Brief guide to Korean gastronomy

South Korea has one of the most exciting cuisines, and along with its pop culture, it is making a stronger mark in the world. Its traditional cuisine (hansik) is the result of geography, seasons, and cultural complexity. While traditional cuisine comes from an ancient legacy, the contrast is street food: modern, vibrant, and carefree, filled with surprises, fried delights, and a photogenic angle. As in most Eastern cultures, hansik gastronomy is governed by the energies present in each food, yin-yang, masculine and feminine, cold and hot. Its function, in addition to nourishment, is to balance and heal the body and mind. This is why medicinal herbs can be found as spices and a play of five colors representing harmony: green, red, yellow, black, and white.On hansik tables, food is placed at the center, with no appetizers or main courses. Everything is eaten at the same time. Pickles and fermented foods accompany and season a large part of their stews. This is due to their long and cold winters, where it becomes necessary to have something that does not depend on the weather.The Korean dish is characterized by its beef –one of the best in the world–, chicken or pork, a compendium of vegetables, of course, boiled or fried rice, and the combination of aromas from sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, and garlic.Due to the climate, broths and stews like gamjatang or doenjang jjigae, a stew with miso flavor, are common at lunchtime. Among the classics, bibimbap stands out, a bowl with rice, vegetables, and meat topped with a fried egg. The experience is complete when you mix it all together, as its name suggests, which means something like “mixed food.”But perhaps kimchi is the dish with the most recognition outside of Korea. This food is prepared from Chinese cabbage or radish and mixed with a myriad of vegetables and spices, then buried or set aside for fermentation. This exotic flavor is present in various stews, adding complexity and of course, umami to the local gastronomy.Korean food finds its best postal stamp with Korean barbecue or gogi gui. The places suitable for eating it have tables topped with tubular extractors that descend from the ceiling. Here, the meat is prepared in front of you –or by yourself– with the flavor of charcoal or simply on a gas grill placed in the center of the table.The meats are cut with scissors and accompanied by a myriad of side dishes arranged around the grill. One of the most common is bulgogi, where the meat is marinated in sesame oil mixed with soy sauce, sugar, garlic, and pepper. To enjoy it, the grilled meat is wrapped in a lettuce leaf along with the other side dishes, pickles, and red chili paste that adds spiciness.As for Korean street food, there is as much variety as there are letters in the alphabet. Common items include battered sausages skewered on a stick or spicy chicken skewers. There are also spicy rice cakes, kimchi hot cakes, or kimbap or gimbap –Korean sushi.Regarding desserts, South Korea shines with its pastries, which can be divided into fried, steamed, baked, and those that accompany tea. Generally, the ingredients that are always present are fruits, roots, and of course honey and sugar.The most common desserts are bingsu, a type of shaved ice with fruits; dasik, a cookie imprinted with very delicate stamps that accompanies tea; chamoe, a local melon served peeled and cut. Yeot is a traditional sweet made from steamed or glutinous rice and is also used to make dasik. In the streets, it is possible to find pancake skewers shaped like fish or even a kind of churros.In recent years, Korean cuisine has surged strongly outside its territory. Its trend in global pop culture has come to stay alongside its soap operas, music, and anime. And as we in Mexico City don’t like to miss out on trends, we have excellent options to try it. I recommend places like Biwon or Doriban, where they make their own kimchi, or Na De Fo or Midam for excellent Korean BBQ.