I've spent almost 2 weeks in Seoul now eating a decent amount of Korean food and although I'm here for 2 more days, I'm definitely ready to pass my verdict on South-Korean food. But before I get to that, let me tell you my expectations before coming to Korea and show you what I've been eating since coming here.
My expectations were fairly high. I didn't think it was very likely to beat Japanese food, but since Japanese food in Japan is on a completely different level from Japanese food in other parts of the world like London, I expected Korean food in Korea to also be a LOT better than the Korean food I had eaten in London.
To start off I had Zzim dak for lunch on the first day, which is soy sauced chicken.
Kimchi soup I believe
Zzim Dak
The Zzim Dak was very spicy and the quality of the chicken was, I thought not that great. There were bones in quite a few of the pieces for example. The vegetables and potatos in there were okay. The Kimchi soup was actually very nice, much better than the Zzim Dak. It's too bad this was the only time I got Kimchi Soup as a side dish in Korea. Overall Zzim Dak is not really my type of food I think.
That evening for dinner, a friend made me Tteokbokki, which I thought was some sort of spicy pasta, however I was told the pasta looking things are actually rice cakes. Even though it was my 2nd spicy food of the day, I quite enjoyed this one. It wasn't too spicy and I thought it tasted pretty good. Also notice the brown/seeded rice in the middle, which is a nice change from eating nothing but white rice in Japan.
The second day I went to eat another chicken dish for lunch.
Side dishes
Before cooking
During cooking
After cooking
I don't remember the name of this dish, but I do remember the ingredients. Chicken, vegetables, rice cakes, noodles and optional cheese. Yet again spicy food, not superspicy, but spicy nonetheless. The food was quite nice, but nothing special. And I was starting to get a little bit tired of all the spicy food by now. It's allright eating spicy food every once in a while, but if I eat too much of it, I regret it later when my intestines start hurting and I have to go to the bathroom...
This is why I wasn't particularly happy to eat spicy food for a 4th time in a row on the evening of that day at the restaurant of the parents of a friend. Their restaurant specializes in cow intestines, hearts, neck and other strange parts of a cow. The restaurant seemed to be very popular, maybe because cow intestine restaurants are not very common. I was told that because cows are more expensive than pigs, usually these types of restaurants serve pig intestines. The food is made in a frying pan on top of your table and this is how it works:
The staff cuts the food and prepares it.
Loads of side dishes
Kimchi is added
At this point you will eat a bunch of the food, not all of it, but maybe half or two thirds of it. I thought the cow neck and the cow heart were allright, but the cow intestines were very tough and I didn't like them so much. I think rather than the meat, I liked the sides dishes the best. Especially the Kimchi made my friend's mother was very good and much better than Kimchi in the west. After you're finished, you ask the staff to add rice.
Rice and seaweed is added
The guy working at the restaurant showing off and serving it in the shape of a heart
At this point I was pretty full, but I quite liked the fried rice so I ate a bit more. I definitely liked the rice and the side dishes such as the Kimchi the best. The meat ranged from allright to not so good(the intestines). Pretty cool to be able to say I've eaten cow intestines though.
The next day I was pretty desperate for some non-spicy food, because I had eaten spicy food for 4 meals in a row. My wish only came half true when I went to eat Galbi.
Before cooking
During cooking
Soup #1
Soup #2
The meat is not spicy and was pretty nice. Some of the side dishes however were spicy like Soup #1. Pretty good meal overall, but not much better than Korean BBQ I've had in London.
By this time I was starting to realize Korean food in Korea either isn't all that much better than Korean food in London or Korean food might just not really be my thing. I didn't give up on it completely just yet though and had some more Korean food the next day.
Bibimbap
Side dishes
Bibimbap after mixing it
This dish is basically rice, vegetables and an egg mixed together. Pretty healthy, although significantly lacking in protein, and you can eat this non-spicy without a spicy sauce. This being quite tasty, fairly healthy and not spicy made this my favorite Korean food.
For dinner I had delivery Korean BBQ.
Sides and sauces
Sweet, yet still spicy Kimchi and the meat
Spicy noodles
Yet again quite spicy food and my intestines were definitely getting tired of it by now. Some of the meat was allright, but a lot of the pieces had more fat on them than actual meat, so that was pretty disappointing and unhealthy. The noodles tasted allright, but the fact that they were spicy stopped me from eating too many of them.
At this point I had spent nearly a week in Korea and eaten mostly Korean food, but had yet to encounter something I was really impressed with. Furthermore my insides were not feeling that great from all the spicy food and not having eaten healthy food for quite a while I wanted to eat something healthy again. So the next few days I tried to eat somewhat healthier non-spicy food. I had Italian food once, steak+buffet and had sushi delivered that needless to say wasn't very good, but at least non-spicy and healthy. Since then I've also come down with a terrible cold, causing me to want to eat healthy food even more, so I haven't really eaten any more Korean food for the past week. I have to say though that even if I hadn't caught a cold, I probably would've tried to avoid Korean food for the most part anyway.
So overall my verdict of Korean food is that it definitely is not my cup of tea. Besides the Kimchi, I didn't think it was much, if at all, better than Korean food I've eaten in London. The new dishes I've tried mostly aren't my thing either. I like Tteokbokki and Bibimbap, but wouldn't eat the first very often, because it's quite spicy. Which brings me to my next and most important point, Korean food in general seems to be very spicy and kind of unhealthy, neither of which I like very much.
Now I do have to say a few things. First of all, Korean food is EXTREMELY cheap. Most meals were inbetween 5 and 10 USD, so inbetween 3 and 7 GBP, for which you can barely get a starter in London, let alone a big fulfilling meal. Except for 1 meal at N Seoul Tower of which I didn't take pictures, none of them were at particularly expensive restaurants. The N Seoul Tower meal also was quite mediocre though, especially considering the price. Last but not least, I'm pretty sure I haven't even eaten half the Korean food out there yet, because I kind of lost my will to go out and try more Korean dishes. So there may be other really good Korean food that I've just missed out on.
Can't wait to return to Japan in a few days and start eating Japanese food again. It's much more my thing!
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