A beginner’s guide to Korean food
The ingredients you need, what to order, what to cook ...
I’ve been late to the party with Korean food. Sure, I’d tried kimchi though it hadn’t found a permanent place in my fridge and enjoyed Bristol’s two excellent Korean restaurants, Bokman and Dongnae, but without getting seriously hooked. (The kind of hooked that makes you urgently crave a Korean takeaway.)
But suddenly Korean seemed to be everywhere. Waitrose was reporting a dramatic increase in searches and identifying it as one of 2025s food trends.
There was a Korean supermarket, Oseyo, in the fancy new Paddington Square shopping centre - one of several in London, I discovered.
Also in London, Michelin awarded a star to a Korean restaurant, Sollip
The Guardian turned out to have a dedicated Korean food and drink section
Even the stats on my own website matchingfoodandwine.com showed people were looking for articles on what wine to drink with Korean food.
So last month I decided to remedy that. As I wasn’t travelling I thought I’d take a staycation and do a deep dive into the Korean food scene. I went to Korean restaurants, got my hands on some cookery books, made a couple of dishes and played around with different drinks.
I even toyed with heading over to New Malden in west London, the heart of the Korean community in the UK but thought Postcard from New Malden might be a bit niche. Still tempted though.
The net result is that like the rest of the world, seemingly, I’m now obsessed with Korean food.
This is what I’ve learnt so far with apologies to those of you who understand the cuisine much better than I do. Please do pitch in if you do.