People who travel to other countries search for authentic foods. In my case, whenever I plan to visit certain places, I check famous dishes first.
Since 1990, Korean foods have been popular around the world. The Korean government popularized Kimchi, which is made of cabbage, garlic and spicy sauce, because Korean people always eat it and it is well known as a health food. However, since Kimchi is just a side dish, it had only marginal success. Even though people around the world know kimchi is good for us, people would not go to restaurant only for it.
After realizing it, we have provided free foods to foreign tourists in Seoul and surveyed. A majority of people voted for bulgogi and bibimbap.
Bulgogi is thinly sliced pieces of beef or pork that have been marinated in a special sauce and barbecued or grilled.
Bibimbap is mixed rice, a lot of vegetables, egg, meat, etc.
The reason these two foods were chosen is that people love meat and vegetarians are able to eat Bibimbap.
After testing for a while, the Korean government decided to advertise two foods intensively. Whenever the world leaders, such as presidents, politicians and scientists visit South Korea, they treated them those dishes, and also we promoted these foods in world food conferences.
After we struggled to popularize these foods, many people automatically think of Bulgogi and Bibimbap when they think of South Korea.
Once people enjoy those foods, they try to find other traditional Korean foods more and more.