Delivery kingdom come In 2021, Korea’s dining service industry generated 101.49 trillion won ($82.4 billion) in sales, with that coming from delivery apps accounting for 15.3 percent, according to a joint report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. It was a mark of how COVID-19 had affected everyday life, as the pre-pandemic figur...

Whoever wins the 20th presidential election on March 9, the winner faces the complex task of bringing unity among South Koreans -- a pledge repeated by almost all recent presidents -- and measure out policies to bring naysayers to the table for the next five years. The race so far has largely been centered on mudslinging and denunciations, especially between ruling party candidate Lee Jae-myung ...

Han Na-yeon, a pseudonym for a 34-year-old office worker, experienced an anxiety attack during a job interview six months ago, almost having a breakdown in front of interviewers. This encounter preceded a months long period of depression and repressed anger. Beginning to wonder if she had anxiety or some other issue, she delved into various online communities in an attempt to get to the bottom of...

Touted as the next big thing, the metaverse has been undeniably the talk of the global town since last year. The metaverse frenzy accelerated further when Facebook changed its name to Meta in October. Hoping to take the lead in the new online virtual world, all sectors regardless of their specializations have jumped on the metaverse bandwagon. This has led to lofty projections luring individual ...

“Still, the shift is necessary. The point is to make the system more sustainable against an avalanche of cases,” Jung said, adding, omicron was turning out to be even less severe than initially calculated. Though health officials said the Pfizer oral antiviral treatment was expected to somewhat cushion the blow, its effect had been only slight so far, mainly due to how sparsely it is being distr...

"For our family, eating a bowl of tteokguk together signals a start to the New Year. We skipped tteokguk once, and I had a strange feeling that we were not welcoming the new year,” Lee said. Lee offered a tip on making jidan decorations, stressing that one should make them first before starting to cook the main tteokguk because it can take more time than expected. “I recommend you make jidan fi...

Basic ingredients - 400 grams rice cake slices (tteokguk tteok) - 130 grams minced beef - 2 green onion stalks - 2-3 eggs For beef seasoning - 1 tablespoon soy sauce - 1 tablespoon sesame oil - 1 teaspoon minced garlic - 1 teaspoon sugar - pepper to taste - a little cooking oil to coat frying pan For soup - 5 cups of dried kelp (dashima) broth - 1/2 big spoon soup soy sauce - 1 sma...

Although strings of all-time favorite winter festivals have been canceled in the wake of the pandemic – namely the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival – other options remain. Similar festivals include the Pocheon Baek-un valley Dongjang-gun Nadeu-ri that kicked off Jan. 7 and is set to wrap up Feb. 6; Cheongpyeong Sulbing Festival running from Dec. 24 to Feb. 25; Paju Trout Festival from Jan.8 to Fe...

A 20-month-old baby girl in Daejeon was murdered in June after months of physical and sexual abuse, apparently from her stepfather, and neglect by her biological mother. The toddler’s body was found in a cooler at the stepfather’s house with severe bruises and scars apparently from the abuse. Her stepfather was reported to have beaten her for more than an hour on the day of her death just becaus...

The 59th Venice Biennale 2022 will be held from April 23 to Nov. 27 with the theme “The Milk of Dreams.” The Korean Pavilion will showcase works directed by Lee Young-chul, an art professor at Kaywon University, and those by installation artist Kim Yun-chul who is also an electroacoustic music composer and has explored magnetohydrodynamics, the study of the dynamics of electrically conducting flu...

“This year, I bought a beam projector to watch Christmas movies with my friends at home. Not only that, I found that it’s a thing to put up nice scenery with the beam projector to make it feel like we are having fun somewhere else,” said Lee Ji-won, 28. People are also looking for other ways to give Christmas presents to loved ones via mobile apps’ gift and shopping features. “I bought a ticket...

The state-run Korea Tourism Organization, on Tuesday, held a webinar together with Gangwon Tourism Organization to discuss the workcation trend and its potential as a new avenue for invigorating the pandemic-battered tourism. Kim Eun-hee, a senior official at the KTO’s tourism consulting team, shared how Japan embraced the concept early in 2017. “It was led by the government to address the nati...

Younger campaigners in election camp In an effort to attract young people, the candidates have started recruiting young campaign workers and popular figures in their election committees. The Democratic Party has so far recruited four “youth” campaigners, including a 20-year-old AI developer into its election committee, and revealed a plan to establish a government entity solely for youth. In a...

Looking back on what we have consumed over the year could be one way to wrap up the year 2021, while preparing to make better choices in the new year. Whether an impulsive purchase or a considered decision, consumption patterns show what we desire and what cultural codes and trends are leading the society today. The pandemic challenges the once taken-for-granted in-person connections and communi...

In the Netflix smash hit “Squid Game,” there is a line that resonates with most South Koreans: While boasting that she is street-smart and capable, the self-proclaimed silver-tongued Mi-nyeo says, “I’m totally smart. I just never studied.” The line stems from the widespread belief -- not just here but in many other parts of the world -- that being brainy and doing well on school exams are not ne...