Korean Cooking Ingredients

If you are very new to Korean cooking, just like me, you might be intimidated by the list of unfamiliar ingredients whenever you look at a Korean recipe. In this post, I’m compiling a small and growing list of Korean ingredients which are used in the Noob Cook kitchen so that you know what they look like, and will be able to purchase them easily.

See Also:

• Korean Banchan  Recipes
• Easy Korean Recipes

I will update the list whenever I add anything new to my pantry. You can get some of the more common items, such as as gochujang (chilli paste), kimchi, ramyeon (instant noodles) and dangmyeon (glass noodles) from major supermarkets. But some ingredients, such as gochugaru (red pepper powder) may be less common and you need to buy them from a Korean supermarket. I shop primarily at the Korean supermarket at Koryo Mart at Marine Parade and Shine Korea Supermarket at Far East Square (basement) for all the Korean ingredients which I can’t find at our local supermarkets.

Here is a list of Korean ingredients which have been used in the recipes on this site. Clicking on the links will bring you to a list of recipes tagged with the ingredients.

Click on photo to view full size	Ingredient Description
	Dangmyeon: Korean sweet potato noodles or Korean glass noodles. It’s the main ingredient to make Korean Jap Chae. It is also often added to soups and stews.
	Doenjang: Korean soybean paste. To me, it’s like the Korean equivalent of the Japanese miso. It’s a staple in Korean kitchen for making Doenjang Jjigae (Soybean paste stew).
	Duk guk: flat oval rice cakes
	Gochugaru: hot chilli pepper powder.
	Gochujang: chilli paste
	Kimchi: fermented Korean vegetables. You can eat it on its own as a side dish or used to cook other dishes, such as kimchi soup.
	Kongnamul: Soya bean sprouts (grown from soya beans and recognized by fatter yellow heads). You can use it to make a 10-minute soya bean sprout salad.
	Myulchi: dried anchovies. These are the large anchovies I use for making soup stock. You can substitute with local anchovies (ikan bilis). I usually substitute use 50 grams of local anchovies to substitute a handful (about 20-25 pieces) of Korean anchovies, though it depends on the saltiness of the anchovies you bought.
	Ramyeon instant noodles.
	Fresh whole ginseng root is excellent for making Korean ginseng chicken soup, or samgyetang. Read more about this ingredient here.