South Korea: Must Try Foods you Need to Know

Wow. Just looked through my camera roll and if I shared all my food pics, I would need to sit down with you over a bottle of wine and a detailed powerpoint. Here are some highlights.

Korean BBQ

I couldn’t go to Korea without trying BBQ….and boy did I ever try it! My first time having it I went with my friend Aida and we had no clue what we were doing. We accidently ordered like six servings and paid way more than we had originally planned. Many BBQs would come after the first one. They were all delicious although we did accidently undercook it once and suffered extremely that day.

Tteokbokki

Tteokbokki is rice cake, typically served spicy. If you haven’t had rice cake, it is a strange texture to describe, but so delicious! Tteokbokki is really common as a side dish and I had a ton while I lived in Korea.

Tteokbokki
Sweets

Everything was sweet in Korea! An example was deep dish pizza that I had with honey all along the crust or sweet garlic chips. My favorite sweet I ate in Korea was the traditional red bean shaved ice. It was amazing. I also ate Baskin Robbins frequently, always getting the expresso one which was delish and funny since I have never eaten it before in the US.

Gimbap

Gimbap is to Korea as the o-nigiri is to Japan. Just like the o-nigiri, the gimbap was my go-to quick meal from the seven eleven or street vendor. Gimbap is similar to sushi but you can out anything in it, my favorite was tuna bulgogi!

Jajangmyun

These were our go-to cheap eats near where we worked. For a few bucks we got a filling meal of black bean noodles.

Octopus-tripe-shrimp Stew

This was one of the best meals in Korea! With my friend Aida we got a delicious seafood stew near the sea in Busan. This was the best octopus I have ever had in my life, that stuff was like butter!

Eel

Eel is one of my favorite seafoods and we went for a special, more expensive, meal in the seaside town of Busan. The eel was so fresh, when we put it on the grill it was still moving a little!

Chinese Veggie Soup

Near where we worked, there was a little Chinese restaurant where you picked all your ingredients and chose a spicy level and they added the broth, you paid by the weight. I think I went here three times in a week once? This was one of the best places to go if you were sick or wanted veggies.

Fried Chicken

Fried chicken was super popular, especially with beer. I found it a little overpriced but still delicious!

Stews

You could buy a lot of things that had ‘stew’ as an ending. They were always for sharing and delicious!

Soju

Soju is the go-to liquor in Korea. It is a lighter liquor that has various flavors (shout out to my favs, apple and grape). It was really popular everywhere you went and was probably the most advertised thing in Korea. It is easy to drink because of the pleasant taste and is also really cheap.

I still have so many things I could talk about but these were some of the highlights!

T