Korean cooking looks like it needs a hundred ingredients. It needs about ten. Stock the shelf below and you can make kimchi fried rice, bibimbap, army stew and most weeknight soups without a special trip. This is what we tell people who come into the store saying "I want to start cooking Korean food but I don't know where to begin."
Buy these first
Those six, plus a bag of ramyun, make kimchi fried rice and army stew tonight. The rest of the list fills in from there.
The sauce shelf
Gochujang (O'Food, brown rice)
Fermented red chili paste: sweet, salty, a little funky, medium heat. It is in bibimbap, tteokbokki, spicy pork, dipping sauces and half the soups. If you buy one thing from this page, buy this. The brown-rice version is rounder and less sharp than the standard one. Keeps a year in the fridge after opening.
Soy sauce (Sempio Jin Gold)
Korean soy sauce is a touch sweeter and softer than Chinese or Japanese. "Jin" means all-purpose: marinades, dipping sauce, stir-fries, seasoning soup. Sempio is the brand in most Korean kitchens.
Toasted sesame oil (Beksul)
Drizzle it at the end. Never fry with it. One teaspoon finishes bibimbap, seasoned vegetables and seaweed soup, and it is the smell people mean when they say something "smells Korean."
Oyster sauce
Not traditionally Korean, but it is in every modern Korean kitchen for fried rice and stir-fried vegetables. A spoon of this plus soy sauce is the base of most quick weeknight pans.
Sriracha
For the table. Korean households keep a bottle next to the gochujang for eggs, fried rice and dumplings.
Paldo Bibim Jang, a ready-mixed gochujang-vinegar-sugar sauce for cold noodles and bibimbap, comes and goes from stock; check the Paldo collection.
Rice and noodles
Hetbahn cooked rice, 6-pack
Korean short-grain rice in a microwave tray, 90 seconds. It is what Koreans keep for the night they do not want to wash a rice cooker, and the base for every bowl on this page. The 6-pack is the one to get.
Shin Ramyun
Not only a snack. A bag of ramyun goes into army stew, and it is the fastest dinner in Korea. If you want to know which ramyun to buy for what, our ramyun ranking covers twelve of them.
Protein from the can
Spam Classic
Korea is Spam's second-biggest market and it is a gift item there, sold in boxed sets at holidays. You need it for budae jjigae (army stew) and kimchi fried rice. Slice, sear in a dry pan until the edges crisp.
Dongwon canned tuna
Korean tuna in oil is the filling in tuna kimbap, the protein in tuna kimchi stew and the whole point of tuna-mayo rice. Dongwon is the brand everyone buys.
Seaweed, soups and the rest
Roasted seaweed (gim)
Seasoned laver sheets. Wrap rice in them, crumble them over noodles, or eat them from the pack. The olive-oil version is lighter than the sesame-oil kind. Kids who refuse everything else eat these.
Bibigo beef bone soup (seolleongtang)
A retort pouch of milky beef-bone broth. Heat, pour over Hetbahn rice, add salt and green onion. It is also the shortcut stock for army stew if you do not want to simmer anchovies.
Bibigo abalone porridge (juk)
Sick-day food and the Korean answer to chicken soup. Microwave the pouch. We keep a few at home for exactly that reason. Sells out; the porridge collection shows what is in.
Instant miso soup
Japanese, but it lives on the same shelf in Korean kitchens. A two-minute side soup for any rice meal.
Kewpie mayonnaise
Richer, egg-yolk mayo. Mix with canned tuna over rice, or stir a spoon into Buldak to take the edge off.
Three dishes to cook this week
Kimchi fried rice
- Dice Spam and sear it in a dry pan until the edges brown.
- Add a cup of chopped kimchi and a teaspoon of gochujang. Fry 2 minutes.
- Break in a tray of Hetbahn rice. Stir until every grain is red.
- Heat off. Sesame oil, a fried egg on top, crumbled gim.
Budae jjigae (army stew)
- Pour a pouch of beef bone soup into a pot with a cup of water. Bring to a boil.
- Add sliced Spam, a cup of kimchi, a spoon of gochujang and a spoon of soy sauce.
- Drop in a bag of Shin Ramyun with its powder. Cook 4 minutes.
- Lay a slice of American cheese on top. Eat from the pot.
Ten-minute bibimbap
- Hetbahn rice in a bowl.
- Any vegetables you have, raw or quickly fried. A can of tuna.
- A spoon of gochujang, a teaspoon of sesame oil, a fried egg.
- Mix everything before the first bite. That is the rule.
Questions we get
What should I buy first?
Gochujang. It is in more Korean dishes than any other single ingredient and a tub lasts a year.
Does gochujang need to be refrigerated?
Unopened, no. Once opened, keep it in the fridge; it will stay good for 12 months or more.
What about kimchi and fresh ingredients?
This page is the shelf-stable list. Kimchi, tofu, rice cakes and fresh banchan are in the store in Northvale and in the banchan collection.
Do you ship to all 50 states?
Yes, from Northvale, New Jersey. Orders of $100 or more ship free.
Sauces, rice, canned goods and soups, shipped from Northvale, NJ.
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