[Korea] Korean Food List

(If there's no Korean letters near the words, click on the View-Encoding (Korean) switch)

During my stay in Korea, I kept a list of food I tried and enjoyed and will share it here for anyone who likes Korean food (check out the local restaurants or take people out from your Korean Arts schools). Feel free to add some of your favorites too!


Normally in Korea, Koreans will take you out to try "typical" Korean food, which usually means Bul-go-gi or Bi-bim-bap, bith of which are good but they get boring after a while. There is a lot of great Korean food out there.

At a restaurant, every person will get their own bowl of rice (you can eat it with your spoon or chopsticks, but don't leave your chopsticks sticking straight up in them) which you should try to keep white, i.e. don't put your side dishes on top of your rice and don't lift the bowl to eat it. Also you will have a bowl of soup unless there is a shared stew pot in the center of the table. It's okay to take a spoon of rice and dip in the soup with it (or in less formal situations, dump your rice into the soup).

Also on the table will be the main course and at leats 4 side dishes (the more side dishes means the more formal the meal). These are all shared by reaching in with your schopsticks... so don't poke around with your chopsticks too much.

Here's some dishes I liked:

1. 삼겹살 (Sam Gyeop Sal) - Roasted side pork, usually wrapped in lettuce with seasoned soy bean paste.
2. 감자탕 (Kam Ja Tang) - A hearty stew made with potatoes and pork bones.
3. 두부김치 (Too Boo Kimchee) - A plate of warm tofu and kimchee, often served with soju.
4. 비지찌개 (Bee Gee Chee Gay) - A thick stew made from the skins of the soybeans.
5. 인절미 (In Jeol Mee) - Round or rectangular rice cakes brushed with bean powder.
6. 잡채 (Jhap Chay) - A dish of clear noodles mixed with various vegetables.
7. 된장찌개 (Tien Jang Chee Gay) - A hearty stew of soy bean paste, tofu and vegetables.
8. 칼국수 (Kal Gook Soo) - Broad white flour noodles in a rich broth.
9. 참치볶음밥 (Cham Chee Boke Um) - Stir-fried tuna and kimchee with rice.
10. 냉면 (Naeng Myeon) - Cold buckwheat noodles, served in an icy broth with various vegetables, a boiled egg and mustard paste.
11. 김밥 (Kimbap) - Vegetables and ham rolled in rice and seaweed.
12. 참치김밥 (Cham Chee Kimbap)- Tuna and vegetables rolled in rice and seaweed.
13. 누드김밥 (Noo Duh Kimbap) - Vegetables and other ingredients rolled in seaweed and rice with the rice facing out.
14. 불고기 (Bool Gogi)- Marinated beef with mushrooms and other vegetables cooked in a pot.
15. 메기매운탕 (Maegi Mae Oon Tang) - Spicy stew made with whole catfish.
16. 떡볶기 (Tokk Boke Ee) - Cylindrical rice cakes boiled in hot sauce.
17. 떡국 (Tokk Gook) - Flat round rice cakes in a thin broth, commonly served on Lunar New Year's Day.
18. 내장탕 (Nae Jang Tang) - Spicy soup made from fish intestines and vegetables.
19. 돌솥밥 (Tole Sut Bap) - Rice and vegetables served in a hot stone bowl.
20. 호두과자 (Hoe Doo Gwa Ja) - Sweet walnut cakes made in the shape of a walnut, famous in Chonan.
21. 새우젓 (Say Ooh Cheot) - Salted shrimp, used as a seasoning for pork or for making kimchee.
22. 설렁탕 (So Long Tang) - A soup made from beef broth, spring onions, rice, salt, and red pepper paste.
23. 닭갈비 (Tak Kal Bi) - Boneless chicken seasoned with spring onions, red pepper paste, sweet potatoes, rice cakes and garlic; usually wrapped in lettuce with seasoned soy bean paste.
24. 닭죽 (Tak Jook) - Thick porridge made from chicken broth, sticky rice, ginseng, garlic and salt.
25. 알탕 (All Tang) - Spicy soup made from fish eggs, red pepper, spring onions and other seasonings.
26. 장어구이 (Jang Oh Goo Ee) - Marinated and barbecued eel filets wrapped in lettuce.
27. 삼계탕 (Sam Gye Tang) - A whole chicken stuffed with rice, jujubes, garlic and ginseng and boiled whole.

 

Last week or so i tried kim bap (seems like it was cham chee and noo duh, but she (the woman who prepared this for us) just told us kim bap). It's really good.

She also made kim shin (no idea how to write that, or even really pronouce).
It was something like spicy cabbage. It's good too

 

I'm glad you liked it! "Kim bap" is just the generic term (like "sandwich" in English)

Here's some info on Kimchee:
Good article on Kimchee (By the way, the Japanese produce kimuchi, which looks and tastes like Kimchee but no self respecting Korean food/culture lover would ever touch!) http://www.control.co.kr/korea/kimchee.htm

The most common form of Kimchee is made with cabbage (Napa style – the long narrow looking cabbage). Take the cabbage and wash it, then rub it down with sea salt and stack it in a barrel for a while. Mix red pepper with garlic, spring onions, and fish paste (or for good country style, use Kang Kyeong’s salted shrimp paste). Mix this stuff up and then layer it between layers of the cabbage and pack it away in an urn (you can bury out back if you like) and let it sit for a while.

If you eat it immediately (while it’s still crispy), it is “new” kimchee and very good, but the flavors are crisp and bold. After a couple of weeks, it becomes “old” kimchee and is very fragrant and has a deep pickled/spicey flavor. New kimchee is good for eating plain (or with rice) and old kimchee is great with rice, stir-fried with tofu (or meat), boiled in water to make soup stock, added into ramen and so on.

There are other forms of Kimchee and pickles that are served as side dishes as well, including (sorry, I don’t have a Korean keyboard here):
-Paechu Kimchee (cabbage kimchee as detailed above)
-Paek kimchee (like the one above, but not spicey and is white in color)
-Kkaktugi (made with chunked up white radish – very spicey and great with beef soup
-Altari kimchee (whole small spicey pickled radishes)
-Oh-ee Kimchee (spicey cucumbers)
-Nabak kimchee (white radish pickles – not spicey)
-Manul Changgatchi (pickled whole garlic cloves)
-Mu Saengch’ae (shredded spicey white radish)

 

I love the stuff.

Favourite Korean meal is the BBQ style, where the wok is more or lesss upside down and just whack it on.
Chicken/Beef Bulgogi is nice, especially when the bowl is hot to the point you can cook an egg on it...they even give you the egg!

I like Kimchee but too much can make you feel ill...its the fish sauce and the ice coldness of it, plays havoc with your stomach acids.

 

Yes... I absolutely love the meals where you cook the raw meat on a charcoal or gas grill in the middle of your table... it just doesn't get any better than that.

As for the kimchee... I guess you get used to it after a while (although the smell pours out of your pores for weeks after you stop eating it fulltime!). I still love it though!

 

KimChee= The one thing I fear in life

Bulgogi=yummy

omg you should see my "sister" (well not really AND THANK GOD SHE AIN'T!) she chows down on kimchee constantly...and leaves a bad after-smell

 

Nobody tried bosintang yet???

Kimchi, the reason why every Korean family has two fridges

 

I say you cook up a feast and we all come to your house. I'll even kick in some cash for the fixin's next time I"m in the country. Don't think that will happen though eh?

I tried some homemade kim chee once or twice. Took a big ol bite of it, cabbage I said, how bad can it be. When I could feel my mouth again and my Korean friends stopped laughing I realized I could breath better than I had in years, literally!! And I was dumb enough to ask for more, in much smaller bites of course. I do like the pork and veggie dishes also. Good job Thomas.

 

Thomas,

You're making me so hungry. It looks like you missed Bi Bim Bap on your list... mmmm hot salad...

- Matt

 

I think the ommission was subconscious. When I first got to Korea, it was the dish that "everyone" wanted me to try. Every Korean who took me out to dinner (getting acquainted with the job) wanted to "surprise me" with a trip to a Bi Bim Bap place. While it is good, it is very easy to get tired of Bi Bim Bap (and when that is one of the two food words you know, you order it a lot on your own too!). Between Bi Bim Bap and Bulgogi everyday for the first few weeks, I quickly began setting up the list above so I could have different stuff too!

 

tom why were you in korea for four years. i was in korea for a year..... military

stationed in pusan. but since i was in a "special unit" we were all over korea.

my experences.
for food. if it wasnt for the nco club i would have starved.

i thought bugogi was good. there was a good soup that i liked but i forgot its name. kimchee smelled so bad that i couldnt stand to eat it. (although i might as well have since all the girls taste like it when you kiss...and im not giving that up for a year)

i tried kimbob. the stuff wrapped in seaweed. i took one bite and it was so gross i couldnt get it out of my mouth fast enough. it seemed like it grew in my mouth. i took one bite and spit out 5.


kerean food did not agree with me.

dont get the wrong idea i am an adventurous eater. i have eaten kagogi. ( i have heard its good for the chaggi)

and in africa i eat camel and croc.


an underrated part of korea is its rock climbing. how many places can you take a cab up to a steep rock face.


other great spots

chegedue island, freedom village, etewan

 

I had just finished college and got my teacher certification, and my red belt in TKD. I wanted more experience around the world before teaching and was offered a chance to go to Korea. I signed up for 1 year to teach English in the public schoola and planned to study TKD and-or Hapkido. I enjoyed it so much, I stayed for 4 years. I would´ve stayed longer but I needed to go back to NY and get my permanant teacher certificate before it expired. There was a lot of stuff I didn´t like about Korea, but I loved training there, the food, the money, and some of the people.

 

Bulgogi = yummy yum

The only downside is that the only place that serves it in my town takes about half an hour to bring it to you, but it's worth the wait.

 

You didn't mention Bi Bim Bap (at least I think it's Korean). A rice dish with barbequed chicken, Kim Chee, fried egg and some kind of green vegetables, topped with some sort of spicy bean paste. I absolutely can't get enough of the stuff, it's awesome!

 

Etewan (you probably mean Itaewon) is where the 'not so adventerous'-people go.

 

Heh heh heh... depends. For many Koreans, it takes a very "adventurous person" to go there (at least from the countryside. Also, it can be fairly dangerous late night there.

 

I have never had any troubles, the girls seem so friendly

A bit to friendly, so my wife doesn't allow me to socialize with them

 

Ha ha ha ha!!!

I used to try to take my co-teachers to Itaewon so they could practice their English. Most of the Koreans I knew refused to go... "too dangerous!"

Itaewon is good for non-Korean food as well!

There is a Korean meat restaurant in Itaewon that cooks the meat on water filled steel racks... the meat turns out amazing!!!!!!!

 

More Korean food:
곰 탕Gom Tang - Soup made from tailbones (beef), you can put your bowl of rice into it and can add red pepper powder if you like. “곰” also means “bear” (different Hanja) but this soup is not made of bear!

설렁탕 Seol-Leong Tang – A similar soup to above but is made from general beef bones. “설렁” is also slang for “not funny, or not enough”

추어탕 Choo Oh Tang – boiled “loaches” (a kind of small fish found in the rice paddies) that are crushed up and mixed with a variety of vegetables. The soup is seasoned individually by each person with a variety of spices and fresh vegetables, eaten with rice.

오리탕 Oh Ri Tang – Boiled duck with vegetables and rice. Very rich from the duck’s natural fat and goes well with rice.

부대찌개 Boo Tae Chee Gae – “Soldier’s Soup” made from a variety of ingredients (whatever you have on hand). Normally it’s made with Ramyeon noodle seasoning (and the noodles at the end) with kimchee, spam, and whatever vegetables and leftovers you have. Spicey and filling!

버섯전골 Beo Seot Jeon Gol – This is a hearty stew made from several varieties of mushrooms boiled in a nice stock. Other vegetables may be added.

쌈밥 Ssam Bap – A big plate of various greens (lettuce, herbs, weeds, and others) that you take a wrap with other greens and fill with rice and garlic and soybean paste. Optionally you may have some grilled meat to go with this. Hopefully, the restaurant will have a big wall poster showing what the various greens are. Definitely will give you an appreciation for the various greens.
순두부백반 Soon Too Boo Paek Pan – Fresh soft tooboo (Tofu) served up with a nice variety of side dishes.
순두부찌개 Soo Too Boo Chee Gae – Fresh soft tooboo (Tofu) made into a soup with red peppers and often shellfish. Served with side dishes.

아꾸찜 Ah GGoo Jjim – “아꾸” is a kind of fish whose name I never learned and instead referred to as “big mouthed ugly fish” (and it is). In this dish, it’s mixed with red peppers and veggies and made into a stew.

생등심 Saeng Tung Shim– Fresh beef sirloin grilled in front of you and cut into nice bite sized pieces which may be dipped into a sesame oil- salt and pepper dip and wrapped in lettuce with garlic, leeks, and/or soy bean paste. (note that the생- prefix on meat refers to “never frozen, fresh meat” as opposed to frozen meat… usually better tasting)
안심 Ahn Shim – Like above but it is the beef tenderloin

돼지갈비 Dwae Ji Kal Bee – Pork ribs with seasoning cooked on a grill in front of you and eaten with rice, sidedishes and lettuce to wrap the meat in (w/ garlic, soybean paste, and greens)
소갈비 So Kal Bee – Similar to above, but these are a richer seasoned beef ribs