What if Korean food isn’t less joyful than Swedish fika or Spanish tapas, but simply joy spoken in a different accent?This episode is the audio companion to this week’s Substack essay:Beyond the Iced Americano: Does Korea Have Food That Is “Just” for Fun? — Searching for the Soul of Agenda-Free Joy (Part 1)It started with a reader comment. Lena asked:“If iced Americanos keep the country running and soju keeps people functional enough to show up the next day, what’s the Korean food that’s purely about pleasure?”That question led me somewhere bigger: not whether Korea has pleasure, but why Korean pleasure so often shows up dressed as recovery, care, reward, season, or endurance.Also, this podcast landed at No. 11 on PodRanker’s Best Korea Podcasts of 2026, which still feels a little surreal. Thank you, truly.📌 In this episode:* Why Korean icons — miyeok-guk (미역국), samgyetang (삼계탕), haejang-guk (해장국), iced Americano — all arrive with a built-in job description* The centuries-old concept of yaksikdongwon (약식동원): food as medicine* Why heung (흥) and jeong (정) shape what Korean pleasure actually looks like* How Korean joy differs from fika, aperitivo, and tapas — and what that reveals about something much larger than food📖 Korean terms in this episode:- 막걸리 makgeolli — lightly fizzy fermented rice wine- 파전 pajeon — savory scallion pancake- 새참 saecham — snack break during farm work- 미역국 miyeok-guk — seaweed soup, eaten on birthdays- 삼계탕 samgyetang — ginseng chicken soup, eaten on the hottest days of summer- 해장국 haejang-guk — hangover soup- 약식동원 yaksikdongwon — food and medicine share the same roots- 반찬 banchan — small side dishes- 찌개 jjigae — Korean stew- 빙수 bingsu — shaved ice dessert- 치맥 chimaek — fried chicken + beer- 제철음식 jesol eumsik — seasonal food at its peak- 전어 jeoneo — gizzard shad (autumn delicacy)- 흥 heung — electric, collective, unplannable joy- 정 jeong — the warmth that deepens through shared experience- 풍류 pungnyu — a free-spirited, refined way of savoring beauty and life🔗 Links:📩 This week’s essay: Beyond the Iced Americano: Does Korea Have Food That Is “Just” for Fun?🏆 Best Korea Podcasts of 2026, No. 11: The 17 Best Korea Podcasts (2026) - Ranked & Reviewed | PodRanker🌐 Find me everywhere: Links - Jiwon Yoon, Ph.D.Enjoying the podcast? A quick rating or comment helps more people find it, and means more than you know. Thank you. 🙏 Get full access to Understanding Korea, One Story at a Time at yoonjiwon.substack.com/subscribe

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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