Fan of spicy food or you are just up for the challenge? Koreans love spicy food so you’ll often see them eat numerous types of dishes that are too hot to handle. Here are some of the must-try spicy Korean food that won’t just burn your tongues but would surely blow your mind!
Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen (Buldak bokkumyeon – 불닭볶음면)
You probably came across this extremely spicy noodle in a grocery store or have seen people doing a mukbang eating different levels of this one. Yup, I’m pretty sure you got curious about the intensity of this food but let me warn you that Buldak bokkumyeon is a type of instant noodle that is not recommended for people who can’t take their spicy food gaming to a high level.
Korean Soybean Paste Stew (Dwaenjang Jjigae – 된장찌개)
This spicy Korean soybean paste stew made of Dwaenjang, cooked with vegetables and some meat and is often served as a side dish in a traditional Korean table. Dwaenjang is made of soybean powdered and mixed into a paste. The amount of spiciness depends from one recipe to another. You can also find Dwaenjang that’s not too spicy but most of the time, it’s on the mid-level of spiciness.
Spicy Stir-Fried Rice Cake (Tteokbokki – 떡볶이)
Made out of cylindrical rice cake that has been cut and cooked with a special Tteokbokki sauce, a savory and sweet kind of flavorful sauce. Tteokbokki is known for being one of the representative Korean food especially to those who love street food.
In fact, despite the level of its spiciness, children also spend their snack time munching on this type of food for it is often one of the cheapest street food and its affordable for everyone. There are restaurants in South Korea that even serve Tteokbokki in various spiciness level so eat at your own risk!
photo from Korean Bapsang
Korean spicy chicken stir fry (Dak Galbi- 닭갈비)
Dak Galbi which is cooked with chicken (dak) having only the boneless part and other ingredients are minced and marinated with gochujang-based sauce. The taste of this dish is quite addicting given that it contains various vegetables such as sweet potatoes, cabbage, scallions, and perilla leaves. It also contains tteok making the dish a little heavy meal at some point especially that it is often eaten with rice despite already having tteok on the dish itself.
Spicy Pig Trotters (Spicy Jokbal- 족발)
The usual type of Jokbal or the pig trotters dish is only served with a soy sauce and spices. For foreigners, they only find this dish a little on the regular taste and look but when you try the spicy jokbal, it’s a different story.
In fact, it contains numerous spices and ingredients that will make the dish more flavorful. It is often braised with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, onion, leeks, garlic, black pepper, cinnamon, and rice wine.
Korean Based Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim- 갈비찜)
Galbi literally means the short rib part of the meat and you can spot various types of ‘jjim’ which is the way of steaming the galbi. The galbijjim is a special beef-based or pork-based Korean dish that contains other vegetable ingredients to make it perfect for providing nutrition to your body but at the same time, a great tasting soup for your meal.
Korean spicy seafood noodle soup (Jjampong- 짬뽕)
photo from BNBHero Blog
Have you heard of the question ‘Jjamppong or Jjajjangmyeon?’ Well, Jjamppong is a type of noodle dish that contains seafood as ingredients (or sometimes served with pork) topped with other usual ingredients such as onions, garlic bits, zucchini or cucumber, carrots, cuts of cabbages and of course, the seafood ones such as squid or mussels. You can also find other restaurants having this dish containing shrimps.
Korean mixed rice with meat and vegetables (Bibimbap- 비빔밥)
More popularly known as mixed rice, bibimbap is one of the representative food of Korea having the ‘obangsaek,’ which are the five representative colors that are believed to provide good health to those who will take the food with ingredients that contain the colors white, black, blue, yellow and red, all present in bibimbap.
It is a simple yet flavorful dish having a bowl of white rice, kimchi, gochujang, sesame oil, soy sauce and other veggies that you wish to add on your meal. The gochujang makes the bibimbap spicy but if you can’t handle too much spiciness, it is suggested that you lessen the amount of gochujang before mixing.
Spicy Fish Soup (Maeuntang- 매운탕)
Spicy fish soup is the literal meaning of maeuntang but the ingredients are not limited to fish only. In fact, you can add numerous seafood items to eat like squid, shrimp or mussels. Maeun literally means spicy and tang is soup but there are dishes like this that contains noodles (the instant ones) as well.
