Korean Dishes

Revolutionary Activities of Great Leaders

Famous Korean Dishes

Sinsollo

Famous Korean Dishes

Ogokpap

Famous Korean Dishes

Yakpap

Famous Korean Dishes

Pyongyang cold noodles

Famous Korean Dishes

Mung-bean pancake

Famous Korean Dishes

Cubed radish kimchi

Famous Korean Dishes

Beef barbecue

Famous Korean Dishes

Pork casserole

Famous Korean Dishes

Steamed chicken with insam

Famous Korean Dishes

Loach soup

Famous Korean Dishes

Kimchi

Famous Korean Dishes

Honeyed broad bellflower root

Famous Korean Dishes

Makkolli

Famous Korean Dishes

Fermented spicy Pollack

Famous Korean Dishes

Pyongyang onban

Famous Korean Dishes

Roasted turkey

Famous Korean Dishes

Winter solstice porridge

Famous Korean Dishes

Bean paste soup

Famous Korean Dishes

Mung bean jelly salad

Famous Korean Dishes

Roast eel

Famous Korean Dishes

Pine nut porridge

Famous Korean Dishes

Steamed sturgeon with soy sauce

Famous Korean Dishes

Raw mandarin fish slices

Famous Korean Dishes

Taedong River mullet soup

Famous Korean Dishes

Chicken steamed with seven flavours

Famous Korean Dishes

Steamed terrapin

Excellent Qualities of Korean Dishes

Taste and Fragrance

Taste and Fragrance

   Traditional dishes of Korea have light, fresh and pleasant tastes and fragrant and faint smells.
   They are neither too greasy, sweet, salty or saltless, nor strong-scented.
   What makes Korean dishes palatable is that they are made to sustain unique tastes of raw foods, such as cereals, meat, fish, vegetables, edible herbs, fruits and so on, and harmonize with each other.
   Either processed or stored materials can be used in cooking, but in most cases fresh ones are used.
Soy sauce and bean paste are more preferable to salt, and various seasonings and spices including chilli, honey, sesame, pepper, mustard, leek, garlic, and ginger, are used appropriately.
   Koreans have long created and developed various culinary methods, and actively used chilli, garlic and sesame oil, making Korean dishes distinctive from foreign cuisines.
   Generally speaking, Korean dishes that prioritize natural, fresh taste and produce at the same time excellent combination of flavours-simple, sweet, delicious, refreshing and pleasant-are conducive to stimulating appetite and nutritive intake and promoting health.
Beautiful Colours

Beautiful Colours

   Traditional Korean dishes have bright and mellow colours and nice appearances.
   Colours and appearances of dishes are important factors in increasing appetite.
   In preparing dishes Koreans avoided too high heat or too much oil, so as to retain inherent colours of raw materials.
   They widely used such edible plants as Schizandra chinensis, pine-tree bark, jujube, chilli, garnedia seed, pine pollen, wormwood, angelica leaf, and green perilla to give various colours to dishes.
   Gingko, pine nut, walnut, jujube, chestnut, chilli, leek, egg, mushroom and others were also applied to improve visual effects.
Diversity

Diversity

   Korean dishes amount to several thousand in kind, and they are diverse in shape.
   Staple and nonstaple foods, the sweetened, drinks and other Korean foods are prepared with a wide variety of agricultural and marine products and by means of different culinary methods.
   Rice, a major staple diet of the Korean people, and kimchi, their typical relish, have a wide variety.
   For example, Koreans used pumpkin and its leaves and stalks in preparing boiled rice, rice cake, pancake, congee, soup, kimchi, sautéed, broiled and seasoned dishes, and others.
Health Foods

Health Foods

   Korean dishes are very good for promoting health and longevity.
   Main cooking materials contain a balanced proportion of nutrients essential for human body.
   A long intake of them hardly has negative effects but is pharmacologically effective.
   Glutinous rice, radish, bok choy, sesame, jujube, ginger, leek, garlic, gingko, pine-nut, chestnut, walnut and other grains, vegetables, fish, meat, and wild fruits were principal stuffs for staple and side dishes of the Korean people as well as for medical treatment. Not only them but also anise, aralia shoots, broad bellflower, Codonopsis lanceolata, wormwood, seaweed, kelp and laver with medicinal qualities were much used in cooking.
   For this reason, Korean dishes have long been famous for promoting health, preventing diseases and helping medical treatment.
   Among such dishes are yakpap and ogokpap, boiled rices with pharmacological effects; steamed chicken with insam and steamed chicken and carp with invigorating and hematic effects; and various teas of Schizandra chinensis, pear, dried persimmon and ginger efficacious for strengthening heart, stomach and other organs.
   And condimentary stuffs were known to have high medicinal properties.
   Pharmacological effects of the steamed foods were enhanced by various vegetable foodstuffs, such as mushroom, chestnut, gingko, radish and kelp. After eating rice wrapped in lettuce leaves, people would drink warm cinnamon tea so as not to suffer indigestion.
   Medicinal herbs were usually used in preparing congees, alcoholic beverages, sweets and even foods for famine relief.
   In the course of age-old endeavours to transform the nature, the Korean people pooled their wisdom and efforts to actively introduce useful things to their life, dietary life in particular, and turn them into delicious foods favourable for physiology and national tastes by means of various culinary methods.
   That is why the Korean dishes are numerous in kind, palatable, eye-catching in colour and appearance, and good for health.

   Since the dawn of human civilization the Korean nation has lived on the same territory as a homogenous nation, and they have created and developed a peculiar dietary culture.
   Korean dishes that are prepared with diverse materials rich in mountains, fields, rivers and seas constitute one of valuable cultural heritage.
   Kimchi, sinsollo, Pyongyang cold noodles, pulgogi, mung bean pancake and other traditional dishes conform to physical constitutions and tastes of the Korean people, so they are popular not only at home but also abroad.
   Numbering several thousand items in kind, they are palatable, aromatic, and beautiful in colour and appearance. Methods of preparing them are also diverse and yet unique. Scores of dishes are prepared with one material.
   Many experts say that Korean dishes fully reflect aspiration and wish of the people for long life in good health, and that they are the world models in terms of nutritive and hygienic values.
   Korean dishes whose excellence is proved scientifically attract a growing number of people and show a steady improvement.

Folk Holiday Dishes

   From ancient times the Korean people celebrated the New Year’s Day by the lunar calendar in a grand style.
   Early in the morning of the New Year’s Day, all the families would hold memorial services for their ancestors, make New Year greetings and enjoy holiday dishes.
   It was a custom in Korea to put ttokguk (rice cake soup) on the table set for memorial services on New Year’s Day with several other dishes.
   Dishes for this day include chalttok (glutinous rice cake), solgittok (steamed rice cake), jolphyon (fancy rice cake), pancakes, desserts, sujonggwa (fruit punch), sikhye (sweet rice drink), roast meats, fruits and others.
   And ttokguk is a must dish for the day. So, Koreans called it chomsebyong, age-adding rice cake.
   The soup was originally prepared with pheasant broth, and when the pheasant was not available, chicken broth was used instead. Hence the Korean proverb, Chi...For More Information

   Jongwoldaeborum, the 15th day of the first lunar month, is one of folk holidays celebrated by the Korean people from ancient times.
   Festive dishes for the day include ogokpap, yakpap, pokssam, noodles, dried herb dishes, and ear-quickening liquor.
   Ogokpap is the boiled rice mixed with four other cereals, typically foxtail millet, sorghum, bean and adzuki bean.
   Yakpap, medicinal rice, is prepared with glutinous rice and honey as major ingredients, and also jujube, dried persimmon, chestnut, pine nuts, sesame oil and others.
   Nine kinds of cooked dried herbs are good for not getting ill from the summer heat.
   Koreans of old times favoured these dishes, because such balanced diet would help the intake of various nutrients for health promotion.
   They ate noodles at lunch the day before, wishing that they would live as long as the noodle strips.
  &nbs...For More Information

   In the old times Korean people regarded February by the lunar calendar as the beginning of the year’s farming.
   So they celebrated grandly the first day of the lunar February, calling it Ilgunnal, day of farm workers.
   They prepared and ate songphyon (half-moon-shaped rice cake) on the day, and those in the Phyongan provincial areas (at present North and South Phyongan, and Jagang provinces) favoured solgittok (steamed rice cake).For More Information

   Koreans who regard 3 as a lucky number celebrate the third day of the third lunar month as a holiday.
   They ate hwajon (glutinous rice cake fried with azalea and chrysanthemum flowers), hwamyon (mung bean jelly slices in honeyed water served with pine nuts), and sumyon (mung bean noodles coloured in red and served in honeyed water).
   And they drank liquors named Sogukju, Tugyonju, Tohwaju and Samhaeju.For More Information

   The 15th day of the sixth lunar month is a folk holiday of Korean people, who enjoyed a hot summer day washing hair and having a bath in a stream east of the village.
   Old documents read that the people in the period of Koguryo (277 BC-AD 668), the first feudal state of Korea, had a bath in a stream east of the village and enjoyed a feast of dishes.
   Typical dishes on the day include congee with fish, noodles, rice cake dumplings, fermented rice cake and pancake.For More Information

   The hottest period of summer is called sambok in Korean.
   From olden times people went to summer resorts and prepared seasonable dishes.
   As a proverb says, Like cures like, they ate hot tangogi soup, samgyethang, spicy beef soup, aduzuki bean congee, boiled barley rice and leek soup.
   Tangogi soup is prepared with slices of well-cooked tangogi garnished with minced skin, oil, seasoning herbs, garlic, and powders of red and black peppers and served in boiling hot tangogi broth.
   Samgyethang is a dish of jugged young chicken with insam, jujube, glutinous rice and other ingredients.
   Spicy beef soup is prepared specially for those who find tangogi soup disagreeable.
   Beef soup is usually served without hot pepper, but during the midsummer days it is served hot.For More Information

   On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month people ate sudan, or rice cake dumpling served in honeyed water, while enjoying bright Altair and Vega in the night sky.
   Sudan is also recommended for avoiding summer heat of the year.
   An old Korean proverb says, Take sudan on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month and songphyon on chusok.For More Information

   Chusok, or harvest moon festival, is a popular folk holiday falling on the 15th of the eighth month by the lunar calendar.
   From old days the Korean people celebrated the day to commemorate the bumper harvest and to honour their ancestors.
   That day people offered to their ancestors foods prepared with early rice and other grains such as mung bean, adzuki bean and soy bean.
   And on the eve of the holiday, they prepared holiday dishes, typically rice cakes made of newly harvested crops, soups, wine and sweets.
   They made a variety of rice cakes including glutinuous rice cake, and the one most associated with the holiday is songphyon, half-moon-shaped rice cake stuffed with beans and cooked on a layer of pine needles.For More Information

Koreans celebrated the ninth day of the ninth lunar calendar, when chrymsanthemums are in full bloom, as a folk holiday since the period of Three Kingdoms.
They prepared pancake, punch and liquor with chrysanthemum flowers and enjoyed the autumn-tinted scenery.For More Information

   Korean people called November by the lunar calendar tongjidal in Korean, and the winter solstice tongjinal.
   When the winter solstice occurs in the first ten days of lunar November, it is called aedongji, and when it falls afterwards, rodongji.
   People said the early winter solstice was good for children while late winter solstice for old people.
   It reflected the wish of children to grow up early and that of the elderly to live long, as they regarded the winter solstice as the New Year’s eve.
   It was also said that the winter with early winter solstice had more biting cold.
   Tongji porridge is a must on the day.For More Information

   It was a custom in Korea that the third Sheep’s day after the winter solstice was celebrated in the royal palace.
   Typical dish of the day was the casserole of wild boar, hare and other game hunted on the day.
   Rapil was also called rapphyong.
   Ordinary people did not celebrate the day as grandly as in the royal palace, but they ate roasted sparrow and made yot (taffy).
   In the Pyongyang area people ate noodles on the day.For More Information

Local Special Cuisines

Favourite Dishes

Dietary Custom

Major staple and nonstaple foods

Major staple and nonstaple foods

   The Korean people ate boiled cereals as their staple food since they put main stress on crop production.
   In the early days of their civilizations humans lived on various foods according to their natural surroundings and productivity.
   Those in the mountainous areas hunted animals for food, while those along the rivers and seas eating shellfish and fish for staple foods.
   With the growth of crop cultivation in the post-Neolithic era, cereals took major places in diet in the form of boiled cereals, congees and cereal cakes.
   Though foods made of cereals have become staple foods, they vary according to nations.
   From olden times bread was a major food in European countries, but the Koreans had boiled cereals as a staple food in everyday diet and rice cake as a special food.
   Such a dietary custom had been carried forward from ancient times and middle ages to contemporary days, becoming a tradition of the Korean nation.
   Among a wide variety of nonstaple foods, major ones are soups, soybean paste and sauce, and kimchi.
   Korean people never excluded soups, soybean paste and sauce, and kimchi for their everyday meals, though other kinds of nonstaple foods were occasionally served.
   Traditionally they highly prized bean paste soups, and boiling stew in bean paste served in earthen vessel was a sight unique to Korean meals.
   Kimchi is another indispensable food.
   In the feudal Joson dynasty holiday feasts included a variety of meat foods, rice cakes and other special dishes, and refreshing kimchi and bean paste soups were a must on the table.
   For this reason, kimchi, soybean paste and sauce, and soups became widely known even to foreign countries as specialities of Korea.
The custom of managing dietary life assidu...

The custom of managing dietary life assiduously and frugally

   The Korean people traditionally managed their dietary life assiduously and frugally.
   It is seen in the old documents that the people from the Koguryo period economized on food and held wedding and other ceremonies in a simple way.
   It has also been regarded as one of good traits for women to keep their kitchens clean and utensils unstained, glossy and long-lasting.
   An old record shows that in Ancient Joson, the first state of Korea, even poor peasants got necessary bowls for food, which tells the origin of the traditional custom of the Korean people to manage their life clean and assiduously.
   Traditionally the Korean women wore kerchiefs and white aprons when cooking in the kitchen.
   It is proved by the mural painting of a woman in attendance found in the Anak Tomb No. 2 of Koguryo and that of a woman in dress and an apron seen in the Kamsin Tomb.
   Wearing a kerchief and an apron while cooking food is good for preventing hair falling, ensuring hygienic safety and convenient activities and also good in appearance.
   The fact that the Koreans wore kerchiefs and aprons from several thousand years ago eloquently proves the high cultural level of the Korean nation.
Habit of eating three meals a day

Habit of eating three meals a day

   In the earliest stage of human history people wandered from place to place in groups and had irregular meals when they found food.
   But, after the Neolithic Period, when a productive life, involving sedentary agriculture and domesticated animal raising, became predominant with the clan as the unit, they could store up a certain amount of the produce.
   So they got rid of the habit of wandering in search of food, and settled down in a certain place and led a regular life. They slept at home, got up in the morning and had breakfast, went to work, and returned home when it got dark to have supper.
   And in the course of this, they acquired a habit of eating meals at proper intervals, for instance, in the morning and in the evening, or in the morning, in the middle of the day and in the evening.
   Such an eating habit was good for health promotion of the people, as it alleviated the burden of the stomach, and was suitable for labour and daily life.
   The custom of having three meals a day was first recorded in the days of the Three Kingdoms.
   History of the Three Kingdoms tells that a king of Silla had meals two or three times a day and a huge amount of rice, liquor and meat were consumed.
   There are several records of the eating habit in the documents of Koryo and feudal Joson dynasties.
   According to them, during the days of Koryo there lived a man named Hwang Su in the Walled City of Pyongyang, and his family ate from the same pot. He had delicious dishes prepared and served his parents three times a day, and then ate with all other family members. And during the days of feudal Joson dynasty a government official had three meals every day.
   Of the three meals breakfast and supper were considered important, so they included newly prepared boiled cereals, soups and several side dishes. And lunch was comparably light, with either the dishes spared at breakfast or noodles.
Traditional Drinks and Their Excellence

Traditional Drinks and Their Excellence

   Traditional drinks of Korea that reflect the wisdom and talent of the Korean people have been created and developed through a long period of time.
   They boast excellent tastes, medicinal properties, processing methods, varieties and usage.
   They retain characteristics of ingredients well to give unique flavour.
   For example, honeyed juices that are made with fresh fruits taste refreshing, light and fragrant.
   Traditional drinks are also free from astringent, bitter and other impure tastes, so they have exhilarating aftertastes.
   That’s why they are very popular among not only Koreans but also foreigners.
   And their high medicinal values are very beneficial to health promotion and longevity.
   Generally, they are made of ingredients with medicinal properties, including insam, barley, Schizandra chinensis, fruit of Crataegus pinnatifida and matrimony vine.
   Insam tea of Korea is very famous for its remarkable functions of relieving fatigue, lowering blood pressure, acting against cancer, and preventing and treating gastric ulcer. It is effective in promoting mental functions and enhancing resistance to disease.
   Traditional drinks of Korea are widely known across the world as excellent tonics.
   They are also made with scientific accuracy.
   The Korean people applied scientific principles to the manufacturing of traditional drinks from long ago, and exerted a considerable influence on the development of drinks of the neighbouring countries.
   Typical traditional drinks include sujonggwa (honeyed juice with dried persimmon, pine nuts and cinnamon), sikhye (sweet rice drink), hyangsolgo (boiled pear preserved in honey), hwachae (honeyed juice with fruit), and kamju (sweet drink prepared with rice and malt).
Custom of having meals on a table in an un...

Custom of having meals on a table in an underfloor-heated room

   It is a traditional dietary custom of the Korean people to set foods on a table and enjoy meals in a warm underfloor-heated room with all family members.
   From ancient times the Korean people lived in wooden houses with beams built on a floor-heating device, which are similar to present rural houses.
   Previous stoves warmed half-underground shacks to a certain degree, but they were not enough for warm houses built on the gound.
   So the Korean ancestors built kitchen ranges inside houses and introduced floor-heating system to use heat without waste in warming rooms and living in comfort.
   In Koryo and feudal Joson dynasties underfloor-heating systems were disseminated throughout the country, and the custom of having meals on a table in a warm room was passed on through generations.

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History & Episodes

Pancake

Pancake

   In olden times people ate stuffed pancakes, and since the 18th-19th century they made pancakes without stuffing. Pancakes are called jijim, or jonbyong, or puchigi in Korean.
   In some regions, such as Hwanghae Province, pancakes were prepared by filling crushed adzuki bean or mung bean.
   Pancakes are made with various cereals, such as mung bean, potato, corn, wheat, sorghum, glutinous rice and adzuki bean. Either new crops of the year are watered and milled or powdered cereals are kneaded to fry in oil.
   It is easy to make pancakes, so they are a common dish for every family.
Porridge

Porridge

   Porridge was an alternative staple food for the Korean people.
   They ate porridge since the primitive times when they began to grow cereals, that is, even before they ate boiled cereals.
   Historical records and folk materials show that there were a wide variety of porridge which were prepared in various ways and had great pharmacological effects.
   During the feudal Joson dynasty many families prepared porridge for breakfast.
   And old people ate porridge before breakfast, and weak or ill people ate porridge for health recuperation.
   It was also a folk custom to send porridge prepared with rice and adzuki to a mourner’s house.
   Porridge is made with cereals, sometimes added with various ingredients.
Jelly

Jelly

   Jellies are prepared by boiling starches obtained from ground buckwheat, mung bean, corn or acorn and cooling them.
   In old historical documents jelly, or muk in Korean, was written as pho in Chinese character.
   Mung bean jelly was regarded as the best of the jellies, and the jelly made of yellow mung bean was called hwangpho (yellow-coloured jelly) and that of green mung bean chongpho (greenish jelly).
   Korean people had long eaten mukchae, a salad made with jelly and other ingredients.
   Jinchanuigwe, a book compiled in 1848, tells that jelly salad made of green mung bean includes as secondary ingredients pork, parsley, laver, egg and chili powder. Another historical book, Tongguksesigi, refers to mung bean jelly salad as thangphyongchae, which also includes pork, parsley, laver and vinegared soy sauce.
   In the past ordinary families usually ate jellies made of acorn, buckwheat and corn for lunch or supper, but they prepared mung bean jelly as a special dish for holiday meals or when they entertained guests.
   Noodles made of green corn jelly served in refreshing kimchi juice or sesame soup was regarded as a special dish in the Phyongan provincial area in fresh corn season.
Cereal Cakes

Cereal Cakes

   Cereal cakes are made in the way of steaming cereals or cereal powder, or pounding or moulding the boiled cereals.
   They are one of favourite staple foods of the Korean people.
   The historical fact that the Korean nation made cereal cakes already in the Bronze Age, some 4 000 years ago, when they made earthenware steamers can be proven by a mural painting found in the tomb of King Kogukwon of Koguryo Kingdom.
   And the Ballad of Mill composed by Paekkyol, a musician in the days of the Three Kingdoms, shows that there was a custom of making cereal cakes as festive dishes for the New Year.
   Cereal cakes are prepared as special dishes for the birthday party, wedding ceremony and holidays.
   There are anecdotes, stories and proverbs related to cereal cakes as many as those related to boiled cereals.
Boiled cereals

Boiled cereals

   The Korean people’s eating of boiled cereals as a staple food was formed in primitive times.
   Korean ancestors cultivated barnyard millet, foxtail millet, millet, sorghum, soybean, azuki bean and rice already in primitive and ancient times.
   The word pap, boiled cereals in English, appeared in written documents for the first time in the early middle ages, the period of Three Kingdoms.
   Samguksagi and Samgukyusa, old chronicles and history book of the Three Kingdoms in Korea, recorded pap and chalpap (boiled glutinous rice).
   Pap was called pakko during the Koryo dynasty.
   Pap is cooked in various ways, with one cereal, with two or three cereals, and with other supplementary materials.
   Many proverbs were created in relation with pap.
   An old Korean proverb says, The spectacles of famous Mt Kumgang cannot interest the hungered, meaning nothing can work on an empty stomach.
   Such proverbs as A grain of rice kills ten ghosts, Boiled rice is medicine, and Good health is beneath the rice bowl, give medical advices that it is important to have regular meals in order to be in good health as well as restore health.
   Besides, there are many other proverbs related with boiled cereals.

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Idioms & Proverbs

Boiled cereals-related proverbs

Boiled cereals-related proverbs

   ○ Ten persons bring a bowl of rice each
   This means several people donate what they have even though it is little in amount.
   ○ Peppered bean paste is most suitable for boiled barley
   This means everything has its own pair.
Rice cake-related proverbs

Rice cake-related proverbs

   ○ The rice cake that looks good is also tasty
   This means everything should be good in its appearance as well as in its content.
   ○ One who had the taste of rice cake eats it
   This means one who knows the real taste of a food eats it with relish.
   ○ Rice cake cannot be eaten and the soup prepared with it is ruined for the cake is not fully done
   This means an undertaking has failed before being implemented.
   ○ What is hateful is the half-done rice cake
   ① This means as one is served with a food which he dislikes and which is half-done at that, he has every reason to reject it.
   ② This means everything has gone wrong with someone.
   ○ The rice cake is before the flower
   This means that rice cake rather than flower is good for a hungry man, and so foods are very important for man in living.
   ○ Rice cake that suits one’s taste
   This indicates a thing which one likes very much.
   ○ Roasting rice cake over the beacon
   This means one has carelessly arranged things to do an impossible task and so a good result cannot be expected. (A beacon is lit to signal an emergency for the country and it is next to impossible to approach it for its fierce flames.)
   ○ To trust someone as if he were rice cake
   This means fully trusting someone.
   ○ The rice cakes are good, and better is the vessel containing them
   This means that the something’s content is good, but what is better is its form.
   ○ As easy as eating rice cake
   This means an undertaking is all plain sailing.
Noodles-related Proverbs

Noodles-related Proverbs

   ○ Empty stomach after eating noodles
   This means one can eat other foods after eating a food quick of digestion.
   ○ Eat noodles
   This indicates “to get married” in a roundabout way, for it has been customary for the Korean to eat noodles at the end of a wedding ceremony.
   ○ He who makes dough-flake soup well makes noodles well
   This mean a man skilful in doing one thing is also skilful in doing similar things.
   ○ As if a coil of noodle strips becomes soft in warm soup
   This means everything is going on smoothly.
   ○ Like a vinegar bottle in a noodle house
   This indicates man who is always on a move like a vinegar bottle that changes hands in a noodle house.
Bean-related proverbs

Bean-related proverbs

○ Be polite in your words, and you will get bean curds though you intended to buy bean dreg.
Meat-related proverbs

Meat-related proverbs

   ○ The taste of meat is in chewing it.
   ○ Eat a chunk of other’s meat, and you have to pay him ten chunks.
   ○ Boil the head, and even its ears are fully done.

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