Hãy Ăn Tối Cùng Nhau, Lets Eat Dinner Together (2017)

Let's Eat Dinner Together (2017) is a South Korean television program featuring Lee Kyung-kyu and Kang Ho-dong. It is a documentary-style show that follows the journey of two men, known as "national MCs" (due to their appearances on various Korean entertainment shows),as they search for dinner. This is also the first collaboration between the duo since Kang joined the entertainment industry. The show premiered on JTBC on October 19, 2016.

200 years ago, Kim Sat-gat wandered around Joseon and felt hungry, and people were willing to share food with each other. 200 years later, in 2016, Kim Sat-gat is no longer alive, and people living in the city no longer talk about stories or food. Instead, what makes people amazed is smartphones, social networking services (SNS),news, fortune-telling, and one more thing, a spoon.

Where people eat, when, with whom, and how; the two hungry men plan to find people who can have dinner with them. They ring your doorbell, they are just curious about your dinner, let them listen to your story and let them become members of your family. Will you open the door for them?

Rules

No specific rules are set by the production team, but the cast members in episode 1 set the following rules and respect them as follows:

Only ring the doorbell from 18:00 (winter) or 18:30 (summer) to 20:00.

Do not return to a house that has rejected them before.

Do not eat anything given for free by people on the street (with some exceptions like in episode 47, where the members/guests received grapes).

Do not tell anyone before 18:00 that they will come back later (meaning no pre-arranged families).

They can demand up to three times if people refuse (original rule in episode 1: Do not beg if someone refuses).

Go to another family if any member of the family is uncomfortable with the explosion.

Do not enter a family that has already had dinner.

The above rules also apply if they discover the residence of a celebrity or a celebrity is an ordinary person (e.g., Seohyun in episode 121 where her family's house and her car were discovered in 2017 when she was an ordinary person).

Introduction of locations and guests

The hosts will start from a specific location and then move to the nearby area where they have a mission to have dinner. The production team will assign the hosts a task that they must complete, usually something like "With a spoon in hand, go to (a chosen location) and request to have dinner with a family." Some additional details may be provided, such as how to get to the destination (usually by walking/public transportation). They may also be given clues to find their guests at a specific location. The production team will also provide each cast member with an equivalent amount of money for transportation or light meals during the day.

The cast members will then proceed to find out if there are any guests willing to have dinner with them and the guests will be introduced. The guests chosen by the production team to join the cast are someone that if they ring the doorbell, we really want to have a meal together. There are some episodes where the sequence is changed (meaning the guest is found first and introduced, then given the mission card along with the members).

The cast members will also give a brief introduction to the location as they move through the nearby area, which may include introducing the scenery, culture, and how the place got its name. Some short interviews may also be conducted with local residents to get a better understanding of the surrounding area. Additionally, the cast members will often visit a real estate office to learn more about the local area and gather useful information such as the type of housing (apartment, villa, or house) as well as demographics that may affect the success or failure of the mission. Sometimes, some famous figures will also be mentioned to have a house in the area by the real estate agents.

The cast members will also revisit the location and may identify some houses they would like to visit in the future.

Completion of the main mission

When the doorbell ringing time begins, the cast members will decide how to form groups to carry out the mission. If there are no guests or only one guest, the members will carry out the mission together with the guest. If there are two guests, they may perform the mission in groups (member/guest, member/member, or guest/guest) in the same area but with different families, or with the same family.

They will then start ringing the doorbells of the households. The mission is considered successful if before 20:00, a family (with all members consenting) allows the cast members to enter and have dinner with the whole family, talk, and then take a family photo together. The cast members will then move on to the next family. A photo of the dinner will be taken, capturing the moment of the cast members and the family.