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Since the South Korean entertainment industry boom, the international community has recently been inundated with many intriguing products from the Ginseng Country. Nowadays, finding South Korean entertainment products such as music, movies, dramas, and Korean food is much easier. You must be really inquisitive about the numerous Korean meals frequently portrayed in Korean dramas, especially if you enjoy watching Korean dramas. What are the most popular, delicious, and must-try Korean delicacies for lovers of the Korean entertainment industry? Here are some Korean food choices that are a hit, and you must taste them!
Kimchi
Kimchi is a popular and delicious Korean food that you should try. This particular cuisine is quite famous among Koreans and frequently features in various Korean movies. Kimchi is produced from fermented vegetables and other spices, which give it a spicy and sour flavour.
Radishes, mustard greens, and cucumbers are the most commonly utilized vegetables in the preparation of kimchi. Chilli powder, onion, ginger, garlic, shrimp paste, and fish sauce are used too.
This Korean food is always prepared in huge quantities because it can be preserved correctly for a long time. Kimchi can also be used as a base ingredient in other Korean dishes such as kimchijeon (kimchi pancakes), kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup), and kimchi bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice).
In old times, Koreans pronounced kimchi as “Chim-Chae,” which means “soaked vegetables.” Even now, the pronunciation of this meal still varies as much as that of kimchee or gimchi.
Kimchi is traditionally fermented underground in a pot for months. This procedure is necessary because many Koreans did not have refrigerators in the past.
Because no chile powder was used, the kimchi was first served white. However, chilli powder was introduced to Korean civilization by the Portuguese in the 18th century. Koreans began to add chilli powder to their kimchi from that point forward.
Koreans enjoy kimchi as a food that is always available as a main dish or side dish. The average Korean consumes roughly 18 kilograms of kimchi each year. Kimchi has been designated as a cultural asset by UNESCO due to its popularity.
Sannakji
If you want extreme eating, you must taste these Korean hits and tasty food. Sannakji is a delicacy created with pieces of live octopus soaked in sesame oil. Because of the extremes of this food, several Koreans are unable to complete a part of it.
When you eat sannakji, you can feel the octopus wriggling in your mouth. As a result, you must exercise caution when consuming this Korean food. Make sure to chew until smooth so that the octopus pieces don’t get trapped in your throat.
For many content creators, sannakji is an interesting material to develop creating video content. They usually use sannakji as mukbang video content. Sannakji will usually be eaten after being cut into pieces or even whole with a small size to make it easier when consuming it. Although it sounds quite extreme, it feels challenging for some people.
Even though this sannakji is considered an extreme harmful food, many locals in Korea believe that sannakji is useful in enhancing vitality and bodily fitness. It’s no surprise that Sannakji is still the best primadonna for eating octopus.
Kimbab
If sushi is a popular dish in Japan, kimbab is a comparable dish in Korea. This Korean food looks similar to sushi but has a distinct ingredient.
Kimbab is made up of rice, meat, fish, veggies, and eggs. The stuffing stated before is rolled on a sheet of seaweed during the production process of this Korean speciality. Then divide the mixture into 6-8 equal portions. Cucumbers, carrots, spinach, and pickled radishes are popular vegetables.
Bulgogi
Bulgogi, a dish with meat as the main component that is a favourite of all Koreans, is the next popular and tasty Korean food. Beef must be prepared before making Bulgogi. The meat is thinly sliced and marinated in a marinade of soy sauce, salt, sugar, ginger, sesame oil, garlic, and pepper.
After the spices have been thoroughly absorbed, the meat can be grilled or fried. Bulgogi meat has a more dominating sweet flavour due to the addition of soy sauce and sugar. If you prefer it spicy, add some Korean chilli paste before eating this Korean dish.
Tteokbokki
The most famous food in Korea, tteokbokki, hits and often appears in Korean dramas. This favourite Korean food consists of tteok or rice cakes, sausage, meat, and carrots which are then covered with a sweet and spicy Korean sauce.
There are also various variants of tteokbokki; some are served with noodles or cheese. Spicy lovers will definitely be hooked after finishing their first serving of tteokbokki!
Bibimbap
The next Korean food recommendation is mixed rice. It is served in a bowl with wild rice on the bottom, followed by various veggies, side dishes, eggs, and chilli paste.
To eat this Korean food, mix everything in the bowl until everything is uniformly distributed. The Bibimbap will resemble fried rice in appearance, except that it is not fried.
Jjajangmyeon
If you watch a lot of Korean dramas, you’ve probably heard of this next Korean food. Jjajangmyeon is one of the most popular, delicious, and well-known Korean cuisines. The thick black soybean sauce is the dish’s defining feature. When the noodles are combined with this sauce, they turn black. Jjajangmyeon is typically combined with sliced meat and a variety of veggies before being served.
Although jajangmyeon is today recognized as a famous South Korean food, its origins cannot be separated from history, which claims that jajangmyeon was influenced by Beijing, China’s traditional dishes.
However, today jajangmyeon’s progression is the usage of marine elements rather than pork, typically used by the Chinese. Jajangmyeon is a combination of two words: jajang, which means fried sauce, and myeon, which means noodles.
Last, did you know there is a Black Day tradition on April 14th, a festival for singles in South Korea? On Black Day, those single will normally wear all black clothes and eat jajangmyeon.
