Soju Party - by Irene Yoo Hardcover

About the Book

"A Korean Eating and Drinking Cookbook"--

Book Synopsis

The ultimate guide to drinking (and eating) like a Korean! Recipes for cocktails, bomb shots, drinking food, hangover cures, and much more.

"A fun and heartfelt guide to Korean culture through food and drink . . . Irene will have you saying 'Geonbae!' in no time." --KRISTEN KISH, host of Top Chef, restaurateur, author

"An apt blueprint of how to navigate this world like a pro while enjoying all the Korean recipes that are indispensable to a night of drinking soju." --EDWARD LEE, chef and author of Bourbon Land

A Wired BEST COOKBOOK OF 2025

Drinking is an essential part of Korean culture, one that's guided by a complex web of unspoken rules, deep tradition, and lots and lots of food. With Soju Party, food writer, chef, and co-owner of Brooklyn's Orion Bar Irene Yoo has written the book on drinking like a Korean.

She introduces the classic Korean alcohols and how Koreans typically like to drink them, sharing recipes for cocktails and tasty anju (drinking foods), including:
-The viral Milkis Shot
-A heart-stopping Seoul Train
-Unique cocktail recipes featuring Korean-inspired riffs and nostalgic twists, like a Jujube Ginseng Negroni and a Banana Milk makgeolli
-Simple snacks like salty and sweet Honey-Butter Bar Nuts
-Essential comfort food like a savory White Ddukbokki and a super slurpable Kimchi Carbonara
-A dedicated party section featuring a large-format Watermelon Soju Hwachae and sweet-and-spicy Chimaek Chicken

In addition to recipes, Soju Party explores the history of Korean drinking, with illustrations explaining proper serving and drinking etiquette, drinking games, food pairings, and more. A book that promises late nights (don't worry, there's a section on hangovers!), this is a party on the page. Geonbae!

Review Quotes

"Soju Party is a fun and heartfelt guide to Korean culture through food and drink. Whether you're a soju-tornado master or new to Korean culture and flavors, this book has a little bit of something for everyone. With as many stories and fun facts as there are drinks to pour and dishes to eat alongside them, Irene will have you saying 'Geonbae!' in no time."
--KRISTEN KISH, host of Top Chef, restaurateur, author

"Fun, welcoming, and full of cocktails and dishes that surprise and delight. It's the best kind of drinking buddy, especially if you're new to Korean spirits--one that will walk you through the proper etiquette and teach you new tricks (who knew there were so many ways to mix a somaek, the Korean portmanteau for soju and beer?)." --Saveur

"The ritual of drinking in Korea is a national pastime, an intricate set of rules and traditions developed over centuries. It is both ancient and modern, confusing and entertaining, and this book provides an apt blueprint of how to navigate this world like a pro while enjoying all the Korean recipes that are indispensable to a night of drinking soju."
--EDWARD LEE, chef and author of Bourbon Land

"If a good guide is your jam, add Soju Party to your list. Food writer Irene Yoo owns Brooklyn's Orion Bar and grew up in the US while spending summers with family in Seoul. While her book is loaded with information about soju, Korea's most consumed alcohol, and its cousins like beer and makgeolli, it is also a cultural guide, decrypting boozy, fun rituals that take place over the course of a multistage night . . . But the book may be most valuable for the way it opens up this specific and important sector of Korean life to the reader . . . Too fun and beautiful to resist." --Joe Ray, Wired

"The memory triggers come so fast you might forget you are reading or lose your place, but go back for the stories here as well as the recipes, as they are pure gold. Knowing, clear, intimate, goofy, a perfect gift to yourself or others, hopefully to kick off many nights of fun. And soju."
--ALEXANDER CHEE, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"Soju Party is an invitation to accompany Irene Yoo and her friends for an epic night out, which spills into the haze of a hangover the morning after. The organization of the book is joyously deployed to situate contemporary Korean food and drink recipes, historical anecdotes, pop cultural insights, and idiosyncratic hospitality traditions in their ideal venue. At a time when alcohol is being villainized (again), I'm thrilled to see a no-holds-barred guide that shows how soju and other Korean beverages function as a lubricant that reveals and holds together kaleidoscopically complicated social structures gleefully under the artful eye of an exuberant host."
--JIM MEEHAN, author of The Bartender's Pantry, Meehan's Bartender Manual, and The PDT Cocktail Book

"More than just a cookbook, this is the ultimate Korean drinking experience, with Queen of the Soju Tornado Irene Yoo as your guide. In Korean culture, drinking is about bonding . . . and eating, and by the time you finish this book, you'll want to throw your own soju party!"
--JAMES PARK, author of Chili Crisp, @jamesyworld

About the Author

IRENE YOO is a food writer, recipe developer, creator (Yooeating), YouTube cohost (KA KA Studio), and the chef and co-owner of Orion Bar in Brooklyn. Raised in Los Angeles and Seoul, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and previously worked as a photo and video producer for Food Network. Her recipes and essays have appeared on foodnetwork.com, on Food52, and in Food & Wine, and she has spoken about Korean culinary history at the Korea Society and the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD). She has been featured in The New York Times, The Korea Times, and Bon Appétit.