In Korea, meals is for the soul in addition to for the abdomen. Meals are meant for sharing, and consuming is seen as a method to raised well being and well-being. Recognized for spicy flavors, Korean meals tradition is all in regards to the sauces and condiments and, in flip, fermentation – exemplified by the nationwide treasure that’s kimchi and fiery gochujang (crimson chili paste).
Koreans love consuming out, and eating choices vary from informal bites at a market stall to regal banquets at conventional eating places. Within the massive cities, meals tendencies come and go at a breathless tempo, making up to date eating in Korea – particularly avenue meals – best picture fodder for on-line foodies.
No matter takes your fancy, begin with our newbie’s information to Korean eating.
Get your grill on at a Korean BBQ
Arms-down the very best hands-on consuming expertise in Korea, there’s one thing about scorching meat with buddies on a tabletop grill that basically will get the dialog (and drinks) flowing.
Step one at a Korean BBQ restaurant is to pick out your cuts: beef, sometimes galbi (quick ribs) or bulgogi (thinly-sliced sirloin marinated in candy soy sauce), and pork, comparable to samgyeopsal (streaky pork stomach). After grilling, wrap every meaty morsel in ssam (vegetable leaves) earlier than consuming, together with optionally available recent garlic, inexperienced pepper, kimchi and spicy ssamjang (soybean and red-pepper sauce). And don’t neglect the beer.
The place to strive it: Hongik Sutbul Galbi, Seoul
Savor a sublime Korean banquet
For a extra refined eating expertise, hanjeongsik (generally translated as a set menu or desk d’hôte) is a royal unfold of banquet dishes all served directly: fish, meat, soup, dubu jjigae (tofu stew), rice, noodles, steamed egg, shellfish and a flock of banchan (chilly facet dishes). It’s a pleasant method to pattern a variety of seasonal Korean meals in a single go.
At the very best locations, the dishes might be served in regal bangjja (bronze) tableware, set out aesthetically on the desk in line with shade and style profile, like an edible murals.
The place to strive it: Korea Home, Seoul
Chow down on the proper bibimbap
Consolation in a bowl, bibimbap is the definitive Korean staple: rice topped with greens, generally meat, chili paste and egg. The components are specified by a bowl in line with the 5 main colours of Korean meals – white, yellow, inexperienced, crimson and black – representing the 5 components. Simply add a squirt of crimson gochujang, stir all of it up and luxuriate in. Bibimbap comes from the food-mad metropolis of Jeonju, together with its scrumptious variant, dolsot bibimbap, served in a sizzling stone pot that encourages a satisfying layer of crusty rice to type on the backside.
The place to strive it: Hanguk-jip, Jeonju
Recognize the culinary pleasure that’s kimchi
In Korea, kimchi actually does present up at each meal (even breakfast!) – what began out as a pickling methodology to protect cabbage and radish by means of the cruel winters has turn into a cornerstone of Korean delicacies. However that’s not at all a foul factor: sour-spicy kimchi is alleged to decrease ldl cholesterol, supercharge intestine well being and stop the flu.
Top-of-the-line methods to understand kimchi as a predominant course slightly than a chilly facet dish is kimchi-jjigae, a effervescent stew made with kimchi, tofu, veggies and gochujang – simply don’t be shocked if it comes with a facet of kimchi.
The place to strive it: actually in all places
Go for a fried hen and beer blowout
A pairing so excellent it even has its personal portmanteau title, chimaek refers to fried hen (chikin) with beer (maekju), loved at eating places and hof (pubs) throughout Korea. The beer tends to be frothy jugs of draft lager, whereas the fried hen is often served both “plain” or liberally glazed in a gochujang-based candy, spicy, sticky sauce; order banban (half-half) to get a combined plate performed each methods. The very best Korean fried hen needs to be gentle and additional crisp, due to double-frying and a paper-thin coat of batter.
The place to strive it: Kkanbu Hen, Seoul
Dine out on Korean avenue meals
Road hawkers in Korea vary from easy meals carts to pojangmacha (avenue tent bars) with tables, chairs and chilly beers. You’ll all the time discover tteokbokki – chewy rice desserts in pans of spicy, saucy gochujang, usually with slices of sundae (blood sausage). Odeng (fishcake skewers) are cooked in vats of broth, which is a seafood and spring-onion soup that Koreans say cures hangovers, whereas dakkochi are grilled hen skewers with a smoky charred taste and a sticky, tangy barbecue sauce. On the candy facet, look out for fish-shaped red-bean waffles (bungeoppang) and hotteok – candy pancakes with brown sugar syrup.
The place to strive it: Dongdaemun Market, Seoul
Slurp a bowl of ginseng hen soup (on a sizzling day)
It might sound counterintuitive to eat effervescent sizzling soup in excessive summer time, however Koreans consider within the idea of combating warmth with warmth (“Yi yeol chi yeol”). Samgyetang is a fabulously tasty hen soup, sometimes that includes a complete fowl full of ginseng, jujube, ginkgo nut and different healthful herbs, greatest loved on sambok days – the three hottest days of the 12 months. Ginseng is assumed to spice up vitality, serving to your physique fight the draining results of the warmth and replenishing its misplaced inner heat.
The place to strive it: Tosokchon, Seoul
Drink makgeolli and eat pajeon (on a wet day)
A standard farmer’s brew constituted of fermented rice wine, consider makgeolli because the extra civilized (distant) cousin of soju. A lot decrease in alcohol, it has a cloudy look and a mellow yogurt taste. Artisanal makgeolli bars in Seoul serve high quality drops (minus the aspartame discovered in lots of industrial varieties), the place it’s usually paired with pajeon, a savory pancake made with inexperienced onions plus optionally available kimchi or seafood. One thing about this comforting combo conjures up quiet reflection; Koreans significantly prefer it on wet days.
The place to strive it: Muldwinda, Seoul
Vegetarians and vegans
Though Korean delicacies makes use of a lot of greens, a lot of it’s pickled or cooked with meat or seafood. Vegetarians can order bibimbap with out meat or egg, however your dubu jjigae (tofu stew) could also be constituted of beef or seafood inventory, and beoseot deopbap (mushrooms on rice) could include slightly pork. Even kimchi is commonly made with fish sauce.
Seoul has a good selection of worldwide vegetarian and vegan eating places, however for on a regular basis Korean eating, the one assuredly meat-free meals are these served at Buddhist temples or eating places. Seoul Veggie Membership (a Fb group) is a helpful useful resource.