Have you ever tasted Korean food?

Dubai: Korean food is curiously unknown. This is most surprising considering the fact that according to a survey conducted in 2019, 35% and 27.5% of respondents considered respectively K-pop and K-dramas to be very popular within the country. So people seem to be very appealed by Korean culture as a whole, but when we try to find a good Korean restaurant in Dubai, there don’t appear to be that many. Again, this comes as a shock for such a cosmopolitan city. We also tried asking local people what they think about Korean food. We had some very surprising answers such as: “Oh yes I love sushis!”. Needless to say we weren’t happy about it.

That is how the #LoveYourselfKorea campaign started, focusing on K-food in a effort to get people in Dubai to know this delicious and healthy food that has so much to offer.

On this occasion, the Opening ceremony of the campaign took place this Wednesday 12th of July at the fine dining restaurant The Farm Al Barari, which is also launching a Korean menu with the help of Chef May, who flew from Korea to help them make it as gourmet and traditional as possible. Mr Moon, the Counsel General of South Korea also came especially for this occasion.

Though especially after Covid-19, Korean Food became more popular worldwide for its health benefits, it still needs some awareness raised in the UAE. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what makes Korean food so special:

• Korean ginseng has been used to strengthen the immune system and help fight off stress and disease.
• Kimchi, the national food of South Korea, is a spicy pickled vegetable dish, has a rich history in South Korea dating back more than two thousand years.
• Probiotics have been shown to improve heart health by reducing cholesterol and inflammation.
• Studies show that kimchi can also reduce your risk of atherosclerosis through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cholesterol-lowering properties.
• For that matter, Kimchi making officially became national heritage item.
• Korean Food went viral on the web for the spicy noodle challenge and we are only just at the beginning of making people aware of Korean cuisine.

These are all the good reasons why you should pursue Korean food and our guests were very happy to be able to taste it for themselves at the ceremony, as well as grasping a bit of the savior-faire of Chef May, who lead a cooking lesson on how to make Kimchi pancakes.

We look forward to see the rise of the popularity of these amazing dishes that have been cherished by so many generations back in Korea and that we now want to share with the world.