Having been in Korea for well over a year, many aspects of life have become normal to me. Some of the things I once shrugged my shoulders at in confusion now make quite a bit of sense to me. When it comes to unique Korean snacks, I’ve come to secretly enjoy some of them. Below you will find my 5 guilty pleasure snack-items in Korea! Would you eat these snacks?
Snacking on Hot Peppers
Back home, I liked spicy foods, but I didn’t really go out of my way to eat them all the time. In Korea, you’ll often be served hot peppers with your meal. This is especially true if you’re having samgyeopsal, pork belly barbecue, or any other Korean barbecue meal. Now, I find myself loading up on bags of hot peppers every time I walk into Lotte Mart. They make for the perfect snack!
Sweet Potato Pizza
Here’s a sweet potato pizza
What the what? I know, crazy — but I love Korean sweet potato pizza! Any Korea pizza shop will have a pizza that includes sweet potato paste as a topping. If you’ve never had Korean pizza, be warned — you’ll find lots of corn sprinkled on the pizza, take cheese, and there will be no marinara sauce, or very little of it. This took some getting used to — but strangely enough, I still eat quite a bit of pizza here. Lately, my most favorite option is sweet potato pizza.
Sweet Pickles
I’ve heard some fellow expats talking about how they crave a good ‘ole fashioned regular dill pickle. Not me! I have yet to crave pickles from home. In South Korea, sweet pickles are very common. You can buy these at the store and you’re often served sweet pickles as bachan, or a side dish. If you’re ordering a pizza, you will almost always be given sweet pickles on the side! I’ve come to like them so much that I now dip my pizza slices in the sweet pickle juice! I know, I know…I’m a weirdo!
Garlic Bread with Sugar
You may be looking at your screen like — huh?!! In many Korean pastry shops, you’ll find some rather strange baked goods. It’s common to have sweet and savory all in one treat. When we first picked up a pack of garlic bread here, we were shocked to find that it was also sprinkled in sugar. It took a little getting used to, but I now really eat it. I will even dip my sugary garlic bread in my spaghetti!
Honey Butter Everything
Last year, honey butter was an especially popular flavor for snacks. In Korea, you can find honey butter chips, honey butter peanuts, honey butter popcorn, and honey butter crackers, just to name a few snacks. It’s not as big of a thing this year — but guess what, I still love honey butter flavoring! I think honey butter chips are my favorite!
After writing this post, it now makes perfect sense as to why I had so many dental issues a couple of months back! I hope you enjoyed learning about some of the more wacky Korean snacks and I hope you got a kick out of my appreciation for them.
