TERMS OF USE: Some of the information on this website may have changed since the time of writing. By continuing to read this article, you agree to be bound by our Terms of Use and Disclaimer and verify any information before taking action. Stay safe!
I’ve been exposed to Korean food since childhood but my experience was limited to the most popular Korean dishes. Before our trips to Korea, all I knew about were bulgogi, galbi, and jap chae. That was it.
Visiting Seoul opened my eyes to a new dimension of Korean cuisine. It was like opening door number two and discovering new and delicious dishes like jokbal, gyeranppang, and ganjang gejang. I was intrigued and excited and curious to try as many Korean foods as I could.
Best Seoul Restaurants Worth Visiting
We’ve been to Korea three times in over four years and have tried many tasty Korean dishes, the best and most interesting of which are listed in this South Korean food guide.
If you’re visiting South Korea and want to experience as wide a range of Korean food as possible, then this article will be very useful to you.
If you’re planning a trip to South Korea and want to really dive into the cuisine, then you may be interested in joining a food tour or taking a cooking class.
The Best Korean Restaurants In Hong Kong
Rice, vegetable, and meat dishes feature prominently in Korean cuisine. Traditional Korean meals are preceded by a number of small side dishes called banchan and kimchi is served at almost every meal.
Because of Korea’s geographic location in northeast Asia, it experiences four distinct seasons – spring, summer, autumn, and winter. This seasonality plays a significant role in the local cuisine. Some ingredients taste differently each season, resulting in a variety of flavor variation within recipes.
Commonly used ingredients in South Korean food include sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, gochujang (fermented red chili paste), gochugaru (pepper flakes), doenjang (fermented bean paste), and napa cabbage.
Best 25 Korean Foods To Try In 2023
Grains and legumes are an important part of the Korean diet which puts an emphasis on variety and moderation. Many different types of vegetables are used in Korean cooking while beef, chicken, and pork are the proteins of choice.
Because the Korean peninsula is bordered by the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the East Sea (Sea of Japan), fish and shellfish also feature prominently in the cuisine.
To help organize this Korean food guide, I’ve divided it into three categories – traditional restaurant food, street food, and trendy snacks.
The Best Korean Food You Absolutely Must Try In Seoul
Restaurant food represents traditional Korean dishes you’ll typically need to order at a sit-down restaurant. Street food are dishes often sold by sidewalk vendors while trendy food describes snacks that may be little more than a passing fad. By that, I mean they could be all the rage one year then virtually gone the next.
Banchan is the collective term for the family of small side dishes served with kimchi stew at the start of a traditional Korean meal. I like to think of them as the Korean version of Spanish tapas.
They’re served in small portions and typically consist of fermented, steamed, marinated, or stir-fried vegetables, though some dishes may contain some meat or seafood as well.
Korean Bbq Restaurants In Seoul
The number of banchan served usually increases with the formality of the meal. They’re meant to be consumed with your meal and are usually replenished if the amount served isn’t enough.
Bibimbap is one of the most popular South Korean foods. It literally means “mixed rice” and refers to a Korean rice dish made with warm white rice topped with gochujang, doenjang, soy sauce, and a variety of sauteed and seasoned vegetables like cucumber, soy bean sprouts, radish, spinach, and mushroom.
A raw or fried egg and sliced meat, typically beef, are often added. The contents are then mixed together thoroughly before being eaten.
Seoul Good (dpu) Delivery Near You In Bangkok| Foodpanda
You can find different variations of this mixed rice dish in Korea, some of the most popular being Jeonju bibimbap, dolsot bibimbap, and Yakcho bibimbap.
Bingsu is a popular South Korean shaved ice dessert. Looking at it, you’d think it’s a recent creation but records show that its earliest forms have existed since the Joseon Dysnasty.
At its core, bingsu consists of shaved ice topped with an endless variety of ingredients like red bean, chopped fruit, green tea, chocolate, and other sweets.
Seoul Food: 10 Of The City's Best Restaurants
The most traditional versions always contain red bean and are known as patbingsu. Bingsu refers to more modern versions made without red bean.
Bossam refers to a Korean pork dish made with thinly sliced pork boiled in a broth with spices like star anise, ginger, scallion, garlic, doenjang, and soybean paste. Pork shoulder is the cut of choice though pork belly can also be used.
Bossam is served with a variety of sides like sliced raw garlic, kimchi, and saeujeot (salted shrimp). It’s a type of ssam dish, meaning the pork and sides are wrapped together in vegetables like lettuce or perilla leaves before being eaten. Bossam literally means “wrapped” or “packaged”.
Best Restaurants In Seoul: Korean Street Food & Dining Guide
Pictured below is a combination platter of bossam and jokbal from the Manjok Ohyang Jokbal restaurant in Seoul. The paler cuts of meat on the right side of the plate is the bossam.
Chimaek is a compound word for chi-cken and maek-ju, the Korean word for “beer”. It’s another popular anju dish that refers to the duo of Korean fried chicken and beer.
Fried chicken dishes became a popular food in Korea around the mid to late 20th century. It was around that time that a new draft beer was also gaining popularity so it became common to combine the two as a single menu item.
Must Eat Food In Seoul
Today, fried chicken is one of the most popular foods in Korea, with the term chimaek being coined during the 2002 Korea–Japan World Cup. What makes Korean fried chicken so good is that it’s double-fried, resulting in crunchier and less greasy skin.
Chimaek is a combination that’s become ultra-popular not just in Korea but in many other parts of the world as well, thanks to international chains like Bonchon Chicken.
Chueotang refers to a soup made from pond loach, a type of freshwater mudfish. The fish is boiled in water until tender, then sieved to remove all its bones and skin.
Must Eat Korean Foods In Seoul And Where To Eat
The fish meat is boiled again with beef or chicken broth and seasoned with gochujang, doenjang, grated ginger, and ground black pepper before being served in a soup with vegetables, mushroom, fried tofu, rice, and noodles.
Ganjang gejang refers to a traditional Korean dish of raw crab marinated in soy sauce. To make it, crabs are thoroughly cleaned then put in an earthenware crock where they’re salted for a period of about six hours.
A marinade of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, scallions, ginger, garlic, and red chili pepper paste is boiled briefly before being poured over the salted crabs.
Best Korean Restaurants In Seoul
An hour later, the marinade is removed, reboiled, and poured over the crabs again in a process that’s repeated several times before the dish is chilled and consumed.
When non-Koreans think of Korean food, kimchi and barbecued meat dishes are probably the first things that come to mind. They’re two of the most popular dishes in Korean cuisine.
Gogigui means “meat roast” and refers to the method of grilling meat like beef, pork, or chicken on gas or charcoal grills that are usually built into your dining table.
Sg Food On Foot
Different types of meat can be served marinated or unmarinated, some of the most popular being bulgogi (thin marinated slices of beef or pork) and galbi (marinated beef or pork ribs).
Meat dishes, especially when made with beef, is usually expensive in Korea. You usually need to get a minimum of two orders per cut of meat, but they do serve you a lot of banchan to go with your meal.
Gomtang or gomguk refers to a Korean beef bone soup. It’s made by simmering various beef parts like ribs, brisket, oxtail, and ox head or bones over a low flame.
Korean Food Guide Of 2023: Top 15 Korean Dishes You Must Try!
The long simmering process creates a milky broth similar to seolnongtang. Rice is added to the soup and you can season the broth to taste with salt and minced green onion.
Jajangmyeon is one of the most popular examples of Korean-Chinese food. It’s made with thick, handmade (or machine-pulled) wheat noodles topped with a heavy sauce made from fried chunjang (sweet bean sauce), soy sauce, diced pork, and vegetables.
It dates back to the early 20th century and was invented at a Chinese restaurant in Incheon’s Chinatown. Today, that restaurant has been converted into the Jajangmyeon Museum.
Seoul Good Korean Food
Interestingly, jajangmyeon has come to be associated with Black Day, an unofficial holiday celebrated on April 14 by unattached people in Korea. Korean men and women who don’t receive gifts on Valentine’s Day or White Day drown their sorrows in a black bowl of jajangmyeon.
Like kimchi and bulgogi, japchae is one of the most popular foods in Korea. Often served as a side dish, it refers to sweet and savory stir-fried glass noodles made with dangmyeon (sweet potato starch cellophane noodles) and topped with assorted vegetables, meat, and mushrooms.
It’s seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil and commonly served as banchan. Japchae was once a royal dish that’s become one of the most popular Korean celebratory dishes, often
0 komentar
Posting Komentar