Food choices in Korea

Eating day to day

There aren’t many choices, or shall I say, there are only very few choices available when eating in Korea. Dining out is common if you live in the city. There are various establishments for quick Korean food or if you’re not as picky fast-food. If you don’t live in the city, well, your choices are limited even further. The stores don’t offer much, so your skills at combining various ingredients will come in handy. A toaster oven will also help, but they tend to be expensive and slightly difficult to get because most stores stock the ones with the stove grills attached to them. So, most people from abroad don’t tend to buy them.

Some common foods you’ll find available to you:

Pasta (only tomato based sauce and possibly carbonara), rice, noodles (rice, udon/Japanese thick style, ramen), corndogs (called hotdogs), curry (Korean style only, no Indian flavored), frozen dumplings, beef jerky, eggs, bread (sweet kinds prevail), tofu

Vegetables:

Spinach, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms (about 3 kinds), tomatoes (usually cherry sized)

Frozen peas, frozen corn, canned peas (harder consistency), canned corn

Fruits:

Bananas, persimmons, mandarin oranges, pineapple, apples (one kind), grapes (two kinds, big with seeds and small), oranges

Meats:

Chicken (chicken breast can be difficult to find, most likely to find chicken chunks with bones), beef (small pieces, no steaks), pork (thicker slices of bacon if you will), duck (typically in squared slices).

Canned meat is typically beef in soy sauce and many kinds of tuna (they love it here for some reason). You will find chicken, but sometimes it will be mixed with other things into a chicken salad type flavor.

Drinks:

Aloe, corn tea, grain tea, lemonade, soda, water, energy drinks (labeled different but most taste the same), milk, apple juice, orange juice, tomato juice, pear juice

This is probably the majority of the foods that are typically western diet friendly. Some foods aren’t listed because they are considered exotic and cost a lot to purchase such as avocados. There are other foods, but they are atypically Korean in nature, so it depends on how adventurous your eating is and how much time you want to devote to making generally laborious Korean style food. Your meals will usually be some combination of the above. The only exception is if you bring certain foods, have them sent to you from abroad, go to a foreign food market (which generally also lack selection due to size), or go to Costco (there are 3 in the Seoul area, a few in some other cities in Korea).