11 recipes
A bold, satisfying cuisine known for fermented flavours like kimchi, chilli paste, sesame oil and an array of small shared side dishes.
Read its storyA Korean classic of warm rice topped with individually cooked vegetables, marinated beef and a fried egg, all mixed together with a sweet-spicy gochujang sauce.
Korea's essential pickle: salted napa cabbage tossed in a garlicky, gingery chili paste and left to ferment for a few days.
A glossy, lightly sweet Korean celebration dish of sweet-potato glass noodles tossed with colorful vegetables, beef and sesame oil.
Korea's favorite meat dish: thinly sliced beef marinated in a sweet pear, soy and garlic mixture and seared quickly over high heat.
A hearty sour-and-spicy Korean stew of well-fermented kimchi simmered with meat, tofu and chili, cooked in Korean homes almost every week.
Korea's most iconic street snack: chewy cylindrical rice cakes simmered in a thick, sweet-and-spicy gochujang sauce.
A Korean pan dish of gochujang-marinated chicken thighs cooked with cabbage, sweet potato and rice cakes, finished with fried rice in the same pan.
A Korean pancake made with whole scallions and seafood, crisp at the edges and tender inside, served with a soy-vinegar dip.
Korean seaweed rolls of sesame-seasoned rice filled with tuna, egg and colourful vegetables, a staple of picnics and packed lunches.
A bubbling Korean stew of silky soft tofu cooked in chili oil with seafood and finished with an egg cracked in at the table.
A beloved Korean winter street snack: yeasted pancakes filled with cinnamon brown sugar and nuts that melt into a syrup as they fry.
Korean food developed on a mountainous peninsula with harsh winters. To prepare for the months without fresh vegetables, people salted and fermented produce for centuries, giving rise to kimchi, the soybean paste doenjang and the soy sauce ganjang. Kimjang, the autumn tradition in which families and neighbours gather to make winter kimchi together, is inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
During the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) the royal kitchen developed a refined system that placed great weight on the seasons and on balance. Confucian values shaped how food was served and shared. The chilli that now gives kimchi its fiery red colour reached Korea relatively late, probably at the end of the 16th century; earlier kimchi was white or more simply seasoned. The war and poverty of the 20th century also left their mark: budae jjigae, a stew made with sausages and canned ham from US army bases after the Korean War, is one product of that era.
In the north, especially in the old cooking of Pyongyang, simpler and less salty dishes such as cold buckwheat noodles (naengmyeon) are prominent. In the warmer south, food is saltier and spicier; the Jeolla region is famous for the abundance and variety of side dishes it brings to the table. In coastal Busan and on Jeju Island, seafood and fish soups take centre stage.
The three essential pastes and sauces are gochujang (chilli paste), doenjang (soybean paste) and ganjang (soy sauce), joined by garlic, spring onions, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds and gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes). Every meal comes with "banchan", small shared side dishes such as kimchi, vegetable salads and blanched greens served alongside rice. Tabletop grilling, bubbling stews (jjigae) and fermentation are the main techniques.
Bibimbap is the perfect place to start: a bowl of rice topped with sautéed vegetables, an egg and gochujang sauce teaches you to cook each component separately. Continue with