I’ve noticed that some things about Korean food culture don’t really come across in recipes or mukbangs, things you only understand after eating regularly with Koreans.
For example, when food is shared, how you take from the dish matters. Or how silence at the table can mean something very different from awkwardness.
I’m curious for those who’ve spent time in Korea or eaten closely with Korean friends or family:
what’s one food habit or unspoken rule that surprised you at first but now feels natural?
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Wow, I didn’t expect so many people to know and talk so much about Korean food culture!
I’m planning to host a free-talk social gathering, both online and offline, centred on Korean culture—the kind of experience you can only get through real interaction.
Anyone who has visited Korea, is planning a trip, or simply wants to have deeper conversations with Korean people is always welcome. This isn’t a language class—we’ll be sharing food, reading books together, and talking freely in a relaxed setting.
We’re currently looking for members to join this small, intimate group. Feel free to sign up xx
by Lucky_Tailor_8566
33 Comments
Probably fighting to pay for the meal.
A lot of the manners relate to seniority. You always let the older person eat first. When you drink soju, if you are younger you drink the shot perpendicular away from them.
– Banchans in restaurants being free, unlimited as well (to some extent).
– Having piping hot stew/soup (e.g seollongtang) in extreme heat and exclaiming how refreshing it is
– Metal rice bowls (with lids) and cups
– Taking shoes off and sitting on the floor to eat at thebapsang tables (in restaurants and homes)
– Not using a lazy Susan at a large table despite there being 15+ banchans
Sharing dishes is about us and working together.
May be a basic response, but I love the chopsticks and spoon duo. I want to eat everything like that after being in Korea.
Cutting meat or other things with shears (scissors)
It’s summer and weather is 40 deg celcius. Korean adults: Let’s have some hot spicey broth dishes.
Soup and spoon/chopsticks are to the right of the rice.
Never stick chopsticks into rice.
Dont lift the rice bowl while eating.
Wait for the most senior (e.g. father) to eat before eating.
🙂
You don’t need introductions, you can tell who’s senior just by watching who starts eating first.
The passing and receiving with 2 hands thing.
Talk to me about the silence?
Is it true that once eating starts, people stop chatting and just eat?
There is a soup button in many (if not all) Koreans that gets turned on at one point in their adult life. When that button gets turned on, they need to have some kind of soup at least once a day. Doesn’t matter what kind, but soup a day.
I see non-Koreans trying to use chopsticks for ALL banchan when in fact it’s perfectly acceptable to use one’s spoon for small and slippery foods like 땅콩조림 and 콘치즈.
Koreans don’t share main dishes the same way other Asians (eg, Chinese) do. You’ll have each person ordering their own stew or their own main dish, whereas, in my experience, in Chinese culture everyone gets a bite out of everything on the table except your own rice.
my Italian American wife used to be slightly offended when my grandmother would start picking up dishes and telling everyone to leave, literally right after we finished eating. now it’s a joke, but “eat and get out” took some adjusting to.
I feel strongly there needs to be more emphasis on soups and stews in Korean restaurants in the US. It’s a huge part of Korean home cooking. I can only take so much dduk guk, galbi tang, and sundubu jjigae.
And rice always. There’s a reason “bap” means rice but also just food. One time I went to Baekjeong and for some reason had a really bad server who wouldn’t bring us rice. I was fuming mad and refuse to go back there ever again 😂
Rice on the right soup on the left, or is it vice versa?
Barley water cold and hot
Flat metal chopsticks.
I grew up with chinese wooden chopsticks.
The metal felt heavy at first, and the flat angles strange but now I prefer them.
Also eating with spoon and chopsticks. It’s so much easier. And to add all the little banchan on your spoon is deliciously delightful.
Now I’m hungry. ^ ^
I think there is some custom about who pours the alcohol when going out in a group? I recall being confused by this because I would go out with the ice skating staff after my lessons sometimes, and they never let me pour (as in, they’d slap my hand away if I tried). I think they were trying to be kind, but I have not figured out why they did it. I was several years younger than them, so I get why they never let me pay. But the pouring? Hmm…
A bit of an alternate take as a first gen immigrant –
To this day (almost 30 years in the US), I have to consciously keep my mouth closed while eating.
I learned that Korean cuisine customs is one of the very few in East Asia where you don’t lift a bowl up to your mouth to eat. Or bring your bowl up at all. This is in direct contrast to the light wooden laquer soup bowls for miso soup in Japanese cuisine, for example. That is why metal spoons are commonly used, and metal rice bowls do not have a tapered base to pick up easily. That’s also the cultural relationship to having super hot stone bowls – no need to pick up the bowls like eating other East Asian cuisines.
Not food habit but pressing button on the table to call the waiter. In the US, I’m always looking for my waiter or trying to make eye contact. This is waste of time and inefficient.
Eating the nurungji. I always pour hot water into mine.
Spoon for rice. Every time I take someone out to eat Korean food who isn’t familiar with Korean food they’re always surprised/relieved to hear they can just use a spoon (depending on their chopstick abilities).
I also love the way there’s often not a “correct” way to eat something, Koreans will combine anything that’s on the table if they think it will taste good.
Slurping noodles loudly. I was shocked the first time I witnessed it, but now it makes me grin whenever I’m eating noodles with my girlfriend and she’s slurping away. My mum would be horrified at the ‘uncouthness’ of it.
My girlfriend says it shows appreciation for the deliciousness of the food.
not really about food, but i find that clean dishes are washed by hand then go in the dish washer to dry! super innovative
Not drinking water during the meal.
Chewing with their mouth open
Metal chopsticks. Harder to get competent with but I still use them over 10 years after moving back.
Maknae sets out the napkins and utensils for everyone. But first you have to locate the hidden drawer!
This is a drink habit rather than food, but turning to the side and covering your cup when you take a sip if you’re with someone older or more senior than you.
We hosted the coolest foreign exchange student in high school; she was from Seoul and we were in the US. She would smack really loudly whilst eating and it threw us off at first but she explained that it’s actually a compliment to the cook and I just really loved that!