Eating in Korea

Rice, sautéed vegetables, egg, chilli paste to mix in yourself. The dolsot version arrives in a scalding stone bowl that crisps the rice at the bottom. The easiest dish to start with, and one of the few that is easy to get without meat.

A roll of rice and seaweed filled with vegetables, egg, tuna or beef. Nothing like sushi: the rice is seasoned with sesame oil. The ultimate quick meal, around ₩4,000.

A piping-hot soup served with its rice, which you tip in. The workers' breakfast and the morning-after cure. Hearty, fast, perfect when eating alone.

Rice porridge with abalone, pumpkin or chicken. Mild, easy to digest, ideal after a long flight or for a child.

A stew of fermented kimchi with pork and tofu. The everyday dish, sour and spicy.

A stew of fermented soybean paste, vegetables and tofu. Milder and earthier, close to a robust miso.

Silken tofu in a bubbling spicy broth, into which you crack a raw egg.

A whole young chicken stuffed with sticky rice, ginseng and jujubes. Not spicy. Eaten mostly in high summer, to restore your strength.

A milky beef-bone broth simmered for hours. It arrives unsalted: you season it yourself with the salt and spring onion on the table.

A clear broth with beef short ribs. Mild, comforting, always a safe bet.

"Army stew", born after the war from surplus from American bases: sausages, tinned ham, instant noodles, kimchi. Better than it sounds.

Thick slices of pork belly, grilled at the table. You wrap each mouthful in a lettuce leaf with garlic, chilli and ssamjang paste. The most popular barbecue.

Beef or pork ribs, plain or marinated in a sweet soy sauce. Pricier, more festive.

Thin strips of marinated beef, sautéed with onions and mushrooms. Mild and slightly sweet: the dish everybody likes, children included.

Chilli-marinated chicken, stir-fried on a big hotplate with cabbage, sweet potato and rice cakes. You finish by frying rice in the leftover sauce.

Pig's trotters braised in soy, or boiled pork wrapped in cabbage with fresh kimchi. Sharing dishes, often ordered for delivery.

Buckwheat noodles in an icy broth, or tossed in a spicy sauce. Traditionally served after barbecue. The scissors that come with the bowl are for cutting the noodles.

Knife-cut wheat noodles in a clam or chicken broth. Simple and comforting.

Noodles coated in a black sauce of fermented soybean and pork. Korean-Chinese cooking, the ultimate delivery dish, not spicy at all.

Sweet-potato glass noodles stir-fried with vegetables and sesame oil. Often served as a side.

Instant noodles, cooked in snack bars with egg and spring onion, or by you in the machines at the Han River convenience stores.

Cylindrical rice cakes in a sweet-spicy red sauce. The national snack.

A thick pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and seeds, fried to order. Careful, the inside is scalding.

Fish-cake skewers in a hot broth, which you drink from a cup.

Vegetable and prawn fritters, and pork blood sausage with glass noodles. You dip the lot in the tteokbokki sauce.

In winter: fish-shaped waffles filled with red-bean paste, and little buns with a whole egg inside.

Dumplings — steamed, pan-fried or in soup — filled with pork, kimchi or vegetables.

Korean fried chicken, double-fried and very crisp, plain or coated in soy-garlic or sweet-spicy sauce. With beer it is called chimaek. A whole chicken feeds two for ₩20,000 to ₩25,000.

Sliced raw fish, firmer than Japanese sashimi, dipped in a vinegared chilli sauce. Eat it in a port or at a fish market.

A large spring-onion and seafood pancake. Tradition has it eaten on rainy days, with makgeolli.

Raw crab marinated in soy sauce. Nicknamed the "rice thief" for how much rice it makes you eat. A dish for connoisseurs.

Very finely shaved ice topped with red bean, fruit or roasted soybean powder. One portion is shared between two or three.

Rice cakes, in dozens of varieties. Try them at a market rather than a supermarket.

The national spirit, clear, around 16 to 20 per cent. A bottle costs about ₩5,000 in a restaurant. You never fill your own glass.

A milky, lightly sparkling rice wine, 6 per cent, served in bowls. Gentle, deceptive, perfect with pancakes.

Barley tea served in place of water, yuzu-and-honey, jujube or ginger infusions. And sikhye, a sweet rice drink, to end a meal.

The country has an implausible number of cafés. Iced americano is drunk all year round, even in midwinter.