Banchan: Cook Korean Food

v1.0.22: Korean grocery finder, anju drink-pairing engine, 9am Today's Banchan push, Korean tea companion, honeycomb-tin dosirak builder. Built for the diaspora.

108 halmeoni-grade Korean recipes. Chef Minji in your pocket. Built by Korean-Americans, for everyone curious about K-food.

Everything in one app:

KOREAN GROCERY FINDER H Mart, Hannam Chain, Galleria, regional Asian markets across America — sorted by distance from where you are right now. Tap any store for instant Apple Maps directions. Korean food starts with knowing where to buy it.

ANJU MODE — Korean drinking-food pairings Pick what you're drinking. Soju + samgyeopsal. Rainy-day makgeolli + pajeon. Chimaek (chicken + beer) for Friday nights. Korean whisky highball + galbi. Anju (안주) is the entire category of food eaten with alcohol — and Koreans pair religiously. Now Banchan does too.

KOREAN TEA COMPANION Boricha is Korea's table beverage. Omija for fall, yulmu for winter, sujeonggwa for Lunar New Year. After every cooked dish, we suggest the right Korean tea to finish.

DOSIRAK BUILDER Build a Korean lunch box. Modern 4-quadrant office, dalgona honeycomb tin, 1990s school aluminum, stacked office bento. Auto-generates the grocery list across every compartment.

CHEF MINJI — your pocket Korean cooking guide Ask anything in plain English or Korean. She knows every recipe in the app, suggests substitutions, walks you through technique. Korean-American voice, big-sister energy.

108 HALMEONI-GRADE RECIPES Bulgogi to bingsu. Step-by-step with real food photos. Filter by spice ceiling (1 mild to 5 buldak nuclear), category, K-drama appearance, dietary needs.

HALMONI RECIPE CAPTURE Record mom dictating a recipe in Korean, English, or both. Banchan transcribes it AND keeps her voice attached to every step. Tap any step to hear her say it. Heritage Archive saves it forever.

MOM MEMORY mode For diaspora — the recipes you remember but can't quite reproduce. Type what you remember; Chef Minji reconstructs the missing pieces.

KOREAN MENU SCANNER Decode any Korean restaurant menu in seconds. Camera scan or photo upload.

YUMMLY IMPORT Coming from Yummly (shut down December 2024)? Import your saved recipes — we suggest the Korean cousin for every dish.

FERMENT TRACKER Kimchi day-by-day. Jang aging timeline. Notification when your batch is ready.

CULTURAL CALENDAR Boknal (복날 — hottest day of summer): we push samgyetang. Chuseok: songpyeon. Pepero Day: chocolate-pretzel snacks. Cooking on the Korean year, not the American one.

BANCHAN PRO 3-day free trial on annual, cancel anytime in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. Pro unlocks every recipe, unlimited Chef Minji chat, longer Halmoni recordings (10 minutes vs 60 seconds), Heritage Archive saving, every learning module, unlimited menu scans, and premium Korean cultural content.

$5.99/week or $39.99/year (less than one Korean cooking class). Subscriptions auto-renew at the same price; payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase.

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Built by Korean-Americans who got tired of "Korean recipe" apps that were just American recipes with kimchi sprinkled on top.

Universal AI LLC