Editorial guides

Food guides

Written by hand, region by region — dishes, markets, timing and prices. No generated text.

17 regions 4 languages Editorial guides

By region · Korea

Pick a region to see what to eat, where, and when

Seoul
Seoul
5 dishes

Seoul stacks six centuries of capital-city cooking, postwar alley diners, and food from every corner of the world into one city.

Busan
Busan
5 dishes

Busan is a port city whose food came out of two things: refugees who moved south during the Korean War, and whatever the boats brought in that morning.

Daegu
Daegu
5 dishes

Daegu sits in a basin that traps summer heat, and its food carries the habits of a textile and market town: offal grilled over fire, and soups with real chilli heat.

Incheon
Incheon
5 dishes

Incheon holds a treaty port, a working harbour and a set of islands in one city.

Gwangju
Gwangju
5 dishes

Gwangju is where the cooking of the Jeolla provinces concentrates.

Daejeon
Daejeon
5 dishes

Daejeon grew where the rail lines crossed, and its food reflects that: dishes you eat quickly and move on.

Ulsan
Ulsan
5 dishes

Ulsan is an industrial city that also has the East Sea on one side and the Taehwa River running through it.

Sejong
Sejong
4 dishes

Sejong was created as an administrative capital in 2012, so it has newly built commercial districts rather than inherited local dishes.

Gyeonggi
Gyeonggi
5 dishes

Gyeonggi wraps around Seoul, and each city in it eats differently.

Gangwon
Gangwon
5 dishes

Mountains and sea sit close together here, so upland crops — buckwheat, potato, corn — and East Sea fish share the same table.

North Chungcheong
North Chungcheong
5 dishes

This is a landlocked province, so freshwater fish, mountain greens and field crops carry the table.

South Chungcheong
South Chungcheong
5 dishes

Chungnam has both West Sea tidal flats and broad farmland, so salted seafood, oysters and shellfish sit alongside grain-based cooking.

North Jeolla
North Jeolla
5 dishes

Jeonbuk sets a heavy table.

South Jeolla
South Jeolla
5 dishes

Tidal flats, an archipelago and wide farmland in one province make for unusually deep supply.

North Gyeongsang
North Gyeongsang
5 dishes

The inland and the coast here are two different worlds.

South Gyeongsang
South Gyeongsang
5 dishes

Gyeongnam holds south coast fishing towns and inland cities in the same province.

Jeju
Jeju
6 dishes

Jeju is a volcanic island with almost no rice paddies, so pork, seafood and field crops carry the cooking.

How to

Short reads before you go