Problem

Many Koreans like spicy food, and they say that after eating spicy food and sweating a bowl, stress is relieved. Probably because endorphins, the happiness hormone, came out to offset the pain in the tongue. Maybe that's why there are so many spicy foods in Korean restaurants.

Foreigners who don't know much about Korea may experience embarrassing situations because they ordered any popular menu but too spicy food came out.

So, if you don't want to go back and forth between life and death with a runny nose, keep these tips in mind!

Solution

• Criteria for spicy taste in Korea: 'Shin Ramyun'(신라면)
• Check the menu name: If it contains “불”(Fire), “맵-/매운/스파이시”(Spicy), “핫”(Hot), "고추/고추장/청양"(pepper-), avoid it
• Check if there's ‘고추-’(red pepper-) in the ingredients
• Special Beverage to deal with Spicy Food : ‘쿨피스’ / ‘쥬시쿨’
• Recommendation of Korean food that's not spicy.
• List of spicy Korean foods to watch out for

References