelet in toast, egg and bacon in toast, fried vegetables in toast and many other combinations. A more traditional delicacy is gyeran-ppang, or egg bread, a sweet (or sometimes savory) snack that looks like a miniature loaf of bread embedded with a fried egg. The most popular egg bread stalls often have long queues of waiting customers. Whatever your choice, for around $2 you’ll get a filling, tasty breakfast.