food trip in korea

Season and stir-fry them! The best friend of beer,
Sea Snail Salad and Stir-fried Sausage and Vegetables

Korea is the only country where people frequently consume sea snails in the world, and it has been reported that more than 90% of the global production of sea snails is consumed in Korea. Sea snail is a popular snack ingredient, thanks to its high-protein but low-fat nutritional value. Its chewy texture and easy-to-cook nature make it a perfect drinking snack.
Another popular drinking snack that Korean people have with beer is stir-fried sausage and vegetables. Also called “soya,” this dish has a quick and easy recipe of stir-frying every vegetable in your refrigerator with mini Vienna sausages and a sauce, and it is a popular drinking snack choice.

Golbaengi Alley in Euljiro, the up-and-coming “hipster” place!

The name of Golbaengi (Sea Snail) Alley in Euljiro began in the mid-1970s when stalls that cook canned sea snails with sauces began to pop up around Euljiro 3(sam)-ga Station of Seoul metro subway line 2. Now it has grown into a full-blown sea snail restaurant alleyway, and there are still about seven restaurants that specialize in sea snail dishes, continuing the name of the area.
Recently, the old buildings and alleyways in Euljiro gained a new name of “Hipjiro” (the combination of “hip” of “hipster” and “jiro” of “Euljiro”) and became the new hot place of people in their 20s and 30s. Meanwhile, the popular restaurants in Golbaengi Alley in Euljiro offer slightly different cooking styles and methods for their sea snail salads, attracting many youngsters.
Foreign visitors are trying sea snail dishes and giving positive reviews, saying that they taste better than how they look. If you cannot visit this place anytime soon, you can make your own sea snail salad with canned sea snails that you can buy in any grocery stores.

The memory of the stringy Vienna sausage

The sausage was perhaps the most popular dish that can be found in the lunch box of Koreans who are older than 40. Until the mid-80s, the sausage was a rare and expensive food ingredient in Korea. Stir-fried sausage and vegetables has the mini stringy Vienna sausages as an ingredient, and it is a timelessly loved drinking snack in Korea.
The usual recipe is stir-frying Vienna sausages with vegetables in tomato ketchup, but these days, there are other recipes that use a blend of chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, oyster sauce, or no sauce at all to maximize the original flavors of vegetables.

Timeless snacks, Sea Snail Salad and Stir-fried Sausage and Vegetables

As such, sea snail salad and stir-fried sausage and vegetables are two major beer snacks that appeal to many Koreans’ memories in the economic boom of the 70s and 80s. Countless new beer snacks come out and new fusion recipes flood the trend, but despite the new dark horses, sea snail salad and stir-fried sausage and vegetables will always be the classic beer snacks in Korea.

Cold beer and food stall dishes, the perfect match

Find the hidden Korean street food

It is perhaps from the street food of a country that tells you the most about its culinary culture. Street food is cooked and sold on the spot, and it is mostly the snack of ordinary people. In Korea, some of its major street food are tteokbokki, fries, sundae, and many more. Korean street food is usually sold in food stalls on streets called pojangmacha. These food stalls offer quick snacks and takeout food for busy urban people and are also popular to grab a quick drink from during late hours.

Tteokbokki, so spicy but so tasty!

Tteokbokki, the representative spicy Korean food’s main ingredient is red chili paste, and it is the favorite of Koreans. Even for foreign visitors in Korea, tteokbokki became a key Korean dish that tickles their taste buds with spicy flavors and cannot be missed along with kimchi.
At one point, tteokbokki with incremental spice became trendy in Korea. After many changes in the trend, now there is a wide variety of tteokbokki that people who are not used to spicy food can enjoy, such as curry, black bean sauce, cream sauce, rose sauce, seafood, galbi sauce, and many more.

Crispy fries, the all-time favorite

Fries are an easy favorite of all, thanks to their nutty flavors and crispy texture. The ingredients of fries are common ingredients, such as sweet potatoes, shrimp, squid, and the like.
Tteokbokki and fries are the two star menus in a food stall and perfect complements to each other. Koreans, in particular, enjoy dipping the fries in the spicy sauce of tteokbokki. Fries can leave a greasy aftertaste because they are deep-fried dishes, but the spicy sauce of tteokbokki counterweights this oiliness.

Sundae, a dish that leaves a nuttiness explosion in your mouth

Sundae is a popular dish that can be found in any street food stall. It is a kind of blood sausage that is made of sweet rice, glass noodles, vegetables, and seonji filled in pork intestines and placed in a steamer. It is a balanced and nutritional snack that boosts your iron level.
Because of its peculiar shape and ingredients, such as pork offal and blood, it has a potent flavor. People who are new to try this dish might not like it during the first encounter, but as you have a bite of it and another, its chewy texture and nuttiness will grow on you. Before you know, it’ll magically be your favorite snack.

Small but sure happiness with “Tteok-twi-sun” and beer at a food stall

Koreans call tteobokki, deep-fried dish, and sundae set menu as “tteok-twi-sun.” You cannot miss any of these three besties. Add a bowl of savory, hearty fish cake soup, and there you have the food stall feast. Earlier, we explained that food stalls are the go-to place for a quick drink, and the drink that goes well with their dishes is, of course, beer.
Imagine having a cold glass of beer at the end of the day at a food stall. With “tteok-twi-sun” paired with beer, you will find small but sure happiness with this no-frills yet tasty street food.

Enjoy Napa Wraps with Pork and Braised Pigs' Feet better with Somaek

When the night deepens and you start getting hungry, Koreans come to face the biggest dilemma—Napa Wraps with Pork or Braised Pigs’ Feet? Napa wraps with pork will softly melt in your mouth while the braised pigs’ feet will offer a sensationally chewy texture!
You just simply cannot decide between the two of them. If you are in Korea and come home after a long, exhausting day of work and crave an ice-cold drink, you’re merely one call away from having a hot meal of delicious pork at home. Have a piece of warm, soft meat and drink a sip of somaek, a cocktail of soju and beer (maekju). This is the Koreans’ secret elixir of life that will revive you from exhaustion.

Somaek made with the golden ratio of soju and beer

Somaek is perhaps the cocktail that exists only in Korea. This cocktail mixes soju and beer to a 3:7 ratio, and the ingredients are the most common liquors you can find in Korea. When the ingredients in soju are mixed with the light flavor of Korean beer, deep umami is created and the fizzy carbonated texture is reduced, making a smoother drink. Somaek is a smooth cocktail that can be paired with food, and people often pair it with heavy meals, such as meat. So, it’s a cocktail that goes well with napa wraps with pork and braised pigs’ feet.

Napa Wraps with Pork, another version of pork belly

Pork belly is a popular cut of pork for grilling in Korea, but braising it doesn’t make it any less tasty. Fat melts and coats the well-cooked meat, making it softly melt on your tongue. Wrapped kimchi will add the sweetness of cabbage and spicy kick of kimchi to the soft and plain taste of pork. You can also dip the braised pork pieces in ssamjang (mixed paste) or salted shrimp and wrap it in lettuce or perilla leaves with dried radish salad or julienne radish fresh salad. Wrapping a piece of meat in vegetables enhances digestion and adds nutrients to your diet.

Braised Pigs’ Feet, a plate of rich edible collagen for you

Unlike napa wraps with pork where only the meaty part of the pork is served, braised pig’s feet is served with pork skin, and this chewy part is the highlight of the dish. The chewy pork skin braised in a savory sauce is packed with collagen. If you want firm skin and glossy hair, the best way to achieve them is to consume a lot of collagen. Pork skin is full of collagen, so having braised pig’s feet helps you ingest collagen.

In Korea, in most cases, napa wraps with pork is also sold alongside braised pig’s feet in the same restaurant and vice versa. Napa wraps with pork and braised pig’s feet are the fateful rivals. If you ever get a chance to taste these dishes with a glass of cold somaek in Korea, they will surely fill your energy up at the end of a long, exhausting day.

Beer, the oldest fermented liquor in the world, meets Korean flavors!

Beer is known as the oldest fermented liquor in the world. However, it has a relatively short history in Korea. Beer was first manufactured in Korea in 1933 when the former entities of HiteJinro Co., Ltd. and Oriental Brewery were first established. Since then, these two companies have been brewing Korean beers. In 2002, the craft beer brewery license was first approved in Korea, and the variety of beer with unique local characteristics and features has been multiplying.
Unique breweries are popping up and now you can easily get craft beers in convenience stores. They have more alcohol content than the usual lager beer and have unique colors and bodies for you to choose from and enjoy to your taste. Korean craft beers, like traditional beers in Europe, have reached a considerable level of standards. You will be amazed at their diverse flavors and aroma.

Korean beer breweries, full of personalities

Let us introduce some of the Korean beer breweries that are gaining attention for their unique features and flavors. Dodamdodam Beer is a Korean rice beer that offers a bitter flavor of hops and gentle sweetness of grain syrup, and it is perfectly paired with Korean cuisines. Gaehangro Lager is a lager beer created by Incheon Brewery that was born in the urban regeneration project for the old town of Incheon. It is bottled in retro beer bottles with a unique label design, and it is now gaining popularity through word of mouth by using a senior model. Bukgeukseong Lager from Mungyeong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province is a lager that can be paired with any kind of food with its strong initial taste and crisp aftertaste. Jeju Wit Ale is the starter of the golden age of Korean craft beer, and you can find this wheat ale with a refreshing flavor of mandarin orange peels and floral aroma in large supermarkets and conveniences stores across Korea.
It will be a wonderful way to enjoy your trips by trying other unique and tasty craft beers that you can find in each city that you visit.

Enjoy beer in Korea at fried chicken restaurants and convenience stores

Have you heard of “Chimaek”? If you are having fried chicken in Korea, then have a glass of beer as a pairing of it. Beer cleanses your pallet and washes down the greasiness of fried chicken, leaving a crisp aftertaste on your taste buds. Fried chicken is a popular dine-out choice in Korea, as there are about 87,000 fried chicken restaurants across the nation with about 470 types of fried chicken brands. Each brand offers different main menus, so you can enjoy diverse flavors of fried chickens from each brand with crisp glasses of beer.
Another place to visit to enjoy beer in Korea is convenience stores. They offer a wide range of craft beers and are easy go-to spots to get unique Korean beers. There are some craft beers that you can easily get from convenience stores, such as Jeju Baengnokdam Ale with a refreshing citrus flavor from added hallabong oranges, a specialty product of Jeju Island, ARK Pale Ale that packed flavors and aromas that represent Korea, such as the vast blue ocean, evergreen pine trees, and nutty barley into a red-colored liquor and the signature bitterness, and Gyeongbokgung Royal Pride I.P.A with an added subtle aroma of lotus leaf powder in a beautiful can that depicts lotus flowers blooming on the pond of Gyeonghoeru Pavillion.

As such, you can enjoy new flavors and experiences in Korea with the existing brands of beer and diverse craft beers that reflect the current trends. Beer is now widely loved by Koreans for its bittersweet flavor and the refreshing sparkling carbonated bubbles. Why don’t you plunge yourself into the unique Korean beers that you cannot experience anywhere in the world?