this isn’t a guide. it’s a glorified #popchat in visual form—just with less typing and more pastel steam. the #pohanggukbapstreets — aka that sacred stretch of late-night salvation between emotional burnout and food coma—deserve better than a food blog feature or some influencer’s shaky vlog. so we let the real insiders speak. or, more accurately, paint. this series comes from first-year college students who swapped pohang’s salty coastline for dorm laundry rooms and overpriced lattes. but even from miles away, they couldn’t stop drawing steam. steam off bowls. steam in alleys. steam as memory, protest, craving, homesickness, and low-grade identity crisis. we asked them to paint in pastel tones—soft, hazy, a little sleep-deprived. because that’s how the memories feel. not glossy, not filtered. just real. each piece is a love letter. or a ghosted text. or a teary-eyed group selfie disguised as soup. a visual eulogy for their high school selves eating gukbap at 3am after the fireworks got rained out and the night felt too big to end. and yes—you can almost smell the anchovy broth through the pigment. welcome to pohang gukbap streets: freshmen feelings edition. soft tones. loud emotions. and rice that remembers everything. interviews to follow. because some things taste better when you talk about them. follow along under #pastelgukbap