Korean Culture Explained: Life, History, Music & Language | NowHitz · 5

Fried soboro

Sungsimdang describes fried soboro as three familiar breads in one: a sweet red-bean filling, a soboro crumb topping and doughnut-style frying. The official timeline dates its creation to May 1980.

It is the natural first purchase. Cut open, it shows how the crumb topping meets the bean filling.

Other breads

Pantalong chive bread, listed in the brand’s timeline as a 1986 creation, is another signature item. Bomunsan Meari is a rolled pastry, and the myeongnan baguette is filled with pollock roe.

Separating what to eat now from what to share later keeps bags manageable on a day trip.

1956 founding, today’s main store

Sungsimdang began as a steamed-bun shop in front of Daejeon Station in October 1956. Its main store today is at 15 Daejong-ro 480beon-gil in Eunhaeng-dong, a different location from where it started.

This route centers on the Eunhaeng-dong main store and links bread, dessert and the brand’s story within one neighborhood.

Main store → Cake Boutique → Cultural Center

The suggested route runs from the main store to Cake Boutique at 480 Daejong-ro, then to Sungsimdang Cultural Center at 11 Junggyo-ro 73beon-gil. Cake Boutique is a separate cake shop; the Cultural Center houses Meari Shop, Meari Lounge and Gallery La Rue.

Check separate notices for specific exhibitions or activities. Cake buyers may want to stop there last, given storage requirements and the trip home.

Save these details before you go

Main store: 15 Daejong-ro 480beon-gil, Jung-gu, Daejeon; daily 08:00–22:00. Cake Boutique: 480 Daejong-ro, Jung-gu; Monday–Thursday and Sunday 08:00–21:30, Friday–Saturday 08:00–22:00. Cultural Center: 11 Junggyo-ro 73beon-gil, Jung-gu; weekdays 08:30–21:00, weekends 08:00–21:00.

All three are officially open year-round; contact 1588-8069. Check official notices for temporary changes. Opening hours do not guarantee stock or waiting times.

Leave a buffer before your train, follow each product’s storage instructions, and check prices at the shop.

A 300 g pack for cooking

Announced on October 6, the tenderloin product comes in a 300 g pack and adds a third cut to the breast and thigh versions. Despite the serving image on the package, it is not a ready-to-eat meal and should be stored and cooked according to the pack’s instructions.

Buy-one-get-one offer

Sales began at GS THE FRESH on October 7. Harim’s buy-one-get-one offer runs October 7–13 and covers the three Chicken Steak varieties and other selected marinated-chicken products. The offer period is separate from the product’s sales period. Eligible items, prices and stock may vary by store.

Two flavors, 220 mL each

Dongwon F&B’s fruit-puree milk comes in strawberry and banana flavors, each in a 220 mL bottle. The product image distinguishes them with pink and yellow packaging.

What “15 strawberries” means

The manufacturer states 3.6 g of soluble dietary fiber in the strawberry version and 4.6 g in the banana version, which it compares with roughly 15 strawberries and two bananas. The figures do not mean that many whole fruits went into each bottle.

The basis for “40%” less sugar

The reduced-sugar claim compares the product with the processed-milk average cited by the company, 9.1 g of sugar per 100 mL, and states a reduction of approximately 40%. It is neither a sugar-free claim nor a comparison with plain milk.

Launch at 7-Eleven Japan

Developed by hy and PALDO with BTS involved in naming, flavors and packaging, ARIH began a phased rollout at participating 7-Eleven stores in Japan on August 20, 2026. The range covers 16 products in three categories: noodles, energy drinks and soda.

3.61 million units

On September 16, hy reported approximately 3.61 million units sold in Japan as of September 8, the twentieth day of the rollout. These are company-reported early sales, not a count of buyers or repeat purchases, and they do not establish lasting demand for Korean food overall.

Differing verdicts

In a tasting article updated August 28, macaroni editor Inoue wrote that butter softened the gochujang heat and likened the vongole noodles to a Korean-developed pasta served without broth. On August 31, @BAILA contributor Maho Hiraoka wrote that the gochujang butter was spicier than expected and named truffle bulgogi as her favorite.

Reading the reactions

These are real Japanese tasting responses, not a representative consumer survey. That the same product struck two writers so differently shows a range of reactions that sales figures alone do not capture.

An 18.51 km run to lunch

In an October 12 report, Maeil Business Newspaper journalist Song Min-seop described an October 9 run from Gwangju Citizens’ Forest, along the Yeongsangang River, to Damyang Noodle Street. His recorded distance was 18.51 km. The outing combines exercise, travel and a meal in one day.

Origins of the street

The Korea Tourism Organization traces the street’s food culture to filling meals for traders at the nearby bamboo-goods market. A street that once fed market visitors is now also a destination for runners.

What to eat

Noodle Street lies beside Damyangcheon Stream, around Gaeksa 3-gil. Its signature dishes are noodles in anchovy broth and spicy mixed noodles. Side dishes such as eggs or pajeon, a savory pancake, vary by restaurant.

Visitors up 71%

Citing county data, the report says visits to the street rose about 71% from 2024 to 2025. The figure covers all visitors; it does not count runners or show that running drove the increase.

Route and return

The 18.51 km figure is the reporter’s own distance, not an official course. Less experienced runners can travel to Damyang first and pair a shorter walk or run with lunch. Restaurant hours, prices and menus and the trip home are worth checking in advance. Weather and riverside restrictions may call for a shorter distance; water and a phone are essentials.

Before you go

Damyang Noodle Street · Gaeksa 3-gil area, Damyang-eup, Damyang-gun

Gwangju Citizens’ Forest → Yeongsangang riverside → Damyang Noodle Street is the route outline from the report. No turn-by-turn directions or GPX route are provided.

Prices, hours, menus and reservations vary by restaurant. No common entry fee or currently bookable organized run has been verified.

Archive photographs taken by the Korea Tourism Organization in 2020. They do not show the 2026 run or current menus.

What dinol means

“Dinol” combines the Korean shorthand for digital camera with the word for play. In February 2026, Yonhap described camera outings and people decorating their cameras with stickers.

Friends meet with a small camera in a bag and set themselves simple tasks, such as photographing only red objects or each choosing one picture of the same scene. Meeting, choosing and showing pictures become part of taking them.

What the 6.4-times figure covers

On October 9, Maeil Business reported that ZIGZAG’s digital-camera transaction value rose 540% in January–September 2026 from the same period in 2025, or 6.4 times the earlier amount. A separate figure in the report, 63% of September purchasers aged 29 or younger, came from ABLY.

Transaction value is not units sold, and prices and product mix affect it. The figures do not show that the whole vintage secondhand-camera market grew 6.4 times. Newly made retro-style cameras also need separating from genuinely old devices. The companies’ original data were not directly verified.

From new technology to vintage

Casio’s official timeline dates the QV-10 to March 1995. Its key features were reviewing pictures on an LCD and sending them to a television or computer, a new way to handle photographs at the time.

Canon’s October 2003 PowerShot A80 paired a roughly four-megapixel CCD with an articulated LCD. Each camera had its own handling. For some users these are remembered objects; for others they are unfamiliar pieces of design.

CCDs and colour

Not every old digital camera uses a CCD. Canon’s May 2010 IXUS 300 HS used a ten-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor and DIGIC 4 processor. It was sold as the PowerShot SD4000 IS DIGITAL ELPH in North America and the IXY 30S in Japan, so different listing names can describe the same model.

Colour depends on more than the sensor. Nikon’s manual explains that lighting changes apparent colour and white balance compensates for it. Whatever the “film-like” impression, a CCD camera does not capture images the way film does; the A80 records digital JPEG files.

Noise and smear

Sony’s ISO guide explains that higher sensitivity allows faster shutter speeds in low light but can add noise or reduce sharpness. A rough-looking picture may reflect movement, focus, lighting or settings rather than a sensor’s character.

Sony’s DSC-W800 help page describes CCD smear, vertical streaks around intense light sources. According to that guidance, it generally does not appear in still photographs but may affect movies or panoramas. Pointing the camera directly at the sun or another strong light to produce the effect should be avoided.

Batteries and memory cards

Power and storage vary by model. Canon specifies four AA alkaline or rechargeable NiMH batteries and CompactFlash Type I for the A80. The IXUS 300 HS uses an NB-6L battery and SD, SDHC or SDXC cards. Similar-looking bodies do not guarantee compatible cards or chargers.

Sony’s DSC-W1 manual sets out Memory Stick and adapter requirements and warns that its supplied charger is only for specified Sony NiMH batteries; alkaline cells must not be charged. A USB socket does not mean USB charging. Testing shooting, playback and file transfer before an outing avoids surprises.

A ten-picture walk

A NowHitz suggestion: if a camera you already own works, take ten pictures close to home before buying another, one in sunlight and one in shade, starting on automatic and comparing the results. Ask before photographing or sharing anyone’s face.

Transferring the files at home and choosing one picture each is part of the outing. Image quality need not be the reason to use an old camera; the appeal is remembering an afternoon together at a different pace.

A shop between school and home

A munbanggu supplied school materials as well as playthings. In the National Folk Museum’s reconstruction of a Seoul neighbourhood in the 1970s and 1980s, the Hyeondae stationery shop displays magnetic pencil cases and insect-collecting tools alongside ddakji, paper dolls and snacks. Study and play shared the same shelves.

The reconstruction does not represent every Korean neighbourhood, but it offers a way to examine school-front shop culture of the 1980s and 1990s through objects and what children did with them.

Supplies and playthings

Buying a notebook or a classroom tool served a different purpose from choosing a toy, but at a stationery shop the two happened in the same space. Looking for something needed meant seeing and comparing things wanted. An errand for the next lesson could also bring break time and after-school play to mind.

Dooly Museum’s 2024 programme accompanying its stationery-shop exhibition covered 1980s–1990s stationery history alongside character merchandise, yo-yos and ddakji. Pictures, characters and friends’ games also shaped how children chose ordinary school items.

Ddakji

Ddakji tiles can be folded from layers of paper or cut from printed sheets. In the basic game described by the National Folk Museum, a player strikes beside an opponent’s tile on the ground with their own. A flipped tile is won; a miss passes the turn. Where to strike and how thick to fold the tile affect the outcome.

The game was not invented in the 1980s. The museum points to a newspaper reference from 1924. The shop brought an older game to children in new materials and commercial versions.

Marbles

Marble games were not limited to flicking one marble at another. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture records games involving marbles inside circles or triangles and games using holes dug in the ground. A familiar rule in one neighbourhood could be unknown in the next.

Players therefore had to agree on boundaries, turns and what counted as success before starting. The same marbles became a game only through that agreement.

Gonggi

In gonggi, a player tosses one piece, gathers pieces from the ground and catches the falling piece. The number picked up defines each stage; touching another piece or missing the catch passes the turn. The eyes follow the airborne piece while the hand works below.

The names vary by region. The encyclopedia records jjagebatgi in Gyeongbuk and salgu in Gyeongnam. The photograph here shows actual stones, not manufactured plastic pieces. Children played with materials found close at hand long before shops sold sets.

Old games, new merchandise

Grouping folded paper tiles, glass marbles and character stationery together as “old things” hides their differences. Making something, choosing something to own and competing with friends using the same equipment were distinct pleasures, and school-front shop culture brought them together.

There is no basis for assigning a game permanently to boys or girls, or for assuming every child bought the same things. Memories differed according to what each child could obtain and who they played with.

How the shops changed

Smartphones alone do not explain the decline of these shops. In a 2019 support announcement, Busan Metropolitan City cited fewer pupils, schools buying classroom supplies in bulk, and spending shifting to large retailers and online stores. That was the city’s assessment at the time, not a count of shops across Korea today.

The accompanying 2015 photograph of a Gwacheon shop shows real shelves and a counter. It records that moment; whether the business still operates was not checked. Anyone trying ddakji or gonggi today quickly finds that players know different rules.

The riverside instead of a restaurant

On October 3, a DongA Ilbo reporter found picnickers at Yeouido Hangang Park eating raw fish bought in Noryangjin. Hoecnic combines hoe, Korean raw fish, with picnic, turning the riverside into the dining table. A September 30 Hankyung Business report also described trips from Noryangjin to Yeouido or Nodeul Island.

Sharing a route

Incross’s October 7 analysis noted that choosing, packing and carrying the fish has become part of the experience. As people share pickup spots, routes and side dishes, a menu recommendation becomes an outing itinerary.

Before going

Seoul’s official address for Yeouido Hangang Park is 330 Yeouidong-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu. Prices, contents and pickup times vary by seller.

A mat and a bag for taking rubbish home are needed, and sellers can advise on transport and storage.

Nurungji and sungnyung

Nurungji is the firm, golden layer that forms at the bottom of a pot as rice cooks. It can be lifted out and eaten or boiled with water. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture distinguishes the crust, nurungji, from the boiled rice, nurungjibap, and its liquid, sungnyung.

The order of a stone-pot meal

With stone-pot rice, the rice is first transferred to a bowl and hot water is then added to the crust left at the bottom. The Korea Tourism Organization describes this sequence in its hot stone-pot rice guide. The water draws out the flavour left in the pot, giving the meal a different texture from crisp nurungji.

Origins of sungnyung

The encyclopedia’s sungnyung entry links the drink’s development to the fixed cauldrons of older kitchens. Boiling water over the stuck rice produced a drink and helped clean a pot that was hard to wash. The entry also records the custom of ending a meal with sungnyung.

Label photos and search

In its October 6 release, Foodlab described reading information by photographing a food label or searching by product name. The app gathers the origin statements listed in brackets beside ingredients but does not independently verify where a product comes from.

Access and scores

The app is available on iOS and Android, with scanning and analysis currently free. Dietary-suitability results are based on the listed ingredients and are not official certification.

Not a medical service

The official website states that Foodlab is not a medical or diagnostic service and advises people with medical conditions or allergies to put their clinician’s judgment ahead of the app’s score.