Cooking pork belly at home to avoid pricey restaurant meals is no longer a cheap alternative in South Korea, with the cost of basic ingredients climbing nearly 12% over the past year.
The Korea Consumer Agency said on the 25th that the average cost of ingredients for one serving of samgyeopsal, or grilled pork belly, reached 10,191 won in the first half of this year, according to a theme-based price trend report released through its price-comparison portal Chamgagyeok. That figure was up 11.8% from 9,112 won a year earlier.
The survey calculated the basic ingredient cost of one meal based on 200 grams of pork belly plus 50 grams of kimchi, 15 grams of garlic, 70 grams of lettuce and 15 grams of ssamjang, a seasoned dipping paste. For a family of four, the ingredients for a pork belly spread cost more than 40,000 won.
Pork belly itself saw the sharpest price increase. A 200-gram portion averaged 7,866 won, up 13.6% from a year earlier. Lettuce rose 6.3% to 1,314 won, and kimchi edged up 1.2% to 585 won. Garlic climbed 10.2% to 281 won, while ssamjang jumped 19.8% to 145 won.
Restaurant prices, by contrast, rose more modestly. The average price of a serving of pork belly at restaurants was 17,745 won in the first half of this year, up just 2.7% from the same period a year earlier.
As a result, the gap between eating out and cooking at home has narrowed. The difference between the restaurant price and home ingredient cost was 8,173 won in the first half of last year, but it shrank by 619 won to 7,554 won in the first half of this year.
With restaurant prices rising and the cost of home-cooked pork belly climbing alongside, consumers are finding their options increasingly limited. As grocery costs continue to weigh on budgets, the food-cost burden on low- and middle-income households is unlikely to ease anytime soon.
