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.
Dishes that contain it
Sometimes in it
- BibimbapNakji bibimbap tops the rice with spicy stir-fried long-arm octopus.
- BulgogiSome menus add long-arm octopus to beef bulgogi, as in bulnak jeongol, or stir-fry webfoot octopus with pork.
- Haemul-pajeon (seafood scallion pancake)Nakji pajeon uses long-arm octopus in place of squid.
- KimchiKaesong-style bossam kimchi and banji kimchi sometimes have sliced long-arm octopus mixed into the filling.
- SamgyeopsalJjusam is webfoot octopus stir-fried with pork belly in a spicy sauce.
- Sundubu-jjigae (soft tofu stew)Some seafood sundubu recipes add long-arm or webfoot octopus, which cooks in the same broth as the tofu.
- TteokbokkiThere are nakji tteokbokki and seafood tteokbokki made with webfoot octopus.
Based on the 14 dishes this site has researched. Dishes not listed here can contain it too.