Korea is well known for its delicious wide range of food. Korea is especially famous for its spicy cuisine and foodie daredevils live and die for these spicy dishes!
1. Chicken Feet (Dakbal)
Chicken feet is a dish that is called dakbal in Korea. Dak stands for chicken and bal stands for feet.
Chicken feet aren’t usually eaten in other countries but it is a highly popular spicy dish in Korea. It is normally eaten as a side dish when drinking alcoholic drinks like soju.
It can be served boneless or with bones and it is one of the most popular dishes to order when drinking soju.
2. Spicy Jokbal
Jokbal means pig’s trotters in Korean and spicy jokbal is exactly what it means! Spicy pig trotters!
Funnily, spicy jokbal is also normally eaten as a side dish when drinking soju and it is as popular as chicken feet in alcoholic establishments in Korea.
3. Ramen
Ramen is one of the staple foods in Korea because it is such a convenient dish due to the instant ramen products available in Korea.
Most Korean don’t find ramen to be especially spicy even if foreigners find it to be spicy.
However, there are special ramen products that are advertised as highly spicy and these are the spiciest ramen available to the general Korean public in instant ramen packaging.
Ramen is also a common food item to order when drinking soju as it is a nice chaser to the alcoholic drink. It is also popular to eat ramen as a hangover cure after a heavy night of drinking.
4. Spicy Rice Cakes (Tteokbokki)
Spicy rice cakes are called tteokbokki in Korean. Tteok stands for rice cake and bokki means stir fried.
Spicy rice cakes are very popular amongst Korean and it is often seen as a comfort food as well due to its widespread familiarity across the nation.
The dish is deep red in color as it’s bathed in a spicy red paste made from peppers.
5. Fire Chicken (Buldak)
Buldak literally means fire chicken in Korean. Bul stands for fire and if you remember the first dish on the list, you will know that dak stands for chicken!
The dish is a chicken dish that is heavily spiced with peppers and then barbecued. Fire chicken is easily one of the spiciest dishes in this list. Most Koreans can’t even brave to eat this dish.
Only a very niche group of Koreans live and die for this dish due it’s pungent, spicy taste. This niche group generally enjoys this dish due to the high level of spiciness because it relieves their stress.
As it’s easily one of the spiciest foods in Korea, everyone should exercise caution even if you enjoy spicy foods. Fire chicken does not spare the unprepared tongue!
