Actress Han Ga-in Gives Ryu Soo-young's Tteokbokki a Brutally Honest Review

Actress Han Ga-in did not hold back when reviewing one of YouTube's most-watched tteokbokki recipes. She placed actor and home-cooking star Ryu Soo-young's version dead last in a new taste test on her own channel.

On November 23, her YouTube channel "Free Woman Han Ga-in" posted a video in which she cooked the five most-watched tteokbokki recipes on the platform and ranked them. Tteokbokki, the spicy Korean rice cake dish, is one of the country's most popular comfort foods. Han warned viewers upfront that she loves tteokbokki, so her reviews would be strict.

She started with Ryu's so-called "lifetime tteokbokki" recipe, one of the most shared home-cooking recipes on Korean YouTube. Before tasting it, she made her position clear. "I have no personal relationship with Ryu Su-yeong at all," she said. "I'm not the type to call something delicious when it isn't, and it shows on my face right away."

After one bite, she paused to think. "The texture of the rice cakes is fine, and the sauce soaks in well, but the flavors don't come together," she said. "The saltiness, sweetness, and spiciness all feel like they're doing their own thing."

She went on to call the dish incomplete. "It feels a little unfinished. It's not bad, but it's not amazing either, so it's kind of in the middle."

The recipe finished fifth out of the five she tested that day, the lowest spot on her ranking.

Han did leave room for doubt about her own cooking. "Even with the same recipe, the taste can change depending on who's making it," she said. "It could just come down to cooking skill." She added, "I wonder if there was something wrong with how I made it."

The video points to how much weight home-cooking content now carries in Korean pop culture. A single celebrity recipe on YouTube can shape what millions of viewers eat at home, and a blunt review from another star can push the conversation in a new direction overnight.