• Korean
  • Japanese
  • Chinese
  • login
  • join
PointHOME > Articles > Overview of Korean Food
Overview of Korean Food

Korea has much in common with China and Japan in terms of dining style due to frequent cultural and historical exchanges. But over time, Korea has developed its own unique cuisines.

Korea was once primarily an agricultural nation, and boiled rice has become the Korean staple food. Staple food and side dishes are clearly distinguished in Korean table settings. The traditional Korean meal consists of a bowl of rice and side dishes. Koreans use wide range of ingredients such as meat, fish, vegetables and seafood with unique seasonings. As there are many ways to cook these ingredients, Koreans have developed diversity in its cuisines.
Boiled Rice - the staple of Korean Diet

Bap, or boiled rice, is the staple of Korean cuisine. Barley, millet, beans, and red beans are sometimes mixed with rice for special taste and nutritional value. Vegetables, seafood, and kimchi are also added to rice when cooking for a better taste. One of the most famous rice dishes is bibimbap, boiled rice mixed with seasoned vegetables and meat.

Juk, or porridge, is grains boiled over time with a lot of water. Many varieties of juk exist, such as juk made with pine nuts, abalones, sesame, walnuts, and mung beans. Mieum is a thin porridge and Eungi is thin starch porridge.

Naengmyeon (buckwheat noodles in a cold broth), mandutguk (dumpling soup), tteokguk (rice cake soup) are cuisines enjoyed in everyday life and on special occasions. These dished are also often enjoyed for lunch.
Guk (soup), Tang (thick soup), Jjigae (stew)

A Korean table is never complete without accompanying soup such as guk, tang or jjigae, which is served with a bowl of rice. They are made with variety of ingredients such as beef, seafood, and vegetables, with seasonings such as salt, soybean sauce, bean paste, and seafood fermented in salt. Soups that most frequently appear on Koreans’ tables include seaweed soup, bean paste soup, seolleongtang (beef and bone soup), yukgaejang (spicy beef soup). Jjigae, gamjeong, and jochi are similar to guk, but they are thicker in texture and stronger in taste. They are seasoned with bean paste, red pepper paste, and shrimp fermented in salt. Gamjeong refers to jjigae seasoned with red pepper paste. Jochi is the term for jjigae served during a royal meal. Jeongol (Casserole) is a soup with seasoned meat and vegetables, which is boiled and cooked on the spot and shared by many people.
Namul (vegetables or wild-greens dishes)

Namul, vegetables or wild-greens dishes, is one of the most basic side dishes in the Korean diet. While namul refers to both raw and cooked vegetables and wild-greens, it usually means cooked ones these days. Almost all kinds of seasonal vegetables and wild-greens are used for namul dishes. Koreans often skewer and dry the ingredients to use them when they’re out of season. There are different ways to cook namul according to its type of the ingredient. Vegetables with green leafs are parboiled and seasoned with combinations of salt, soy sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil and garlic. Wild greens such as Chinese bellflowers are boiled and stir-fried with seasonings. Fresh seasonal vegetables are not boiled, but tossed in a sweet and sour seasoning.
Gui (grilled dishes), Sanjeok (beef and vegetable brochettes), Jijim (pan-fried dishes)

Gui, or grilled dishes, first appeared in the Korean diet when Koreans began to use fire for cooking. Neobiani is a type of grilled dish served in royal cuisine. It is thinly sliced beef marinated in a bulgogi sauce (soy sauce, sugar, garlic, green onions, and sesame oil), and then grilled at the table over charcoal.
Sanjeok is a grilled brochette made of seasoned meat, vegetables and mushrooms. There are many kinds of sanjeok according to their ingredients, such as sanjeok made of beef and vegetables, mushrooms, green onions and fish. Sanjeok brings beauty to the table, as ingredients of many colors are placed onto skewers.
Jeon is a pan-fried dish. It is also called as Jeonyueo or Jeonyuhwa. These dishes include thinly sliced meats, fish, and vegetables that are coated in flour, dipped in egg and pan-fried. Some common pan-fried dishes include pan-fried summer squash, pan-fried fish, and pan-fried meat. Jijim is a small pancake made of flour batter pan-fried with various ingredients. Some popular pancakes include mung bean pancake, green onion pancake, and layers of thin wheat pancake.
Pickled and Dried Foods for Long Storage

Jangajji is vegetables pickled in soy sauce, red pepper paste or soybean paste. They are stored for a long time and used as a side dish in winter times when vegetables are hard to get. Jeotgal and sikhae are also a type of stored foods. They include seafood fermented in salt.
Another type of stored food includes twigak (deep-fried seaweed or leaves and stems of various vegetables), bugak (deep-fried vegetables coated with starch), and po (beef or fish jerky). Yukpo, one of the most popular types of jerky, is thin slices of beef marinated in soy sauce, then dried in the shade. It is often served as a dried snack with alcohol or prepared for a wedding ceremony.
Kimchi is Korea’s most representative fermented food and the most basic side dish in the Korean diet. As it is an indispensable part of any Korean meal, some people say they cannot have a meal without Kimchi. There are many different kinds of Kimchi depending on region and its ingredients. Kimchi comes in various colors and tastes according to its ingredients, and types of jeotgal, or fermented seafood, used to make it. There is also a water kimchi with its refreshing and tangy juice.
Hoe (raw fish or meat), Ssam (vegetable leaf wraps), Muk (jelly) – Cuisines Unique to Korea

Hoe is raw meat, fish, or vegetables served with dipping sauces such as red chili pepper paste with vinegar and sugar, soy sauce with vinegar and sugar, mustard, and salt with sesame oil. Sukhoe is similar to hoe, but it uses parboiled ingredients. Some of the popular ingredients for sukhoe include parboiled parsley, small green onions, and fatsia shoots.
Ssam, vegetable leaf wraps, is a unique eating style of the Korean diet that is loved by many Koreans. Ssam is spoonful of rice wrapped in wide leafs such as lettuce, Chinese cabbage, sesame leafs, fresh seaweed and dried laver with soybean paste.
Also unique to Korean food is jokpyeon, pressed ox feet, and muk, firm jelly made of acorn, mung bean, or buckwheat starch.
Tteok (traditional rice cake), and Hangwa (traditional sweets and cookies) for Festive and Seasonal Occasions and Ancestral Memorial Services

Koreans always prepare for tteok and hangwa for festive occasions and a variety of special occasions. They are usually enjoyed as desserts these days. There are wide varieties of tteok based on how to make it. Sirutteok is rice power mixed with other ingredients and steamed in a siru, an earthenware steamer. Jeolpyeon and injeolmi is made by steaming glutinous rice and pounding it to make a firm and sticky dough. Bukkumi and hwajeon is kneaded glutinous rice dough shaped into small circles and pan-fried. Jeungpyeon is a steamed rice cake made with white rice flour and rice wine. It is also called as Sultteok, or rice wine cake. Yaksik, also called as yakban and yakbap, is steamed sticky rice made with chestnuts, jujubes (Korean dates), honey, pine nuts and cinnamon.
Hangwa is traditional Korean sweets and cookies. It is made by mixing rice or wheat flour dough with honey, yeot (sticky rice sugar), and sugar and then deep-fried. It is also made by simmering fruits and plants’ roots in honey syrup until glazed. It is also called as jogwa, which means cookies made of natural produce by adding artificial flavor. There is a wide variety of hangwa, such as yakgwa (deep-fried honey cookies), sanja (deep-fried sweet rice cookies), ganjeong (deep-fried sweet rice puffs), yyeotgangjeong (malt toffees), dasik (traditional pressed sweets), and jeonggwa (candied fruits and roots).
Korea Tourism Organization
print button