Kimchi fried rice

Kimchi-bokkeum-bap (김치볶음밥) is a Korean fried rice dish, a variety of bokkeum-bap, made mainly with kimchi and rice. It is one of the most popular everyday dishes in South Korea, both at home and in casual eateries.

History

The dish belongs to the bokkeum-bap family of Korean fried rice, and its origins are tied to a practical habit: using up leftover rice and kimchi that has become too ripe for eating on its own. The sources do not give a date or a named inventor, nor do they trace exactly when the kimchi version became common.

The method is straightforward. Chilled leftover rice is combined with well-fermented kimchi, which is usually squeezed to remove excess brine so the rice does not turn mushy. Depending on the cook, pork, bacon, ham, spam, chicken, canned tuna or shrimp may be added, along with mushrooms and vegetables such as onion, carrot or zucchini. Today it is cooked in many homes and served in bunsikjeom, the informal eateries where it is a common lunch choice.

Culture

It is a quick, cheap home meal, especially popular with students and people living alone, since it relies on basic ingredients that most Korean kitchens keep on hand. It is usually served with danmuji, pickled yellow radish, and a mild warm soup such as miyeok-guk or kongnamul-guk, which balance the heat and sourness of the kimchi. In summer it may be eaten alongside dongchimi, a watery white kimchi made from radish.

Different fillings produce named variants, such as chamchi kimchi-bokkeum-bap with tuna or haemul kimchi-bokkeum-bap with seafood. The dish also appears in pop culture: a late-1980s singer mentioned it in a song as the ideal home cooking for a partner, and another artist did the same in 2010.

Trivia