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Korean food
My aunt, a Korean, found herself in Israel by a twist of fate . She was already over 50. Our first phone conversation: "How are you there? How are you settling in?" "Everything's fine! Vegetables are plentiful and cheap!" It's generally accepted that the main dish for Koreans is rice (pub). While this is true, it could equally be said that the main dish for Russians is bread. In a Korean feast, the relative importance and functional purpose (if one can put it that way) of rice is roughly the same as that of bread in traditional Russian cuisine. What fundamentally distinguishes Korean cuisine from the more familiar European cuisine is the abundance of vegetables and herbs.
Koreans place great importance on food. Three meals a day are typically included in the price of a trip to South Korea, and the meals are typically very hearty. However, thanks to the centuries-old balance of vegetables and meat, the combination of bland rice and spicy seasonings, and the use of only vegetable oil in cooking, you're unlikely to feel a heavy stomach after a meal. Koreans are typically lean and active, despite the fact that they eat most of their food at dinner.
A traditional Korean meal necessarily includes soup, rice, and a variety of spicy appetizers (banchan). The main panchan is kimchi—a shelf-stable snack made from pickled, fermented, and salted vegetables. The role of kimchi in Korean cuisine can be compared to the role of sauerkraut in traditional Russian cuisine. No one has visited Korea without trying kimchi at least once!
When ordering at a restaurant, keep in mind that Koreans don't have the concept of a separate dish. For example, if you order a meat dish or the highly revered "whole boiled chicken" (samgyetang), you'll likely receive something like a set meal, including the main course, rice, soup, and several appetizers. Incidentally, if you don't tolerate spicy food well, perhaps the safest dishes for you are samgyetang—a whole boiled chicken stuffed with various spices and ginseng root—and bibimbap—rice with vegetables. In Seoul, there's a dedicated "whole boiled chicken" restaurant street near Dongdaemun Market.
Soups in Korea are very diverse, with meat, vegetable, and fish options. Seaweed soup is delicious. On Korean Airlines flights, you'll be offered a Korean breakfast (lunch, dinner) where the soup is generously served without the spicy soy sauce. The sauce comes in a separate tube and can be added to taste. I highly recommend adding at least a little!
Korea is a seafaring country, offering a wide variety of fish dishes, and fish, shellfish, and other seafood are often eaten raw. Generally, Koreans rarely cook anything for hours. Dishes are usually prepared either in front of you or just before serving. Even at buffets, there's usually an electric or gas stove built into the table where you can grill thin slices of beef or pork (bulgogi), shrimp, or squid. To make this process easier, scissors and tongs are usually available near the raw, prepared foods.
I recommend visiting the restaurants at the fish market, where they will catch sea creatures from an aquarium and cook them in front of you.
You're unlikely to see the kind of baked goods we're accustomed to in Korea. Sweets and cookies are often made from rice flour, and heavy creams and rich pastries are avoided. However, the sweets are delicious, light, and beautifully and colorfully decorated.
Alcohol… I'd prefer someone more knowledgeable about it to write about it here. Korean vodka (sujo or soju —I've seen it called both ways) is not called vodka at all in some sources, but rather a filtered liqueur. It's 17-20% alcohol by volume. The effect, in my opinion, is similar to beer, except it doesn't make you sleepy or give you a headache, just a light, enjoyable feeling. It's drunk in small glasses, not shots.
I hope that in this section, experts will share their impressions of Korean cuisine. I would really like to know how to prepare Korean national food in Russian conditions and where to get the necessary seasonings.
Despite some monotony in Korean cuisine, compared to European cuisine, Korean food never gets boring and, in my opinion, has a somewhat "narcotic" effect, i.e. you get hooked on it and then miss it.
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