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Bowser was named after this spicy Korean rice and soup dish

Bowser was named after this spicy Korean rice and soup dish

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Now the whole ‘fire-breathing’ thing makes sense

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Fantendo / Naver

A few things come to mind when I think of iconic Super Mario villain Bowser: Mr. steal-your-girl; a roided-up turtle that just discovered Hot Topic; Great dad. Now I can add Korean rice and soup delicacy gukbap to that list.

According to this 2000 Famitsu interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Bowser was given the Japanese name Daimaō Kuppa — Kuppa being the Japanese name for gukbap, a Korean dish. See the resemblance? 

The two other runner-up contenders for names were yukke and bibinba, the Japanese names for Korean dishes yukhoe and bibimbap. Take a look at the images below and see if you agree with Miyamoto’s final decision. If you’ve never tried these dishes, go ahead and give them a try, if only for the sweet satisfaction of imagining you’re eating a pulverized Bowser! (Was that too much? Sorry.)

Yukhoe (left) and Bowser (right). Identical.
Yukhoe (left) and Bowser (right). Identical.
Auntie Kim / Giant Bomb
Bibimbap (left) and Bowser (right). Which is which? It’s too difficult to say.
Bibimbap (left) and Bowser (right). Which is which? It’s too difficult to say.
Closet cooking / Mario Wiki

While we're on the topic of video game characters looking like food, check out the excellent tumblr Food that looks like Zelda characters. I can’t believe I never saw the connection between Link and slightly toasted white bread!