MBC's 'What Do You Do When You Play?', which aired on the 20th, featured the 'What Do You Do Restoration Center' episode that returned after a year. Yoo Jae-seok, Haha, Joo Woo-jae, Park Jin-joo, Lee Yi-kyung, and Lee Mi-joo received a request to restore 'Sonmandu', which was like the last legacy left behind by their grandmother, and were shown working together with experts to carry out the restoration work.
On this day, the broadcast recorded a 2049 viewership rating of 2.7%, a key indicator of channel competitiveness and topicality, solidifying its position as the No. 1 Saturday entertainment program. The household viewership rating in the metropolitan area soared to 4.5%, and the highest viewership rating per minute soared to 5.3%. The best moment was the scene where the client's mother tasted her grandmother's restored hand-made dumplings and spoke about her thoughts. The restoration was successful at nearly 95%, adding to the emotion. (Based on Nielsen Korea metropolitan area)
The members had tears in their eyes after hearing the client's story. Kim Song-hee, who requested the restoration of her grandmother's handmade dumplings, expressed her wish to serve her grandmother's dumpling soup to her mother, who was having a hard time fighting cancer. My grandmother always used to send me handmade dumplings by courier, but because of our sudden breakup, I couldn't find out the dumpling recipe. The client expressed his earnest feelings by handing over the last 12 dumplings left by his grandmother in the freezer.
Yoo Jae-seok talked about the difficulty of restoring unquantified taste and said, “I didn’t know that before. The taste of soybean paste stew and kimchi stew that my mother makes... “We don’t really know the importance of our families because they are always by our side,” he said, reminding us of the nostalgic taste that everyone has at least once.
Then, full-scale dumpling restoration work began. Experts from the Dumpling Research Institute lent a helping hand, and researchers began analyzing the precious dumpling samples. The key to restoration was finding unidentified herbs. The members also said, “I don’t know what it was, but there was a scent of vegetables,” and researchers raised doubts, saying, “It was vegetables with a chewy texture and a strong scent.” The members expressed their admiration for the work that used scientific equipment to measure weight, salinity, and dumpling skin properties.
The production team visited the 5-day market in Jeongseon, Gangwon-do, the grandmother's hometown. From the residents I met there, I obtained valuable information that the true nature of the vegetable was Gat, and I received Jeongseon Gat Kimchi from an elderly woman I met by chance. The members were touched by the grandmother's generosity in giving to the production crew they met for the first time, saying, "Thank you so much," and "It's your movie." Haha and Jinju Park visited the Dumpling Research Institute in person and worked together with researchers to restore the taste.
There was a lot of effort and help from many people, and the final version was released after four weeks of restoration work. The members visited the client with the restored dumplings and recipe. The client’s aunt said, “I didn’t know when he was alive. “After she passed away, she was everything to me,” she said, bringing tears to her eyes as she recalled her deceased mother. The client's mother appeared next, eating dumpling soup and silently nodding. Mom said, “The insides are almost the same. He expressed his gratitude by saying, “About 95%,” and the members were relieved, saying, “We’re really fortunate.”
Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr