Come Dine With Me - favourite foods

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One thing I love, and will miss most, about Korea is the food! There's such diversity in what you can eat; seasonal food, special celebratory food for different important occasions, fusion food etc. Towards the end of my stay in Korea, a friend and I made Wednesdays 'Korean food night' so we could get our fill of our favourite dishes.

One of the first dishes a foreigner is bound to try in Korea is bibimbap. This is a dish where rice, mixed colourful vegetables (e.g. cucumber, zucchini, mushrooms, soybean sprouts, seaweed etc), and a fried egg are mixed together in a bowl with lashings of gochujang (chilli pepper paste). They come in so many regional variations. My favourite is dolsot bibimbap where all the ingredients come in a hot stone bowl where the raw egg is cooked against the side of the bowl. Delicious, nutritious and available at most kimbap changuk/nara (cheap Korean eatery) places for W5,000.

I already blogged about my bulgogi experience in Seoul, but this marinated soy beef dish is delicious and best shared with friends. Again easy on the palate for fussy foreigners.

Shabu shabu is actually a take on a Japanese dish and I've had it in two different ways. The first time meat, mushrooms and thick noodles all came in a pot together, and after we were finished they took the pot away and used the rest of the broth to make a fried rice in the bottom of the pan. The second time all the ingredients arrived for us to cook ourselves - mushrooms and thinly sliced meat, which when cooked we wrapped with salad in Vietnamese rice paper and drenched in peanut and chilli sauce. When we were done making rolls, we added the noodles for the next course, which just consisted of devouring everything in the rest of the pot, and we had to turn down the rice course as we were too full!

Korean BBQ is becoming very popular all over the world now, and it always makes a fantastic meal. I've had different variations countless times. Depending on the restaurant you can get different cuts of pork and beef and you cook everything yourself on a grill on the table. You can usually help yourself to various different side dishes from onion, garlic and kimchi to beansprouts and green onion salad, and lashings of spicy ssamjang sauce. When the meat is cooked, you chop it with scissors, wrap in a lettuce leaf with sides of your choice, and enjoy!

Pajeon is everywhere and one of my favourites. It's basically a pancake like dish made from a batter of eggs, flour, and green onions, and comes in different varieties. In Busan I always had seafood pajeon - full of mussles or squid. This is particularly washed down well with makgeolli - a thick and white Korean wheat/rice wine. In my last few months we started going to a restaurant in Busan that served cheesy kimchi jeon (pancake) with battered kettles of makgeolli. Deliciousness.

Dakgalbi is a very social meal where the staff cook everything at your table. They stir-fry marinated diced chicken in a chili pepper paste sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions, and rice cake together on a hot plate. Then they add in either rice or noodles. Best of all is when they fold in grated cheese right at the end. Mmmmmmmmnnnnn nom.

Andong jjimdak is a hearty chicken and vegetable stew in a soy sauce, which also comes with glass noodles and optional rice for mopping up the sauce. It originated in the city of Andong and maybe is something best eaten in colder months!

Donkas is also a version of a Japanese dish and is basically a thin deep-fried breadcrumbed pork fillet with a sweet brown sauce. It is also a very good cheap dinner in a kimbap changuk/nara. But the best one we had was in a restaurant in Centum City - deluxe Donkas. This pork fillet came in iron skillet in a thin layer of kimchi, mushroom and onion stew, and smothered with melted mozzarella cheese. On the side we had chopped cabbage in a ginger wasabi salad dressing and a scalliony broth. Words cannot describe the taste sensation of these flavour combinations.

In the hot summer months we had a cold noodle dish called naengmyeon on multiple occasions as we couldn't bear to eat many hot things! It's made with buckwheat noodles in a tangy vinegar broth, topped with hard-boiled egg, cucumber, and various other vegetables. Best of all it comes with a block of ice to keep things cool.

Kimbap is the handiest meal you can grab on the go. Steamed white rice, cucumber, carrots, pickled radish, egg and crab meat among other possibilities are wrapped in dried sheets of seaweed, and then chopped into slices for easy eating.

Korea is not known for its desserts but there are two excellent ones which everyone should try. In winter hotteok stands are everywhere - more a street food than a dessert really. It's basically fried pancake stuffed with brown sugar, chopped nuts, cinnamon, and if you're really lucky, cocoa. A great hangover cure. The summer special is patbingsu. This amazing creation consists of shaved ice, condensed milk, chewy gelatin, cereal flakes, and, wait for it, sweetened red beans. Strange yet delicious, it comes in many forms including chocolate and fruit.

There are so many more dishes I could wax on about, I hope I can find good Korean restaurants wherever I end up living next!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Flavors and Aroumas
I love food blogs and so this one was enjoyed immensely. Very nice photos and descriptions.