Tteok ((also spelled ddeock, duk, dduk, ddeog, or thuck) is a Korean cake made with glutinous rice flour (also known as sweet rice or chapssal), by steaming. Normal rice flour can be used for some kinds of tteok. There are hundreds of different kinds of tteok eaten year round. In Korea it is customary to eat tteok guk (tteok soup) on New Year’s Day and sweet tteok at weddings and on birthdays. It is often considered a celebratory food and can range from rather elaborate versions with nuts and fruits down to the plain-flavored tteok used in home cooking. Some common ingredients for many kinds of tteok are mung bean, red bean, and sweet red bean paste, Korean mugwort, jujube and other dried fruits, sesame seeds and oil, sugar, and pine nuts.

Tteok are largely divided into four categories, such as “steamed tteok”, “pounded tteok”, “boiled tteok” and “pan-fried tteok”. The steamed tteok is made by steaming rice or glutinous rice flour in “siru” , or a large earthenware steamer, so it is often called “sirutteok” . It is regarded as the basic and oldest form of tteok. The pounded tteok is made by using a pounding board or mortar after steamed first. In making pan-fried tteok, the rice dough is flattened like a pancake and pan-fried with vegetable oil. The shaped tteok are made by kneading a dough with hot water which is usually shaped into balls

Mandu are dumplings in Korean cuisine. First brought to Korea by the Mongols, they are similar to what are called pelmeni and pierogi in some Slavic cultures. The name is cognate with similar types of meat-filled dumplings in Central Asia, such as Turkish manti, Kazahk manty, and Uzbek mantou. It is also cognate with the Chinese mantou, although mantou is a steamed bun rather than a dumpling.

In Korean cuisine, mandu generally denotes a type of filled dumplings similar to the Mongolian buuz and Turkish mantı although some variations are similar to the Chinese jiaozi and the Japanese gyoza. The selection of mandu varieties is much more diverse in the northern part of the Korean peninsula, with each region having its own distinct types of mandu. On the other hand, mandu in the southern part of the Korean peninsula lack variety in general. If the dumplings are grilled or fried, they are called gunmandu. Mandu are usually served with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce and vinegar.

Banchan also spelled panchan, refers to small dishes of food served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine. This word is used both in the singular and plural. The most famous banchan is kimchi.

Banchan are set in the middle of the table to be shared. At the center of the table is the main course, such as galbi or bulgogi, and sometimes a shared pot of stew. A bowl of cooked rice and soup are set individually. Banchan are served in small portions, meant to be finished at each meal. They can be replenished during the meal as they are finished. Usually, more formal meals have more banchan. The Jeolla province is famous for serving many more kinds of banchan in a single meal.

Hoedeopbap is a Korean dish consisting of steamed rice mixed with sliced or cubed saengseon hoe (raw fish), various vegetables such as lettuce, cucumber and sesame leaves, sesame oil, and chogochujang (a sauce made from vinegar, gochujang, and sugar). The fish used for making hoedeopbap is generally tuna, salmon, or whitefish.

The manner of eating hoedeopbap is almost same as that used to eat bibimbap: using a spoon, all the ingredients are mixed together by the diner at the table before eating

Gochujang is a savory and pungent fermented Korean condiment, a kind of hot sauce. Traditionally, it has been naturally fermented over years in large earthen pots outdoors, more often on an elevated stone platform, called jangdokdae in the backyard.
It is believed that gochujang (hot pepper paste) was first used in Korea in the late 1700s. According to the Jungbo Sallim geongje, gochujang was made by adding powdered red chili peppers and glutinous rice powder to soybean paste, and aging this paste under the sun. This recipe is similar to the recipe used today to make gochujang.

A yogurt cocktail might sound crazy if you’re new to soju, but yogurt soju is popular in Korea and all over Asia. Both yogurt and soju go well with the fiery aspects of Korean cuisine, so it makes sense that they’d be mixed by Koreans. But be careful, as the most common complaint about yogurt soju is that it’s so easy to drink that you’re drunk before you know it.

Asian yogurt drinks are milk-based drinks and are watery compared to American yogurt. You can try an American yogurt drink if you don’t have access to the Korean yogurt, as long as it’s not too thick. You can use the plain (regular) flavor, but people do use the peach, strawberry, and other fruit varieties as well.

Dotori guksu are Korean noodles made from acorn flour or starch, salt, and a combination of grain-based flour (usually buckwheat or wheat).

Dotori guksu may be made from acorns collected from red or white oak species and each oak species gives a distinct flavour. Ingredient labels do not list from which type of tree acorns are gathered, most likely due to the large number of oak species and increasing oak hybridization (especially among white oak varieties), which makes it difficult to recognise and document each type of species.