I met someone who is moving to Korea for the first time
A few weeks ago I met someone who is moving to Korea for the first time. I was so excited to talk about life in Korea and I had so many recommendations for them about a number of topics, one of them being about what food they should try once they’re there. I thought I should share my recommendations on Korean food and dining!
The experience of dining in Korea
Now, I can’t simply discuss the food without also touching on some of the cultural behaviours that surround certain dishes or the different style of eating environments that exist in Korea. So to begin, I will talk about the experience of eating in Korea.
An experience like no other
Eating at restaurants or food markets in Korea is an experience like no other. My initial and overall thoughts regarding Korean food and Korean dining are that it is affordable, accessible, options on locations are plentiful, portions are generous, and the system is efficient.
Every restaurant has a button on the table
Restaurants in the western world are still stuck in the outdated, inconvenient, and quite frankly awkward system of figuring out how to attract your waiter/waitresses attention without coming across as rude. Should we stare at them and hope they notice we need something? Should we raise our hand or wave? Should we try to quickly pipe up with an ‘excuse me’ as they rush past us? Well, Korea already figured that out. Every restaurant has a button on the table that you push when you need something and a member of staff immediately comes to your table. This also means they don’t have to keep coming to check on your table.
They may decide to help you and show you how to handle a certain dish
Sometimes they may take pity on you as a foreigner, even if you have been there long enough to know what to do, they may decide to help you and show you how to handle a certain dish. For example, they may start to cut your noodles for you or BBQ your meat. There are always scissors on the table for cutting noodles or kimchi, and when you go to a BBQ restaurant you cook your own food at the table. Sometimes even ramen and snack restaurants will have camping stoves on the table for you to cook your food.
Designed for sharing, no kids menu, you get what you are given
A huge difference regarding ordering food in a Korean restaurant is that dishes are often designed for sharing. This is not something that seems to exist in quite the same way in the U.K. or America. Eating out is a huge part of the culture in Korea, and people use it for socialising with their family, friends and even work colleagues. This means that portion sizes can be large, with some dishes coming out solely for the entire table in a large bowl. Of course, there are smaller side bowls and plates for you to scoop your food onto for yourself, you are not all slurping from the centre pot. There is no kids menu, the children eat the same food as the adults and I definitely noticed that the children in Korea are not fussy eaters like we often find in Western children. There are also no adjustments to be made to the menu. You order what is on the menu and you get what you are given. Eating in Korea feels more communal and it is a bonding experience because you are able to make lunch or dinner plans with your friends regularly because of the affordability.
Extremely generous and offer many side dishes all free of charge
Korean restaurants and food markets are also extremely generous and offer many side dishes all free of charge, many times with constant refills! You will always be given kimchi and rice. Often there will be radishes, dried seafood, spicy cucumber, fried spam, and another favourite is shredded cabbage in ketchup and mayonnaise. Don’t turn your nose up until you’ve tried it! It is hard to adjust back into the overpriced and selfish nature of restaurants in the west once you have experienced the generosity of numerous free dishes and fair pricing in Korea!
Unlikely to run out of options for restaurants in Korea
You are very unlikely to run out of options for restaurants in Korea. There are numerous restaurants and street food vendors all across the streets and they all offer food at about the same prices as one another. Generally speaking you can eat a huge meal for under £7 / $10 or less. My lunch order of kimbap (rice, seaweed, egg, vegetables, meat all rolled up) used to cost me about £2/ $3.50. My dinner order of sundubu (soft tofu spicy soup) cost me about $5 when I lived in a cheaper area of Seoul and my dinners of chamchi jiggae (tuna and kimchi soup) and mandu guk (dumpling soup) cost me around $7 when I lived in a more expensive area of Seoul.
A result of trial and error, faith and straight up winging it
This leads me on to my personal list of food you should try in Korea. Some dishes were recommended to me by other foreigners or my Korean co-workers, but many dishes were a result of trial and error, faith and straight up winging it. When I first arrived I would go into a restaurant and point at anything on the menu, or I would look at someone else’s dish and point at that. I would ask the restaurant owner how to pronounce the dish correctly, and I took photos of the writing so I could memorise the Hangul characters, and photos of the dish just to help me remember what it looked like. This led to some unfortunate experiences where I did not always enjoy my order (blood sausage & liver soup to be exact), but it also led me to finding some of my favourite food ever. Also, it just added an element of fun wondering what new food I might try. After a while I knew which dishes were which, the ones to avoid and the ones to order. Like most good things, it just comes with time.
Some of my personal top favourites
However, you do not have to go through as much trial and error, because I am here to give you the results of my own experiences! I will list some of my personal top favourites in the remainder of this post, but be sure to keep checking back for more posts dedicated to the food dishes, dining and food markets in Korea.
Sundubu jjigae 순두부 찌개
My first safe food that I was emotionally attached to in my first year living there was sundubu jjigae 순두부 찌개. It is an orange coloured bubbling soup with soft tofu, clams and vegetables, with rice and egg. It is a very comforting dish with a nice amount of flavour and I survived on it regularly at our sweet ‘mom & pops’ restaurant. It is not a dish you can find in every restaurant but it is not a rare find either.
Chamchi jiggae 참치찌개
Chamchi jiggae is a dish that I wish I had found sooner than I did actually! This became a regular favourite of mine during my last year and a half of living in Korea. It is a spicy tuna and kimchi soup. It is the cousin of kimchi jiggae 김치찌개, which is common and popular, it is kimchi and pork soup, and can be found in most restaurants; I personally did not enjoy that dish as much as the chamchi jiggae but I am bias because generally speaking I am not a huge fan of pork. Chamchi jiggae is not sold in every restaurant, but almost all of the time you will be able to find kimchi jiggae and it also comes in large sharing bowls too.
Pajeon 파전 and Kimchijeon 김치전
A dish that my friends and I enjoyed sharing together was pajeon 파전 which is Korean fried pancake with seafood and onion. You can also get this in the form of kimchijeon 김치전, which was actually our preferred flavour. It is of course Korean fried kimchi pancake. These are savoury pancakes and they are a delicious dish to add on to the side of your meal, or if you are looking for a quick way to fill up but you are not craving more common dishes such as soups or noodles. They are also great if you are drinking at a restaurant and you want a hot snack with your soju! You can find it in restaurants and food markets but there is a place in an area of Seoul called Hoegi which has its own dedicated Pajeon Street. It is accessible from line one on the subway (the dark blue line). It is a university area so there are many cheaper food and drink options there too.
Check back for my next blog post and I will have even more food based deets!
I have so many more favourite Korean dishes and recommendations for you. Locations to check out like the food markets, and there are even more cultural/ societal differences around dining in Korea, such as restaurants where you sit on the floor. If any of this interests you, check back again soon and I will have even more food based deets!
I love this blog!