Pair Korean Food With Whisky

If it seems like Korean food restaurants are more abundant than ever, it’s not your imagination. According to The Food Institute, western interest in Korean fare shot up 90% in the 12 months preceding January 2022, and the number of Korean restaurants located outside of Korea has risen proportionally, growing to roughly 7,000 in the U.S. alone, according to marketing research firm IbisWorld.

This burgeoning popularity comes as the direct result of an orchestrated, multiyear strategy developed by South Korea’s Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. First announced in 2008, according to a 2022 article by Ligaya Mishan in “T” magazine, the mission was to elevate “Korean food to the highest ranks of the world’s favorite cuisines” via massive growth in the number of overseas Korean restaurants—ultimately more than tripling from 9,253 in 2009 to 33,499 in 2017—and a standardization of the way dishes are communicated, for example “kimchi” rather than kimchee or gimchi. As witnessed by the near-omnipresence of Korean food in North American culture today, the project was largely successful.

Even those relatively unacquainted with Korean fare are likely familiar with kimchi. Both a side dish and an ingredient, kimchi is most commonly fermented and heavily seasoned cabbage, although it can be made from other vegetables. On its own, it boasts a complicated mix of chile spice, salt, garlic, ginger, and the flavors of fermentation, along with other possible seasonings, meaning that its complement needs to be something relatively simple and soothing, like a blended scotch whisky Highball, generously mixed one part whisky to two parts water.

In a kimchi stew, the spice component can often be much higher, so your drink will be facing down the heat from both temperature and chiles. This combination begets sweetness and depth in the whisky as well as a bit of a chill in the glass, ideally in the form of a full-bodied Irish whiskey cooled with a cube or two of ice.

After kimchi, probably the best-known Korean dish is bibimbap, which combines a bed of sticky white rice with, well, pretty much anything. A popular way to use leftovers, bibimbap is typically white rice topped with strips of vegetables and a protein, seasoned with sesame oil and Korean pepper-garlic sauce gochujang, and served with a fried egg. As such, its flavors are mostly a blank canvas inviting all sorts of spirits, but particularly a bright, sherry-influenced single malt like Tamdhu 10 year old if the dish is mildly spiced, or a sweeter American single malt if spicy.

Bulgogi, Korean for “fire meat,” is marinated, thinly sliced beef cooked in a very hot frying pan or over a charcoal grill, usually served with rice and assorted vegetables. Generally more sweet than spicy, its extended marination gives the meat a remarkable richness that calls for a bourbon or Tennessee whiskey of significant weight and depth, such as Eagle Rare 10 year old or George Dickel Barrel Select. Add an ice cube or a drop of water if served with a spicy dipping sauce.

Korean Go-To Pairings

Kimchi and Chivas Regal 12 year old with soda

The whisky’s lighter body, coupled with its impressive depth, serves the pairing well when minimal dilution is applied, providing both refreshment and balance.

Kimchi Stew and Writers’ Tears Double Oak with an ice cube

The sweet fullness of the whiskey is an ideal foil to the spicy heat of the stew, while the complexity of the kimchi accentuates the flavors of the spirit.

Spicy Steak Bibimbap with Stranahan’s Original

The single malt’s chocolate and dried fruit character adds to the already impressive mix of flavors in the dish, even as the spirit’s sweetness tempers its heat.