Indian Exploring Local Korean Cuisine In Gwangju
Image Credit: Freepik

Binge-watching K-dramas and admiring K-Pop has everyone hooked on the Korean series. If you’re a fan of K-drama, you must have thought of visiting the country or simply trying out the usuals of Korean celebrities. While you might try Korean dishes at your nearest Asian restaurant, having the authentic taste in Korea. 

From dreaming about travelling to Korea to studying there and enjoying the local cuisine, Riya Chaudhary, a North Indian from Patiala, Punjab, is living her dream life. Read on this exclusive interview to learn more about how she, being a vegetarian, adapted to using chopsticks, spice levels, rice-based dishes, and much more.

Landing In South Korea

I have been in Korea for the past 6 to 7 months now, and I came here as a scholarship student. I’m doing a language course right now, and after that, I’ll start with my MBA. The story of how I landed up in Korea starts with the COVID lockdown. Ever since the global lockdown, I have been into K dramas, and going to Korea has been one of my dreams. Even though I just wanted to visit Korea as a tourist, life took an unexpected turn when I got a scholarship to pursue my higher education here. I grabbed the opportunity thanks to binge-watching K-dramas; Korea has been one of my favourite countries.

First Impression Of Korean Food

Initially, I had only seen Korean food and K-dramas. After watching multiple series, I tried Korean food in my hometown – Patiala, Punjab. And that tastes very “Indian,” as most places back home use Indian spices to cater to the audience. So, my first impression of the cuisine was that I’d be able to have it. And even when I used to watch K-dramas, the soups, Sundubu-jjigae, and Tteokbokki, all looked very reddish in colour. Looking at the images, I related them to just how we cook our dishes like butter chicken, paneer tikka, and paneer curries are made. 

Also, through K-dramas, another thing that I inferred was that these guys love spicy food and eat a lot of meat. Seriously, they eat every single body part of a cow and a pig, and they eat a lot of seafood since vegetables are not grown here.

Challenges While Adapting To Korean Cuisine

The biggest challenge with Korean food after I moved here was that everything contained meat. I am a vegetarian, and it was really, really difficult to find something that didn’t have meat or seafood. In Korea, people think that if you’re a vegetarian, you avoid meat, but seafood shouldn’t be a problem. So, I started telling them that I’m a vegan, and then I got the options I could have. Plus, it wasn’t just about the restaurants. Most of their products, like chips, toffees, chewing gum, jam, and even curd, have meat. 

Another challenge was the level of spiciness in Korean foods. Since I don’t have much tolerance for spicy food, unlike my other Indian friends. But yes, Korean cuisine is filled with species. However, it’s strange that you only feel the spice till the time it is on your tongue because each dish has a subtle sweetness, and it doesn’t burn.

Changes in the cooking oil were also something new to me. Back in India, we use refined oil, and in Korea, everything is cooked in sesame oil. Since sesame oil has a different and peculiar taste, it gets time to grow on your tongue.

The Favourite Korean Dishes

My favourite Korean dish is Sundubu-jjigae. It is a tofu soup with a lot of veggies in it. The non-vegetarian version also adds meat and eggs to the soup. Since Sundubu-jjigae is eaten with rice, it reminds me of dal chawal, which almost tastes like aloo tamatar ki sabzi with rice. So, this is like my soul food in Korea. 

Bibimbap is also one of my favourites. It is a rice-based dish served with a side of vegetables and Gochujang, which is essentially the Korean red chilli paste. The rice cake dish, Tteokbokki, has also become a comfort food. It’s also easy to make.

Culinary Experiences In Korea

One of my most memorable culinary experiences in Korea was at their festival – Chuseok. It’s like a Korean Thanksgiving and the festival goes on for three to four days. Just like we have Diwali, Koreans celebrate Chuseok in their hometowns. The traditional dish that Koreans have for the festival is Songpyeon, which is a rice cake in a half-moon shape. Its dough is made with rice, and it can be filled with anything like sesame seeds. My friends and I enrolled in a Songpyeon-making competition. And somehow, we won, as it was more like making art out of clay. So, I made different flowers and shapes and even gave one of them the shape of Lord Ganesha’s idol.

Apart from the festival, I have always felt the warmth of Korean people, especially Haraboji (the older generation). For example, if I go to a restaurant, and when the owners spot a foreigner, they feed them something without a charge. Once, there was a lady who cut an apple for me. Plus, they even cut the price since I asked them to remove meat from my dishes.

As for a friendly tip, if you’re coming to Korea, please learn how to use chopsticks. Initially, I did not know how to use chopsticks, and whenever I went to a restaurant, they never had spoons or forks. Another thing I noticed here is that no matter what you order in Korea, you always get side dishes. Even if you order one soup, they will give you about ten side dishes with kimchi. For example, kimchi has a lot of variations like there is radish, kimchi, cabbage, kimchi, cucumber, kimchi, and things like that, so they give you all sorts of kimchi, eggrolls, etc. So, you don’t need to order anything else with soup or rice.