South Korea Travel Guide

South Korea — Food and Dining

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Cuisine

Korea has its own very distinctive cuisine, quite different from Chinese or Japanese. Rice is the staple food and a typical Korean meal consists of rice, soup, rice water and eight to 20 side dishes of vegetables, fish, poultry, eggs, bean-curd and sea plants. Most Korean soups and side dishes are heavily laced with red pepper.

Things to know: Most major hotels will offer a selection of restaurants, serving Korean, Japanese and Chinese cuisine or Western-style food. The most common type of drinking establishment is the suljip (wine bar), but there are also pubs serving well-known European brands. Koreans offer glasses of liquor to each other as a gesture of camaraderie; never fill your own glass and remember, juniors pour for seniors.

National specialties:
• Bibimbap (boiled rice mixed with vegetables and chilli peppers).
• Kimchi (Korean national dish, highly spiced pickle of Chinese cabbage or white radish with turnips, onions, salt, fish, chestnuts and red pepper).
• Bulgogi (marinated, charcoal-broiled beef barbecue).
• Grilled galbi (seasoned ribs).
• Haemultang (seafood stew).

National drinks:
• Yakju (refined pure liquor fermented from rice).
• Soju (like vodka and made from potatoes or grain).
• Korean beer: Cass, Hite and OB.
• Makgeolli and donggongju (milky liquor).
• Ginseng wine is strong and sweet, similar to brandy.

Legal drinking age: 20.

Tipping: Although not a Korean custom, most hotels and other tourist facilities add a 10% service charge to bills.

Nightlife

Korea’s nightlife offers a mix of traditional (spellbinding performances of music, dance and theater) with Broadway/West End-style shows, and a splash of home-grown stage drama such as Cookin’, a frenetic show based on chefs cooking live, or the Korean B-Boys, break-dancing actors wowing both locally and internationally. Hotel bars are popular in cities; but their nightclubs tend to be expensive. Larger hotels may also have their own private theater restaurants.

Beer halls, many decorated along a European theme, are popular places to drink and meet friends. Visitors are expected to eat as well as drink. Champagne bars are also making inroads as the Western influence continues and prosperity rises. Seoul’s fashionable areas are Hongik University area and Apgujeong. Itaweon is aimed squarely at foreigners and the local population of American soldiers but it is quite a tacky area. Koreans also love to play board games in cafes and bars, something of a cult phenomenon started in 2002. They also love to sing their hearts out in a karaoke bar, or noraebang, as they are known here. There are also many cinemas. Operas, concerts and recitals can be seen at the National Theater and performances of Korean classical music, dances and plays can be seen at Korea House. There are several licensed state-of-the-art casinos throughout the country.