Korean ingredients

Korean peppers, also known as Korean peppers, Korean hot peppers, Korean red peppers, Korean green peppers, or Korean long green peppers, are a medium-sized variety of chili peppers of the Capsicum Annuum species. The Korean chili pepper is long and slender. Typically, it has a mild, sweet flavor. Learn all about this ingredient here!

Allium tuberosum, otherwise known as garlic chives, Oriental garlic, Asian chives, Chinese chives, and Chinese leek, is a species of clump-forming perennial plant native to the Chinese province of Shanxi. Then, over time, it became cultivated and naturalized throughout Asia and much of the world. In South Korea, people refer to this plant as ‘buchu’ (부추). This ingredient is widely used in traditional and modern Korean cuisine.

Abalone, otherwise known as ‘jeonbok’ (전복) in the Korean language, is a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Haliotidae. Also commonly known as ear shells or sea ears, these large sea snails are common in coastal salt waters throughout much of the world. Learn about abalone in Korean cuisine in this post.

When traveling in South Korea, you may notice how expensive fruit is in grocery stores. When living in Korea, I was shocked by the price of specialty apples, kiwis, pineapples, etc. Though that is the case, some of the locally grown fruits unique to parts of East Asia are much cheaper and more readily available. One of these fruits is the Korean melon! Many people describe this fruit as tasting like a combination of a honeydew melon and cucumber. Compared to Western varieties, this fruit tastes less sweet and milder.

In much of Asia, people use edible dried seaweed sheets in much of their cooking. You may recognize that people use these sheets to make Japanese sushi or Korean kimbap. In America, we often use the Japanese term ‘nori’ to refer to these dried seaweed sheets. That being the case, if you are learning to cook Korean food, you will often see the seaweed referred to as ‘gim’ or ‘kim’ (김) in Korean recipes.