Rainy days the time to savor 'Korean pancakes,' analysis shows

A local credit card company's analysis showed Sunday that bindaetteok and sujebi, two dishes many South Koreans associate with rainy days, actually show substantial jumps in sales when the rain pours.

KB Kookmin Card analyzed public data and data it compiled from its consumers between June and August of last year, and found that bindaetteok sales on days with at least 10 millimeters of rainfall were 35 percent higher compared to other days. Bindaetteok is made of dough from ground beans with various ingredients mixed, including vegetables and meat, and is fried in oil and flattened, akin to a savory Korean pancake.

A common way of enjoying the dish is with the traditional Korean alcoholic drink makgeolli, and many locals say the combination of the two is best enjoyed on a rainy day.

Another dish frequently enjoyed on rainy days was sujebi -- hand-pulled dough in hot soup -- sales of which jumped 13 percent on rainy days compared to other days.

On the contrary, South Koreans tended to eat less sushi and mulhoe -- cold raw fish soup -- when it rains. Sushi sales went down 28 percent during rainy days, while mulhoe sales declined 46 percent.