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Octopus in Korean food

Octopus (문어 · 낙지 · 주꾸미)

In Korea people enjoy both large octopus and the smaller nakji and jukkumi. Several menus add nakji or jukkumi to another dish, so check the short words attached to a dish name first.

Where it hides in Korean food

Nakji and jukkumi are small members of the same octopus family. Nakji is small enough that English menus sometimes call it baby octopus. Squid is a different animal from octopus, so on this site you pick it separately.

Nakji and jukkumi are often added to other dishes to make new menus. Jjusam, jukkumi stir-fried with pork belly in a spicy sauce, and nakgopsae from Busan, nakji, gopchang intestines and shrimp cooked in one pot, are examples. Osam bulgogi sounds similar but is squid stir-fried with pork belly.

Nakji bokkeum is nakji stir-fried in a spicy gochujang sauce, and nakji bibimbap puts it over rice. Sannakji is freshly caught nakji cut into small pieces and served raw with sesame oil and sesame seeds, and the pieces move on the plate. The clear soup called yeonpotang today is usually made with nakji too.

Large octopus is mostly boiled and eaten sliced, and in the Gyeongsang region it is often placed on the table for ancestral rites. Dried octopus is sometimes cut into phoenix or dragon shapes to decorate feast food. Haemultang and haemuljjim, seafood stew and braise, may contain nakji along with squid.

How it is written in Korean

These are common words, not a complete list. A word missing here does not mean the ingredient is missing from the food.

Korean law does not require packaged food to name this ingredient in its allergy box, so 문어류(문어, 낙지, 주꾸미 포함) can be in the food without showing up there. Read the full ingredient list for the words above.

Dishes that contain it

Sometimes in it

Based on the 20 dishes this site has researched. Dishes not listed here can contain it too.

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Sources we checked

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