★★ Pre-publication overseas copyright export contract ★★
★★ Books of the Year at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair ★★

“Because at the dinner table, I can forget the sadness of the day.”
In a spicy, salty, and hot world
Records of the days that fed me, comforted me, and raised me up

Just when I feel like tears are about to burst out, a bowl of hot hangover soup miraculously melts my heart.
On days when your head feels like it's going to explode from stress, how about the fiery, spicy taste of Buldak Bokkeum Myeon that you can't help but reach for?

"Ramen Instead of Tears" is an essay by Won Do, an essayist who has become a legend in the independent publishing industry with her outstanding writing skills. It is a humorous and touching essay about a woman who tries to move forward one step at a time despite the constant worry of 'making a living.'
The first moving day remembered with 'Jjajangmyeon', the hard day overcome with 'Samgyeopsal', and the uncertain nights of youth comforted with 'a bowl of udon from a street food stall'.
As you follow the memories and emotions contained in a single bowl of food, today's worries will melt away and a small courage to endure tomorrow will blossom.

It is said that Korea was the first place in the world to harvest seaweed and also the place that consumes the most seaweed in the world.
The first record of seaweed harvesting is said to be in the Samguk Yusa, which means that Koreans have been harvesting and eating seaweed since at least 157 AD.
(…) How did seaweed soup, a nutritious food for women who have given birth, come to have the modern-day superstition that eating it on exam day will make you slip?
Our ancestors may have known.
Failure means the birth of something new.
--- p.13 From “Seaweed Soup: It Might Start Again From That Slippery Place”

Because my older brother was born with a congenital disability, I didn't have many of the memories that were 'normal' back then, and eating kimbap on picnic days was one of them.
(…) The mother didn’t have time to make kimbap for her daughter.
Even as a child, I knew that making kimbap, which involves blanching spinach, marinating it in sesame oil, cutting crab meat into bite-sized pieces, finely frying eggs, and then preparing various vegetables and rolling them up with rice, was a lot of work.
And what I wanted was not the kimbap itself, but the hard work my mom put into it and the time she spent just for me.
--- pp.27-28 From "Kimbap: Roll it well so your heart doesn't burst"

Clam stew, a dish made by boiling fresh clams and various vegetables in broth in a large pot, requires boiling for at least 15 minutes, but even if you keep an eye on the timer, every minute and second passes slowly.
(…) The first broth is light, the broth that has boiled and reduced a little is just right, and the last broth has a wonderfully savory taste. This is the charm of clam stew.
The longer you boil it, the more delicious it becomes. The better it is to eat clam stew with a good friend.
When you eat with a friend who makes you laugh just by sitting there with them without any pretense, you can't help but open your mouth wide and laugh like a well-cooked clam.
--- p.47 From “Clam Stew: Until the Shells Gather to Become a Shield”

There's still a bunch of kimchi left.
Even though I tell her not to send me, my mom doesn't listen.

(…) “How long has it been since I sent you kimchi and it’s already getting moldy? I’ve never had that happen in my entire life….”
I yelled at my mom, who asked as if she really didn't understand.
How can a house with a kimchi refrigerator and a house with a used refrigerator be the same?
What I really couldn't accept wasn't so much my one-way communication with my mom as it was my future in which I might have a kitchen with a large double-door refrigerator.
--- pp.94-95 From "Kimchi: You Were the Main Character"

It is said that if you add up the length of the noodles of Buldak Bokkeum Myeon sold so far, it would be enough to go back and forth between the Earth and the Moon 101 times.
(…) How would it feel to have something I made sell so well?
What kind of expression would I make if that moment were to unfold in reality?
(…) Write today’s goals on a blank piece of paper.
I've never been sure I was on the right path.
However, I write today as well, believing that this scenery, which repeats every day, will one day bring me certainty.
Of course, my role model is Buldak Bokkeum Myeon!

--- pp.181-183 From “Buldak Bokkeum Myeon: My Dream is Like Buldak Bokkeum Myeon!”