South Korea food culture

A country where queues mean a seriously good local food spot.

“Hot tip: if you see a queue of people, join it!”

From Korean barbecue to Korean fried chicken, via bulgogi and bibimbap. South Korea’s food has made waves around the world – alongside its cinema, its beauty products, and its pop music. But whilst its cultural exports loom large, not many people tap them at source.

“South Korea feels like it is preparing for a tourism boom,” says Patrick O’Neill, from our partner Intrepid Travel, fresh from a South Korea food tour. People aren’t really going to South Korea in great numbers – at least, not yet. More South Koreans are currently venturing out of their country than there are travellers coming in.

It means that instead of crowds of fellow tourists, the main risk is overindulgence.

“I walked past a queue of people on the fringe of Namdaemun Market and decided to join in,” says Patrick. “It turns out it was a famous vegetable hotteok stand.” Hotteok, robust, stuffed pancakes, make a fantastically portable street food snack. “It was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten,” says Patrick, who went back to the stall three times.

The food itself is expansive, too. Take banchan, vegetable side dishes that are often served with rice. Order in a Korean restaurant and you’ll find the table slowly becomes dotted with more and more little white bowls, each containing an exquisitely prepared vegetarian side dish.

“The platter of banchan that arrived on the table consisted of no fewer than 25 little dishes,” says Patrick, of visiting a locally owned restaurant in the Sunchang countryside. “I can’t begin to explain the complexity of this food, in cooking and in flavour. It’s hard to fathom how this can all come out of one little kitchen and also be so affordable.”

Alongside banchan comes rice, soup, and the ever-present kimchi. It’s the latter that provides one of the keys to South Korean food’s deliciousness. Fermentation and pickling are labours of love in the country, producing some of the greatest effects. Kimchi and banchan are joined by gochujang – a chilli paste – produced in a makers’ village south of Jeonju, where it is stored outside in large earthenware pots. Then, over a period of months, the sun can gently ferment it to perfection.

Time, tradition, and seasonality are important, as is local produce. “I asked our tour guide why we didn’t see any tuna in Jagalchi Seafood Market,” says Patrick, “he explained that Koreans take their local seafood very seriously and don’t like to import seafood from abroad.”

There’s another component of Korean cuisine to appreciate – and that’s the art of a fine balance. Banchan represent the delicate balance of flavours in Korean cuisine; another balancing act is found in bibimbap, which can contain upwards of thirty different components, like yellow mung bean jelly, red chilli paste, and dark soy sauce, all carefully counterpoised to create both a harmonious flavour and colour contrast.

Then there’s the American influence. After World War II, Korea was split into two and South Korea was occupied by the US. (North Korea was occupied by the Soviet Union.) It was a crucial juncture which made South Korea the capitalist haven it is today and influenced its food. “A lot of people are familiar with the post-war Americanisation of Korean food, such as Korean fried chicken, hot dogs in budae jjigae (army stew), Korean corn and cheese,” says Patrick. Korean fried chicken is ubiquitous. And it’s so commonly served with beer that the combination even has a name: chimaek.

What’s most interesting in South Korea’s cities is that Koreans themselves are, if anything, becoming increasingly disinterested in their own food heritage. Trends move fast in Seoul, as people move from the latest churro restaurant to the next big burger place. Korean food takes forethought, and careful and sometimes arduous preparation; fast food is ever popular and food delivery apps are big business, especially as the number of people in high pressure working or education environments climbs.

Like the bibimbap, food trips in South Korea need to find a good balance. Whilst eating in Korea opens up a world of low-lit bars and intimate tables, don’t neglect the great outdoors, too. Seoul is built around four mountains; the country is 70 percent mountains and hills. Koreans are keen walkers – post-pandemic, the practice – once the preserve of the older generations – has become increasingly trendy.

“We got talking to a local couple who said that it was their favourite spot to stop when they were on hiking trips,” said Patrick of the little local banchan restaurant where his group dined among day trippers and farmers.

Whether you’re joining a hungry queue, or hikers on the trail, it seems that on a South Korea food trip you can’t go wrong when you’re following the crowd.

A food tour takes around a week. Start in Seoul, with its street food, food markets and fantastic restaurants. From here you can take the train south to Jeonju, and from there into the countryside. In Sunchang Gochujang the pleasant, sunny climate provides the perfect weather for chilli-growing, and so it’s here that the famous Gochujang chilli sauce is made. Finish in Busan, on the coast; there’s no better place to try seafood. Food tours have high step counts. Whilst public transport is excellent, you’ll spend time in big cities where there’s plenty to take in, across a wide area. Food festivals are a great time of year to go – consider arriving in Seoul for its November kimchi festival – where kimchi is made en masse, or Jeonju for the bibimbap festivities in October. True to their biological definition tomatoes are considered a fruit in South Korea – and might appear in a fruit salad. Eating dog is a harmful and inaccurate stereotype. The practice is rapidly falling out of favour. In 2018 it was made illegal to kill a dog for meat. As of 2020, 84 percent of Koreans had never eaten it. Unsurprisingly, when you consider the surfeit of banchan on Korean menus, Korea used to have a massive food waste problem, which at one point threatened to overwhelm Seoul. The city now recycles 95 percent of its food waste into products like animal feed. It’s easier said than done, but only order what you intend to eat.

South Korean dishes include a lot of meat and seafood and only around three percent of the country are thought to identify as vegetarian. Seemingly vegetarian dishes may include meat and fish, like traditional kimchi which can include fermented shrimp, and many dips and marinades contain oyster sauce.

Yet meat is a relatively new addition to the populace’s plates, and the country has a long Confucian tradition of vegetarianism – observed best in the monasteries, where, if you stay for a night, you’ll be served an entirely vegan meal. Refectories aside, vegans and vegetarians should review itineraries carefully. Letting a tour guide know well in advance can help them guarantee plant-based meals.