By Koh Hyunjeong

Foreign diners of Hansik (traditional cuisine) say their top choice among the nation's convenience foods is bibimbap, or rice mixed with meat, vegetables and gochujang (spicy red pepper paste), while the country's most well-known alcoholic drink abroad is soju.

The Korean Food Promotion Institute on May 10 announced the results of a two-month survey it conducted last year from August to October on foreign consumers of Hansik. The some 9,000 respondents ranged in age from 20-59 and lived in 18 major world cities such as Beijing, China, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and New York.

Bibimbap was the Hansik convenience food most preferred by foreign nationals with 22.8%, followed by gimbap (seaweed rice roll) with 19.1%, kimchi fried rice 13%, ramyeon (instant noodles) 11.5% and jajangmyeon (noodles in black bean sauce) 4.9%.

Other choices included naengmyeon (noodles in cold broth) with 4.6%, Korean-style fried chicken 2.8%, yukgaejang (spicy beef soup with vegetables) 2.7%, samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) 2.4%, tteokbokki (spicy rice cake) 2.1%, kimchi 1.9%, gamjatang (pork bone stew) 1.9%, kimchi jjigae (stew) 1.5%, hotteok (sweet pancake) 1.4% and sundubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu stew) 1.2%.

Among those aware of Korean convenience food, 85.7% said they had tried it. By region, the consumption rate was highest in Southeast Asia (89.6%), followed by Northeast Asia (88.9%), Oceania, Central and South America, and the Middle East (81.6%), Europe (81.2%) and North America (76.8%).

On what Korean alcoholic drinks they knew of, 41.1% of the respondents selected soju,  followed by beer (31.6%), fruity alcohol (22.8%), cheongju (clear liquor) 17.9% and takju (cloudy alcoholic drink) 14.5%.

The most consumed drink of the bunch was soju (47.9%), followed by beer (36.2%), fruity alcohol (24.1%), cheongju (18.1%) and takju (13.2%).

hjkoh@korea.kr