★ The only essay collection by heavyweight Korean novelist Kwon Yeo-sun, now in a fully revised edition: Kwon Yeo-sun is one of the most significant novelists in contemporary Korean literature, having won nearly every major Korean literary award, including the Yi Sang Literary Award, the Oh Young-soo Literary Award, the Kim Yoo-jeong Literary Award, the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, the Kim Seung-ok Literary Award, and the Manhae Literary Award. This is her only essay collection, a revised edition published on the sixth anniversary of the original What Should I Eat?, and has been hailed as “the pinnacle of drinking literature.”

★ Using drink and food as a mother tongue, writing the most elemental human connections: The book revolves around food, alcohol, and drinking snacks. With her uniquely witty and insightful prose, she writes about seasonal tables, the flavours of everyday life, and the relationships and life reflections hidden behind eating and drinking.

★ A comprehensively upgraded revised edition: new illustrations + an in-depth author interview: This revised edition collaborates with the beloved healing illustrator Chicory Painter, completely replacing the book’s illustrations and adding an in-depth interview that explores the author‘s creative world.

★ Selected for the Hankyoreh and Munhwa Ilbo new literature columns, with a reader rating as high as 9.7. Critic Lim Yu-young commented: “I also came to understand that midsummer is the season for Cheongyang chili peppers, and how stylish a middle-aged woman who drinks alone, ignoring the eyes of others, can be.”

Hailed as “the writer who best knows how to write fiction suited to this life,” Kwon Yeo-sun published What Should I Eat Today? in 2018—her first and only essay collection. With her distinctive voice, the book writes about alcohol, drinking snacks, and delicious food, becoming what many readers consider “a richly flavourful essay collection on life.” Thanks to the affection of readers who have long awaited a follow-up, a special revised edition is being released on the sixth anniversary of the book’s publication.

This edition collaborates with the beloved healing illustrator Chicory Painter, completely replacing the book‘s illustrations and adding an in-depth interview that explores the author’s creative world. This writer, who earned the praise of “the pinnacle of drinking literature,” reawakens the food and drinking stories that could not be fully told in her fiction, in essayistic prose that is uniquely Kwon Yeo-sun.

The book is divided into five parts by season, comprising twenty short pieces: from spring‘s lilac and sundae, flower-like pancakes; summer’s cold noodles, water hoe, and Cheongyang chili peppers; to autumn‘s pot noodles, croquettes, and autumn radish layer cake—writing about seasonal ingredients, cooking, and the joy of sharing a meal.

When you read the stories of selecting seasonal ingredients, carefully preparing them, cooking and enjoying them, you can taste the satisfaction of top-tier cuisine and feel the almost exhilarating power of a mother tongue. This essay collection contains what Kwon Yeo-sun could not tell in her fiction and would find difficult to write elsewhere—a feast prepared in “the language of the tongue.”

Memorable Quotes from the Book

“That’s how drinkers are. There are many unpalatable foods in the world, but there is no such thing as an unpalatable drinking snack. Once you add the words ‘drinking snack’ after any food, there is nothing that cannot be eaten.”

“A family is, by definition, people who eat together. To live together, love and passion matter, but so do the saltiness of the soup and the flavour of the kimchi.”

Kwon Yeo-sun

Born in 1965 in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province. Graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Seoul National University and its graduate school; completed doctoral coursework in Korean Language and Literature at Inha University before withdrawing. Made her literary debut in 1996 by winning the 2nd Imagination Literature Award for her first novel, The Blue Gap. She went through a not-insubstantial blank period during her early creative years. In 2007, her short story “When Red Beans Are Boiled” won the Oh Young-soo Literary Award. In 2008, her short story “Believing in Love” won the Yi Sang Literary Award, praised for “not revealing directly, but stimulating the reader‘s imagination through what is left unsaid”—and an almost unknown writer instantly gained intense attention from both the literary world and readers.

Awards: 2024 Manhae Literary Award, 2023 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award, 2021 Kim Yoo-jeong Literary Award, 2018 Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, 2016 Dongin Literary Award, 2015 Dongri Literary Award, 2014 Muyoung Literary Award, 2012 Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, 2008 Yi Sang Literary Award, 2007 Oh Young-soo Literary Award…

Preface: A Novelist’s Way of Food

Part One: Spring, Ever More Refined
Lilac and Sundae
A Dumpling Worthy of Its Name
The Kind Gimbap
The Flower of Flowers, Pancake
The Pairing of Salted Fish and Porridge

Part Two: Summer Arrives with Such Thrilling Charm
Noodles in All Their Forms
Water Hoe, That Special Bite
The Season of Cheongyang Chili Peppers
A Chronicle of Side Dishes for Getting Through Summer

Part Three: The Endlessly Sweet Rainbow of Autumn
Pot Noodles and Croquettes
The Temperature of Cafeteria Food
Autumn Radish Three-Layer Cake
…