Kimbap

Kimbap, meaning seaweed rice in Korean, is a Korean dish of cooked rice and vegetables, sometimes with cooked seafood or meat, rolled in dried seaweed sheets and served sliced into bite-sized pieces. It is widely eaten as a portable food for picnics and outdoor events and is a popular takeout dish both within South Korea and internationally. Its origin is debated: one widely accepted account traces it to Japanese makizushi introduced during the Japanese occupation of Korea between 1910 and 1945, while an alternative theory connects it to earlier Korean traditions of wrapping rice and side dishes in seaweed, such as the Joseon-era dish bokssam, though scholars generally agree that the specific technique of rolling seaweed around rice on a bamboo mat and slicing it originated in Japan. The Korean term kimbap first appeared in a 1935 newspaper and eventually replaced the Japanese loanword norimaki as part of efforts to remove Japanese colonial-era linguistic influence. Variations include chungmu gimbap and samgak gimbap.