Guk

Guk (국), also sometimes known as tang (탕; 湯), is a class of soup-like dishes in Korean cuisine. Guk and tang are commonly grouped together and regarded as the same type of dish, although tang can sometimes be less watery than guk. It is one of the most basic components in a Korean meal, along with bap (밥, rice), and banchan (반찬, side dishes). In Korean table setting, guk is served on the right side of bap (rice), and left side of sujeo (수저, a spoon and chopsticks).

Guk is a native Korean word, while tang is a Sino-Korean word that originally meant "boiling water" or "soup". Tang has been used as an honorific term in place of guk, when it denotes the same meaning as guk as in yeonpo-tang (연포탕, octopus soup), daegu-tang (대구탕, codfish soup), or jogae-tang (조개탕, clam soup). Generally, the names of lighter soups with vegetables are suffixed with -guk, while heavier, thicker soups made with more solid ingredients used in jesa (ancestral rites) are often referred to as tang. Gamja-guk (potato soup) and gamja-tang (pork back-bone stew) are different dishes; the potato soup can be called gamjeo-tang.