Top 16 Korean Dishes That Delight Vietnamese Taste Buds

Mixed Rice stands out with its artful color combination. Typically, a bowl of bibimbap must have at least 6 - 7 ingredients: the white color of rice, yellow from eggs, green from vegetables, brown from meat...

Common vegetables include finely sliced cucumbers, carrots, spinach, bean sprouts, and a touch of sesame leaves. The eggs are either fried or gently cooked alongside seasoned and thinly sliced meat. All these ingredients are thoroughly mixed with a spicy chili sauce before consumption.

2. Naengmyeon - Cold Noodles

Naengmyeon is the oldest cold noodle dish predating all types of noodles, even before the existence of bread. Originating from North Korea initially, this type of noodle was exclusively served in royal courts for kings and nobility. It underwent numerous journeys, noodle dishes traveling from North to South across the country and eventually becoming popularized, evolving into one of the indispensable dishes in the daily life of Koreans.

Cold noodles are often served in a large bowl, with a refreshing aroma and a sweet, cool taste that dispels the sultry atmosphere of summer. However, cold noodles are also enjoyed in winter, providing diners with a novel experience.

You can replace the meat broth with kimchi water or find a balance between kimchi water and broth to suit your taste.

3. Gimbap - Korean Seaweed Rice Rolls

Gimbap (also known as Kimbap) - Korean rice rolls, is a Korean specialty often packed for outdoor trips or office lunches.

In appearance, Gimbap resembles Sushi - the Japanese seaweed-wrapped rice dish. However, Gimbap is usually larger as it contains a variety of ingredients. Gimbap is cut into circular sections with a thinner profile compared to Sushi.

4. Galbi - Grilled Ribs

Korean barbecue, an age-old favorite, has become a hallmark of the country's cuisine, and Galbi - Grilled Ribs stands out among them.

Galbi is the general term for grilled rib dishes in Korean cuisine. Galbi typically features marinated beef or pork ribs, or chicken, grilled to perfection. When using beef ribs, it's also known as 'sokalbi' or 'soakalbi.' For pork or chicken ribs, it's called 'twaechi galbi.'

5. Samgyetang - Ginseng Chicken Soup

Every year, Koreans mark the three hottest days of summer known as Chobok, Jungbok, Malbok. On these scorching days, a dish that can make people queue up despite the blazing heat is ginseng chicken soup - Samgyetang. This dish helps cool and purify the body.

For this dish, young chicken is cleaned, stuffed with ginseng, glutinous rice, jujube, then sewn shut and simmered in a stone pot for hours. Traditional ginseng chicken soup becomes a nutritious meal, providing extra vitality for people in the sweltering summer in the land of kimchi. At famous local Samgyetang restaurants, the bowl of ginseng chicken soup is also served with ginseng liquor for diners to enjoy.

Renowned spicy rice cakes in South Korea, loved by many in Vietnam for the distinctive spicy taste of the land of kimchi.

To make this dish, you need dried rice cakes, chili powder, sugar, green onions. The rice cakes are cut into bite-sized pieces, mixed with chili and other spices, then all ingredients are stir-fried in a pan until the dough is cooked, and the sauce thickens.

In Korean cuisine, tteokbokki is ranked among the top 5 spiciest dishes. Perhaps that's why it has a strange attraction not only to Koreans but also to international diners. If you don't like the spiciness of chili, another type called ganjang tteokbokki will be your choice. This version is made from non-spicy rice cakes with a lighter color, often referred to as Royal Rice Cakes. Ganjang tteokbokki has a history from the Chosun era (1382–1910). It uses stir-fried rice cakes with meat and vegetables along with soybean oil. The appearance of this dish is simulated in the play 'Dae Janggum' with the scene of Janggum cooking and offering tteokbokki to the king. That is also the origin of the name Royal Rice Cakes.

Despite the hundreds of different types of kimchi, most of them share a strong aroma and an enticing spicy taste. Baechu Gimchi is a typical kimchi dish. After salting, washing, mixing with onions, garlic, chili, ginger, and seasoning, the vegetables are salted. This is considered the best fermented food.

Not only a delicious dish, but kimchi is also a low-calorie, high-fiber food. Therefore, it facilitates the digestion process in the body and makes it faster. Made from ingredients such as radishes mixed with cabbage and salted cucumbers, kimchi is a dish rich in vitamins, contributing to the treatment of many common ailments in the body.

Korean Mixed Noodles – Japchae is one of the palace dishes, traditionally served only to the king; now it has become popular in the daily meals of the Korean people. Along with kimbap, gimbap, bibimbap, japchae is a famous Korean dish loved in many countries around the world. The main ingredients of this dish are glass noodles, meat (usually beef), and seasonal vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, onions) that are not only delicious but also nutritionally balanced.

True to its 'mixed' nature, you can add the ingredients you like. However, the basic ingredients for this dish are glass noodles and seasonal vegetables (usually thinly sliced carrots, onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms) and meat (usually beef). Additional ingredients are julienned and stir-fried separately, each with a sprinkle of salt (each ingredient is lightly seasoned). The most challenging step of this dish is boiling and mixing the glass noodles. The glass noodles used for making Japchae are usually dangmyeon.

9. Grilled Beef Bulgogi

Bulgogi is marinated with soy sauce and sugar, which makes the dish tender and aromatic – a flavor that everyone can perceive. Not only do most tourists love Bulgogi, but also the majority of Koreans. It has a sweet taste, contains a lot of moisture, and can be prepared in a short time. That's why Bulgogi is considered the number one dish in Korean cuisine.

When eating Bulgogi, people often wrap it in perilla leaves, sesame leaves, or other leaves, and this way of eating brings a more authentic and nutritious taste than just eating Bulgogi alone. For these reasons, Bulgogi is both nutritious and delicious.

Korean Spiced Fried Chicken – a crispy, flavorful fried chicken seasoned with a rich blend of Korean spices. This dish is so renowned that its name has transcended national borders, spreading to numerous countries around the world. Still boasting the crunchy outer layer and the sweet, moist chicken inside, it's enhanced with a shiny layer of Gochujang sauce that not only looks appealing but also adds a delightful fragrance.

Yangnyeom Tongdak is famous for its irresistibly harmonious combination of sour, spicy, salty, and sweet flavors. In this dish, the chicken is prepared to perfection, not overly dry, with a balanced spicy and tangy taste. The crispy skin is double-fried and coated with the traditional sauce made from chili paste. Once you try a piece, you won't be able to resist going for more, as the crispy, tender chicken melds seamlessly with the alluring spicy and tangy sauce.

Soondubu Jjigae features a rich combination of ingredients such as soft tofu, vegetables (sometimes including mushrooms and onions), seafood (typically clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp), meat (either beef or pork), and chili paste (or chili powder). All these are directly simmered in traditional ceramic pots. When the stew is boiling, Koreans often crack a raw egg into it to add extra allure to the dish.

Soondubu Jjigae is often served with white rice. This dish is not only delicious, nutritious, but also easily digestible, making it a favorite among Koreans, especially during the cold season. Particularly for those who enjoy spicy food, this dish is a must-try. However, if you're not accustomed to spice, even the first bite might bring tears to your eyes and make it challenging to continue.

Dakjuk, also known as chicken congee, is a delightfully simple yet delicious dish. Just simmer chicken with onions, plenty of garlic, and sushi rice until tender. Voila! You have Dakjuk, often referred to as thick rice porridge in Korea, even though it doesn't contain oats.

This Korean dish lives up to its name, simple yet indescribably flavorful. Simmer chicken with onions, lots of garlic, and sushi rice until tender. There you have it – Dakjuk, known as thick rice porridge in Korea, despite the absence of oats.

Songpyeon is a distinctive dish of the Chuseok festival, made from glutinous rice dough filled with sesame seeds, red beans, pine nuts, and nutritious ingredients. While traditional mooncakes in Vietnam are round or square, symbolizing the heavens and earth, Songpyeon is shaped like a crescent moon, approximately the size of a golf ball. When steamed, the cakes are arranged with pine needles to create the pure and distinctive flavor of this delicacy.

Songpyeon - the Korean version of mooncakes, is crafted from kneaded rice dough mixed with water and combined with various fillings such as green beans, sesame seeds, or pine nuts, offering a wide variety of flavors. The cakes are molded into crescent shapes and steamed until fully cooked. Songpyeon is enjoyed during the Chuseok festival (Korean Mid-Autumn Festival), the grandest celebration in Korea. Koreans believe that consuming crescent-shaped Songpyeon on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival brings prosperity and a beautiful daughter into their lives.

Jajangmyeon, or jjajangmyeon, is the Korean version of the Chinese black bean sauce noodles. This dish features a thick, glossy sauce made from Chunjang sauce, diced pork, and vegetables sautéed in oil. Additionally, it is often served with seafood.

Despite originating from Chinese zhájiàngmiàn, Korean Jajangmyeon differs in many aspects. Yong Chen, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, argues that although the dish originally is 'zhájiàngmiàn' - a northern Chinese black bean sauce noodles, it has become distinctly Korean. In the mid-1950s in Korea, just after the Korean War, jajangmyeon was sold at a low price to make it accessible to everyone. The Korean-style Jajangmyeon then began to gain popularity, exploding among many traders visiting Incheon port, shopping centers, and numerous dockworkers in the fish market, quickly spreading across the country.

Hotteok is a diverse type of Korean pancake, renowned as a popular street food in Korea, especially during the winter. In Korea, pre-mixed hotteok flour is sold in plastic packaging, often accompanied by brown sugar and toppings like peanuts or sesame seeds.

While Hotteok is considered a purely Korean treat, its roots can be traced back to China. In the late 19th century, when the port of Incheon opened, Chinese immigrants settled in Korea, bringing with them some aspects of Chinese cuisine to this land of kimchi.