Korean cuisine is booming
If the words kimchi and bibimbap don’t ring a bell, you haven’t been paying attention over the past year. Korean cuisine is taking the world by storm and the number of Korean restaurants has increased by as much as 76 percent over the past year.
You won’t have missed the fact that Asian fast casual dining is all the rage. The biggest growth? Korean cuisine saw it. It all started with some kimchi on your bao bun, but restaurants serving South Korean food are suddenly popping up like mushrooms. Not a bad thing at all, because all the dishes are incredibly flavorful, deliciously spicy and often healthy too.
Korean barbecue
Korean barbecue is definitely very trendy. If you can put up with the stench clinging to your clothes, this is a fantastic outing where everyone grills their own meat and vegetables on a grill in the middle of the table. You can put unmarinated meat on the ‘barbecue’, but the popular dish bulgogi is also prepared this way. The beef is first marinated in a combination of soy sauce, sesame oil, onion, garlic, ginger and sugar. Mmm.
Bibimbap
Not quite in the mood to sit in the stench and smoke? Korean cuisine has plenty to offer then too. A popular dish is bibimbap, which literally means ‘mixed rice’. Warm rice is served with lots of vegetables, tofu, meat, kimchi, or whatever you like. All the toppings are placed on the rice so that it’s totally Instagrammable, and before you eat it, you mix everything together with chopsticks.
Korean fried chicken
Other favorite Korean dishes? Personally, I think Korean fried chicken is the most delicious version of fried chicken in the world. The gochujang chili paste commonly used in Korean cuisine gives the chicken a wonderfully spicy, but slightly sweet flavor. Gochujang makes any dish instantly Korean, by the way, and it’s also delicious over your rice or mixed into your noodles.
Where to eat?
And all those Korean restaurants, where are they located? Everywhere! In Amsterdam, cycle over to Buitenveldert, also known as Koreatown. There are three Korean restaurants in a row there, of which Khan is our favorite. For a quick bite to go, head to Seoulfood on Kinkerstraat, where you can also buy all your Korean ingredients.
In The Hague, head to Seoul Garden for excellent Korean barbecue; their homemade kimchi and pickles are just as delicious. More in the mood for bibimbap? You’ll find the best at Mr. Bap. In Rotterdam, take a seat behind the grill at Seoul Sista, and in Maastricht, go to Bim & Bap. Plenty of places, then, to get your Korean fix as soon as possible.
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