The Dark Side of Seoul Podcast31 Dec 2025

Where Have All the Soju Tents Gone? Part 1

There is no Waffle House in Korea.

For decades, the pojangmacha was the last line of defense against going home hungry, broke, or blackout drunk. It was cheap, social, messy, and human. And then it slowly disappeared.

In Part 1 of Where Have All the Soju Tents Gone, we trace the origins of the pojangmacha from Japanese yatai and Joseon-era taverns to its explosion after the Korean War. We talk about why these tents mattered, who ran them, what people ate there, and why they became one of the most important informal social spaces in modern Korean history.

This is not just a story about street food dying. It is a story about how Seoul systematically removed the spaces that ordinary people built for themselves.

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Produced by Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey

Music by Soraksan

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