Korean Drama - No Gain No Love

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No Gain No Love is a 2024 South Korean romantic comedy drama written by Kim Hye-Young and directed by Kim Jeong-Sik.

The series aired August 26 - October 1, 2024 and is available to stream on Prime Video. The series has 12 episodes.

Main Cast:

Shin Min-A as Son Hae-Yeong

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Kim Young-Dae as Kim Ji-Uk

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Lee Sang-Yi as Bok Gyu-Hyeon

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Han Ji-Hyun as Nam Ja-Yeon/Yeon Bo-Ra

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Supporting Cast:

Jeon Hye-Won as Kwon Yi-Rin

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Lee You-Jin as Yeo Ha-Jun

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Joo Min-Kyung as Cha Hui-Seung

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Go Wook as Ahn Woo-Jae

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Yoon Bok-In as Lee Eun-Ok

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Choi Jin-Ho as Chairman Bok

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Lee Il-Hwa as Seon Jeong-A

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Special Appearance:

Byeon Woo-Seok as U-Seok

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Like most dramas I've watched, it has some stand out tracks from the OST, these are definitely my favourites.

Sondia - Possible Love

ElyDha Subs

Kassy - Someday

ElyDha Subs

Hui - My Side

ElyDha Subs

Kei - A New Day

ElyDha Subs

Bang Yedam - By Your Side

ElyDha Subs

Son Hae-Yeong is the type of person who doesn't wan to lose money under any circumstance. While growing up, she had to share her mother's love with others. She often found her partners in relationships below her break-even point. Now, Hae-Yeong faces the possibility of missing out on a job promotion at her workplace. To avoid such a loss, she makes a plan for a fake wedding. She recruits Kim Ji-Uk to be her fiancé.

Ji-Uk works part-time as a cashier at a convenience store. He is the type of person who can't ignore people in need and tries to do the right thing. He is smooth with every customer at the convenience store, except for one person. That person is Hae-Yeong. When she suddenly asks him to become the fake groom at her wedding, he somehow accepts her offer.

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I will admit I was biased on the reason I started this drama, and it was because it starred Shin Min-A. She's one of my favourite female South Korean actresses. Loving the rest of the cast was a bonus.

I really liked the plot, even if at times it was predictable, but I think that's just because a lot of Korean drama's, especially romance drama's tend to follow the same concepts. I saw that many fans were disappointed with how the series concluded, so I was a little nervous. While I was happy with the ending I could see why there was some negativity as, for some it could be seen as not having a proper conclusion. While I would love to have see how their relationship continued in the future, I liked that it showed that they were pretty much starting again with a clean slate and living for themselves rather than how they each wanted to the other to live.

I really loved the cast, they had great chemistry, which made watching each scene enjoyable. I think each character added some comedy to the show, and even had me gasping when some things began to be revealed.

I loved Shin Min-A as Son Hae-Yeong, she's a woman that wants people to be all-in or it's over and I feel how she treats relationships is down to how she felt when she was younger. I can see some people thinking her character was jealous and at time selfish, with the way she treated her mother and how her mother helped others, but I could see it from her side, she told her parents how she felt and her feelings weren't taken into consideration. But would she have been the strong, independent, and caring to her "sisters" if things in the past had been different.

I loved Kim Young-Dae as Kim Ji-Uk, he really added comedy to the show, which I think was down to his naivety. While he seemed to have his own goals, he definitely leaned more to putting others before himself. I loved how his and Hae-Yeong's relationship developed, while we were often shown how he was annoyed and disliked Hae-Yeong, we could see that he still tried to help her behind the shadows. Which I guessed from the start as to why he would stop to listen to her.

I really liked Lee Sang-Yi as Bok Gyu-Hyeon, I did feel for his character at times as he was being pushed one way by his father and another way by his mother, it didn't seem like he could just be himself, an no matter what he did, it seemed like it was the wrong choice. He definitely added the comedy to the show as the typical character born and raised into money. But I did like that his character was more naïve than the typical I'm better than you trope.

I really liked Han Ji-Hyun as Nam Ja-Yeon/Yeon Bo-Ra, she comes across as sweet and innocent, but there is definitely more to her and who she is, as you come to learn more about her past. I think at times she's stuck in her past an struggles to accept who she is and believes she deserves to be punished. It's sad that if everyone wasn't trying to protect each other, she would have learnt not to only lover herself quicker, but believe she deserves a happy ending.

I thought Jeon Hye-Won was a good side character as Kwon Yi-Rin, and I loved how her friendship developed with Hae-Yeong.

I really liked Lee You-Jin as Yeo Ha-Jun, I loved the relationship between him and Gyu-Hyeon. Whilst they were mainly boss and secretary, I feel only Ha-Jun could get away with some of the stuff he said to and about Gyu-Hyeon. Normally it should be subordinate scared of the boss, but there was role reversal at times which made me laugh.

I really liked Joo Min-Kyung as Cha Hui-Seung, I loved Hui-Seung and Hae-Yeong's relationship as they knew how each other would react to certain situations, knowing that they would call each other out, to me shows a bond between them. Hui-Seung is a character that won't let anyone sway her decisions.

I thought Go Wook was good  as Ahn Woo-Jae, our first introduction to him isn't really a good one as when we first meet him we quickly found out that he'd been cheating on Hae-Yeong with Yi-Rin. He doesn't seem to take any accountability for it, and he's the type of character that will do anything to move up in his roles at work. The more Yi-Rin tries to help him the more we seem to see he needs to be a mans man. I definitely felt for Yi-Rin as at time it came across that she questioned whether se really knew who she had married.

I really recommend this drama, it has it's highs and lows, and is full of belly laughs with a few tears. It had me hooked from the first episode and I enjoyed watching and seeing how the story would develop as well as how the characters would change and grow. While it may have some of the cliché's that make it at times predictable, it definitely at times kept me guessing and gasping in surprise.

Have you watched No Gain No Love?

Were you a fan of the cast?

Did you enjoy the plot?

Let me know in the comments below.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye 

Tanghulu

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こんにちは

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(Ni Hao)

Tanghulu is a traditional Chinese street food sweet treat, it was traditionally made with tart Chinese hawthorn berries, but has been changed up to include other fruits like strawberries, grapes, mandarin oranges and kiwi.

I've been wanting to try this snack for quite a while but never come across it when out and about in London's China town. It wasn't until I decided to have a look at recipes that I thought to make them myself.

Let's get making!

Ingredients:

1lb strawberries and grapes

2 cups white sugar

1 cup water

Start off by washing and patting dry your fruit with a paper towel.

Get your fruit ready, remove the green stems from your strawberries and remove grapes from the stems.

Next arrange the fruit onto skewers. I arranged it so there were 1 strawberry and 2 grapes per skewer.

Fill a bowl with cold water and add a few ice cubes to make an ice bath.

Add the sugar and water to a medium-sized pan and bring them to a boil over a medium heat. Do not stir.

The temperature of the sugar syrup has to reach around 300F/150C. This takes around 5-10 minutes. The syrup will start to reduce and become amber in colour.

If you don't have a sugar thermometer, drizzle some syrup into the bowl of water. It should set right away and form brittle crystal threads that break easily.

Once the sugar syrup is ready, remove from the heat. You can prop the pan at an angle, so it's easier to dip the skewers into the pan.

Prepare your workstation: skewered fruit, syrup, ice bath, and wire rack or tray with baking parchment.

Take one of the skewers and quickly dip it into the mixture, making sure all the fruit is coated. Immediately dip into the ice water and lay onto a wire rack. Repeat the steps until all the fruit skewers are done.

Let the skewers rest on the rack for a few minutes

You now have Tanghulu ready to snack on and enjoy.

This takes a little time to make, but it's definitely worth it. I did burn myself a couple of times, but that's to be expected with me, if it's not on the wire rack in the oven, it's pan and my cooking.

I love the hard sugar syrup against the softer fruit. It definitely is the perfect sweet treat.

My only issue was that if they're not eaten quick enough, the sugar syrup begins to dissolve, even in the fridge. That aside, I'd definitely make them again.

If you would like to follow the original recipe, then head over to Tanghulu recipe page on the Alpha Foodie recipe page.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Simply Cook

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See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye