Many American friends have asked me which Korean food they should have in South Korea. Similarly, several Korean friends have asked me what they should try in the US. So today I will introduce to you what food I recommend my South Korean friends eat in America.
1. Breakfast food
In South Korea, people eat very simple food for breakfast. For example, a lot of people eat some simple noodle dishes or gukbab (if you want to know more about gukbab please see this article). This type of food is very cheap in South Korea, while western style breakfast food is the most expensive. That is why people think western style breakfast is more luxurious than Korean. Furthermore, some western style breakfast restaurants in Korea aren’t nearly as good as breakfast joints in the US. More specifically, I want to introduce The Original Pancake House. This restaurant is my favorite, and their apple pancakes are truly amazing! Eating this dish was almost like experiencing a form of culture shock! Restaurants serving traditional Belgian waffles are great as well.
2. Winery
I know a lot of South Koreans drink wine these days. Compared to a couple years ago, the demand for wine in South Korea has increased quite a lot. However, Koreans drink significantly more soju (Korean vodka) than wine, due to how popular and cheap it is. In comparison, wine is not cheap in South Korea, due in no small part to a high wine tax. Therefore I strongly recommend that my Korean friends visit at least one US winery, and taste and purchase some wine. I have never met anyone who visited a South Korea winery, because there are no famous domestic wines from South Korea. If people visit some beautiful winery in the US, that can be a very good experience for them. Also, some wineries serve very good food.
3. Brewery
South Korean beer is very famous…for not being good! Yes, not good. 90% of South Korean beers are lagers, and many people use the beer for beer bombs (soju + seer or whiskey + beer). For example, when people mix beer with soju, we call that “somack”. People often say that Korean beer is the best for mixing with soju or other alcohols, but the beer itself is not the best. Based on this background, breweries (craft breweries in particular) will be a great experience for Korean people. Many US breweries are also restaurants and serve very good food to go with their beers. Many Korean people will be especially interested in the diversity of beers that US breweries have to offer.
4. Mexican food
In South Korea, it is hard to find good Mexican food. South Korean people especially love white rice, so they do not like different kinds of rice, like that used in Mexican food. Furthermore, beef is very expensive in South Korea, so it is hard to find good beef burritos at a reasonable price. I personally love breakfast burritos. The funny thing is that I did not know about breakfast burritos before I moved to the US. When I ate a breakfast burrito for the first time, it was sensational to me! Since then I used to eat breakfast burritos 2-3 times per week.
5. Southeastern BBQ
Korean BBQ is very popular and so delicious, and in South Korea there are lots of cheap and very good BBQ restaurants. Due to the popularity of Korean BBQ, South Koreans do not go to southeastern BBQ places that often. Also, southeast style BBQ restaurants are very rare in Korea, which makes them feel like novelty while visiting the US. Other reasons why I recommend these types of restaurants to my friends is that while Korean BBQ is very expensive in the US compared to South Korea, southeastern BBQ is much cheaper. Furthermore, there are lots of diverse southeastern BBQ restaurants and diverse BBQ sauces, which always taste amazing! Any BBQ sandwich or dish with BBQ ribs will be a very new experience for Korean people!
6. Local pizza places
I personally think pizza which you can have in South Korea is very good, which includes lots of franchise pizza restaurants and Italian style pizza as well. However, local pizza joints in the US can be a great recommendation for Korean people because there are many types of pizza that cannot be found in Korea. I personally love American style BBQ chicken pizza and Hawaiian pizza. While there are some “Chicago style” pizza options in South Korea, they taste very different from the authentic Chicago style pizza I ate while visiting Chicago, which was particularly amazing. If you want to add some American style pizza recommendations, please leave a comment below!
I did not include hamburgers in this article because South Korea has a lot of good hamburger places that are pretty much the same quality as those in the US. There are lots of good burger restaurants in Korea, both local mom-and-pop places and franchises like Shake Shack. What do you think? If some people visit the United States, which food would you want to introduce to them?
Thank you for reading!
