The Most Authentic Traditional Dishes I Have Tried In South Korea

When I went to South Korea in December, I loved trying all the delicious food. It was so hard to choose where to eat because of the choice overload! Picking the very best out of those foods, I will list the top authentic traditional dishes I have tried during my trips to South Korea. I call them authentic because these are very original Korean dishes without many modifications that have been eaten since the beginning of South Korea's history in time.

1. Bean Sprout Rice Soup- 콩나물국밥

I have this obsession with bean sprouts. I don't know why it is so good and I like to eat it because I am not sure it is a vegetable, but it makes me feel like I am eating veggies. This dish is a traditional dish for Koreans, because a lot of people in Korea eat this on a cold day. It warms your whole body up, the flavors are so delicious, and it fills you up.

It is considered a quite simple dish and is very cheap, around 5 USD. This one we went out of our way to find, because it is apparently known to have the best bean sprout stew. There is gochujang, leeks, egg, rice, bean sprout, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and they all make up such a hearty meal for any time of the day.

2. Jeju's Famous Pork Belly

I did not know that this was true and I am so glad I learned after, but apparently the pigs in Jeju are so delicious, because they eat HUMAN POO as their main (maybe only) diet. Why does this make the pork taste so good? I have no f*** idea because that is absolutely revolting and gross. Either way, the pork belly was the best I have ever tried in my life.

This bibimbap was absolutely delicious also. Also the pork was hairy and it was weird eating hairy pork. I have never eaten pork with hair on them so we cut them off. The whole meal was so delicious and apparently very traditional and authentic. I still can't believe I ate a human poo eating pork though. fml

3. Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew)

I don't know if you guys ever had this in the states, but I have never tried a budae jjigae this good in my life, not even in LA! It is so incomparable. I ate here three times because it was so good omg. I saw rich gangnam people drive here in their Benz, McClarens, super expensive cars just to eat at this mat jip (delicious food restaurants). There was one guy who looked very important, maybe some political person or CEO and he had all these people around him with one guy setting up all the chopsticks and bowls and food for the guy. He was having a very nice time eating this amazing boodaejjigae with his underlings. Anyway, the budaejjigae here (the restaurant is called Italy's BoodaeJjigae in Nonhyeon dong, Gangnam) is so tasty. The flavor of the broth is amazing, and the best of all, the rice and side dishes are unlimited! I am not sure why they added bologna though. Bologna is pretty random but it added to the tastiness. The ramen is unlimited also!

It had to be the beef brisket. The brisket is so delicious and it made the stew taste amazing. There were onions, ramen, pumpkin, spam, mushrooms, rice cake, and it was big enough for four people. The 2nd time we ate the same thing with 3 people and it was too much food. Make sure to stop by if you are ever in gangnam!

4. Kimchi Stew/ 김치전골

People in America don't really eat this as a hugeee pot and call it kimchi jjigae and not kimchi pot (unlike this restaurant). This place was called somunnanjip and I walked here with my mom because it was close to our air bnb. It was so packed with everyone drinking and eating, and it seemed like they all were regulars. We waited a while for our food and also packed chicken stew for togo. I did not expect this place to be so good! omg the best kimchi stew i have ever had. I was so surprised because it looked like there weren't that many ingredients, but the stew was so delicious. I drank a Terra beer with my mom and had this pot. The chicken stew we took to our air bnb was even better. There is this regular place we go to called 넓은벌동쪽 and people from the city even visit this place, where they had the best 닭도리탕 i have had. UNTIL THIS POINT! It was so delicious here I literally ate the whole pot of 닭도리탕 by myself.

5. Octopus Stew (낙지전골)

Koreans have this weird obsession with octopus/squid. They love octopus so much they eat it when they are alive in markets, such as Noryangjin. You can tell that they are in love with seafood. There is even this girl on Youtube who eats random squid and other seafood that are alive. This dish above is also from the Italy's BoodaeJjigae place. It was also very tasty. There was even ricecake in there. They had little baby octopuses and all the ingredients were perfectly comprised to make a perfect stew!