What food is Extraordinary Attorney Woo always eating?

Some Kdramas are so well written and performed that when the series ends you immediately head back to the first episode and start watching it all over again. The 2022 Netflix series Extraordinary Attorney Woo is like that.

The show tracks the hurdles of an unusual lawyer named Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin) as she begins her career at Hanbada Law Firm. Young-woo is unique. She has a savant-like memory, is obsessed with whales, and graduated at the top of her class in law school. She also has autism and stumbles awkwardly in social situations.

In many of the episodes, we see Young-woo with a pair of chopsticks, eating what looks like a big roll of sushi. She eats this for breakfast, packs another into a small, plastic container for lunch, and usually has it for dinner too.

The roll is called gimbap (김밥), from the words gim (seaweed) and bap (rice). Sometimes the word is romanized as kimbap and actually, it’s not really sushi.

What is gimbap?

Gimbap is seaweed and rice wrapped around a variety of different fillings. The fillings are most often sliced carrots, spinach, yellow pickled radish, fried egg, fish cake, and marinated beef or imitation crab.

The rice is made with a bit of salt, sugar, and sesame oil. The rice and seaweed and are placed on a bamboo mat. The fillings are placed on the rice and everything is rolled up evenly. Then, the roll is cut into 1/2-inch slices and eaten with a single bite.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo carrying a plate of gimbap

Because they resemble each other, people often mistake gimbap for sushi. They are mostly the same. The cause for distinction, however, is that sushi will include raw seafood whereas gimbap doesn’t always have meat, and if it does, it’s always cooked.

Gimbap is a super popular food to eat in Korea, like how a sandwich is in America. And like a sandwich, you can add any type of ingredients you want. Some get creative and add cheese, tuna, pork, tofu, kimchi, or anything else to their gimbap.

Whatever ingredients you add though, gimbap always looks delicious. The colorful vegetables complement the colorful flavors that emerge as you munch your way through the assortment of fillings. It’s not oily or greasy like pizza and cheeseburgers. You don’t feel fat and tired after eating it either. When the right fillings are used, gimbap can be a very healthy meal.

Attorney Woo also says gimbap is reliable menu option. You can see exactly what’s in the food so you won’t be alarmed by something that’s unexpected.

Gimbap is reliable. I can see all the ingredients, so I will not be alarmed by unexpected texture or flavor.
Woo Young-woo

Woo Young-woo eating gimbap

In Korea, you can find gimbap sold at restaurants, street vendors, food stands, food courts, grocery stores, train stations—any place that sells food is going to have it.

Depending on the ingredients used, gimbap is generally very cheap and portable. It’s the perfect on-the-go food for picnics, hikes, field trips, or eaten as a daily lunch, like Woo Young-woo.

Woo Young-woo’s gimbap in episode 2

The Origins of Gimbap

The birthplace of gimbap is not clear. Cuisine often has so many permutations and evolutionary steps throughout time and place that it’s hard to pinpoint how certain things came to be. But there are two competing theories regarding the origin of gimbap.

Some associate gimbap with the Japanese sushi roll. During the time when Korea was under Japanese rule, wrapped rice rolls called norimaki were introduced to the Korean people, who then adapted them to fit the local food culture.

A full plate of gimbap

Others say, during the Joseun era of Korean history (pre-Japanese occupation), people liked to wrap their rice and side dishes with seaweed and eat them in one bite. Gimbap is just an evolution of that practice.

Perhaps through unlikely happenstance, two branches of culinary evolution merged together upon the same point in food history. Like how you find great pyramids in Egypt and Central America. Different people where thinking the same thing. But who knows?

Gimbap To Go

Gimbap is best eaten as soon as it’s made. However, you can pack it as a lunch too if you intend to eat it later at work or while picnicking out somewhere in nature or urban landscapes.

Woo Young-woo’s gimbap lunch box

In the show Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Young-woo is seen with a little container that stores her lunch gimbap. In Korea, a packed lunch box is called a dosirak. These are similar to bento boxes in Japan but they don’t always have the individual compartments that divide food.

You can find bento boxes and dosiraks that are made out of wood, plastic, or metal, with adjustable and removable dividers. Stainless steel containers tend to be more durable and can have a leak-proof seal for moist foods.

Bambaw Lunch Box

The stainless steel lunch box from Bambaw has a strong and leak-proof design that's perfect for transporting your gimpab.

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Summary

Extraordinary Attorney Woo is an amazing show that’s definitely worth checking out. The warm and heartfelt characters will draw more people to Kdramas and the foods originating from the Korean peninsula.

Woo Young-woo, played by Park Eun-bin, is what makes the show special, and her love for gimbap is fun to watch too.

If you’ve never had gimpab or other rice rolls, be sure to explore them in your local restaurants or put in the effort to make these yourself. It’s definitely worth it!