Korean roadside food stalls are dying out

Kim Il-sun prepares dalkgalbe - spicy chicken with vegetables, stir-fried in soju - at Auntie's Soju Tent. Photo: Jo Turner

Soju tents once dotted the Korean landscape like craters on Mars. Usually made of red or orange tarpaulin, they filled every empty lot, squatted slum, and busy thoroughfare in the country.

Heated by portable propane stoves in the winter, open to the elements in the summer, soju tents were where busy Koreans could get a bottle of soju – a clear Korean spirit, similar to vodka – and a plate of chicken gizzards, steamed squid or fresh fish, and still be outside. The Korea Tourism Organization describes them as "the place for common folk and 'salarymen' to go to relieve the stresses of life."