Korean Cuisine

Korean cooking is built on fermentation more than any other Asian cuisine, and that fermentation isn't a side technique — it's the foundation of flavour in half the dishes.

Kimchi

Kimchi is napa cabbage salted and coated in a paste of chilli, garlic, ginger and fermented seafood, then left to ferment for days or weeks. It's served with virtually every Korean meal and goes into soups and fried rice as an ingredient in its own right.

Gochujang

Fermented red chilli paste: hot, sweet, salty and deep all at once. It's what gives bibimbap and tteokbokki their identity.

Banchan

A Korean meal isn't a single plate — it's a main dish, rice and soup surrounded by five to ten small side dishes (banchan), refilled free in restaurants.

Bibimbap

Rice in a bowl topped with vegetables seasoned separately, meat, an egg and a spoon of gochujang, all mixed together at the table. In a hot stone bowl, the rice forms a crisp crust at the bottom.