Koreans Are Buying Lifetime Supply of Salt. Here's Why.

Preparing for the upcoming Pacific Ocean apocalypse

안녕! It's Ari, your talkative Korean friend and weekend reminder 🎉 Today’s newsletter is about a healthy vegetarian recipe, the upcoming Pacific Ocean apocalypse you might not know about, and a Korean slang lesson. Let’s start!

Soft Tofu Bibimbap

@junggourmet

For Koreans, bibimbap is super easy to make since many of them have all the ingredients ready in the refrigerator at home. They just mix the ingredients and rice in a bowl, and it’s done. But even if you don’t have a refrigerator stocked with bibimbap-ready ingredients, you can still make a good bibimbap in 10 mins (when you already have cooked rice) with this recipe! Today’s recipe is soft tofu bibimbap. It’s a great vegetarian option that can serve as a healthy late-night snack for dieters or a weekend lunch menu after a stressful week, as it’s spicy 🥵. Here’s the recipe that I found on Twitter:

For 1 serving (the tofu sauce is for 3-4 servings):

1. Cut soft tofu (400g) into approximately 2-cm-thick slices and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt on top of the tofu. Then, place the tofu in the refrigerator for 5 minutes to extract water.

2. Thinly slice 1/2 onion (100g) and chop 2 scallions (15g).

3. Mix 5 tablespoons of chili powder, 3 tablespoons of gochujang, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of rice wine or water, 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

4. Combine the sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame seed, sliced onion, chopped scallion, and the tofu. Be gentle not to break the tofu too much.

5. Now the tofu sauce for 3-4 servings is ready! Put one serving of the sauce, cooked rice, crushed seaweed (gim) in a bowl, add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, then mix everthing together. Bon Appétit! 😋

Store the remaining of the sauce in the fridge for future use. Tip. If it’s too spicy, add some leafy vegetables.

Why Koreans Are Buying Lifetime Supply of Salt

No salt available in a grocery market

Grocery markets across South Korea are experiencing a shortage of salt, and its price is skyrocketing everyday. Sinan, a marine city that produces the most sea salt in the country, reported that a 25-fold increase in salt sales compared to last year. Koreans are eager to buy years or even a lifetime supply of salt. People are not only bulk-buying salt but also other storable seafood such as dried anchovies or gim (seaweed) to prepare for the upcoming Pacific Ocean apocalypse.

Japan, the neighboring country of South Korea, is planning to release nuclear wastewater into the ocean. This wastewater was originally used to cool the damaged reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was struck by an earthquake over a decade ago. Japan intends to release the wastewater into the ocean over the next 30 years, despite of criticisms and concerns from neighboring countries and scientists. According to a report,

A senior Chinese official recently called the discharge plan a risk "to all mankind” and accused Japan of using the Pacific as a “sewer.”… American scientists are raising concerns that marine life and ocean currents could carry harmful radioactive isotopes—also called radionuclides—across the entire Pacific Ocean.

South Korea is the country that consumes the highest amount of seafood in the world per capita and is the closest country to Japan. While the Japanese government refuses to provide valid samples of the wastewater for neighboring countries to test its safety and the SK government is not taking action to ensure the safety of the discharge plan, anxious Koreans are doing what they can, such as signing petitions, protesting, or buying a lifetime supply of salt.

The sign says, “Object to the disposal of Fukushima wastewater into the Ocean”

Panic buying of salt is taking to toll on households, fisheries, and restaurants. The price of 20kgs of sea salt has increased from 17,700 KRW to 75,000 KRW in just 3 weeks. As more and more people become uncertain about the seafood safety, seafood markets in the country are suffering from a significant decline in customers. Restaurants are buying salts at much higher prices than before.

Japan started test-driving the wastewater release on Monday. I still hope the Japanese government will abolish the plan and explore eco-friendly alternatives before it’s too late, or at least delay the plan so that scientists can test the safety of the wastewater. Let me finish the article with words from Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist and adviser to the Pacific Islands Forum:

“The root of this problem is that they (Japanese government) are moving already with a plan that has not yet shown that it will work. They’re saying, ‘We can make it work. We’ll treat it as many times as it takes.’ If you want to put a nickname on this plan, it’s ‘trust us; we’ll take care of it.’”

If you want to know more about Japan’s nuclear wasterwater release plan and its possible impact on the Pacific ocean, read this:

Japan is poised to release nuclear wastewater into the Pacific. How worried should we be? (National Geographic)

You can also watch “The Days,” a new Netflix series about the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, to learn more about the disaster.

Mini Korean Lesson: Face or Body? 😍

Mark, NCT (Sry for my bad handwriting;)

Do you have a celebrity crush? If so, what characteristics of the celebrity attracted you? Was it their face or body? In Korean, there are slang terms for fans who admire a celebrity’s appearance.

1. 얼빠: a face admirer

2. 몸빠: a body admirer

얼빠 is a combined word of 얼굴 (face) and 빠 (slang. admirer). If you’re an 얼빠, it means you love a celebrity or person for their handsome or pretty face. 몸빠 is a combined word of 몸 (body) and 빠. If you’re a 몸빠, it means you love a celebrity or person for their good physique.

Since they’re relatively new slangs, Google and Apple can’t translate the words. I checked that Google and Apple translate 얼빠 as “stupid” and 몸빠 as “body dad.” ??? 🙃 Now that you know the words, you’ll be less confused when reading Korean thirst tweets.

BTW, today’s lesson was inspired by Mark, my K-Pop bias 💚, who said, “여러분들은 너무 얼빠예요 (You guys are so face admirer.)” during the recent NCT Dream concert in Seoul. He was supposed to say 몸빠, not 얼빠, since he was accusing fans of being horny after being chanted to show his abs, but he’s not a native Korean speaker, so he got confused 🫠

One last thing I’d like to share is a workout video that I’ve been doing recently. I’ve been recovering from mild depression, and this workout has been helping me get out of bed. It’s been a month since I started this workout, and I can already feel my thighs and glutes becoming more toned. It’s quite an intense workout that really gets you sweating, so you’ll feel so rewarding after working out. If you have any workout video or channel recommendations, plz share them in comments! Your suggestions would be very much appreciated :D

Thanks for reading! If you liked my newsletter, like 👇, leave a comment, share, or make a donation to support me ❤️‍🔥. It’ll help me keep writing! I’ll be back next week. 안녕!