My Friend Couldn't Believe Korea's Dawn Delivery. The Night Before, My Fridge Was Empty.

This happened while Timmy was staying at my place in Korea.

One night, we were sitting on the couch watching a Korean variety show. I was explaining what was going on as we watched. The show was Please Take Care of My Refrigerator.

In the show, chefs open a guest's fridge and compete to cook the best dish using whatever's inside.

At first, Timmy was just watching for fun. But after a while, the food on screen caught his attention, and he started asking questions.

"How do you make that?"

"Can you make that at home?"

It looked pretty good to me too.

So I pulled out my phone and searched YouTube. After watching a few recipes, it didn't look that complicated. As long as I had the ingredients, I figured I could make something similar.

That's when Timmy suddenly opened my fridge.

He stared into it for a while. Then he sighed.

"There's literally nothing to eat in here."

And he wasn't done.

"What do you even live on?"

I laughed in disbelief. Somehow he'd turned into a panelist on the show, judging my fridge.

"Okay, so what do you want to eat?"

"Anything. You figure it out."

So I talked big, just because.

"Fine. I'll make it for you tomorrow morning."

Timmy looked at me. Then he looked at the fridge.

His face said it clearly: With what?

It's not like I didn't know that.

So I just took out my phone.

I opened Coupang, a Korean shopping app, and started ordering the ingredients for the dakgalbi I'd seen earlier. Dakgalbi is spicy stir-fried chicken with vegetables and rice cakes. I ordered chicken, cabbage, sweet potato, rice cakes, and the sauce.

Timmy watched me do it.

"But there's nothing in the fridge."

"That's why I'm ordering now."

"And you can make it tomorrow morning?"

"Yep."

He didn't look convinced. I just smiled.

"Wait and see."

The next morning

The next morning, Timmy and I headed out to work out.

When I opened the front door, something was sitting right outside.

It was the groceries from last night.

It took me a second to remember.

"Oh, right. I ordered those yesterday."

Timmy looked at the insulated bag by the door.

"What's that?"

"The ingredients I ordered yesterday."

He turned to me.

"Yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"You ordered it last night?"

"Yeah."

He looked at the bag again. His eyes got wider.

"Wait. You ordered it last night, and it's already here?"

That's when I finally laughed.

"Yeah. That's dawn delivery."

Timmy stared at the bag for a while without saying anything.

"So if you order at night, it shows up in the morning?"

"Pretty much."

"While you're sleeping?"

"Yep."

He gave me a half-laughing, half-baffled look.

Just the day before, this guy had been opening my fridge and making fun of how empty it was. Now he was staring at the groceries at my front door.

Dawn delivery is just normal in Korea

This was completely normal to me.

Order what you need at night, go to sleep, and it's at your door in the morning. No need to go to the store. No need to drive somewhere to shop. If you think of something you need, you order it on your phone and get it the next day.

I'm so used to shopping this way that I'd never thought of it as strange.

So I made dakgalbi

After our workout, I started cooking with the ingredients from the front door.

I played the YouTube recipe again and followed along step by step.

I added the chicken, then the cabbage and sweet potato, then the rice cakes. Finally, I added the sauce and started stir-frying, and a spicy smell spread through the house.

Timmy watched next to me the whole time. The dish he'd wanted to try after seeing it on TV was now being made in my kitchen.

I put the finished dakgalbi on the table.

Timmy took a bite and looked at me.

"Oh, this is actually good."

I smiled.

He didn't say anything else. He just kept eating.

Timmy seemed more impressed by the delivery than anything else that morning.

To me, it was just grocery shopping.

I looked at Timmy and laughed.

"Told you. Wait and see."