This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Here in Korea, there’s a stigma attached to eating alone. In addition to spawning the mukbang culture – a voyeuristic market niche involving the live streaming of single people consuming massive amounts of food – it has also inspired a new kind of restaurant in Seoul – a restaurant solely for solos. When you arrive, alone, you are seated, alone, at a small booth – something like one you might find in a prison visitation room but more tastefully appointed. A waiter brings you your food. As you slurp your noodles, alone, a screen lights up on the wall. “Do you want someone to eat with?” it asks and offers you two buttons: Yes and No. Select “Yes” and the front wall of your isolation booth rises to reveal a single of the opposite sex seated across from you who is just as surprised as you are! Dining at home alone never looked so good.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.