A typical Korean table setting consist of rice, soup and essential side dish such as kimchi. Rice, soup, a spoon and chopstick are arranged from left to right, in that order, for each person. Stew and side dishes are placed in the center to be shared by all members
Kimchi
When most people think of Korean food, they think of kimchi. Fermented vegetables is basic side dish at every Korean meal. Early kimchi dishes were relatively mild, spiced with fermented anchovies, ginger, garlic, and green onions. Koreans still use these ingredients today, but the spice most closely associated with modern kimchi is red pepper powder. There are now more than 160 kimchi varieties differentiated by region and ingredients, most of them quite spicy.
Instead of asking "Have you had a meal?" Koreans usually ask "Have you eaten rice today?" Rice is the staple food for most Koreans and it appears at almost every meal. It can be cooked alone (the most common case), or with other grains, or with chestnuts and beans. Vegetables may also be mixed with the rice before serving.
Bi Bim Bap
Some rice mixed with vegetables, a fried egg, and some hot red pepper sauce. May or may not come with small pieces of beef.
Kim Bap
Like a sushi roll but no raw fish (though fish cake("Odeng") is often used. Some rice, eggs, ham, vegetables and who knows what else all rolled into some dried seaweed paper and sliced up. Very cheap. You can live off this stuff.
Soup
Korean soups are made from a variety of different meats, fishes, and vegetables, and are meant to be eaten with rice. Most will come with a bowl of rice or have the rice already in the soup when delivered to your table. Koreans especially love a bowl of hot soup during the cold winter. Names of soup dishes generally have a -guk or -tang suffix.
Gom-tang
(Stew Meat and Tripe Soup)
Preparing this soup requires two boilings. Beef brisket, beef entrails, bones, and tripe are boiled together, then the soup and meats are stored separately until required. All the ingredients are boiled together for a second time when served.
Maeun-tang
(Hot Spicy Fish Soup)
The cleaned fish is cut into several pieces and boiled with ground beef and green vegetables along with red pepper paste. Hot pepper sauce and vegetables are added to this mixture, then it is seasoned with pepper powder, garlic, soy sauce, and more pepper paste
Stew
Stews are called jjigae, jjim, or jeongol in Korean. Jjigae dishes are usually boiled at your table over a hot fire, while jjim dishes are usually steamed, braised, or simmered. Jeongol dishes are similar to jjigae dishes, but generally cooked over a lower fire
A spicy stew made from kimchi, meat is usually added, pork and sometimes tuna
Vegetable
Namul is equivalent to cooked or fresh vegetables in Western dining. Koreans make the most of young leaves, sprouts, roots, stems, fruits, and nuts. Cultivated or wild, these ingredients are readily turned into namul dishes. These vegetables are seasoned with salt, red pepper powder, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, sesame seed, vinegar, sliced green onions, or hot pepper paste (goch'ujang)
Noodle
Noodle lovers will feel right at home in Korea. The country has many noodle shops, selling products which are as good as any noodles in the world. Korean noodles are made from either buckwheat or regular wheat flour. The most prized are the thin, brownish ,buckwheat noodles which are served in soups based on beef, poultry, or anchovy stock.
NaengMyon
냉면; also spelled naeng-myeon, naengmyun, naeng-myun), literally "cold noodles," . Originally from North Korea, popular during the summer. It consists of varieties of thin, hand-made noodles (typically made from kudzu or buckwheat (memil naengmyeon flour) (though seaweed and green tea varieties are also available in packaged form), and is traditionally served in a large stainless bowl with a tangy iced broth, raw julienned vegetables, slices of Korean pear, and often a boiled egg and/or cold beef). Spicy mustard
and vinegar are often added before consumption. A tiny clear plastic package of mustard oil is often supplied with pre-packaged naengmyeon.
Meat
Traditionally, meat and poultry were very expensive and eaten only during special occasions. When they were eaten, nothing went to waste. Westerns may be surprised at how everything gets used when cows, pigs, or chickens are used for food. Almost every bit of the animal eventually gets broiled, fried, boiled, stewed, or otherwise used in some sort of recipe
Bulgogi
beef in a sauce that is amazingly neither bitter nor spicy. A pretty foreigner-friendly food
Sea Food
Korea is a peninsula, surrounded by water to the East, West, and South. So it should come as no surprise that Koreans eat a large amount of seafood, including fish, eel, crab, squid, whale, and many different types of shellfish.
Non Alcoholic Beverage
• Insam cha- Korean ginseng tea
• Saenggang cha (생강차) - Tea made from ginger root.
• Sujeonggwa (수정과) - dried persimmon punch
• Sikhye (식혜) - sweet rice beverage
• Yujacha (유자차) - citron tea
• Bori cha (보리차) - roasted barley tea
• Oksusu cha (옥수수차) - roasted corn tea
• Hyeonmi cha (현미차) - roasted brown rice tea
• Sungnyung (숭늉) - beverage made from boiled scorched rice
• Yulmucha (율무차) - Job's tears tea
• Gyeolmyeongja cha (결명자차, 決明子茶) - made from roasted Senna obtusifolia seeds
• Misu (미수, 米水) - several grains such as rice, barley, beans, glutinous rice, brown rice, Job's tears,
Alcoholic Beferage Soju
is a notorious rice liquor sold all over the place in Korea. It mainly comes in little green bottles, but is also known to show up in little juice boxes and big plastic bottles that look like mineral water. At about 20% (40 proof) alcohol its not very strong, but at 1000 won in a convenience store and 3000 won at a bar, its a very cheap drunk.
Patbingsu
is a very popular snack/dessert in South Korea, especially during the sweltering and humid summer season.This snack originally began as ice shavings and sweetened azuki beans (known as pat, It was sold by street vendors. These days it has become a very elaborate summer dessert, often topped with ice cream or frozen yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, fruit syrups, various fruits such as strawberries, kiwifruit, and bananas, small pieces of tteok (rice cake), chewy jelly bits, and cereal flakes.[3]
Tteok (pronounced [t͈ʌk]) (also spelled ddeock, duk, dduk, ddeog, or thuck) is a Korean sweet cake made with glutinous rice flour (also known as sweet rice or chapssal), by steaming. Normal rice flour can be used for some kinds of tteok. There are hundreds of different kinds of tteok eaten year round. In Korea it is customary to eat tteok guk (tteok soup) on New Year's Day and sweet tteok at weddings and on birthdays. It is often considered a celebratory food and can range from rather elaborate versions with nuts and fruits down to the plain-flavored tteok used in home cooking. Some common ingredients for many kinds of tteok are mung bean, red bean, and sweet red bean paste, Korean mugwort, jujube and other dried fruits, sesame seeds and oil, sugar, and pine nuts.
Table Manner
- At first, taste soup or kimchi juice, and then try rice or other dishes. Use spoon for rice and liquid foods, such as stews or soups; use chopsticks for other foods
- Do not make noises with spoon or chopsticks hitting the rice bowl or other food containers
- Do not hold the rice bowl or soup bowl in your hand during the meal
- Do not poke around the rice or side dishes with the spoon
- Do not pick out what you don't like or shake off seasonings
- Do not leave any trace of food on the spoon while eating
- When coughing or sneezing during a meal, face the other way from table and cover your mouth with your hand or napkin
- Do not use your hands to pick the foods
- Chew food with your closed mouth and do not make noises while chewing.
Do not leave the table while eating - Do not read a book or newspaper or watch TV while eating
- Do not reach across the table for distant food- ask a nearby person to pass it to you
(Thanks to Kurnia and my distinguish Professor Lee Sun Ja)
