 A new study shows that Korean food might just be the cheapest Asian food to make at home But let's talk about if we even believe that at least it's what this study from the UK said But it's spot a lot of arguments on the internet. Is it hogwash? Is it hogwash? Are you calling like Korean food cheap? That is offensive. Um guys There was a study from the UK. So take that for what it is long story short There was a meal prep kit company. They analyzed like five different ethnic cuisines They took the top five dishes that people ordered on like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Apparently Deliveroo is their You know delivered food delivery service in the UK and for Koreans. They analyzed Korean fried chicken green onion pageant bibimbap bulgogi and tapoki and it Came in at as the cheapest cuisine to recreate those dishes at home Even considered cheaper than Chinese and Indian food and of course Japanese food So anyways guys, we're gonna talk about the findings. We're gonna talk about what the logic is why? This might be true, but also why it's not true So please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the hot-pot boys But I'll tell you this David. What is very high quality is Smala sauce guys you can order it right now It is made with real truffle made in America very delicious. Check out the Instagram at Smala sauce I mean obviously I think the first thing is like who did this study, right? You have to look at sort of the metrics of the study to make sense of this So what they did is they analyzed the top five dishes that everybody was ordering from five different cuisines And then they calculated those so the thing was Chinese was considered the most expensive right Andrew, but for Chinese because people in the UK order very certain Chinese dishes They were comparing it to like dim sum peaking duck and Kung Pao chicken right those especially peaking duck and dim sum that is considered Not super cheap food especially peaking duck so to recreate peaking duck at home I'm not gonna lie is very costly to even just buy the duck and then in time right so if anything I guess this study shows Andrew that people in the UK when they eat Korean food I guess they order the cheaper dishes and when they're ordering Chinese food They're tending to order things like peaking duck or you know things that are expensive Yes, if you are comparing beep and bop and page on and dupoki which are rice cakes to peaking duck No doubt the Korean food is gonna be cheaper, but David We've all been to expensive Korean restaurants and Korean restaurants. I would say per person They have in America at least less super cheap options. They are middle and high-end Yes, you're right Korean restaurants in America unless you're deep in a Korean American enclave are typically what? Possibly even like 25 to 30 dollars a person, right? Oh, it's not more because especially Korean barbecue the meats that are grilled It's all protein, you know, but I will say this and I think this is the logic behind it Is that obviously they're comparing like kind of cheaper Korean dishes to a little bit higher-end Chinese dishes But also it's like I think the raw ingredient cost of Korean food isn't that expensive Especially if you're talking about all the Pan Chan side dishes You mean outside of the the meats, right? Yeah, aside from the proteins, right? You just have a bunch of vegetables cucumbers. You have a bunch of cabbage. You have sprouts. You have seaweed Dicon carrots stuff that is not super expensive in itself But perhaps the preparation to make Korean food actually takes a long time because if you watch this kimchi Documentary on Netflix David, which I did they like when they're making kimchi They like spread the gochujang in between each like cabbage leaf That's why they got a bunch of Ajima's They love it they got a massage it in You know and they're like massaging it out But I'm saying that's a lot of human labor How much of the arguing on the internet once this came out is because nobody wants to be called cheap, right? Right, but of course nobody's looking into the metrics of the study It is true that that when you see that Headline it does seem like it could spark some confusion or people even feeling some type of way about it, right? Well, I'm assuming that the people most offended were Korean people who are like, what are you talking about? Like Chinese food is the cheapest like you can get like the dumpling like for dollar dumpling But you can't do that for Korean food So how is it the cheapest but you're either like you have to compare it to the like David What is Korean food by the way? Is it Shin ramen with spam and egg is does that count as a court yet? Because then it's super cheap, right? You're saying you're saying spam egg mayo nori and then some kimchi that could some people serve that right be honest Some Korean food. It does use a lot of like older American like army food like like in the budaejigae Which is Korean army stew. So yes, some of it is cheap some of it is cheap, but not all of it Yeah, I mean how much of it has to even do with the perception of like that motherland countries like GDP per capita Because you know like Indian food is actually really expensive to cook at home because for an average person They have to buy like up to a hundred spices So it's actually cheaper to go to a restaurant because they can like have economies of scale and actually have a stockpile of those hundred spices I mean listen, I'm not gonna lie in most people's mind initially this graph would be flipped upside down Instead of Korean Japanese Mediterranean Indian Chinese is the most expensive most people would put Chinese as the cheapest Indian then Korean and then Japanese and I just don't understand because they ate they made sushi at home and Ramen what type of ramen? You know what I mean? I don't know man I don't at the end of the day the reason why the study makes sense Even though it doesn't make sense is because it's based off the top five Items that people like to order from those cultures. Yeah, anyway So let's get in the comment section David because there's some what offended Asian Americans Yeah, some people said this is not a very good methodology at all. This is a UK report I'd have to say the Mexican food is the cheapest interestingly enough Andrew or not interestingly enough Mexican food does not even chart in the UK because they have no they're not close to South America in the UK at all Just say there's a there's very very little Mexican food penetration in the UK market to say it There's no Mexicans in the UK. Yeah, I'm just gonna Assume there's not a lot of Mexicans in the UK right right right So I guess a lot of people were saying that that in their mind would have been the cheapest per pound But if we go by the study it has to go by what people order however I do think most people order what tacos and burritos and stuff like that right um somebody said I thought a lot of Indian food would be cheap because it is vegetarian vegetables tend to be cheaper than proteins And they often can cook it in bulk in terms of someone saying a big pot of curry I actually don't know if this is true to be honest Indian food appears to be cheap because it's very saucy Like you can't really tell the difference between chicken, chicken masala chicken curry and like some other stuff It's not cheap. It's not cheap Indian foods not super cheap I think that people have an image of Indian buffets from like the early 2000s Those days are over. Yeah, I mean, let's be honest guys a lot of large reason why like Chinese food is so cheap is because those people who are cooking it are just like Taking razor-thin margins and like slaving away just because they cannot escape the Confucian values of work this person said that personally as a Korean American I do feel like Korean food is fairly cheap because one does not need that many different sauces and spices most dishes can be made with sesame oil soy sauce and sugar garlic onion rice and then add gochujang and gochugaru and then Da-in-jang Yeah, yeah, I mean, I do think there's some logic in that Korean food oftentimes Whatever you consider a Korean dish can be very simple, right? Right, but it is true if you are gonna make your own kimchi from scratch and make your own panchang Your refrigerate it would take like a whole refrigerator No, and if you had to factor in that hourly labor cost, right? Because all those things that are quote-unquote cheap like the spinach and the panchang that needs to take time and have care to marinate in the Sesame oil, but of course when you go to Korean barbecue most of the cost that you're paying for is like the is the beef Right steak at the cow. So enter some Korean Americans and Koreans in Korea gotten to arguments Basically because somebody said yeah, I'm Korean and I think that most of Korean food is just poverty food soups with strong flavors And then rice to pat it out and then someone said that is simply not true You're only referring to Bude G. A you know a lot of the bonchon or the side dishes were made for nobility Otherwise known as Jun shik and some of the foods were born out of necessity But this guy was like really offended by the other Korean American calling Korean food poverty food Yeah, I I would not call Korean food poverty food that that that to me is and then there was people getting into like almost the etymology of it and the history of it saying that like yes some of the dishes were driven from poverty But a lot of the dishes were also held over from the dynastic Joe's on dynasty royal days Yeah, I think what people have to realize is that there's a lot of vegetables in a Lot of pickled vegetables in Korea and it's largely because the winters are very cold and they needed a pickle stuff throughout the venture Winter stuff that would last long. Also. I think Buddhism played a big part in it where they weren't eating meat So they kind of mastered their vegetable dishes So I think what we know as Korean food like if you think about beeping Bob, there's not that much meat in it Usually there's usually an egg and then a bunch of ponchon and then just rice So that in itself is pretty cheap But that is assuming that you have bulk of the ponchon because if you had to make the ponchon yourself I don't think it's as cheap. Right, right, right? Somebody said yep It may be the cheapest to cook based on an ingredient basis outside of the proteins But definitely the most time consuming to make so clearly That's not factoring it in there because this person was saying that if you make a Korean ponchon Which looks like a salad you got a blanch it chop it up You got to add soils oils and sauces toss and then you got a you know marinate etc. Etc. Whereas a Western salad is literally just a bag of salad. We're just dressing on top of it. Right. Um, and ultimately where what do you think? The takeaways are because why did this go so viral because this is sort of a like a leading title for a study, right? I I guess it does Make you think a little bit differently about food. I mean first of all I overall don't agree with it I think if you're comparing cheap Korean dishes to mid-level or expensive Chinese dishes Then yeah, they don't compare because the more expensive dishes period are more expensive But then what they didn't you know, it's because people are not ordering Korean barbecue to their doorstep because you go out and you get Korean barbecue So that's why if they compared the average ticket cost that someone spends at a Korean restaurant the average price versus the average price they spend at a Chinese restaurant I know in New York City the Korean restaurant average average ticket price is much higher be much higher I will say this though We're talking about the UK and I believe that their exposure to Korean cuisine is much more in its infancy and in America It's much more further along in its timeline even in America people don't They like they just order a lot of Korean chicken wings. I'm saying delivery Right, right, right. You're saying that people are not really there's no culture around the takeout I'm talking about delivery food versus this and that it's true that there is no Korean Panda Express equivalent No, like nobody has come up with anything No one's really cheap in eyes like in fast food ice cream barbecue that how much of it ultimately boils down to the branding as a Country I think that this study went so viral because a lot of people were shocked because Korea is killing it Right now it's soft powers at all-time high so for this study to come out and say We think that Mike in Korea and food at home is much cheaper than the other cuisines It sort of cuts against sort of the narrative of the moment, right? I agree. Yeah, and you know, I do think that Fortunately, unfortunately, this is how capitalism works. I do think sometimes the worth of immigrants Or even that the labor of certain immigrants is judged against the GDP per capita of their home country You know why that's why people value things that are made by like a Japanese sushi chef so much because they're like Oh man, this guy coming from a rich country with a high GDP per capita. We value it So anyway guys, let us know what you guys think of the study in the comment section below Keep it civil. Is this UK study right? Is it wrong? Is it skewed because this is just what people are ordering Do people in UK know anything about food in general until next time with a hop-hop boys. We out. Peace