Rue de Provence, in 9e district of Paris, not far from Saint-Lazare station. There are three of them, who came at lunchtime to pick up their little piece of Korea at K-Mart, the grocery store recognizable by its logo – an orange capital letter K on an anthracite gray background. Opened in April, it is the last of the Korean brand’s five Parisian addresses. “We love it, there is an incredible choice, we want to try everything”enthuses Nina, 19 years old, interrupted by the cry of Célia, another member of the trio: ” They have tteokbokki ! »
Crowded behind the refrigerated display case, the BTS students devour with their eyes a bag containing rice flour sticks, to be cooked in a spicy red chili-based sauce. “It’s killer, with a taste that is both spicy and a little sweetexplains Kenza. Shall we take two packets? It goes quickly. » Her friends agree.
A cultural tsunami
They are the worthy representatives of these increasing numbers of consumers who love the flavors of hansikKorean cuisine, and in particular its street food. Tteokbokkitherefore, but also kimbap (Or gimbap), rice rolls coated with seaweed and stuffed with all kinds of ingredients, bibimbap, a dish mixing rice, vegetables, egg and marinated meat, corn doga hot dog without bread where the sausage coated with frying is skewered on a stick, no longer have any secrets for a generation fed up with K-pop music, cinema and series (K-dramas) from the land of Morning Calm.
The wave has arrived through restaurants, it is now filling trolleys, frying pans and microwaves. In the space of a few years, the number of Korean restaurants has doubled in the capital and in Ile-de-France, reaching nearly 300 today, plus some 80 addresses in the provinces. Not to mention the “Chinese” restaurants which, after offering pseudo-Japanese cuisine, are now expanding their offerings with Korean dishes. In line with this craze, grocery stores and convenience stores are opening almost everywhere.
In Paris, K-Mart and Ace Mart (also five supermarkets in the capital), which have their online service ensuring deliveries throughout France, are the flagships of a flotilla of small ships anchored in Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice or even Dijon. In these temples of Korean (and a little Japanese) food, an often plethoric offer of condiments, noodles, sweets and drinks delights a majority of twenty-somethings, mainly girls, carried away by the Hallyu (word of Chinese origin meaning “Korean wave”), this cultural tsunami coming from Seoul, arrived in Europe around ten years ago and embodied by the global success of music groups like BTS or Blackpink.
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