Leading Busan's Gourmet Trend ... Busan City Publishes 'Taste of Busan' Guidebook

Busan City has produced and published the ‘2024 Taste of Busan’ guidebook and gourmet map in four languages?Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese?introducing local dishes steeped in Busan’s history as well as recent culinary trends.

Busan Food Guidebook (Cover).

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‘Taste of Busan’ features 144 representative restaurants selected through evaluations and verifications by district and county health departments, expert recommendations, online and offline big data, and a professional advisory committee of up to 10 members including university professors, food columnists, and influencers.

The guidebook includes not only basic information and gourmet stories of the restaurants but also vivid interviews with Busan chefs and first-generation founders who are responsible for Busan’s flavors.

Additionally, it presents B-FOOD (Busan Food) recipes developed using Busan ingredients, allowing readers to directly taste and experience the unique food stories that embody the spirit of Busan.

The gourmet map contains the locations and brief information of the 144 selected restaurants.

Busan Food Guidebook (Inside).

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The guidebook and gourmet map are available at tourist information centers, train stations, airports, and tourist hotels, and can also be accessed online through the Busan Tourism Portal website.

Now in its 22nd year, ‘Taste of Busan’ is widely utilized as a tourism resource not only domestically but also at promotional events for Busan held overseas.

‘Taste of Busan’ was first created in 2002 to introduce Busan’s restaurants to domestic and international tourists visiting Busan during the Busan Asian Games and the World Cup, and has since been published annually as the city’s official gourmet guidebook.

Last year, it was introduced as a best practice (Busan Gourmet Policy “Plan of vitalizing local food”) at the World Gourmet Cities Alliance Delis Network Annual General Meeting (May 30?June 1, Malm?, Sweden).

Moreover, at the request of the Korea Tourism Organization’s Paris office, the guidebook was supported for the ‘2023 Korean Cultural Festival Busan Special Event,’ and various institutions and organizations continue to request support.

In particular, ‘Taste of Busan’ has secured a significant number of avid readers to the extent that a trend called ‘restaurant stamp rally,’ where visitors try to visit all the restaurants introduced in the guidebook, has become popular.

Lee Sora, Director of the Citizen Health Bureau of Busan City, stated, “While ‘Taste of Busan’ initially focused on finding and introducing representative restaurants that embody Busan’s character, recently it has encouraged restaurants to strive for selection, creating a virtuous cycle in the dining industry.” She added, “We will continue to work so that the plaques attached to the selected restaurants of ‘Taste of Busan’ become a global mark of taste and hygiene, contributing to the revitalization of the dining economy.”

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