The Korean Drinking Snack Gen Z Apparently Won't Touch

Koreans love a good anju — the food you order specifically because you're drinking, not because you're hungry. Crispy chicken, kimchi pancakes, tteokbokki. Universal stuff.

But one classic anju is reportedly getting boycotted by the younger crowd: boiled pork belly with cold seafood broth on the side.

The dish on top is suyuk — pork belly simmered until it's tender, sliced thin, eaten cold or warm with kimchi, salted shrimp, or a mustard-vinegar dip. The dish on the bottom is the same idea but pressed and chilled like a terrine. It's been a Korean drinking-table staple for decades.

The complaint, in one Instiz user's words: "It just tastes like cold meat. There's no flavor moment."

Fair, honestly. Suyuk is one of those foods where the texture and the dipping sauce do all the work — there's no sear, no smoke, no caramelization. Compared to grilled samgyeopsal or fried chicken, it's quiet. And quiet food does not survive a generation raised on flavor-bomb TikTok recipes.

The pro-suyuk camp is mostly people over 35 who'll tell you it's the anju for soju — clean, doesn't fill you up, lets you keep drinking. The Gen Z camp would rather eat fried chicken.

Mine: I'm with the over-35s. Yours?