The Japanese division of Korean Food Manufacturer Group Nongshim selected the lovely ladies of T-ara to be their advertisement models last year, and recently released videos of the members personally cooking their own bowl of ramen through their homepage.
The videos were meant to be a fun way for the fans to see how each member prefers to eat the instant noodles, and member Jiyeon decided to eat her ramen using the lid of the pot as a plate, like many Koreans do.
This action which is considered completely normal in Korea became somewhat controversial in Japan. Perhaps because of cultural differences, the Japanese netizens had some difficulty in understanding the way Jiyeon ate.
Some wondered why she would eat off the lid, and even used harsh words such as ‘uncivilized’, and ‘disgusting’.
Jiyeon’s fellow group member Hyomin then responded to the controversy by writing on her official Twitter page on May 3rd, “Ramen tastes best when you eat it off the lid. And of course, you would dishwash both the lid and the pot afterwards. Ahh! I want to eat some ramen that’s been cooked in a nickel-silver pot.”
Netizens were glad to see that Hyomin was showing her support for fellow member Jiyeon and wrote, “Hyomin is awesome!”, “I applaud Hyomin!”, and “T-ara fighting!”