about

Korean food and everyday life, written by someone who actually lives here.

Hi, I'm K-spoon

I grew up in Seoul. and I live in Gyeonggi Province, just outside Seoul. I am not a chef, not a food critic, and not a travel agency. I am an ordinary Korean who eats three meals a day in this country and has opinions about every one of them.

I started The K Spoon in April 2025 for a simple reason. I kept finding English articles about Korean food that described dishes I did not recognize, recommended restaurants no local would ever choose, and explained customs that stopped being true twenty years ago. It seemed to me that somebody who actually lives here should write it down instead. Since then I have published more than seventy articles, and I add a new one most days.

What you will find here

Korean food, from the inside. What locals actually order, in what order, and why. The grilling sequence at a Korean BBQ table and which side dish everyone saves for last. What to drink with pajeon on a rainy day. Where to eat grilled hairtail on Jeju, and how to tell real black pork from the version served to tourists. Street food in Busan, hangover soup at seven in the morning, the ice cream flavours you can only get here.

Everyday life in Korea. Food is only half of it. I also write about the things that quietly confuse visitors and newcomers, and that nobody bothers to explain — how the jeonse deposit system works and why it can be dangerous, what a Korean moving day actually looks like, how to sort your rubbish without being fined, and the long quiet war over apartment parking spaces.

How I work

I go, I eat, I pay for my own meals, and then I write. No restaurant has ever paid me to appear on this site, and nothing here is a sponsored review. When I recommend a place, it is because I have sat down in it. When I explain a custom, it is because I grew up inside it. When I am guessing, I say that I am guessing.

I use my own photographs wherever I can. Prices, opening hours and menus change often in Korea, so please check before you travel.

Affiliate links

A small number of articles contain affiliate links to travel booking and reservation services. I include them because arranging things in Korea from abroad can be genuinely difficult, and these services handle bookings in English.

Please read those links for exactly what they are: a booking option, not a personal recommendation. I have not used every service I link to, and I am not in a position to vouch for them the way I can vouch for a bowl of soup I have eaten. My writing about food and places is based on my own experience; the booking links are a separate convenience, and the commission never decides what I write about.

If you use one of these links, I may receive a small commission, and you pay nothing extra. Every article that contains one says so at the top.

A note about my English

Let me be honest with you about one thing.

My English is not good. Every article on this site is written by me, in Korean, from my own experience — and then I use AI translation tools to bring it into English. I read through every translation before it is published, but I know that some sentences still come out stiff, or strangely formal, or just slightly wrong.

I hope you will be patient with me. I decided that awkward English from someone who has actually eaten the food is more useful to you than polished English from someone who has not. If a sentence confuses you, or if I have used a word badly, please tell me. I would much rather be corrected than misunderstood.

Independence

The K Spoon is an independent personal blog. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any television network, streaming service, restaurant, or brand mentioned on this site. Programme and business names are used only to describe the food and places being discussed.

Get in touch

Questions about a dish, a neighbourhood, or something you saw and could not identify? Suggestions for what I should eat next? Corrections to my English? I read everything.

Email: [thekspoon@gmail.com]
I try to reply within three to five business days.

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Last updated: [August 2026]