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The country's long history and turbulent events have profoundly influenced Korean cuisine. Each dish carries its own story, a mark of time. However, this country also has dishes that instill fear in people just by hearing their names.
Chuseok is one of the most important holidays in Korea, equivalent to the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam, but with much deeper cultural significance. During this time, Koreans often enjoy unique dishes that not everyone knows about.
Live octopus - "The strangest Korean dish that foreigners most want to try"
Live octopus – Sannakji (산낙지) is a surprising and intriguing dish, especially for foreign visitors who have the opportunity to try it when visiting Korea. Sannakji has spread by word of mouth around the world and eventually topped the list of "The most bizarre Korean dishes foreigners want to try."
This dish challenges the courage of diners.
Sannakji is a dish of live octopus that is cleaned and chopped, then drizzled with sesame oil, sprinkled with salt and roasted sesame seeds, and eaten raw while its tentacles are still wriggling. The image might be gruesome to some, but the taste is very appealing because you can fully appreciate the chewy texture, freshness, and sweetness of the octopus meat when you eat it raw.
Diners will put live octopuses into their mouths while they are still wriggling on the plate.
A terrifying Korean delicacy.
However, it's important to note that the octopus's legs can still move while you're eating them because many nerves remain active even after the octopus is dead. Be careful to chew thoroughly when eating live octopus, as the suction cups on its legs can stick to your throat and mouth, posing a choking hazard.
Raw beef is popular among the people of South Korea.
If Germany has Crudos, France has Tartare, and Denmark has the famous Tartarmad, then in South Korea, people celebrate Yukhoe as a masterpiece in their national cuisine.
Korean food is not something everyone dares to try.
Yukhoe (육회), also known as raw beef salad, isn't as popular as spicy rice cakes, gimbap, or even kimchi, but it's very popular in Korea. Considered a creative version of the French tartare, Yukhoe has undergone new variations in Asia, incorporating various characteristic spices to create thin slices of meat with a rich, distinctive, and irresistible flavor.
Yukhoe is a raw dish in Korean cuisine, usually made from raw beef with various seasonings and sauces.
The main ingredient of this appealing dish is, of course, beef. But the way Koreans choose their ingredients requires meticulous attention to detail. Fresh beef retains its vibrant red color and juiciness, with no fat whatsoever. After cleaning, the meat is either minced or thinly sliced. Then it's mixed with a variety of typical Korean seasonings, such as soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil, green onions, minced garlic, sesame seeds, and pepper. In this way, the raw beef salad gradually loses its fishy smell and is replaced by a novel, unique, and irresistibly delicious flavor.
Considered a creative adaptation of the French tartar, Yukhoe has undergone novel variations upon arriving in Asia.
A must-have accompaniment to Korean raw beef salad is thinly sliced pear. Pears are a popular, sweet and refreshing fruit in Korea, so it's no surprise they use them as an ingredient in many dishes. In Yukhoe, thinly sliced pears are arranged evenly on a plate, layered beneath the raw beef and eaten as a salad. Additionally, a raw egg yolk is placed on top, mixed in before eating to create a rich, creamy, and uniquely flavorful dish.
Raw horse meat is horrifying.
Added to the list of dishes only for "thrill-seekers," this dish is often served on Jeju Island, which has a long tradition of horse breeding. Mal-gogi is usually eaten with condiments such as soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, and sesame oil.
This dish is a famous specialty of Jeju Island.
Only the freshest, juiciest cuts of meat will be selected to serve to diners.
Horse meat shares many similarities with raw beef: it's juicy and subtly sweet; however, horse meat is richer in flavor than beef, even though it contains only about one-third the fat. Common ways to prepare raw horse meat include slicing it thinly and eating it raw, or mixing it with spices and egg yolks. The people of Jeju Island have been eating horse meat for over 700 years. This dish is considered a signature dish of Jeju Island.
A pungent, fermented stingray delicacy from South Korea.
To make this dish, whole stingrays are preserved in straw for several days. The result is a dish with such a strong smell that some diners compare it to the smell of a toilet. Hongeo-hoe has a unique chewy texture and a raw fish flavor. After eating, the strong ammonia taste lingers in the mouth, even clinging to the diner's clothes and hair.
Just hearing the name of this dish makes many people run away.
This is a traditional delicacy, popular in South Jeolla Province. There, hongeo-hoe is a prized item, indispensable in offerings to ancestors. They are quite expensive, costing 40,000 won (US$49) for imported fish and 80,000 won (US$98) for domestically caught fish.
Diners often eat fermented stingray with boiled pork belly and kimchi. The flavor of the meat and the aroma of kimchi help to somewhat mask the smell and taste of hongeo-hoe. Soju also contributes to reducing the unpleasant aftertaste of this dish.
These dishes are both a challenge and an exciting "spice" that enhances the journey of exploring South Korea for adventurous diners. After browsing the menu, have you spotted a dish you'll try first thing on your next trip to South Korea?
