Korean Job Discussion Forums

[joltaxt]

- no seriously-

I'm looking for hot sauce to send back home. HOT hot sauce. I asked some Koreans and they all said the same thing: that hot sauce you buy in Korea is SWEET hot sauce, not HOT hot sauce like in the States (i.e. Dave's insanity). One of my co-workers even had his own HOT hot sauce shipped from the States because he couldn't find any in Korea lol.

I cannot stress this enough: I KNOW Korean food is spicy but the Koreans I asked all said they only know of SWEET hot sauce. I want the stuff infused with lava to send back home.

Is there a speciality store anywhere in Seoul that sells nothing but hot sauces like those stores in the States?

[ChilgokBlackHole]

Wat are you talking about? Do you want gochujang? If you want Dave's Gourmet, you can have that drop-shipped from the states.

[joltaxt]

[sketcha]

I thought you meant the And1 basketball player ...

[Konglishman]

[Stalin84]

There is a hotter, more spicy variety of gochujang in stores these days. There are labels on the box that indicate it is more spicy and I do find that it is.

As far as being actually spicy though... not overly.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[redaxe]

Sauce isn't really what makes the hot food hot here. To make something taste hotter than gochujang, they just add fresh, diced hot peppers to it.

불닭 (bul dak / "fire chicken") is probably the hottest Korean food. Maybe you can find a jar of 불닭 sauce, like this:
http://www.bab-sang.com/shop/shopdetail.html?brandcode=022000000007

But they still sell much hotter stuff in the U.S., so there's really no reason to send something from Korea.

[Konglishman]

[coralreefer_1]

Try this one out - http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=121590355

I bought this at a local restaurant supply store, thinking I would try substituting it for buffalo sauce..BIG MISTAKE

This stuff is like fire..and that is not a joke.

I don't know about Dave's Insanity, but I do have a bottle of "Mad Dog's Revenge" spice extract that was brought from Canada. That stuff is 1,000,000 scolville. While the sauce in the link is not quite as hot as the "Mad Dog's Revenge" (an extract, so not for direct consumption) comparing the heat of the two, I would put that sauce in the link at about 600,000 - 700,000 scolville.

Honestly I don't think Koreans eat this directly. I think this is what they actually mix with the sweet sauce to make the sweet stuff spicy.

[pkang0202]

청양고추 is the spicier variety of korean peppers . They do make guchujang and gojukaru from 청양고추. As for a hot sauce like a condiment, I don't think you will find a Korean kind.

[denverdeath]

They also have this "Korea Zenith" stuff...

http://www.gmarket.co.kr/challenge_eng/neo_search/search_total.asp?SearchClassFormWord=goodsSearch&keyword=korea+zenith+hot+sauce

http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=177529253

The stuff in the second link is what I have...not the most flavourful, but quite hot.

[joltaxt]

Hey thanks for the links guys, definitely will check these out.

[frankly speaking]

I don't find any of the Korean pepper pastes or sauces to be spicy at all. They have rounded heat that makes your nose run and sweat a little, but my tongue has never felt pain like you would get from Habaneros or the like.

I don't think that Korean food is considered all that spicy or hot. I find that Wassabi is a lot hotter than anything in Korea and that only bites for the first few seconds.

[Old Gil]

In the same vein, I would like to buy some garlic bread in Korea to send to my grandmother's family back in Naples.