9 Local Korean Food You Should Try To Experience Korean's Life!

When traveling to a new place, the best way to know about the country, the culture, and the local life must be trying local food. South Korea is well-known for it's unique and stylish food, and thus attracts travelers coming here just to try those dishes. We are going to introduce 9 local Korean food that you should give it a try when you visit South Korea!

1. Hangover stew 

Given South Korea's dedicated drinking culture, it's not surprising that its hangover-curing culture is equally as developed, from pre-drinking drinks to post-drinking drinks to a glorious array of spicy and steamy stews and soups.

Made from a beef broth, with cabbage, bean sprouts, radish and chunks of congealed ox blood, the deeply satisfying taste does wonders to kick-start your sluggish brain in the morning.

Photo: Wikipedia - Haejang-guk

2. Samgyetang 

Continuing along the masochistic strain, Koreans have a saying that goes, "fight heat with heat." What that means is they love to eat boiling hot dishes on the hottest summer days. The most representative of these is samgyetang, a thick, glutinous soup with a whole stuffed chicken floating in its boiling depths.

The cooking process tones down the ginseng's signature bitterness and leaves an oddly appealing, aromatic flavor in its stead -- a flavor that permeates an entire bird boiled down to a juicy softness.

Photo: CNN Travel -Korean food: 40 best dishes we can't live without

3. Ox Bone Soup 

This ox bone soup is easily recognizable by its milky white color and sparse ingredients. At most, seolleongtang broth will contain noodles, finely chopped scallions, and a few strips of meat.

Yet for such a frugal investment, the results are rewarding. There is nothing like a steaming bowl of seolleongtang on a cold winter day, salted and peppered to your taste, and complemented by nothing more than rice and kkakdugi kimchi.

Photo: Wikipedia - Seolleongtang

4. Tteokguk 

Originally tteokguk was strictly eaten on the first day of the Korean New Year to signify good luck and the gaining of another year in age. The custom makes more sense if you think in Korean: idiomatically, growing a year older is expressed as "eating another year."

But this dish of oval rice cake slices, egg, dried laver seaweed, and occasionally dumplings in a meat-based broth is now eaten all year round, regardless of age or season.

Photo: CNN Travel -Korean food: 40 best dishes we can't live without

5. Doenjang jjigae 

This humble, instantly recognizable stew is one of Korea's most beloved foods.

The ingredients are simple: doenjang, tofu, mushrooms, green peppers, scallions, and an anchovy or two for added flavor. Add rice and kimchi on the side and you have a meal -- no other side dishes necessary. While its distinctive piquancy might throw some off, that very taste is what keeps it on the South Korean table week after week.

Photo: Wikipedia - Doenjang-jjigae

6. Gimbap 

Sauteed vegetables, ground beef, sweet pickled radish, and rice, rolled and tightly wrapped in a sheet of laver seaweed (gim), and then sliced into bite-sized circles. There're diverse types of Gimbap with different ingredients rolled inside, so you can definitely find the flavor you want!

Photo: CNN Travel - Korean food: 40 best dishes we can't live without

7. Bossam 

As is frequently the case with many South Korean meat dishes, Bossam at its core is simple: steamed pork. But key to this dish is that the steamed pork is sliced into squares slightly larger than a bite, lovingly wrapped in a leaf of lettuce, perilla, or kimchi, and daubed with a dipping sauce. There are two traditional options: ssamjang, made of chili paste and soybean paste (doenjang), or saeujeot, a painfully salty pink sauce made of tiny pickled shrimp. Wrapping and dipping are essential.

Photo: CNN Travel - Korean food: 40 best dishes we can't live without

8. Naengmyeon

In South Korea we wait for summer just so we can start eating naengmyeon every week. The cold buckwheat noodles are great as a lightweight lunch option or after Korean barbecue, as a way to cleanse the palate.

Mul naengmyeon, or "water" naengmyeon, hailing from North Korea's Pyongyang, consists of buckwheat noodles in a tangy meat or kimchi broth, topped with slivers of radish, cucumber, and egg, and seasoned with vinegar and Korean mustard (gyeoja).

Bibim naengmyeon, or "mix" naengmyeon, generally contains the same ingredients, but minus the broth. The noodles are instead covered in a sauce made from chili paste.

Photo: CNN Travel - Korean food: 40 best dishes we can't live without

9. Korean Pork Trotter 

It’s consisting of pig's trotters cooked with soy sauce and spices. It is usually braised in a combination of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and rice wine. Additional ingredients used can include onion, leeks, garlic, cinnamon and black pepper.

Photo: Wikipedia - Jokbal

Besides these 9 dishes, there're many kinds of local Korean food that are also amazingly tasty and impressive! You can find more stylish foods and snacks in traditional markets!

The content is reproduced from CNN Travel's post: Korean food: 40 best dishes we can't live without, and rewritten by Discover Local Asia.

References: CNN Travel, Wikipedia
Photos Credit to: CNN Travel, Wikipedia