Asian Food Week-Conversation Kitchen "Korean Noodles in the Age of K-Pop"

Department: Center for Asian Studies

Date and Time: February 13, 2019 | 6:00 PM-7:30 PM

Event Location: Anteater Test Kitchen at the ARC

Event Details


"Mother Said She Didn't Like Jjajangmyeon": Ruminating on Korean Noodles During the Age of K-pop

Robert Ji-Song Ku explores the meaning of two of Korea’s most iconic noodle dishes, jjajangmyeon and ramyeon, during what he calls the “age of K-pop.” When and why did Koreans first start eating these dishes? How has their value shifted or evolved over time? More generally, some two decades after its beginning, what has been the gastronomic consequence of the Korean Wave, not only in Korea but also the Korean diaspora?

Robert Ku is chair of and an associate professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University of the State University of New York. He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: Eating Asian in the USA and co-editor of Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. His co-edited volume, Pop Empires: Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea, that juxtaposes the popular culture regimes of Korea, India, and the United States, is forthcoming in 2019. In 2016, he taught in the American Culture Program at Sogang University in Seoul, Korea, as a Fulbright Scholar. Born in Korea, he grew up in Hawaii and currently lives in Binghamton, New York.

Anteater Test Kitchen at the ARC

Dinner and Conversation: 6-7:30 p.m.

Conversation Kitchen is a unique series of culinary workshops designed to explore the significant influence that food has in defining and shaping culture across the world. Each free workshop will focus on an area of the world undergoing conflict and transformation today. Registration required.

Register through UCI Illuminations