Besides the engaging plotlines and interesting characters, K-dramas also opened our eyes and appetite to Korean cooking. Even for newbies, you can easily see how they enjoy their food culture, and there are a lot of interesting finds for those who are interested enough to notice!
Let’s look at some delicious Korean food that you can attack along with your watch list.
Kimchi
Almost over 2,000 years old, this traditional Korean dish is prepared with salted seafood, crushed garlic, scallions, ginger, onions, pumpkin, radish, and Korean cabbage in the right proportions. The mixture is then fermented. That small dish at Asian restaurants kept for you to snack on while your order is getting prepared? Yes, that’s actually a Korean dish.
There are almost 250 variations of kimchi including kimchi soup, salad, and much more. It can be eaten independently or with rice too.
Bulgogi
Bulgogi is known for its aroma. To make this mouth-watering dish, the first step is to marinate the meat a few hours before getting into cooking. Marinate by mixing sugar, ginger, garlic, black pepper, onion, sesame oil, and soy sauce. You can also wrap the meat in leafy vegetables, lettuce, or spinach to make it look more aesthetic and Instagram-worthy.
Jajangmyeon
Jajangmyeon is a Chinese-Korean fusion dish. It is made with wheat noodles topped with vegetables, black soybean paste, and diced meat. Black soybean paste is purposely used to make the dish look as black as possible. Strange?
Well, singles eat this dish on April 14 every year as it is considered as a Black Day for those who did not celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Samgyetang
This is the perfect summer food to kick back and relax. Samgyetang is chicken ginseng soup that re-energizes your body. This soup is made with spring chicken stuffed with ginseng, glutinous rice, chestnut, garlic, jujubes, and nuts.
These ingredients are cooked till the meat becomes soft and the soup starts smelling slightly bitter. Even with a slightly bitter fragrance, it still manages to taste delicious. It is believed that without Samgyetang, summer feels incomplete and empty to most locals in Korea.