Chuseok Food

For the past centuries, Koreans have celebrated Chuseok with family, sharing various foods — and here are some of the editor's favorites.

Songpyeon (송편)

This is a rice cake wrapped around bean paste or sweet sesame filling. When families come together, they tend to sit in a circle in the living room and make songpyeon together. The filling differs by region, but children's favorite is usually the one with sweet sesame paste.

Sogalbi-jjim (소갈비찜)

This dish is braised beef short ribs in a sweet and salty, soy sauce-based sauce. It is loved by many people, especially children. It goes well with white rice, and this dish alone could have a person eating twice their usual amount.

Jeon (모둠 전)

These are simply Korean pancakes made with various ingredients — fish, beef, or pumpkin, or even skewers with imitation crab, pickled radish, ham, and more. The ingredients are dipped in batter and cooked in a pan with oil. Families tend to divide the roles: who prepares the ingredients, who dips them in the batter, and who cooks them.

As such, food is not just something you consume — it is something that brings people together in every step of how it is made and shared.