The world’s crazy about food, understandably so. Without trends and a bit of experimentation, there would be nothing in it, truth be told. And who doesn’t want creativity to be infused in our food? Without it, things would be slightly bigoted and boring and who knows- just too lame. Isn’t it? Innovation in recipes, food preparation and, even presentation of food have redefined the concept of eating or dining out.
What you are having is palatable and enjoyable but the setting in which you’re relishing your food and how that food is being served equally defines the wholeness of the experience.
So much of the world’s culture has increasingly come to rest with interesting food dishes, a keen mishmash of global cuisine and just how can simple, any day items be made more succulent and have-able? In this regard, the world’s seen a lot many habits or changing patterns.
In some parts of the world, they eat duck sandwiches. Snake meat is eaten by a rare few in distant corners of our world. At all these times, chicken continues to undergo massive innovations and representations. There was nothing, for instance, like “Baalti chicken”, that one finds in the restaurants of the UK. Now, it’s a common sight. But that said, what if, you got to know that in some other part of the world- something like cow intestines were popular?
How would that make you feel? In Korea, that part of the world where music groups in the past like Psy have caused great resonance with pop culture and commoners, a new trend is capturing the imagination of the people. It’s got to do with eating cow intestines. Even if that comes across as somewhat of a shock to us all- there’s reason to believe that it’s been so for a while now.
Cow intestines are consumed heavily in what is known in local lingo as gopchang restaurants. Especially, when it comes to the Korean drinkers and the general outgoing lot- the popularity of the cow intestines is only increasing by the day. This, given, the culinary culture of Korea is a new but rising trend. According to the local and popular media outlet- Korea Herald- so incessant and popular has been the demand for cow intestines that some local restaurants are actually shutting down in lieu of a dearth of the supply of this popular food item.
One wonders rather shudders in a bit of a disbelief. What might have happened to this growing trend, had it come to life in other parts of the world? And can you take a wild guess because of whom has this craze shot up in Korea? It’s the all-girl band K-pop. Apparently, Hwasa, of K-pop happened to have taken eaten cow-intestines or gopchang, that too on live television. This was a sequence that was shot and aired live on MBC Television.
Proclaiming the footage as anything but insipid and in fact, extremely delightful, another actor from South Korea, Lee Si-eon, on seeing the TV footage declared, “there’s nothing ever more tasteful that I would’ve seen.”
That said, it must be shared that it hardly takes any time for some riveting piece of video to become a viral sensation in today’s day and age. Within minutes of the now famous “Hwasa eats Gopchang” video going on the internet, it shot up crazily and created a media tizzy. Meanwhile, back in Seoul and other surrounding cities, the dish had already become a media sensation. Everyone wanted to dig into some succulent, juicy gopchang. So mad had become the craze to consume the latest sensation in the country that many were lining up in huge numbers outside the restaurants to grab a bite.
And that is precisely when a new symbol of popular culture had been crowned. But will this food live out longer than expected or will it be a classic case of 15 seconds of fame? For now, it seems, only the former may suffice.