6 K-pop idols with bizarre favourite foods: NCT’s Jaemin drinks eight-shot coffee americanos while IU loves feasting on bloody raw liver

Mar 22 , 2021

IU, Tzuyu from Twice, Kang Daniel and Sehun from Exo all have some pretty weird favourite foods. Photos: @dlwlrma; @tzuyued/Instagram, @allkpop; @xunhuas/Twitter

For K-pop fans, buying their favourite artists’ latest releases and checking out their TV and radio interviews often isn’t enough. Many go the extra mile by visiting the same places their idols have, listening to music their idols like, and using products their idols endorse. But what about when an idol has odd taste in food?

Here are six K-pop stars with surprising eating and drinking habits … Whether you want to copy them is completely up to you.

NCT’s Jaemin puts eight espresso shots in his coffee

A veritable caffeine fiend: Jaemin from NCT. Photo: handout

It’s typical to finish off a meal with a cup of coffee in Korea. Iced coffee is particularly popular, giving rise to the saying uhl-jook-ah, which means “even if I freeze to death, it’s iced americano for me.”

But that’s not enough for Jaemin from NCT, who orders double-shot americanos, then asks for six extra shots – to make a total of eight shots. We can already feel the caffeine buzz.

In July 2019, NCT members appeared on JTBC’s Idol Room as guests. The MCs prepared foods that Jaemin usually eats, including the aforementioned “deadly” americano with eight shots of espresso. Although the MCs and other members pulled faces when they tried it, Jaemin enjoyed the drink, saying, “I have to drink it like this to feel alert right away. This is just right.”

NCT members enjoying bubble tea. Photo: @Ieostars/Twitter

Apart from this deadly strong americano, Jaemin also loves extremely spicy and sweet foods. He once made deep-fried, sugar-glazed sweet potato wedges for his fellow NCT members, practically heaping on the sugar, and prefers to drink bubble tea with 100 per cent sugar. He even eats sugar straight-up as a snack, commenting: “I have brown sugar next to my bed. I eat it whenever I’m bored.”

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Exo’s Sehun is obsessed with bubble tea

Bubble tea fanatic: Sehun from Exo. Photo: handout

There’s enjoying bubble tea, then there’s loving the drink so much that you get gifted giant novelty bubble tea cups – which is the case with Exo’s Sehun.

Ever since his debut in 2012, Sehun has been well-known as a fan of boba; in fact, it’s his regular drink order. His bandmates all recognise how addicted he is to the drink too. During a V Live with rapper Chanyeol, Sehun was asked which sweet treat he would give up among chocolate, bubble tea, jelly and ice cream, and he answered chocolate right away.

Sehun from Exo got a huge inflatable boba tea cup from his fans. Photo: @xuntrash/Twitter

Sehun’s favourite boba tea shop is reportedly Cofioca in Seoul, and many of his fans visited to try a cup for themselves. Sehun even once received a huge inflatable boba tea cup from his fans as a gift.

Kang Daniel eats raw bacon and frozen spring onion

K-pop idol Kang Daniel. Photo: Instagram

Former Wanna One leader Kang Daniel loves to eat spring onion and bacon. That might not sound so unusual in itself, but guess what – he loves to eat them raw.

Fans worried about him after he was spotted eating raw bacon in one episode of It’s Dangerous Beyond the Blankets, since eating raw, improperly treated meat can cause food poisoning and other health issues. Other guests on the show were surprised, but Kang explained that he eats raw bacon all the time. He added that he “used to eat bacon like this ever since he was in junior school and it’s really good”.

Kang Daniel eating raw bacon. Really. Photo: @HallyuBack/Twitter

Kang also likes spicy hot sauce, pepper and spring onion. In an episode of Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, he said he loves to freeze spring onion and eat it as if it’s an ice pop, commenting that he enjoys the texture.

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Twice’s Tzuyu adds biscuits to her rice

Tzuyu from Twice. Photo: The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images

Forget having dessert before dinner, what about having both at the same time? Although biscuits might typically be considered dessert, and rice part of a regular meal, such categories evidently don’t mean much to Twice’s Tzuyu. During an appearance in JTBC’s Girls Who Eat Well, she revealed she used to crush biscuits into crumbs and mix it with her rice when she was young. She said, “It might seem weird, but actually it tastes greater than you think.”

IU loves raw liver

IU eating some raw liver and intestines. As you do. Photo: @iuthetype/Twitter

If you thought Daniel Kang’s habit of eating raw bacon was extreme, IU might have him beat. In 2011 on KBS2’ Citizens Talk Show Hello, IU revealed that she loves to eat raw liver, but she was advised against eating it in public by her entertainment agency so that it wouldn’t tarnish her “nation’s little sister” image. She said she eats it about two or three times a month since it’s difficult to get, but she would eat it every day if she could, explaining that she “likes the taste and smell of blood on raw livers, and it also looks delicious”.

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Victoria from F(x) loves chicken brain

Victoria from F(x) also enjoys foods that others might be hesitant to eat. When she was on MBC’s Golden Fishery – Radio Star, she said she loved to eat chicken brain when she was in China, comparing its taste to that of tofu. She also she loves eating fish eyes, pig skin, raw beef liver, beef tongue, fermented thornback rays and steamed silkworms.

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K-pop idols

Twice’s Tzuyu swears by crumbled biscuits mixed with rice, while Exo’s Sehun is so obsessed with bubble tea that his fans gave him a giant boba cup as a gift
Meanwhile, former Wanna One member Kang Daniel shocked viewers when he ate raw bacon on TV, while F(x)’s Victoria said she enjoys chicken brain and fish eyes