Binging with Babish: Ram-Don from Parasite

Rarely does a dish serve as such a central metaphor for a film's primary conflict: in Parasite, boujee beef sits oppressively atop bargain noodles in the Park family's version of Ram-Don, the way they sit so literally atop others. It was tricky doing this one without spoilers, but I think I managed!

Music: "XXV" by Broke for Free

My playlist of preferred cooking tunes, Bangers with Babish!

The products used in the episode (affiliate links):

[babishculinaryuniverse]

RESPECT


...to Bong Joon-Ho for winning all them oscars!

[blabla]

That truffle had been growing for 5-7 years in the woods of europe, was hunted down for months, plucked by a pig out of the ground, only to be shaved onto a big mac at the end of its life.

[JoshuaWeissman]

Glad you're enjoying the knife my man. <3

[Hail_Mary]

My man actually left a pause for the ad spot. Incredible.

[averagejuni]

I just realized that your whole table is a cutting board

[samengine]

I can’t believe he shaved black truffle on a Big Mac just to make a point. What a power move

[sugky]

He really just cut up some black truffle on top of a Big Mac... I really didn’t think the sirloin on top of the packaged noodles was that bad but damn that analogy hit home

[JSK]

The director mentioned that the significance of this dish was to portray that regardless of class, wealthy or poor, children want to eat instant noodles because it just tastes good. Kids that young do not know or discriminate certain kinds of foods based on what is considered for the "elite" or for the average consumers. But the Park family add high-quality beef to what is considered "cheap" instant noodles to make it more suitable to their class level. Director Bong is a genius!

[sayhoman]

I’m korean, and almost everything was perfection (both pronunciation and the recipe). The only missing point here was the absence of soy sauce when stir frying vegetables for the jjampong. When stir frying all the vegetables, but prior to adding the dashi, put little bit of soy sauce around the edge of vegetables. Fried soy sauce around the edge brings out a new level of aroma and flavor. Also, instead of korean dashi, pork or chicken (especially pork) broth goes well with jjampong.

[MewHeroHero]

shaving that much black truffle onto a big mac just to make a joke, in that expensive NYC apartment....

hey babish, by any chance do you need a tutor and driver and housekeeper

[AspLode]

To add a little Korean context, these two dishes are MASSIVE favorites for delivery in Korea especially for college-aged people, and they're brought over non-disposable bowls utensils and all and there's an established social protocol for places like college dorms where after rooms are done with their meal they leave the bowls and utensils in their metal delivery crates out for eateries to return and collect at the end of the day.

[packs]

as a Korean I love how he pronounces everything like a French delicacy

[neipamocal]

I went to Croatia last year and got to visit the town of Motovun, Black truffles are damn common there that hotdog stands had "truffle dogs" and pretty much every where had truffle on the menu for extremely cheap it was pretty awesome.

[JoshuaMaly]

I like how he added black truffles to a fastfood burger just to make a point.

[sjagoeffy]

I love that he is pronouncing jjajjangmyeon and jjampong in a French accent.

[rydermccall]

I watched Parasite thinking Rom Dom was some exquisite dish, but it was actually a great story-telling element.

[LilBrownieD]

I'm so poor that I didn't even realize how expensive sirloin was during that scene

[Iarlen]

Imagine not eating your big mac with truffles...
Peasants.

[dylanroth]

"And now, to get the hanu beef, I will be traveling to Korea, raising my own cow, and then slaughtering it"

[cinemaocd]

I recently watched this movie and I missed the entire significance of the Ram-don. I just thought it was a dish she didn't know how to make but managed to fake her way through it. When Mrs. Park said "don't waste it, there's sirloin in there, " I thought of American sirloin, not Wagyu. Thank you for this explanation, it actually adds to my understanding of the movie.