Why K-food is blowing up in the UK - BBC News (BBC Article Summary) First it was K-pop, now it's K-food. Korean cuisine has officially made its way into your kitchens. Korean food has spread alongside the massive 'K-Wave' in pop culture. The food-centric drama 'The Tyrant's Chef' showcased fusion Korean dishes, and the hit survival show 'Culinary Class Wars' topped Netflix's global non-English TV charts in its first season, with a second season returning this month. This shift is obvious on UK store shelves. On the Waitrose website, searches for 'Korean BBQ' are up over 60% year-on-year, and Gochujang sales have spiked by over 70%. Kimchi has become one of the fastest-growing international food items. Nutritionist Emer Delaney says fermented foods like Kimchi have gone mainstream. "These fermented foods not only enhance flavor and texture but also offer benefits like improved digestion and a diverse, healthy gut microbiome." Interest in K-food didn't happen overnight; it started with curiosity. According to analysis by food giant CJ Bibigo, TikTok posts by UK users mentioning Korean food are projected to rise from under 10,000 in 2023 to over 17,000 in 2025. British YouTubers Armand and Max first encountered Korean food through the 'Korean Englishman' channel. Now in their early 20s, they say their eating habits changed that day. A video of them trying Korean street food on a school playground reached tens of millions of views, eventually leading them to visit Korea itself. They experienced BBQ, late-night ramen, and even school lunches. "The flavors were so different from what we were used to," they said. "Fermented cabbage, kimchi—we’d never tried anything like that. It was delicious. It's incomparable to anything else." Korean food still has a relatively short history in the UK compared to other cuisines. It hasn't fully replaced the 'Friday night takeaway' yet. However, from YouTube channels to supermarkets and people learning to make Kimchi for the first time, Korean food is steadily becoming a part of daily life.
<Comments> (Summary of international community reactions and UK locals' K-food experiences)
"K-netizens are half-proud and half-panicking because they're worried global demand will drive up the prices of their staples like seaweed and pork belly. There's also the mandatory banter about British food being easy to beat."
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