Hungry for Hansik

Hansik, or Korean food, is becoming more popular worldwide due to the proliferation of Korean pop culture. We explore two of the cuisine's stalwart elements.

- KENNETH SZ GOH

Hallyu, or the Korean wave - from the likes of BTS, Blackpink, and Squid Game - has taken the world by storm.

Its meteoric rise in the pop culture arena has paved the way for Hansik, or Korean food, through K-pop celebrities chowing down bulgogi and tteokbokki on television shows or the tantalising appearance of ram-don (beef instant noodles) on the 2019 Oscar-winning film Parasite.

According to a 2023 survey by the Korean Food Promotion Institute, 60 per cent of overseas Korean food consumers in 18 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, said that they were aware of Korean food. Of these, 92.5 per cent of them were satisfied with their experiences with the cuisine.

The same survey also stated that the most popular Korean food overseas is Korean-style fried chicken, followed by ramyeon (Korean instant noodles), kimchi, which was anointed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013, and bibimbap.

In recent years, a wave of Korean chefs has reinvented local ingredients and culture in contemporary Korean fine-dining restaurants. They include Sung Anh of modern Korean restaurant Mosu, who received the peer-voted Chef's Choice Award at this year's.

Asia's 50 Best Restaurants ceremony, which was held in Seoul in March.

While four restaurants from South Korea made the list, none cracked into the top 10. Anh says: “We don’t see that as a problem. We see that as a chance to improve this dining scene so that more people from foreign countries can come to Korea and discover our cuisine.”

From royal cuisine to a plethora of banchan (side dishes), the diversity of Korean cuisine is underscored by a savoury tang from K-fermentation and a yin-yang balance of flavours. We look at two aspects of hansik — temple cuisine and fermented food, which are gaining traction among gourmands.