On October 30, 2025, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang had chicken and beer in Seoul with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung. That unusually public dinner makes a useful entry point into the smaller, ordinary version of the meal: friends sharing fried chicken and beer on a casual evening.
That public dinner is a useful opening because its food was instantly recognisable. The article it opens is about ordinary life. Chimaek—fried chicken and beer—appears at a catch-up with friends, a casual evening meal, a game or a delivery order that turns one table into a small gathering. Korea.net describes it as a familiar Korean food culture for friend gatherings and casual evenings. The social meaning begins with a simple fact: chicken is ordered to share.
The word is already a small invitation
The name combines chicken with maekju, the Korean word for beer. Say “chimaek,” and the order is understood before anyone has named a brand, a restaurant or a specific sauce. That compactness is part of why it works so well in a familiar group: the table has a common starting point, then the choices begin.
Someone may want plain fried chicken. Someone else may reach for sauce. One person may drink beer while another chooses a soft drink. The meal can still hold together because the centre of it is the shareable order rather than one person’s plate.
A chicken order changes the shape of the table
Chimaek is easy to misunderstand as a fixed ritual because it is so visible in dramas, stadiums and travel imagery. In everyday use, it is more flexible. It can be dinner after a long day, food delivered to a home, an accompaniment to sport or a reason for familiar people to linger at a table.
Korea.net traces the pairing to the popularity of fried chicken and beer, and describes it as established at baseball games as well as friend gatherings and casual evening meals. That range is the point. Chimaek brings a conversational meal into places where the table might otherwise have no obvious centre.
Three words that make a menu easier to read
| Word | What it means | What it helps you notice |
|---|---|---|
| Chimaek | Chicken and beer | The shared meal format |
| Maekju | Beer | The second half of the name |
| Yangnyeom | Seasoned chicken, commonly with a sweet-spicy sauce | A sauce-led choice |
| Ganjang | Soy-sauce chicken | A soy-based flavour direction |
Korea.net and VISITKOREA supply the pairing and chicken-style context. Individual menus differ, which is why three clear terms are more useful than a hard rule about what to order.
Beer with seasoned chicken. Korea Tourism Organization TourAPI / Kim Ji-ho.
The first order is a conversation, too
If two or three people are looking at a chicken menu together, begin with the order format: whole or boneless, one style or two, something shared in the centre or an individual side. Then ask the people at the table what sounds good. A group does not need to perform a version of Korean dining. It only needs a shared plan that leaves room for everyone to eat comfortably.
The first visit can be as simple as chicken, beer or another drink, and a table that is not in a hurry. The food supplies a rhythm: choose, share, talk, take another piece, continue.
MBCNEWS live coverage of the Jensen Huang, Lee Jae-yong and Euisun Chung chicken-and-beer meeting in Seoul, October 30, 2025.
Jensen Huang’s Seoul chimaek dinner was a public version of a familiar table
On October 30, 2025, Jensen Huang joined Lee Jae-yong and Euisun Chung for chicken and beer at a restaurant in southern Seoul. The Associated Press reported that reporters and onlookers gathered outside while the three executives raised their glasses; Huang later stepped out to share chicken and fried cheese with people waiting nearby.
The people at that table were unusual. The meal itself was not. A shared platter in the middle, drinks around it and a relaxed pace for conversation are the parts of chimaek that translate from a public dinner to a far smaller evening with friends. Nobody needs to order the same thing or follow a formal sequence; the meal works because the centre of the table belongs to the group.
That is why the scene was immediately legible in Korea. Chimaek can carry a catch-up after work, a game-night order or an impromptu dinner at home. Jensen Huang’s dinner was a headline, but the chicken-and-beer table it showed is part of everyday social life.
Sources
- Associated Press: Jensen Huang’s Seoul chicken-and-beer dinner
- Korea.net: Chimaek, the golden combo of chicken and beer
- VISITKOREA: Fried chicken in Daegu
The cultural sources were checked on August 21, 2026. This article does not reproduce news media from the reported dinner or recommend a specific restaurant or brand.