2013 was an interesting year for food. There were some big hits and also big duds. In this episode I will talk to you about the foods that were popular last year and my predictions for this year.
In the year 2013, Haedok juice or detox juice was very popular. People would make vegetable juice drinks in order to lose weight. There were many books on haedok juice and many success stories where people have lost a lot of weight.

Mokbang was an interesting trend. Basically these are live streams of people eating a lot of food. I mean a ridiculous amount of food. One famous mokbang personality, BJ the Diva, spends almost 5000 dollars a month on food. In one sitting she might eat a huge plate of fried pork, a bowl of black noodles, tteokbokki, ramen, chips, soondae and wash it down with a couple of sodas. During the videos she'll eat while answering emails and messages from her fans.

This year modisumer was a popular concept. Modisumer means modified consumer food. This year it was trendy to mix ready-made foods like mixing black noodle jajamyeon and spicy noodles together. Also to make bibimbap from rice rolls and soup and cheese from convenience store.
This year it was the year of the smart consumer as Koreans started to figure out how to buy goods directly from sellers instead of getting things from department stores. Koreans started to buy furniture from Sweden and vitamins from America and many international companies started to translate their sites into Korean.

Pop up restaurants were very popular this year as many young restauranteurs started to make creative menus like American southern-style BBQ, Thai restaurants and fusion style cuisine.

2013 was very popular for craft beer. There are many microbrew pubs in the hip areas of Gangnam, Hongdae, and Itaewon. Koreans are demanding better beer these days.

2013 saw the return of bubble tea. Now it seems there are just as many bubble tea places as there are cafés. Western-style steak restaurants are very popular these days. A popular trend is to do pan-steak where they cook the steak in a hot cast-iron pan and then let it finish cooking at the table. They serve this with vegetables and homemade steak sauces.

Beer and fries is a popular trend these days where little pubs serve bowls of thick cut fries with creamy headed beers.

Snowflake bingsu was popular and many cafés invested in the newer model machines in order to compete.

My prediction for this year is that Koreans will focus more on salad bars and vegetarian cuisine. I think they will also have more restaurants geared toward single person dining as well as people's lives get more hectic. Higher-end dining will get more westernized and concept restaurants like a medical themed or toilet themed restaurant will become more common as restaurants compete for diners.

Gourmet food delivery via mobile applications will be more common this year as more companies are competing for delivery business. I think 2014 will be good year for food.