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Korean fried chicken by Apgujeong Korean Tent Bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Most Koreans surveyed recently say the dish isn’t Korean, but a diners in a global survey said Korean fried chicken is their favourite Korean dish. Photo: SCMP
LifestyleFood & Drink

Korean fried chicken is not Korean, most Koreans say – but for rest of the world it’s their favourite Korean food and the one they eat most often

  • In a survey, 8,500 people in 17 cities around the world were asked to name their favourite Korean dish. Korean fried chicken topped the list
  • In another survey in South Korea, a majority said Korean fried chicken isn’t Korean. Think of it as ‘K-food’ instead, an academic suggests
Food and Drinks
The Korea Times
The Korea Times
Why you can trust SCMP

By Yoon Ja-young

According to one recent poll, Korean-style fried chicken is the favourite Korean food of people overseas, while more than half of Koreans surveyed in another poll do not think it belongs in that category.

A survey of 1,500 Korean nationals by the non-profit organisation Korean Food Promotion Institute shows that 63.9 per cent believe that regular fried chicken is not Korean food, while 45.1 per cent say that neither is marinated fried chicken. Respondents were asked whether they would consider each of 30 different kinds of food as Korean.

The survey results showed that kimchi is the dish that most (99.7 per cent) consider Korean, followed by doenjang-jjigae, or soybean paste stew, at 99.3 per cent; buchimgae, or savoury pancakes, at 95.3 per cent; japchae, or glass noodles with fried vegetables, at 94.3 per cent; and kimbap, or seaweed rice rolls, at 90.8 per cent.
A dish of kimchi. Photo: Getty Images

The perception of fried chicken as not Korean contrasts with another survey by the institute in which people living overseas chose fried chicken as their favourite dish.

In the survey, conducted in August and September, 8,500 people in 17 cities around the world were asked to name their favourite Korean dish. Fried chicken topped the list, with 16.1 per cent of votes. They also picked Korean-style fried chicken as the Korean dish they eat most frequently, followed by kimchi and bibimbap (a Korean mixed rice bowl).
According to one recent poll, Korean-style fried chicken is the favourite Korean food of people overseas. Photo: Kim Soo-jin

Joo Young-ha, a professor of folklore studies at the Academy of Korean Studies, said in an interview with Korean radio channel CBS Radio that one should focus on the concept of “K-food”, rather than arguing if fried chicken should be considered a Korean dish.

When asked whether fried chicken is a Korean dish, he said it should be thought of as K-food, adding that this category includes not just dishes traditionally thought of as Korean, but dishes served in Korean restaurants or produced by Korean food factories.

Joo pointed out that foreign nationals living overseas often come to be interested in K-foods such as samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly), soju, tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cakes) and pajeon (scallion pancake) after seeing them in Korean dramas, while Koreans want to introduce foreigners to more traditional dishes.

People make kimchi in preparation for winter at a mass event in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Getty Images
He said that the perception of whether certain dishes are Korean changes over time. Tteokbokki, for example, emerged in the 1960s and japchae started as a dish based on Chinese sweet potato noodles and Japanese soy sauce in the 1930s – although the dish dates back to the Joseon dynasty that ruled the Korean peninsula from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

As time passed, however, Koreans came to regard this new form of japchae as traditionally Korean, he added.

Read the full story at the Korea Times
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