Basics of Korean Food

anatomy of an authentic Korean meal

Some say that the Korean cuisine is ideal for vegetarians and/or vegans. This is because Korean food has, for two millennia, almost exclusively been made up of vegetables, notwithstanding the current popularity with the Korean barbecues. Of course, a few select noblemen and royalty had access to beef, pork, fish, and other meats, but close to 90% of all Korean population could rarely get their hands on any kind of meat.

Let’s take a look at what makes up an authentic Korean meal. First, the rice.

The quintessential and indispensable ingredient of any Korean meal is the rice. In Korea, Japan, and China, the sticky kind is normally grown and eaten, instead of the basmati or jasmine rice typically consumed in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, India, and so forth).

In the above picture, the bottom left 1 is the rice plant when it’s ripe. Probably unfamiliar to most Americans, this is what rice looks like when it’s grown. And the the top left 1 is husked rice that is uncooked. And needless to say, 2 is the cooked rice. The Korean words for the above three phases of rice are all different. The bottom left 1 (the plant) is called byeoh (벼), top left sahl (쌀), and 2 is bahp, bop, bob (밥).

For the above picture, disregard the back 4 dishes for now. (This is what a typical breakfast would look like, btw.) You cannot have a real Korean meal without the cooked rice (밥) and a soup, or guhk (국).

This particular rice is multigrain bahp. Experts say that this is healthier than all-white rice. It can contain black and red beans, barley, millet, oats, corn, and even potatoes and mountain yams.

In a truly authentic Korean meal, a soup (국) is as almost indispensable as the rice. And there are literally dozens of different types of soups. The most common types are made with fermented soy beans—dwaenjang (or, miso in Japanese, see note below)—and different types of vegetables. The soup in the above picture looks like it is beef & Korean radish soup, a staple in the Korean soup world.

(*note: I’m not going to use Japanese words to describe Korean ingredients unless it is absolutely necessary to promote easier understanding.)

There is a set of rules when serving these two most fundamental components. The soup is always on the right side of the rice. (You’re kind of screwed if you’re left-handed.) The soup bowl is always slightly larger than the rice bowl. These ARE hard and fast rules. Often times, Koreans would put the rice in the soup and eat it together, not unlike how Italians would consume orzo pasta in chicken soups.

This is what a real dinner would look like. The picture is obviously missing the rice and the soup, but it goes without saying that the meal wouldn’t be complete without them.

The protein on the dinner table is usually the main dish, surrounded by a whole set of what is called banchan (반찬)—the side dishes. Many people believe it is the banchan that makes the Korean cuisine and they would not be wrong. There are a myriad types of banchan made with all sorts of ingredients.

A case in point. Number 5 in the above picture is boiled du-rup with tangy gochujang sauce (초고추장). Du-rup is a seasonal spring shoot of a fatsia, or aralia tree. It can be mildly toxic when eaten raw—that’s why it’s boiled first before serving. It is soft and has a very distinct woodsy aroma and flavor that’s like nothing else and is considered a delicacy that’s only available for consumption for about 3 weeks in April.

I don’t know about you, but I have no clue what a fatsia or aralia tree looks like. The point here is that Koreans have been eating this sort of little known plants, tree shoots, and nameless vegetables cooked in every possible way for thousands of years. So, counting the numbers of total banchan in Korean cuisine is a futile exercise. With that, I’ll explain the above dinner table.

1. ssam (쌈) vegetables with accompanying ssamjang paste (쌈장): consider these vegetables, usually Korean lettuce, perilla leaves and such, as wraps for rice and meat. Ssam literally means to wrap something. Ssamjang is the sauce for it, made with mixture of dwaenjang (된장) and gochujang (고추장, Korean red pepper paste).

2. dallae jang: dallae (달래) is a garlicky, pungent wild mountain vegetable that’s indigenous to the Korean peninsula. Another very uniquely aromatic delicacy of the spring season.

3. samgyupsal: grilled pork belly (삼겹살). Probably the most popular protein dish in all of South Korea. This goes with the ssam vegetables and ssamjang. A quintessential Korean comfort food when matched with the right soup or stew.

4. kimchi (김치): no explanation necessary. It is said that there are over 200 different types of kimchi.

5. durup (두릅): refer to above.

6. looks like pickled radish, but cannot be sure.

7. looks like braised root vegetable of some kind, not sure.

8. shigumchi namul (시금치 나물): boiled and seasoned spinach. One of the heavy hitters in the banchan world.

9. not sure, but looks like another pickled vegetables or mushrooms.

10. pickled green onions—I personally have never seen it like this—speaks to the variety of banchan that’s available.

11. looks like cucumber pickles seasoned with spicy sauce.

When I go to Korean restaurants, I often times judge the kitchen by the quality of banchan, not the main (meat) dish. It’s sometimes easy to overlook those things but that’s what separates the good restaurants from so-so ones. And most of all, if the kimchi is right, then everything else gets a passing grade.