Explore Ingredients

Few ingredients say "Korean comfort food" as quietly as the potato. Known in Korean as gamja (감자), the Korean potato is a workhorse of the home kitchen — braised into glossy side dishes, simmered into spicy stews, and grated into crackling pancakes. This guide covers what gamja is, where it came from, how Koreans actually cook it, and how to store it, substitute it, and get the most nutrition out of it.

Ginseng is one of Korea’s most prized medicinal ingredients, used for centuries to boost energy, immunity, and overall wellness.
Its earthy flavor and health benefits make it a core part of Korean traditional cuisine and herbal remedies.

There are ingredients that cook food — and then there are ingredients that complete it. Korean sesame oil (참기름, chamgireum) belongs firmly in the second category. A single drizzle of this deep amber oil, made from slow-roasted sesame seeds, is enough to transform a bowl of plain rice into something that smells and tastes unmistakably Korean. If gochujang is the backbone of Korean cuisine, chamgireum is its soul: quiet, essential, and instantly recognizable.

This guide covers everything English-speaking home cooks need to know about Korean sesame oil — what makes it different from what you’d find on a supermarket shelf, how Korean kitchens use it every day, what the science says about its health benefits, and how to choose and store a bottle that will genuinely elevate your cooking.

Dangmyeon (당면) — Korean sweet potato glass noodles — are the translucent, bouncy strands at the heart of japchae and countless Korean comfort dishes. Made entirely from sweet potato starch, these gluten-free noodles transform from a brittle, grayish bundle into glossy, flavor-soaking ribbons once boiled. This guide covers what dangmyeon is, how it tastes, the three dishes that show it off best, and exactly how to cook, store, and substitute it.

Buchu (Korean garlic chives) is an aromatic flat-leafed herb essential to Korean cuisine, used in kimchi, pancakes, and soups, offering mild garlic flavor and rich vitamins A and C for authentic Korean cooking.

Few ingredients capture the flavor of Korea’s coastline like ojingeo (오징어) — Korean squid. From sizzling red-sauced stir-fries at street stalls to chewy strips of dried squid passed around with cold beer, this cephalopod is woven into everyday Korean eating. This guide covers what ojingeo tastes like, how Korean cooks use it, how to store and substitute it, and why its nutritional profile stands out.

Few ingredients in the Korean pantry reward curiosity as richly as perilla oil. One small drizzle of **들기름 (deulgireum)** over a bowl of seasoned vegetables can stop you mid-bite — that deep, roasted, almost herbal nuttiness is unlike anything in Western cooking. Yet for all its quiet power, Korean perilla oil remains largely unknown outside Korean kitchens. If you’ve been cooking your way into Korean cuisine, this is the oil you’ve been missing. In this guide, you’ll learn exactly what perilla oil is, how it’s made, which dishes it belongs in, how it compares to sesame oil, and how to store it properly so none of that precious flavor goes to waste.

A mild, aromatic vegetable with long green stalks and small white bulbs, widely used in Korean cooking for its fresh flavor. Common in pancakes, soups, and stir-fries.

In Korean cuisine, Korean chicken dishes span nearly every cooking method, from gentle simmering to high-heat frying. Dak (닭) — Korean for chicken — is prized for how readily it absorbs the marinades, ferments, and aromatics at the heart of Korean poultry cooking. Whether tucked whole into a clay pot or stir-fried at the table, chicken is one of the most approachable entry points into Korean food for newcomers.