Food & Dining

For someone seeing a Korean kitchen for the first time, one appliance can look a little unusual. There may already be a large refrigerator, yet beside it stands another refrigerator called a kimchi refrigerator. The idea of buying a separate appliance for one type of food can seem excessive if you have never lived with … Read more

As a kid, I could not stand cheese. The moment I peeled the clear plastic wrapper from a yellow processed cheese slice, the smell seemed strange next to the foods I was used to eating: rice, kimchi, soup, and Korean side dishes. Some of my friends could eat a slice straight from the refrigerator, but … Read more

It is surprisingly difficult to describe jeon as a single Korean dish. Kimchi mixed into flour batter and pan-fried into a large kimchijeon is called jeon, but so is a slice of zucchini lightly coated with flour and egg. Pajeon may be made with long green onions spread across the pan, while fish, meat, perilla … Read more

When I was growing up in South Korea, mandu was not just something we bought in a bag from the frozen-food aisle. During winter, my family would gather together and make a large batch of dumplings at home. We prepared the filling in a big daeya (대야), a large metal or plastic basin commonly used … Read more

Korean fried chicken is such an ordinary part of life in Korea today that it can be hard to imagine a time when it did not exist in its current form. We order it while watching football or baseball, choose it when nobody in the family can agree on dinner, and scroll through delivery apps … Read more

Bibimbap is one of the best-known Korean dishes, but the version served beautifully arranged in a restaurant is only one side of it. At home, bibimbap can be much less formal. Sometimes it begins with a bowl of rice and whatever side dishes happen to be left in the refrigerator. That is why a recent … Read more

In Korea, traditional Korean holiday food is closely tied to specific days and occasions. Tteokguk comes to mind on Lunar New Year, songpyeon during Chuseok, patjuk on the winter solstice, and miyeokguk on birthdays. Noodles have also long been associated with weddings and large celebrations. These foods are connected with ideas such as welcoming a … Read more

When I was a child, I did not like vegetables very much. I knew Popeye became strong by eating spinach, but that was never enough to make spinach look appealing to me. If a small plate of seasoned greens appeared on the table, I was usually happy to leave it for someone else. That changed … Read more

Some Korean foods are memorable because they are elaborate or connected to special occasions. Others stay with you because you have eaten them so many times that they become part of your own memories. Gimbap, tteokbokki, and bibimbap belong to the second group for me. I associate them with school days, quick meals, family outings, … Read more

If you eat at a Korean restaurant for the first time, one small thing may feel surprisingly unfamiliar: the chopsticks are often made of metal. They can feel thinner and more slippery than wooden or bamboo chopsticks, and many Korean versions are relatively flat. There is no single historical event that fully explains why metal … Read more