Korean food is one of my favorite types of food. There are also many different dishes to try. The reason I love Korean food is because it tends to be spicy. I also really like Korean food because I feel that it is healthier than many American foods since their dishes are made with a lot of red pepper, garlic, spring onions, chili, ginger, vinegar, and little sugar.

I have tried many different Korean dishes, but out of all of the different ones that I have tried, a select few became my favorites. Here are my top five favorite Korean dishes of all time.

Korean Barbecue

Korean barbecue is amazing. The meat tends to be very fresh and the sauces that come with it makes Korean barbecue very delicious and flavorful. When you go to a Korean barbecue restaurant, there is a stovetop on top of the table at the center. The meats you order are then brought out and cut up for you. The meats are then cooked on top of this stovetop right in front of you. You, or the server, will turn the food as it cooks so that the meat cooks well on both sides. 

Korean barbecue is not limited to just meats; it also includes seafood, so when ordering Korean barbecue, you can choose to order: Chicken 🍗, squid 🐙, shrimp 🍤, octopus, clams, oysters, scallops, mussels, beef tongue 🐮, beef intestine, pork belly 🐷, prime pork, beef, beef brisket, prime ribs 🍖, short ribs, brisket, and ribeye. I avoid eating pork, and intestines is too far outside my comfort zone 😐, so when I order Korean barbecue, I always order beef, shrimp, octopus, or squid.

Korean barbecue can be heavy and fattening, but not always; it just depends on what you order. If you order a lot of pork and chicken, you will have much more fat content in the food. If you eat rice with your meal as well, you will add 200-300 calories to your meal. The meat by itself usually only has salt added to it, but sometimes there are spices and sauces added to it. If you are on a diet, if you eat the fermented kimchi side dishes that come with the Korean barbecue, don’t eat any rice, and order just seafood and beef, your meal will not be very fattening and you will be able to maintain your calorie count for the day without going over and eating too much.  

Korean Japchae

“Japchae – 7 & 7 Korean” By Alpha: https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/2340451680

Japchae is a Korean noodle dish that is made with sweet potato noodles. This dish is seasoned with meat (usually beef or chicken), garlic, sugar, soy sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, onions, chives, and green peppers.

I love the softness of these noodles and the fact that this dish is made with a healthier carb: sweet potatoes. When dieting, it is better to go for sweet potatoes noodles instead of traditional pasta noodles made from wheat because sweet potatoes are a complex carb that won’t make you feel tired and they are low-calorie. Sweet potato noodles contain about 70 calories per serving, but traditional wheat noodles are close to or over 200 calories per serving. Heavy carbs like wheat noodles contain a lot of sugar, which tends to make you tired, so bread and noodles should be avoided when you have to work long hours because they will make you crash after eating. On the other hand, japchae is a healthier noodle dish 🍝 that won’t make you crash; you can eat it at anytime! Japchae is also great if you are on a diet and are craving pasta! Japchae is also great for vegetarians since you can order it with only vegetables.

Korean Fried Chicken 

“File:Korean fried chicken 2 yangnyeom.jpg” By Happy O’ne: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Korean_fried_chicken_2_yangnyeom.jpg

Korean fried chicken 🍗 is wonderful and probably my favorite dish out of all of the foods listed here. I am someone who appreciates good fried chicken, and Korean fried chicken is crispy, flavorful, thoroughly cooked, and has wonderful seasonings and sauces cooked into it. Korean fried chicken is also not overly greasy, so I find it to be perfectly made.

The two most common Korean fried chicken flavors are spicy and soy garlic. You can order them as wings, strips, or thighs/drumsticks. Korean fried chicken comes in sets of six, ten, twenty, or thirty, but you can order more for a party.

I love both the spicy and soy garlic wings, but at some Bonchon’s that serve Korean fried chicken, the spicy wings are sometimes too spicy for me to eat. Most of the time though, the spicy wings are the perfect level of spiciness. Whenever I am trying a new Korean fried chicken restaurant though, I always ask for soy garlic and two spicy wings just to be on the safe side 😣.

Korean fried chicken is not a food that you should eat while dieting, however. Korean fried chicken is still fried food that is fried in oil, so it contains a lot of fat and carbs from the breading. A lot of salt and specially made sauces are also used to cook Korean fried chicken. One serving of Korean fried chicken can contain as many as 1000 calories, so this is not a dish that you binge on. It is better to eat only 1-2 pieces of Korean fried chicken with another healthier, low-calorie dish, such as fermented kimchi, vegetables, or salad.

Korean Tteokbokki

“Tteokbokki – Hello Cook AUD7” By Alpha: https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/4210126250

Tteokbokki is a rice cake dish that is stir fried. Tteokbokki is made with thick, sticky, chewy Korean rice cakes, as well as onions, soup stock (seafood-based, usually anchovy), and fish cakes. In some Korean restaurants, tteokbokki will come with cheese, but every time I have ordered it, the restaurant made it without cheese. Tteokbokki is healthier without cheese and the noodles used are a complex carb, so this Korean dish is lower in calories. One serving of tteokbokki will contain less than 350 calories, so this is another dish that you can have while dieting. 

I love tteokbokki because of the flavor of the soup stock and the taste of the fish cakes. Tteokbokki has a very flavorful, unique seafood flavor that I love. It might surprise you, but this dish is fairly easy to make as well, so it is very popular as street food in Korea. 

Korean Seafood Pajeon/Pancake

I absolutely love Korean pancakes, also called pajeon. Korean seafood pajeon is made with green onions/scallions, sesame seeds, sesame oil, oysters, clams, squid, shrimp, garlic, chili flakes, vinegar, egg 🍳, flour, and soy sauce. You can also get a Korean pancake without seafood, a vegetarian one made with scallions and a lot of onions. However, seafood pancake is by far my favorite because it is very flavorful and the sauces that come with it make it taste fantastic. Flavor and freshness are everything when it comes to good food 🍲, and Korean pajeon is almost always fresh!

When it comes to calories, Korean seafood pajeon can contain around 300 calories per serving. A vegetarian scallion Korean pancake contains more breading, since there are no large pieces of seafood to replace some of the breading, so this pajeon will contain more calories: It can have close to 500 calories per serving. Thus, if you are dieting, I recommend going for seafood pajeon, instead of scallion pajeon, because there will be less breading, it will contain fewer calories, and you can get full on the seafood. The seafood will also make it so that you get full faster on less food and less breading, so you can eat this dish while trying to lose weight. 

Final Thoughts

Korean food is amazing and many of the spices Koreans use to make their food are very healthy and flavorful. Although a lot of Korean food is spicy, not all of it is spicy, so there are dishes that will appeal to people with many different tastes. For example, japchae, Korean pajeon, and some Korean barbecue are not spicy.

If you have never tried Korean food before, I highly recommend giving it a try because it is often very healthy, fresh, and full of flavor!