Korean Gim Seaweed: Park Ha-sun Shows Korea's Soul Food

Korean gim seaweed is in the news this week. Actress Park Ha-sun has produced a video that introduces gim (김, "gimm"), the thin roasted seaweed sheets on nearly every Korean table, to a global audience. Korean media describe gim as Korea's "soul food," and as a Korean, I'd say that label fits.

What Park Ha-sun's gim video is about

On October 29, 2026, Maeil Business Newspaper (매일경제) ran a headline with her saying, "I love Korean food," while introducing gim to the world. The same day, Star News (스타뉴스) reported that she is following in the footsteps of Ryu Su-yeong to spread Korean cuisine globally. Its headline calls her project a video on "Korean Culture Wrapped in Seaweed."

I only have those headlines, so I can't tell you how long the video is, where it is published, or exactly what it shows. The title still tells us the idea. Gim is not just an ingredient but a way of eating that carries a lot of Korean habits with it. The rest of this post covers that context.

Why Koreans call gim "soul food"

The Korean word for soul food is 소울푸드 (so-ul-poo-deu), borrowed from English. It means the food that makes you feel at home, the one you miss when you travel. For many Koreans, gim is exactly that.

Gim is a daily food, not a special-occasion one. It shows up at breakfast, in school lunchboxes, in packed picnic food and on the side of a late-night bowl of rice. Almost every Korean kid grows up with a packet of gim in the kitchen cupboard.

It is also cheap, light and easy to carry, and it goes with almost anything. When a Korean family is short on side dishes, gim and rice still make a real meal. That reliability is a big part of the "soul" in soul food.

How Koreans eat gim: wrapped around rice

The most basic way to eat gim is also the best known. You take a sheet, put a small spoonful of warm rice in the middle, fold it up and eat it in one bite. Koreans often add a little kimchi or another side dish on top. This habit of wrapping food and eating it in one bite is a big part of Korean table culture.

Most gim we eat at home is roasted with a little sesame oil and salt, so the sheet is crisp and savory. A single sheet is quite thin and a bit salty, which is why it pairs so well with plain white rice. The sheets are also served as a side dish (반찬, "ban-chan"), one of the small shared plates around the rice.

Some other common ways to eat it:

  • Rice ball style: mix rice with a little seasoning, then wrap it in gim.
  • Lunchbox style: the dosirak (도시락, "doh-shee-rak") often includes a small packet of gim to wrap rice on the spot.
  • Broken up as a topping: crumbled gim goes over rice, noodles or porridge.

Gimbap: gim turned into a meal

If you have seen Korean food on social media, you have probably seen gimbap (김밥, "gim-bap"). The name literally means "gim rice." It is rice and fillings rolled up in a sheet of gim, then sliced into rounds.

Sliced gimbap rolls showing rice and colorful fillings
Gimbap is rice and fillings rolled in gim and cut into bite-size rounds.
Photo: Gimbap and danmuji by bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gimbap looks a bit like Japanese sushi rolls, but the feel is different. The rice is usually seasoned with sesame oil and salt rather than vinegar, and fillings like egg, pickled radish, spinach and carrot are common. For Koreans it is picnic food, school-trip food and a quick meal from a snack shop, not a restaurant treat.

One of the headlines in this week's coverage, from Asia Economy (아시아경제) on October 31, reads "One More Roll, Please." It describes Korean soul food captivating foreigners. I only have the headline, but it fits the story. Rolled and wrapped dishes are easy for first-timers to try.

Where Korean gim seaweed comes from

Gim is made from laver, a type of edible seaweed that is grown in coastal waters, harvested, washed and dried into thin sheets. Those sheets are then roasted and often seasoned. It is a long process, and it helps explain why Koreans treat gim as a proper food rather than a garnish.

This video from the channel King Food (킹푸드) shows how Korean gim begins:

▶ 우리가 먹는 김은 이렇게 시작됩니다! 바삭한 한국의 김 — King Food 킹푸드 (YouTube)

Gim goes global

Park Ha-sun's project arrives while gim is already getting attention abroad. A video from the Korean economy channel 일등경제 carries a title that says people worldwide have discovered the taste of gim. It says American stores limit purchases to one per person, while gim prices in Korea hit a record high. That is the channel's claim in its title, and I have not checked those details myself.

▶ "김 맛을 알아버린 세계인들" 미국 마트에선 1인 1개, 한국에선 김값 사상 최고 — 일등경제 (YouTube)

The idea of a snack that is salty, crunchy and light has clearly traveled well. A celebrity video that explains where gim fits in a Korean meal could help newcomers go beyond the snack and see how it is really eaten.

How to try gim yourself

If you want to try gim the Korean way, start simple. Look for roasted, seasoned gim sold in small packs at Korean grocery stores, or at supermarkets and convenience stores if you are in Korea. Eat it with plain warm rice, and add one side dish if you like.

Check the label if you are sensitive to salt or have allergies, because seasoned gim often contains oil and salt. Once you have the basic rice wrap down, gimbap is the natural next step.

One more tip, since people sometimes mix them up: the seaweed soup Koreans eat on birthdays is miyeok-guk (미역국, "mee-yuk-gook"). It uses a different seaweed, miyeok, not gim.

FAQ

What is Korean gim seaweed?

Gim is dried, thin sheets of edible seaweed (laver) that Koreans eat with rice, in gimbap, or as a snack. Most packaged gim is roasted and lightly seasoned with oil and salt.

Is gim the same as nori?

They come from similar types of seaweed and look alike. Korean gim is typically roasted with sesame oil and salt for eating with rice, while Japanese nori is more often used plain, for example in sushi rolls.

What is Park Ha-sun's gim video about?

According to Star News's headline, she produced a video titled "Korean Culture Wrapped in Seaweed" to help spread Korean cuisine globally. The headlines don't give further details on its content.

Sources

Part of our weekly series — see K-Culture This Week (Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2026) for the rest of the week's Korean culture news.

Last updated: November 4, 2026

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