Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
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Understand banchan
The set of small side dishes that arrive free with any order: kimchi, sprouts, braised roots, rolled omelette. They are refilled on request and never charged for.
Asking for a refill is normal and expected: say refill or point at the dish. Taking banchan away is not done, but finishing every dish is perfectly polite.
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Grill samgyeopsal
Thick slices of pork belly grilled by you on the burner in the middle of the table, cut with scissors and wrapped in a lettuce leaf with garlic, ssamjang paste and rice.
The wrap is eaten whole in one bite, which is the rule rather than advice. Kimchi and mushrooms go on the same grill to cook in the rendered fat.
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Try kimchi jjigae
A bubbling stew of over-fermented kimchi with pork and tofu, served in a stone pot straight from the flame. It is made with old kimchi; fresh kimchi will not do.
The pot keeps boiling at the table for about three minutes, so let it settle. Rice comes separately in a lidded metal bowl and is eaten with a spoon.
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Eat bibimbap
Rice with vegetables, meat, egg and gochujang, mixed thoroughly in the bowl before eating. In the stone dolsot version the rice sticks to the bottom and turns into a crisp crust.
Mix it firmly and completely; that is how the dish is designed. The crust at the bottom of the stone bowl is scraped up with a spoon at the very end.
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Try naengmyeon in summer
Buckwheat noodles in an icy broth with shards of ice, cucumber, pear and half an egg. A summer dish, traditionally eaten after fatty barbecue.
The noodles are cut with the scissors brought to the table; they are deliberately long. Vinegar and mustard are added to taste from the bottles provided.
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Eat tteokbokki
Cylinders of rice cake in a thick sweet-hot gochujang sauce with fish cake and a boiled egg. The country's leading street food, eaten standing at a tent stall.
At a pojangmacha tent it comes with fried twigim snacks and sundae rolls. The leftover sauce is mopped up with a sheet of seaweed or rice.
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Try chimaek
Korean fried chicken with beer, the national evening ritual. The chicken is fried twice, so the crust stays crisp even under the sweet-hot yangnyeom glaze.
The standard order is half glazed, half plain, called banban. Pickled radish arrives automatically and is there to cut the fat.
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Grab gimbap
A seaweed roll of rice with fillings, cut into rounds. It differs from sushi in that the rice is dressed with sesame oil and salt rather than vinegar, and the fillings are always cooked.
It is bought to take away from specialist shops that roll it in front of you. The triangular samgak gimbap from a convenience store is the local quick snack.
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Try sundubu jjigae
A spicy stew of uncurdled silken tofu with seafood and a raw egg cracked into the boiling pot at the table. The tofu has almost the texture of custard.
Crack the egg in immediately and stir while the pot is still boiling. The heat is set when ordering, and an mepge asks for the mild version.
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Try jokbal
Pork trotters braised in soy sauce with ginger and spices, sliced and served with lettuce and salted shrimp sauce. Evening food with soju rather than a lunch.
Slices are wrapped in lettuce with garlic and chilli, like samgyeopsal. Its menu relative is bossam, boiled pork with fresh kimchi.
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Eat hotteok Desserts and pastries
A fried pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts that turns to hot syrup inside. Winter street food, eaten from a paper cup.
The syrup inside is scalding, so bite the edge first. Sold from autumn to spring; in summer they are hard to find.
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Try bingsu Desserts and pastries
A mountain of shaved milk ice with red bean, rice cake pieces and condensed milk, or with mango and strawberry. The portion is enormous and built for sharing.
The ice should be frozen milk rather than water, which is what makes the texture snowy rather than crushed. The classic red bean version is called patbingsu.
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Get hodu gwaja Desserts and pastries
Small walnut-shaped cakes filled with red bean paste and a piece of real walnut. Baked in moulds in front of passers-by.
Sold in bags of ten or twenty at stations and in underpasses. Its relative is bungeoppang, a fish-shaped version with the same filling and a winter staple.
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Drink sikhye Non-alcoholic drinks
A sweet rice drink with grains of rice floating in it, drunk cold after a meal. Bathhouses sell it in cans, and it is part of the bathing ritual.
It is served ice cold, often as a free dessert after barbecue. In a bathhouse it is taken with a boiled egg, a fixed pairing.
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Try yuja-cha Non-alcoholic drinks
Not an infusion but a thick citrus marmalade of yuja and sugar, stirred into hot water. A winter cold remedy that is also simply good.
Pieces of peel stay in the cup and are eaten with a spoon. In the same category is omija-cha, a sweet-sour infusion of magnolia berry.
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Drink soju Local alcohol
The clear spirit in the green bottle, drunk in small shots with food rather than on its own. By volume it is the best-selling spirit in the world.
You do not pour your own: a neighbour pours, and you take the cup with both hands. Mixed with beer it becomes somaek, combined in the glass at the table.
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Try makgeolli Local alcohol
A cloudy, milk-coloured rice wine: low in alcohol, faintly fizzy and sour. The bottle is turned over before pouring to lift the sediment, and it is served in ceramic bowls.
The classic pairing is with jeon savoury pancakes on a rainy day, which is a genuine local habit. Unpasteurised live makgeolli is sold chilled only.
