South Korea Food Guide

Korea has a number of regional cuisines, but nearly all share two things in common: rice, and hot, peppery flavours. Throughout most of the country, a wide range of vegetables is consumed, along with meat, fish or poultry, all flavoured with a variety of herbs and spices- the more commonly used flavourings include onions, ginger, garlic, soyabean sauce, sesame oil and red pepper- flavourings which make the food much more boisterously flavoured than that of neighbouring countries like Russia or Japan.

Perhaps the best known dishes of Korea include pulgogi, marinated beef flavoured with soya sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, spring onions and other ingredients, and roasted over a brazier; kimchi (a spicy pickle of cabbage, turnips, cucumber,s alt, garlic, onions and other seasonings), and hangwa (the generic name for Korean sweets- and there’s a wide range of them!) Meals traditionally consist of soup, rice and side dishes of meats (or fish or poultry), along with vegetables, including (inevitably) kimchi.