Hello listeners! So I hope you are doing well. So today, I wanted answer a question that many of you may have had and I am sure the rest of you are wondering.

So what do Koreans eat for breakfast?

The answer is quite simple.

Rice, soup and side dishes such as kimchi, grilled fish, fried egg, and blanched veggies.

You would think that would be enough for an answer but then people usually ask me what do Koreans have for lunch. I would answer,

Rice, soup and side dishes such as kimchi, grilled fish, fried egg, and blanched veggies.

They usually look confused after that.

The meal in Korea is centered around rice and the meals are interchangeable. You could easily eat the same thing at each meal and Koreans would feel you ate 3 square meals for the day. Of course Koreans do like variety and they could have different types of rice such as a a millet steamed rice, black rice steamed rice, or even rice steamed with beans. The soup could be bean paste soup or doenjang chiggae, kimchi stew, bean sprout soup, beef soup, or seaweed soup. But to be honest, the most common breakfast soups would be seaweed soup or myeokguk or bean paste soup. There is usually one protein such as a grilled fish or a fried egg and then there is kimchi and blanched veggies.

Now breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day and to start a day with hot rice and soup means that there is someone at home that loves you. This person could be your mother or wife. If you are forced to fend for yourself and you pour yourself a bowl of cereal with cold milk, it means that you must be either single or live in a loveless home.

However, these days the pace of life is faster and many people don’t have the time to make a traditional Korean breakfast in the morning. The trend is to have breakfast on the go or to prepare it the night before. The dosirak, or Korean lunch box business has been flourishing of late because many people will buy it the night before and then heat it up in the morning for breakfast for a fast meal before they go. The other thing people will do is to grab kimbap or a Korean rice roll that is stuffed with meat and veggies on the go. Some people prefer to have a juice breakfast and there are delivery services that now offer this.

If you have the time to have breakfast, I would recommend that you take the time and do so. A Korean breakfast is a great way to start the day.