Korean Cuisine

Ok so people quite often ask about what kind of food there is here in korea so I am going to give you a little summary of my favorites and what’s popular.

 

1: Korean side dishes. 

Ok so firstly let me explain about Korean food in general. When you go to Korean restaurants, no matter which one in which city, they will all resemble eachother. When you walk in they place cups and cold water on the table for you and then you order and they bring out the side dishes/service that you get with the meal. Most of the time these side dishes take up the whole table. They range from kimchi, mushrooms, green vegetables, fish balls, radish, pickles, any vegetable it is possible to pickle and sometimes a noodle of some kind or some kind of bean. The Korean dishes will then arrive which if hot will be served in this earthern ware type pot that is usually still sizzling or boiling and if cold served in silver dishes shown below. The sides will change according to dishes but most of the time they stay pretty much the same. The strange thing is that you can eat your food and all the side dishes and request extra side dishes but you will never pay for them. You only ever pay for the actual dish you ordered, that’s why Korean food turns out to be so cheap because you are so stuffed from free sides that you don't need to order very large main dishes.

 

Silver dishes that most meals arrive in

Typical korean side dishes. The big bowl in the mmiddle is tthe main dish.

Pot that the hot meals arrive in.

 

 

2: Kimchi Chigae.

This is a Korean stew made with vegetables, tofu and kimchi and sometimes pork. The kimchi makes the stew very spicy and it has a little bit of a tomato flavor to it too. Koreans are always so surprised when I tell them this is my favorite dish because it is so spicy and they think westerners can’t eat spicy food. It’s really good though! It kind of reminds me a little bit of tomato bredie.

It comes with a side of rice that you can pile into it and various other sides explained above.

 

This usually arrives still boiling so its nice and fresh :)

 

3: Japchae.

Translated this is basically just noodles and vegetables. They are light brown glass noodles mixed in with thinly sliced vegetables and meat. This is very popular amongst westerners because it is very much like something you would find at home and it is not spicy.

 

4: Bibimbap

This is a rice based dish that comes to the table sizzling in one of the pots I explained above. It is a mixture of rice, vegetables and seaweed. You can order beef, pork or seafood in it if you would like. It also comes with a fried egg on top. You then mix it all together and add this spicy red sauce that binds it all together. It’s really good!

 

5: Korean BBQ

Korean BBQ is very popular throughout Korea and is literally on every street corner. The restaurant is filled with an array of tables with silver circular plates in the middle where they pile in hot coals and place a grid above it for you to BBQ the meat on. Each table also has its own suction pipe above it so that the restaurant does not get smoky. You can then choose what meats you want to BBQ and they bring it over for you with little tongs for you to cook it yourself. The sides that come with this are usually onions, spring onions, jalapeno peppers, lettuce, rice, and an array of sauces. You will then take a piece of lettuce, add some meat, rice and whatever sides with some sauce, roll it into a ball and stuff it into your mouth. I say stuff because that is literally what you have to do, it is not the most graceful meal you can find in Korea, but none the less very good!!

It is also a very popular event. Koreans will go for BBQ on a Friday night and order bottle after bottle of soju and makju(beer) and pretty much get wasted with their friends while enjoying a god meal. It is a very social event. And these restaurants do not seem to close until very early in the morning! I have found myself in them at 4/5 in the morning surrounded by a bunch of koreans I just met getting meat and soju shoved down my throat, nevermind that none of us should probably be around hot coals at that moment but hey, when in korea...

 

 

Soju

 

6: Fried chicken and beer

Ok so you also cannot go very far in Korea without seeing a fried chicken and beer place on almost every corner. Korean fried chicken is soooo good and it comes in all shapes, flavors and sizes. One I particularly like is the boneless fried chicken that is covered in like a sticky sweet garlicly sauce that you then dip into a bowl of crushed peanuts and then eat. Soooo good! And then when you go for fried chicken you just have to get beer with it, the one just goes with the other!

 

7: Shabu Shabu

This dish is actually about 3 dishes all together. It starts out with a pot in the middle of the table above a flame with a broth boiling inside. You then have a huge plate of very thinly sliced meat and vegetables which you place into the broth, let them cook and them eat them out of the broth with your chopsticks. After you have finished all the meat and vegetable you add very thick partly cooked noodles and allow them to simmer in the pot for a while until they are soft. You then pile some noodles on your plate while he broth continues to simmer. By this time most of the borth has been eaten or simmered away, you then add a bowl of rice and an egg which binds it all together.
This dish is so good but its literally eating 3 different meals in one so it is very filling and you better go to the restaurant hungry. Most of the shabu shabu restaurants are also ones where you sit on the floor with cushions.

 

8: Dteokbokkie (No idea how to spell it in English but thats what it sounds like)

This is a form of rice cake that is rolled into a thick rod shape. They are mostly cooked in a very hot sauce and served with vegetables, rice or just alone. Since I cannot stand the texture of rice cakes (kind of slimy and chewy and gets stuck in your teeth) I am not the biggest fan of this dish but it is still however one of the most popular.

 

9: Kimbap

 

This is almost like sushi (california rolls) as it is rice wrapped in seaweed but instead of slamon or tuna in the middle it is vegetables. I love kimbap! It is tasty but also SO cheap. You can get it at 7/1 and family foor about R7 a roll and after a night out there is nothing better to soak up the alcohol! They also have kimbap restaurants though where you can go and get it made fresh so tha it is still warm. The most common kinds are tuna mayo, bulgogi(meat) and kimchi. It will mostly be vegetables in the middle but each type also has other ingredients in it.

 

 

9: Patpingsu

This is a dessert. It is a bowl of shaved ice with fruits and nuts and milk and turns out to be a lot like fruit salad and ice cream. It is pretty damn good! And you can get flavours like green tea and sweet red bean paste (very popular in korea) which are very different and nice to try. It is also super great on those ridiculously hot days when you want to rip off all your clothes and jump into a bucket of ice!

 

 

 

These would be some of the most common and popular dishes but I will keep educating you on korean cuisine as we along :)

 

Have a fantastic day. Till next time!