I decided to share my experience trying gimbap, also called kimbap. I put this together exclusively for Crime Culture Media while taking a short break from editing Israel Keyes Life in Full Detail after completing the first episode in our three part documentary.
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I first learned about this dish through a video from a Korean YouTube creator who made a beautiful array of gimbap for her family.
At first, I thought it was sushi but I quickly learned that gimbap is distinct from the popular Japanese food. I talk about the difference between gimbap and sushi in my review because after I decided to read about it I discovered that my local Kroger had a limited edition Squid Game bulgogi gimbap for $4.99!
Squid Game has had a massive cultural impact, and I believe has taught us about South Korean culture. I’ve certainly learned a lot. The series tells the story of a group of people selected to compete for millions in cash by risking their lives playing an exclusive, private game secretly run by wealthy elites for their own entertainment.
Failing results in elimination. Elimination doesn’t just mean the shame of going home empty handed but instantaneous death by firearm. The characters and the trials they go through in the series have made waves across the world, drawing a lot of comparisons to The Hunger Games film series.
As a result of the Korean language TV series, a reality TV game show was created based on the series called Squid Game: The Challange (2023) wherein real people, not actors, play the same games for a chance to win $4.56 million dollars.
In the series, multiple players can be heard talking about things they’ve learned about Korean culture, like not choosing the number 4 because, in Korea, it is considered bad luck.
One team called themselves “The Gganbu Gang” after learning from another contestant, an elderly doctor and fan of Squid Game, that “gganbu” means “Close Friend” in Korean.
In addition, the biggest YouTuber in the history of the platform, Mr. Beast, ran a Squid Game styled show called Beast Games (2024) which offered $10 Million as the cash prize, making it the largest reward in reality TV history. The previous record holder was Ken Jennings, who won a cumulative $5,296,214 playing Jeopardy.
The food featured in the game has also gone viral across social media platforms with tons of people donning the green jumpsuit to go on Squid Game themed food runs. Articles have been written about the food, for example, The Takeout published “15 Times Squid Game Used Food To Tell A Bigger Story” (Rebekah Hendricks). The Official Netflix Cookbook also lists foods featured in Squid Game.
The most iconic food from the series are Dalgona cookies, particularly the infamous umbrella shaped cookie. Many deaths resulted in the characters attempting to cut out the shape without cracking the thin, fragile sugar cookie in half.
Food is heavily featured in Squid Game and is used as a tool to highlight class status, comfort, and is used as a form of manipulate and bribery. In the games players are given foods reminiscent of school-aged lunches and snacks.
In Season 2, the character of the recruiter, also known as the salesman, offers people on the street the choice between a bread roll or a scratch-off lottery card. Nearly all of the homeless people he has approached chose to play the lottery; all end up being losing cards.
In the middle of the park, the recruiter dumps the bags the bread rolls onto the ground. One man asks him why he would waste good food, to which the recruiter replies, “Sir, I already gave you a choice and you went with the other option.” Then to the park of hungry people he yells, “I’m not the one here who wasted this! That was you people.”
He then begins stomping on all of the rolls, ruining them instead of allowing anyone to eat them as a punishment for their foolish decision.
Food is an innate human need and also a major cornerstone of every culture in the world. I’m looking forward to trying more new foods in the future and sharing them with you here in the Culture section.
Season 3 of Squid Game is set to release this summer, June 27th.
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