Top 10 Korean Dishes to Try: A Guide to Korean Cuisine for First-Time Visitors
Korean Foods: Foodies Dream
Korean food turned my taste buds upside down. I went from eating meat and potatoes to eating healthy and unique flavors that made Korean food my all-time favorite. If you have never sampled Korean cuisine I have included the most popular dishes but I have also included foods that I only discovered through living and teaching in Korea. If you have enough time, try them all!
Korean BBQ
This is the King of Korean food. When you go to a Korean BBQ restaurant you choose from different cuts of meat and you can sometimes choose if they are marinated in a sauce. The most classic is pork belly - samgepsal but if you don’t eat pork, beef is also an option! KBBQ also comes with an array of side dishes called “banchan” and these add so much variety to the meal. You can expect around 5-10 little sides of salads, vegetables, eggs and different varieties of kimchi. You cook your own meat at the center of the table and cut the meat into bite sized pieces with a big pair of scissors. Now you can make your own lettuce wrap and you can create it however you want, I like to dip my pork in soy bean paste sauce (ssamjang) and put my pork belly in a lettuce wrap and keep it simple but some people like to put rice, kimchi, and other banchans(sides) in the wrap. It's truly the best meal in Korea, in my opinion!
4. Yugaejang
This spicy soup replaced my need for chicken noodle while living in Korea. Initially I was just excited for the traditional experience of sitting on cushions on the floor and feeling like a local but the soup stole the show. This soup is spicy and full of veg and hunks of shredded beef that reminds me of my mom’s homemade Sunday Roast. Sometimes we would go to a restaurant where it was served boiling hot and they would keep a basket of eggs at the table so you could crack an egg and watch it poach while you mentally prepared for some of the best soup! (Also note it is served with purple rice which you also must try!)
6. Hoettek
Nothing could have prepared me for this chewy fried dessert. Usually served in the winter as street food, I found a year round hook up at the 5 day market, a 10 minute jaunt from my house. The outside is a glutinous rice dough with a sweet cinnamon sugar filling with chopped nuts. Once thrown on the griddle, the cinnamon sugar melts and it becomes this ooey-gooey-chewy goodness. There is a special press that makes the hoettek flat so it cooks evenly. When my family came to visit my brother, who doesn’t have the biggest sweet tooth, was floored by how delicious it was. The whole family approves of this inside out pancake folded and served in an unassuming paper cup.
8. Kimbap
Kimbap is often compared to sushi, as it is a rolled seaweed roll with fillings but usually it's filled with ham, egg, radish and vegetables. Despite the look, the taste doesn’t resemble sushi. It's a super popular easy lunch, and many people take it on the go. Personally I didn’t like the traditional versions of Kimbap, however some restaurants made a version with bulgogi and cucumber that I really loved! Also this is a cheaper food option if you spent all your money on KBBQ the night before :)
9. Bibimbap
A classic dish in Korea that comes two ways, in a hot stone (dolsot ) or cold in a bowl. It consists of rice, an array of vegetables, meat, and a fried egg as well as a sweet and spicy sauce called gochujong. Bibimbap literally means “mixed rice” and you eat it with a spoon. If you order the hot stone bibimbap it comes in a scalding hot bowl and you have to mix it right away so the rice doesn’t get hard and crunchy. I actually prefer the cold bowl version and it's usually a little cheaper. This meal is great because it's healthy, filling and has great flavor! This is also great because you can alter it to whatever meat you want and you don’t have to mix the spicy sauce if you don’t want to, perfect training wheels into Korean food.
2. Dak Galbi
- Much like a traditional Korean BBQ this is a shared meal and as much as I love KBBQ this dish gives it a run for your money. Marinated chicken stir fried with cabbage, sweet potatoes as well as rice cakes, which aren’t my thing but I eat around them for this flavorful meal. Oh and they top it with cheese! Its so different from KBBQ and a nice change and you don’t have to cook this meal yourself unlike KBBQ.
3. Kimchi-
Kimchi is Korea’s national dish and when asking my students about their favorite food, 9 out of 10 said kimchi was their favorite. Koreans love their kimchi! The traditional version, made of fermented cabbage, carries a kick so if you don’t like spicy food this is something worth trying at KBBQ to see if you like it without ordering it. It almost always comes as a side dish at most restaurants so you will have many opportunities to try it. I prefer cucumber kimchi the best but the radish kimchi is also amazing. It was nice to always have a healthy side with my meals as opposed to the french fries and mozzarella sticks offered in the U.S.
5. Fried Chicken
As an American I was surprised to see more fried chicken restaurants in Korea than in America. In my opinion Koreans have really perfected the craft and the chicken is often juicy with a satisfying crunch. Sometimes in the States the center can be dry or so greasy I have a stomach ache before the meal is over. That was not the case for me in Korea. Korean fried chicken is a common late night food and often paired with a glass of beer. I really enjoyed the restaurants “Kyochon", and “bb.q” but there are more options than you could imagine. You can get bone-in or traditional and they come tossed in all kinds of sauces but my favorite is the soy garlic! It caramelizes the crunchy coating and this impressed my family as well.
7. Pa Jeon
Another pancake but not sweet. This is savory and crispy. Similar to a pancake batter but add green onions. Its simple and crunchy and I like to dip it in soy sauce. You can get Jeon with Kimchi or seafood but I love the green onions as I'm not a huge fan of seafood. When I make it at home I add white onions too for extra veg. Pa-Jeon is great if Korean food seems really different from your usual diet. This is a great segway into Korean food without being overwhelmed by spice.
10. Bulgogi
If you are coming to Korea and don’t like pork or spicy food THIS is your dish! Bulgogi is marinated beef in a lightly sweet sesame sauce and it gets its sweetness from an Asian Pear that is pureed and mixed with garlic and soy sauce. The meat is marinated with vegetables like onions and then is pan fried on high heat and served over rice. The flavor is incredible and suits picky eaters. This meal gets second place in my Korean food list just after Korean BBQ.
Final Tips and Thoughts on Korean cuisine…
Korean food won its way into my Midwest heart and I think you will find plenty of foods in Korea that you love! Don’t get overwhelmed about how spicy people say the food is, half of the foods I mentioned are perfect for non-spicy eaters. There is a lot of pork but if you don’t eat pork or even meat at all you can definitely navigate the Korean food scene by asking for alternatives. My vegetarian friends would still come to KBBQ and enjoy banchan (side dishes).
Let us know what foods you love from Korean and maybe what should be added to the list!