Myszka, who grew up in Seoul and now co-owns Epiphany Farms Hospitality Group with her husband, Ken, in Bloomington, Illinois, said that the association is about sound: The sputter and sizzle of the pajeon batter crisping in oil echoes the light, rhythmic tapping of rainfall—and in a part of the world that experiences significant precipitation, the response is downright Pavlovian. Sales of pancake ingredients and makgeolli, the so-called farmer’s liquor made from fermented rice, reportedly surge, and crowds flood local pajeon shops.
There are other inclement weather–related associations, too, such as the theory that flour-based foods boost serotonin and blood sugar during gloomy low-pressure spells, and the popular tale of Korean farmers who fried up jeon (a broader term for battered and pan-fried foods) when it was too rainy to work in the fields. The ingredients were accessible, and the crispy, glutinously chewy food was just the thing to eat with cheap, milky makgeolli.
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