Jjolmyeon (쫄면) is both the name of this dish and the type of noodles used to make it. These wheat-based noodles have a fabulous chewy quality, due to the way they are made – during manufacture, the dough is heated to 130-150 ˚C and extruded under pressure. Served with plenty of crunchy raw veggies and the lusciously…

“Named ‘juak’ after the shape of a pebble, this traditional Korean dessert is a perfect combination of chewy, sticky rice bathed in jocheong (rice syrup). In the past, Gaeseong Juak was an essential dessert for special guests and wedding ceremonies. Today, it’s a steady seller at Korean dessert cafes and has actually become somewhat trendy.” - Jung Eun Chae

“We’ve put this fish ball soup on the menu at CHAE. It’s nice on a cold day because it’s hot and a bit spicy. The main tip for success is to make the kelp stock the day before and cook it for at least 5 hours. If you can’t find monkfish, you can replace it with another firm fish such as snapper; prawns (shrimp) are fine too.” - Jung Eun Chae

“Kimchi-jjim is one of Korea’s favourite dishes, a daily food that every family will prepare in a slightly different way. Even when the recipe is the same, everyone’s kimchi is different so the dish will have its own character. I’ve even changed my recipe from my mum’s version: she doesn’t use stock. I’ll eat this any day, any time with boiled rice.” - Jung Eun Chae

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that this kind of a bung-together-and-forget simmered recipe would be made for the slow cooker, wouldn’t you. So did we. But THREE tests and many chicken legs later (many bloody legs), we can hand-on-heart report that it is, in fact, way better and far less hassle to just simmer it on the stove…

“My paternal grandfather was from North Korea and I grew up dutifully making these northern-style kimchi dumplings with my family as long ago as I can remember. My father insisted on practising the technique religiously for every family gathering or national holiday – large or small…

“What we have here is a reasonably quick homestyle version of haejangguk. Using smaller chunks of beef and more widely available dark greens, the dish satisfies the need for something hearty with relative ease. While I have kept the process simple, I do remain respectful to the tradition by seasoning the blanched greens generously with a garlic-heavy paste before adding them to the soup…

“One of the things I always try to hunt down whenever I visit Korea are these beautifully packaged milk caramel bites. Often found in convenience stores, these perfectly bite-sized squared caramels come individually wrapped in silver foiled paper; they are a classic confectionery, loved by all for their milky toffee-like taste and softly chewy texture.” - Su Scott

If you’ve been itching to break out the frankfurters, Spam, processed cheese slices and generally All The Good Things, then – yay. Here’s your golden opportunity. Called budae jjigae in Korea, this unlikely dish first surfaced after the Korean War when many foods were scarce and people made do with what they could find…

Soon, we pinky swear, we’ll do a deep dive into Korean ingredients because we realise not everyone is fluent. And Korean food has become SO popular that you might want to whip up a few dishes at home. If you don’t know your gochujang from your gochugaru you can…

“This dish has a special place in my heart – I’ve eaten it a lot over the years and absolutely delicious. Take the time to follow a few easy prep steps for spot-on rice. First, rinse your rice well under cold, running water before you cook it; this washes off excess starch that can make it clump…

Darn. It’s back to reality with a dirty great thud after a glorious summer break, when we enjoy slumming it in the cooking department, letting our fresh produce purchases and whatever knocks around the fridge inform lazy dinner decisions. Very. Lazy. Dinner…

“If you’ve eaten KFC – Korean fried chicken – chances are high that the first version you tasted was the sweet and spicy Dakgangjeong or Yangnyeom. The two are very similar, but my Korean friends tell me that Dakgangjeong is sweeter and sticker, while Yangnyeom is spicier…

Growing up in Korea, fried chicken was a special meal that we didn’t get to have often. Back then we had two choices — plain or gochujang — but these days, there are fried chicken shops all across Korea, doing their own flavours and styles. Fried chicken can seem incredibly simple, but in fact it’s quite complex…