[Weekly Series] K-Pop Mood Playlist – Hungry

This week was Thanksgiving in the U.S., a holiday for eating, spending time with family, giving thanks, and more eating! The day after was Black Friday, a not-actually-holiday where bargain starved shoppers hit the stores! So for this week’s K-Pop Mood Playlist, we’re getting hungry with some great k-pop songs about food!

1. Super Junior-H – “Cooking? Cooking!”

• Did you know Super Junior actually has 5 sub-units? (Can you name them all without looking them up?) Super Junior-H (the H stands for Happy) hasn’t been active except for their debut mini-album back in 2008, but “Cooking? Cooking!” was a huge hit with fans after its release.

2. Norazo – “Curry”

• What’s there to say? The whole song is about curry! It even gives you a quick recipe on how to make curry (spoilers: potatoes, onions, spicy curry, no beef). Norazo loves curry so much they made a whole song about it, and apparently other Korean love curry too because the song was an unexpected hit.

3. The Jadu – “김밥 (Kimbap)”

• “Kimbap” is a super cute song by The Jadu about a couple who are totally different from one another but have a shared love for kimbap. One person is kim (seaweed), and the other is rice, and while they may be opposites, they’ll still stick together until the end.

4. Younha – “Strawberry Days”

• “Strawberry Days” is a beautiful little song by Younha who compares days spent with a lover to the refreshing sweetness of a strawberry. Smitten in love, Younha also asks her lover to not fade away like the bubbles of a cola.

5. Yoon Jong Shin – “팥빙수 (Patbingsu)”

• There’s nothing better than some icy patbingsu on a hot day! If you don’t know what it is, patbingsu is a Korean dessert made of shaved ice usually topped with condensed milk, a variety of fruits, and red beans. It’s delicious, and Yoon Jong Shin must agree because he made a whole song about how much he loves patbingsu!

6. HAHA and 10cm – “찹쌀떡 (Chapssaltteok)”

• This song from Infinite Challenge is a long list of all the food that HAHA and 10cm are reminded of when thinking of their love. HAHA and 10cm must have been really hungry when writing the song because chapssaltteok, a Korean dessert made of sweet rice cakes filled with sweet red bean paste, is just one many foods they think of in comparison to their lover. Also included are other Korean favorites like budae jjigae (army base stew) and haenjangguk (hangover soup).

7. Jessica and Park Myung Soo – “냉면 (Naengmyun)”

• Another song from Infinite Challenge, this sweet sounding song from Jessica Jung and Park Myung Soo is actually about a couple who can’t stop acting cold towards each other like icy naengmyun  (noodles served in a cold broth).

8. IU – “Marshmallow”

• IU must really have a sweet tooth, because in this song she sings about lollipops, jelly, gumdrops, cookies, chocolate, and, of course, marshmallows. The song is all about comparing sugary candies to her super sweet boy.

9. Daesung – “Cotton Candy”

• One of Daesung’s solo singles, “Cotton Candy” is a super cute song about Daesung’s love who melts his heart like cotton candy on your tongue.

10. Joo – “Ice Cream (feat. Leeteuk)”

• Another adorable song about love and sweets, Joo and Leeteuk’s “Ice Cream” is about a couple who has their fair share of problems, but always end up melting for each other like ice cream.

Bonus:  Jang Kiha and the Faces – “That Sucks”

• While the  song itself isn’t about food, the video is one of the best examples of Korean food porn on the internet. You’ll find your mouth watering the whole way through, until the cruelest ending in history.