Between slide and climbing frame, the players in episode 3 of the successful series "Squid Game" have to make a decision: circle, triangle, star or the umbrella? Without knowing which form offers the greatest chance of survival in the game of life and death. Player Sang-woo was well advised - through a childhood memory. A look back shows how an elderly gentleman crouches in front of a small stand and stirs a pan, and how sugar turns into a light brown mass, is flattened and pressed onto a cookie shape: star, umbrella, playing pin. The mature Sang-woo opts for the triangle - the simplest shape. Because the molds poured in sugar mass have to be carved out with a sewing needle and a lot of dexterity. Who failshas to reckon with death like in all games of "Squid Game".

Johanna Christner

Editor in the section “Germany and the World”.

  • Follow I follow

While the fatal outcome of this game is pure fiction, the candy that has now become known to a wide audience through "Squid Game" actually exists in South Korea. There the mixture of sugar and baking powder is called "Dalgona" or "Ppopgi" and has been sold at street stalls since the 1960s. When it comes to the tricky task, there are basically only winners in real life: Those who succeed in detaching the stamped shape from the crowd will receive a small prize such as another piece of “Dalgona”. Anyone who fails at the game had at least one sweet treat. Admittedly, having fun isn't healthy, but neither is conventional candy from the supermarket. And although there is now talk of the “Squid Game Biscuit” in many places, “Dalgona” is about a lot more:Many people in South Korea associate this particular snack with emotions, nostalgia and childhood memories - such as Sang-woo, the player with the number 218.

The success of “Squid Game” is also having an impact on street vendors in South Korea; some of the dealers are currently barely able to save themselves from customers. A piece of the candy costs around 2,000 Korean won, which is the equivalent of around one and a half euros. The big lot went to the dealer who sat down on his pans for the “Squid Game” film team: 37-year-old An Yong-hui has been selling “Dalgona” in the university district of Seoul for eight years and together with his employees made it from 15 kilos Zucker received the 700 “Dalgonas” for the shooting in June 2020. Since “Squid Game” has delighted numerous Netflix viewers, it has happened that An couldn't go home for a week to see the many customers at his two meters long stand to be able to operate. And that at a timein which young Koreans often only know “Dalgona” from the stories told by their parents and grandparents. Especially after the Korean War, the candy was considered a sweet consolation in difficult times. 

Although “Dalgona” consists of only two ingredients, the preparation is not that easy. The numerous videos on Tiktok and Instagram, which have gone viral under hashtags such as #DalgonaChallenge and #DalgonaCandyChallenge since the hype surrounding the “Squid Game”: don't overheat the sugar; Do not take your eyes off the pan, otherwise the candy threatens to burn; if possible use long sticks to stir; and do not add too much to the sugar, ideally just add a pinch of baking powder. Practice makes perfect in this matter too. The perfect “Dalgona” does not become hard after cooling, but instead has a slightly chewy, yet easy-to-chew consistency.

If you don't dare to prepare “Dalgona”, you can also make do with an Instagram and Tiktok filter and try out the “Toffee Game” effect in the selfie mode of your camera: while the scary, beautiful music from “Squid Game ”Runs in the background, you can carve out the“ Dalgona ”shapes with your face - here too without any fatal consequences. Clever owners of Korean restaurants in Germany are also currently calling out their own “Dalgona Challenges”, in which concentrated restaurant visitors carve out for victory. 

Incidentally, the candy has little to do with the “Dalgona coffee”, the preparation of which kept internet users busy during lockdown.

But then a little: after actor Jung Il-woo discovered the drink, which originally came from India, in a café in Macau, he presented the coffee specialty on a South Korean TV show in early 2020.

Because the similarly colored mixture of instant coffee, sugar and hot water reminded him of the sweet "Dalgona", he called it "Dalgona Coffee".

And since cafes had to close at this time due to the corona pandemic, the drink with its simple preparation became an internet phenomenon - and was nicknamed the "Quarantine Drink".