Month guide

Korean seasonal food in May

13 items are at their peak in Korea in May.

Fruit (2)

Korean strawberries are a winter-to-spring greenhouse fruit, not a summer one. Seolhyang is the...

Maesil is never eaten raw. It is layered with sugar into maesil-cheong syrup or steeped into liq...

Spring blue crab is female and full of roe; autumn crab is male and meatier. Steamed, or cured r...

Spring anchovies are large enough to eat fresh — grilled or raw — rather than dried. Dried ancho...

Spring clams are at their plumpest before spawning. The base for kalguksu broth and the classic...

Small and tender, jjukkumi peaks in spring when the head fills with rice-like eggs. Usually stir...

Meaty and umami-dense, shiitake appears in spring and again in autumn. Grilled with sesame oil a...

Picked young, boiled and dried for storage, then rehydrated. Gosari is one of the fixed namul on...

Durup are the young shoots of the angelica tree, briefly blanched and dipped in chogochujang. Nu...

A softer, more herbal cousin of durup, eaten the same way: blanched briefly and dipped, so the a...

Minari is crunchy, stemmy and clean-tasting. Blanched as namul, piled into fish stews, or eaten...

Buchu is softer and more garlicky than Western chives. Folded into pancakes, tossed as a raw sal...

Chwinamul is the most aromatic of the mountain greens — blanched and sesame-dressed, or wrapped...

Item	Korean	Category	Peak months
Strawberry	딸기	Fruit	Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May
Green Plum	매실	Fruit	May, Jun
Blue Crab	꽃게	Seafood	May, Jun
Anchovy	멸치	Seafood	Apr, May, Jun
Littleneck Clam	바지락	Seafood	Mar, Apr, May
Webfoot Octopus	주꾸미	Seafood	Mar, Apr, May
Shiitake	표고버섯	Mushroom	Apr, May, Sep, Oct
Bracken Fern	고사리	Greens & Herbs	Apr, May
Aralia Shoots	두릅	Greens & Herbs	Apr, May
Fatsia Shoots	두릅나물	Greens & Herbs	Apr, May
Water Parsley	미나리	Greens & Herbs	Mar, Apr, May
Garlic Chives	부추	Greens & Herbs	May, Jun
Aster Scaber	취나물	Greens & Herbs	Apr, May

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