K-beauty, K-food, K-dramas and K-pop, explained
This kimchi jjigae recipe takes 6 steps and about 35 minutes, and sour kimchi does most of the work. Fry pork in its own fat, cook old kimchi in that fat until it softens, add water and the kimchi brine, then finish with tofu and scallions.
Is kimchi healthy for you? Yes, for most people, with 1 real catch: it’s salty, so the portion matters more than the jar. Eaten the Korean way, a small side dish alongside rice and other food, kimchi gives you vegetables, fiber and live lactic acid bacteria in a low-calorie package.
The best Korean instant ramen for most first-timers is Shin Ramyun, Nongshim’s 1986 classic. It has real heat without punishing you, it’s sold almost everywhere outside Korea, and it’s the bowl most Koreans measure every other pack against. Once you know where it sits on the spice scale, picking your next pack (milder Jin Ramen or the far hotter Buldak) gets easy.
How to make kimchi fried rice: fry sour kimchi, add cold rice, top with an egg, done in 15 minutes. The dish, called kimchi-bokkeumbap in Korean (bokkeumbap means “stir-fried rice”), is what Korean households cook when the kimchi in the fridge has turned too sour to serve on its own. Get two things right, the age of the kimchi and the dryness of the rice, and the rest is easy.
You can learn how to make tteokbokki at home in 6 steps and about 30 minutes, with a single pan. Tteokbokki is Korea’s best-known street snack: chewy rice cakes simmered in a sweet, spicy sauce built on gochujang (fermented red chili paste). Once you have the base recipe, rose (creamy-spicy), cream and soy-sauce versions are small changes away.
The Korean convenience store food to try first comes down to 7 items, all sold at every GS25 and CU. Start with a triangle kimbap, a dosirak (boxed meal), a cup of ramyeon from the hot-water station, banana milk, and a few snacks and drinks you can’t easily find at home. You can heat, eat and clean up all of it inside the store in about 15 minutes.
How to eat Korean BBQ comes down to 5 steps: order a cut, grill it, snip it, wrap it and pour drinks. The meat cooks at your table, you eat it wrapped in lettuce with garlic and a smear of sauce, and you pour drinks for each other instead of for yourself. Get those basics right and you’ll look at home in any gogi-jip (meat restaurant) from Seoul to Los Angeles.