My coworkers call it "Obama dakgalbi," because if ever Barack Obama were to visit Seoul (surely he's done so in the past?...), that's where we'd bring him.
Though I wrote about dakgalbi while documenting my first experiences with Korean food, I have since rediscovered it and it has probably become my favourite dish so far in Korea. Dakgalbi, at its base, is quite simple. It essentially consists of marinated chicken, tteokpokki (Korean rice cake) and cabbage stir-fried and cooked in a pan in front of you. To enhance the flavour, however, what we usually do is add ramen noodles and/or cheese. As always, some hot red bean paste is always added in order to make the dish even spicier, though I can deal with the spice at this point.
What's nice about this dish is that the wait staff will always come by and cook it for you, and they'll let you know when it's ready to eat.
It is absolutely delicious! Once you're almost done, you can order some rice (bap, in Korean) and usually mix it around in the pan as to absorb the flavour of the marinade before eating it.
As the weather's been getting colder, another one of my favourite Korean dishes is kimchi jjigae. This is essentially a how stew with its main ingredient being... kimchi! Kimchi, as we all know, is the quintessential Korean ingredient. Koreans eat is with every single meal, and it's quite delicious, and addictive. Kimchi can be eaten raw, either cold or lukewarm, or it can be added on to a wide variety of recipes, such as kimchi jjigae. This dish combines kimchi with tofu, some other vegetables, rice (obviously), and sometimes beef or pork. It's not too spicy, packs a bunch of flavour, and is perfect for a cold winter's day. Seeing as I've been here for nearly six months now, I've identified the best spot for kimchi jjigae in my general area and it's a place I return to quite often.
Speaking of the jjigae spot, I usually accompany my jjigae with a kimchi-jeon.
A jeon is essentially a Korean pancake, which mixes in a variety of ingredients, such as onions and peppers, among others. Keeping with the whole kimchi theme, my favourite jeon is a kimchi-jeon. The dish is oily, but not too oily, and also packs a strong flavour, though I particularly enjoy the mix of spices that can be tasted in the jeon.
I don't quite remember what this dish is called, but it's essentially a dumpling soup with a savoury (and not spicy) broth topped with, well, rice. The broth actually wasn't too flavourful, so I ended up adding some kimchi spices to it, but the dumplings were huge and quite delicious. Furthermore, the jeon at this restaurant was really delicious, and it made for another great meal!
Another stew that has only recently become famous in Korea is called budae-jjigae. A restaurant serving this dish actually opened up 20 steps from my apartment a couple of months ago, and I've been there a few times with some coworkers to grab some dinner. This dish is actually quite interesting, seeing as it's not historically Korean, and was only just concocted a half-century ago during the Korean War. Essentially, American soldiers came up with this dish by combining American and Korean ingredients. As such, this soup contains lots of spam (Koreans are obsessed with spam), hot sausage, baked beans, and kimchi. Of course, it's not uncommon to add either ramen or rice for flavour. It's an interesting dish, it probably sounds quite unappealing at first mention, but it's actually quite delicious. Unfortunately, I don't believe it's quite as healthy as many other Korean dishes (probably due to the spam), but it's still a nice, hearty dish for a cold winter's day.
One of my favourite Korean hotpot dishes is bulgogi! Bulgogi can literally be translated as "fire meat," and it refers to cooking marinated pieces of beef, though the beef can be cooked in many different ways. When cooked in a hot pot, it's usually served as a soup. The marinade is just perfect, however, and the flavours are really intense. It's common to add some rice to the soup for some additional flavour, and perhaps even some mushrooms, kimchi or other vegetables. There's this one restaurant in the Sinchon neighbourhood (downtown) that I discovered with one of my coworkers that serves particularly tasty bulgogi, though this dish can be found throughout Korea.
What's funny about Korean cuisine is that even though hot-pots are the norm, Koreans actually indulge in cold noodle soups quite frequently. Call me old-fashioned, but it still seems strange to me to eat a main course of a meal cold, especially if it's a soup with pieces of ice floating in it. Cold noodle soup, or naengmyeon, actually originated in North Korea, but is now quite common in South Korea as well, and is said to be eaten both in the summer to cool down, and in the winter to acclimatize. The noodles are often topped with an egg, some vegetables and some sesame seeds. The texture of the noodles is actually quite strange, as they're often very tough to chew, and especially difficult to cut, so you kind of have to slurp up the entire noodle into your mouth before attempting to chew it.
This dish, in my opinion, is kind of hit-or-miss. On the one hand, if the noodles and broth are really flavourful, then it can be quite delicious. This said, in my opinion, the cold broth can sometimes take away from the flavour, and the cold noodles aren't always as soothing as hot soup, but maybe that's just the Western in me kicking in.
There's a place near my work that serves mandu. But not just any mandu, this place serves up... kimchi mandu! A set of 10 mandu will cost 3,000 won, which translated to roughly $3.25 CAD. Mandu are Korean dumplings, and they're highly addictive. The most common varieties are kimchi and pork, though surely you can find mandu stuffed with just about anything, and don't forget to accompany them with some soy sauce! A coworker and I frequently go to this restaurant and take two orders of mandu and a bibimbap to share for as little as $12 CAD. Delicious!
To top it all off, I've indulged several times in my all-time favourite Korean dessert: bingsoo. Bingsoo is essentially shaved ice, which is quite typically Korean. Bingsoo can be topped with just about anything, though it's usually topped with some sort of fruit, or even red bean. This one place near my house offers up a huge bingsoo with any topping you want, as well as some cheese, almonds and even a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Portions are always so big that you have no choice but to share. Mango has so far been my favourite, though there are so many varieties that I really want to try as many as possible before I leave.
Despite everything, I always return for more bibimbap. Even though it's probably Korea's most famous dish, it's worth going back to again and again and again.
Overall, I find Korean food is quite healthy, and one of the big lessons I've learned since being here is not to be afraid to eat out more often than at home. Back in Canada, or even in Spain for that matter, eating out is usually associated with eating unhealthily. Eating at the restaurant usually means that you're eating greasy or oily food, and that if you eat out too often it'll probably have some health consequences. Not only that, but it gets quite expensive, and it's not something that's affordable over a long period of time.
In Korea, it's still more affordable to eat in and cook at home, though eating out doesn't carry the same stigma around it. I usually eat out 2-3 times per week here, which is not that often when compared to my coworkers, and it's quite cheap. Korean cuisine offers up a good amount of vegetables, and the food you eat is usually lean and healthy, providing a good balance between carbs and protein. Additionally, I no longer believe that Korean cuisine serves up an overload of meat, as meat is sometimes (not always) offered in the dishes that I've mentioned in this post, so in that sense I believe a balanced diet is even more possible.
Yes, my Korean culinary experience has been excellent so far; I cannot wait to go back for more!
-Daniele
