By Lee Hana

Illustrations = Kim Hyun-suk

Gamjajeon vs. haemul pajeon, ramyeon vs. gimbap, naengmyeon vs. japchae. What your pick?

Choosing an all-time favorite Korean food that reflects everyone's tastes is no mean feat, but Korea.net's live program "Tournament-K Hansik" crowns a Korean food as champion every week.

Each episode features eight competitors in food categories like kimchi, meat dishes, soups and stews, snacks, banchan (side dishes) and noodles. All of the contenders must make it through the quarterfinals and semifinals to compete in the final round. 

The eight dishes are selected in a preliminary round by the production team. Certain entries claim a spot with no questions asked, while others must work harder to make it past the preliminaries.  

The dishes that make it to the show get eliminated through multiple rounds based on live comments and cheers sent in by a mostly non-Korean audience.

With the viewers picking the winning dish, the most unexpected item -- from a Korean standpoint -- can occasionally claim the trophy. 

In the noodle episode, for example, japchae beat jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles) in the semis and went on to defeat Korea's representative summer dish naengmyeon to claim the title. In the tteok (rice cake) episode, honey-filled tteok advanced to the finals over sultteok (rice cake made with makgeolli) but lost in the final to injeolmi (rice cake made with glutinous rice).

Traditional favorites like baechu (cabbage) kimchi, samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) and kimchi jjigae shot to the top of the charts while maintaining their winning streaks in their respective episodes.

"Tournament-K Hansik" airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. Korean Standard Time on Korea.net's YouTube livestream channel with MC Lee Hana and a non-Korean guest host. 

Viewers who correctly answer quiz questions or send in anecdotes related to an episode's food can win Amazon gift cards. 

Eleven episodes have been aired, and a new format incorporating the eating show meokbang and a vote count debuted in Episode 11. The 12th episode on Korean summer fruit will air on July 1.