Korean cooking methods you'll see at *almost* every Korean 식당 👨‍🍳

Somehow, this newsletter is slowly turning into a food newsletter (maybe we're just always hungry when we write? 🤔), but today we're talking about different ways to prepare food and what they mean.

So, buckle up, grab a bowl of 라면, and let's dive in! 

The different kinds of cooking methods

So, within Korea, there is a bit of a mix-and-match system that you find around. Nearly every Korean restaurant will have foods that can be categorized between the kind of ingredient and the way it is prepared. Let's check out some:

Cooking Method (Korean) Translation (English) 볶음

Stir-frying / sauteing

찜

Steaming / braising

구이

Grilling / roasting

조림

Simmering in sauce

무침

Seasoned / mixed dishes

튀김

Deep-frying

So, say that you want to get some fried rice (밥), then you can say you want:

볶음밥 = fried rice

Or similarly, if you're out and see some street food, you'll probably encounter some deep-fried shrimp:

새우튀김

Now, a question you might have right now is: why did 밥 come after 볶음 but 새우 came before 튀김? Unfortunately this is one of the cases where "it is what it is" is just the answer. 😬

So, to make you well-prepared for the world of Korean food, let's run down some of the more common dishes!

Let's start with 볶음 dishes:

Ingredient

Dish 밥 (rice)

볶음밥 (stir-fried rice)

김치 (kimchi)

김치볶음 (stir-fried kimchi)

오징어 (squid)

오징어볶음 (stir-fried squid)

제육 (spicy pork)

제육볶음 (stir-fried spicy pork)

면 (noodles, Sino-Korean)

볶음면 (stir-fried noodles)

김치볶음밥...맛있겠다 😋

Oh, sorry, I was daydreaming about kimchi fried rice...back to today's lesson. 

Korean Culture Tip! 🇰🇷

When you're finished with a meal, you usually have dessert, right? Same in Korea! But it's Korean DessertTM. 

Usually after a meal is done, someone says:

"저기요! 밥 한 공기만 주세요!" (Excuse me, one rice please!)

This rice is used to clean up the leftover sauce and ingredients from the main dish and is made into ✨볶음밥✨. So, when you're eating at a restaurant, don't let that sauce at the end go to waste!

It's also common to just straight-up ask for 볶음밥 and they can either take away your dish to make it for you in the kitchen or they bring the ingredients for you to make it yourself at your table.

(I also get actual dessert afterwards too)

Next up: 찜!

Ingredient

Dish

갈비 (short ribs)

갈비찜 (braised short ribs)

계란 (egg)

계란찜 (steamed eggs)

아귀 (monkfish)

아귀찜 (braised monkfish)

족발 (pig's feet)

족발 (braised pig's feet) (찜 is skipped for this one)

계란찜 (top), 족발 (bottom), 아귀찜 (left)

More food. More cooking. More slang.

We're only checking out 3 cooking methods today, but our Korean Food Pack has way more! We've been working hard to pack a ton of Korean food knowledge into an easily digestible (pun intended) daily email that tests your knowledge and provides new words and phrases each day.

The best way to learn a language is to practice it daily. 

Over the course of 20 days (4 weeks) you'll get:

• 5+ new words each weekday to play with
• Personalized feedback on your answers to daily questions
• Anki deck with all of the words you learned at the end

🍚 Dig in to the Korean Food Pack 🍜

Last one for today is 튀김 (fried)! Ahhh... classic soul (Seoul?) food! Picture this: you're walking down the street, when a delicious smell wafts towards you, almost lifting you into the air like a cartoon, you think "아... 맛있는 냄새.." 🤤 and stumble upon a street cart with a 할머니 offering the crunchiest fried food known to man. 

What does she have on her cart tonight?

Ingredient Dish 새우 (shrimp)

새우튀김

고구마 (sweet potato)

고구마튀김

오징어 (squid)

오징어튀김

김말이 (seaweed rolls with glass noodles inside)

김말이 (this is usually only fried, so 튀김 is skipped)

만두 (dumplings)

튀김만두

And when you see those options, there's only one correct order:

"전부 하나씩 주세요!" (Give me one of everything please!)

To which 할머니 responds "알겠어요~" and maybe, just maybe, you'll be lucky enough to receive an extra 새우튀김 as 서비스, forever cementing her and her food cart as one of your favorite 맛집 in the city.