Korean food

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Esraa Elzeny 

Hungry for some Korean food? Korea's truly a land of appetizing yumminess and it's a street food kingdom. If you're traveling to Korea, don't even think of not trying the local food. The food is incredibly diverse and irresistible. You definitely need to try it. Korean street food is part of the adventure when traveling in Korea.

From street food to comfort food to temple food: Korean cuisine is diverse and delicious. Cooking meat yourself, eating food off sticks, and eating kimchi for breakfast are all food experiences you can expect to have in Korea. 

After eating lots of Korean food, here I recommend the top 10 dishes that make Korean food some of the most delicious in the world.

Kimchi (Jeon Han)

Kimchi (김치) is a traditional Korean side dish and is essential on almost all Korean tables, whether poor or rich. It's more like a pickle in Arab cuisine, made with cabbage, radish and scallions, and seasoned with red pepper, garlic, ginger, sugar, fish sauce, and salted shrimp. You can eat kimchi with rice.

Samgyetang (Esraa Elzeny)

Samgyetang (삼계탕) is a chicken soup made with small green onions, a whole chicken and ginseng. You can eat a whole chicken for dinner. My sister and I tried it at the restaurant Eid in Seoul, a halal restaurant. It was very delicious and full of important nutritional elements.

Gimbap (KoreaClikers)

Gimbap (김밥) is a healthy style of rice roll made from cooked rice and various other ingredients rolled up in a dried sheet of laver seaweed and served in bite sized discs.

Gimbap is often eaten during picnics or outings, or as a light lunch. It's also a popular take-out food in Korea and in other countries.

Dak gangjeong (Jeon Han)

Dak gangjeong (닭강정), or Korea-style fried chicken, is a normal fried chicken in a sticky, spicy sauce. If you love fried chicken, I strongly advise you to try this recipe. In Korea, fried chicken is consumed as a meal, an appetizer or as an after-meal snack.

Hotteok (Jeon Han)

The most amazing street food ever is sweet nut pancakes, or hotteok. If you visit Busan, you have to try this snack. During our trip to Korea, my sister and I tried it in Busan and it was very delicious. Eating sweet nut pancakes on a cold winter day is sure to warm you up.

Hotteok are made from wheat flour, water, milk, sugar and yeast, and filled with a sweet mixture that may contain brown sugar, honey, chopped peanuts and cinnamon.

 Fried shrimp (Esraa Elzeny) 

If you like deep fried shrimp (새우튀김), you’ll have a lot to eat in Korea! Deep fried shrimp is delicious no matter where you are. My sister and I tried it at a famous restaurant in Busan. Busan is famous for some of the best seafood in Korea, and you can eat the most phenomenal seafood there. We really love the taste of the shrimp. It's more delicious there than in Egypt.

Patbingsu (KoreaClickers)

Korea.net Honorary Reporters Salwa Elzeny (left) and Esraa Elzeny (right) tries patbingsu in Myeongdong.

Patbingsu or shaved ice with sweets and condensed milk (팥빙수) makes a milky paste that tastes incredible with the sweetened red beans. There are tons of variations of this dessert. They can include fruit, chocolate and ice cream. I tried it in Myeongdong with my friends after they recommended it.

Tteokbokki (Jeon Han)

Tteokbokki (떡볶이) is a plate of rice cake in a hot and spicy sauce. It's a popular Korean food and winter snack, although it can be eaten during any season. It's cheap and available everywhere. It's made from dried anchovies, dried kelp, eggs, fish cakes, green onions, hot pepper flakes, red pepper paste, rice cakes, sugar and water. If you’re out on the streets doing touristy stuff in the winter, it’s pretty easy to get cold. Since tteokbokki is sold on pretty much every street in the country, many people stop to eat this spicy dish. I think the real reason it's so popular is because people want to warm up in front of the stoves that the vendor uses to make the tteokbokki. Some of these food trucks even have plastic drapes to help keep the heat nearby during the winter time. We ate tteokbokki before, in Egypt, but in Busan it was really different, unique and very spicy. My sister really adores this dish that she ate in Busan, even though it was really spicy.

Bibimbap (Keon Han)

Bibimbap mixed rice is one of the most traditional foods. Park Jae Yang, director of the Korean Cultural Center in Egypt and the media chancellor and Korean cultural chancellor at the Korean Embassy in Egypt, always says that bibimbap is just like the traditional Egyptian dish koshary. Both of them are mixes of vegetables and rice. The word bibimbap literally means "mixed rice." Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with sautéed and seasoned vegetables and red pepper paste. A raw or fried egg and slices of meat, usually beef, are common additions. The hot dish is stirred together thoroughly just before eating.

Bungeobang (Vince Grindle)

Bungeoppang (붕어빵) are fish-shaped red bean pastries. The bread is filled with either a sweet red bean paste or sometimes cream. They're baked in the shape of a fish. Bungeoppang stalls are a common sight in the wintertime in Seoul. The tiny food stalls are usually plastic sheeting or tarpaulin affairs, jury-rigged to keep out the biting wind and snow. The breads are made in a fish-shaped mold, and are built like a sandwich: batter, red bean paste, then more batter. The fish-shaped top mold is closed, and they're put over a fire. Some people think that they’re even better eaten cold. These baked fish-shaped sweet bread snacks have even spawned a range of fish-shaped waffle ice cream sandwiches, complete with a layer of delicious red bean. 

In Egypt, there are also Korean restaurants that serve Korean food and a lot of Koreaphiles come to enjoy their delicious Korean dishes.

Korean street food can be found in Cairo, too! Chef Yang is an unofficial Korean food ambassador and a former chef. We regularly go to Kori Pocha in the food court at the American University in Cairo to enjoy his delicious dishes.

Also, during Ramadan he serves the iftar meal in special Korean way. Be sure to check it out. 

Korea.net Honorary Reporters Salwa Elzeny and Esraa Elzeny love to go to Kori Pocha in the food court at the American University in Cairo to eat Korean foods.

wisdom117@korea.kr

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