The Cavalry has Arrived!!!

Today my Korean cookbooks have arrived. The first is Growing up in a Korean Kitchen: A Cookbook, by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall and the second, A Korean Mother’s Cooking Notes: revised edition, by Chang Sun-Young. Both these books come top rated on Amazon and appear to be the best English Korean cookbooks around when it comes to more traditional Korean cooking. It is my intention to use, when cooking, both and compare the recipes from both books to see what are the foundations to most Korean dishes. Hopefully, by learning to cook Korean food I will learn a lot about the culture itself and thereby transform this foreign country into my home. As Hepinstall states, “the sights, smells and tastes of food are inextricably bound up with a way of life.”

Before cooking, I read the books to see what Korean food culture has to offer. I found some interesting contrasts with Western food culture and some things that I feel make Korean food culture unique among Asian countries.

Confucianism heavily influences Korean culture. A traditional family structure places males at the head of the house while society considers women as second-class citizens. Confucianism stresses collectivism and community and coupled with the class structures, Koreans eat in groups according to gender and class. Males eat in one room, females eat in another and servants have to eat in the kitchen or pantry. Women were forbidden to speak while eating, traditionally, while males could converse. In addition, dishes and utensils were class specific in some households.

Though these traditions have changed, women are becoming less restricted and formalities are weakening among the youth, Koreans still hold to some traditions in their food culture. Confucian culture relies on simplicity; hence, Korean presentations are often natural and seemingly unconstructed. Traditionally and continuing today, most Korean dishes have tried to preserve the individual flavour of each ingredient used, with spices kept to a minimum.

There are only a few main spices and condiments: soy sauce, soy bean paste (Doen-Jang), red pepper paste (Go-chu-Jang), green onion, garlic (Korea uses the most garlic in the world), ginger, sugar, honey, and red pepper powder (Go-Chu-gar-ue). These can be found pre-made in most Korean grocery stores.  These ingredients combined with vegetables, meats, fish and poultry make colourful dishes. Koreans use colour in their cuisine in order to balance the nutrition: the five major colours are black, white, blue, red and yellow/gold (the photos in this blog were taken to show the colours of a ‘normal’ Korean meal).

The standard meal includes steamed rice, soup, multiple kimchi dishes, a stew and a preserved dish. For some meals, there would also be a pancake dish, some seaweed, and a braised dish or a grilled dish. During Korean holiday’s it is common for Korean families to serve up to 100 people with this type of dish combination. This is because Confucian communalism makes family far-and-wide come together in celebration for feasts in the holiday season. I can only try to imagine the work involved in this type of affair.

            To close with an interesting fact, Koreans are very loud eaters (in comparison to western culture). It is common to hear smacking sounds and slurping sounds during a Korean meal when soup, for example, is hot and spicy. This noise is not an impolite gesture, rather is a sign that one appreciates the tasty food. So, when eating the dishes contained in this blog slurp away and know that you are being polite!!

Korean Ottchil: Unique culinary art

Well, I have ordered some English Korean cookbooks and they are on the way! I will post a link to the books on Amazon and you can buy them to follow along if you like and to help in rating recipes that I post. Though I am currently not cooking in the kitchen, I still want to explore some of the Korean culinary world. So as I wait for the books to arrive, I went to a Korean Ottchil artwork museum in TongYeong  that had some interesting culinary items on display and for purchase!

Ottchil is an Asian lacquer that is harvested from the sap of an ‘Ott’ tree. The lacquer is harvested for 6 months beginning in June. Mid-July is considered the best harvesting time and produces the best lacquer. The most interesting thing about the process is that it is 100% natural and no chemicals are used in producing ottchil.

My trip happened to be a unique one since a friend of mine is currently taking an ottchil class by one of the museum curators.  He kindly offered to take my friend and I on a tour of the museum.  He explained the process as well as demonstrated how the ott tree’s bark is cut to harvest the sap. The process is similar to maple sap collection in Canada. Then he showed us some art pieces and explained how the process works. Ott paintings take a very, very, very long time to make as the ottchil is built up in layers and some paintings can contain 10’s of layers that need to be sanded and polished.

Now onto the culinary bit. The museum has modernised the ottchil traditions and began making cups, dishes, and utensils with ottchil finishes. I loved the cups that were there especially the unique cone cups that were patented by the museums owner Kim, Sung Soo (김성수). 

Best of all, you can purchase these unique items in the museum’s store. They are expensive however, about 100, 000 won for 2 cups. The set in the photo costs 590,000 won (about 550 USD). The prices, though high, are not that bad if you take into consideration the cost of production and their uniqueness. If you want a gift to take home that is truly unique and don’t mind the price, I would recommend coming here and reviewing the items.

More information can be found on their Korean website, http://www.ottchil.org/. Here is there address and phone number (there are no English speakers at the museum however):

Kyeong Nam, TongYeong City,
Yongnam Myun, Hwasam Ri #658

Phone: (+82) 055-649-5257

Fax: (+82) 055-649-5357

It Begins Here

While I was in Canada, I cooked often. My favourite thing to experiment with was curry. With over 20 different spices and books of recipes, I made curry a lot. Though curry was where my passion lied, I cooked a lot of traditional Italian as well.


For me the best place to begin thinking about dinner and what to cook is the grocery store or market. With a multitude of fresh produce available, it is easy to generate ideas on what to cook and possible dishes that would be seasonal. This only works however if you know the ingredients.

My journey begins in a city called Tongyeong (통영) near Pusan. Tongyeong is a small costal city that is surrounded by a multitude of islands. Becuase of its location, most of the local market food focuses on seafood. I decided to take a trip to the local market called SeoHo located downtown. As in Canada, the market can help me to organize my thoughts on what to make and what is seasonally available. The difference between the SeoHo market and Canada’s local markets was that I knew very little of what was in SeoHo market.

From the simply bizarre to the everyday vegetable, SeoHo market opened my eyes to the fact that I am lost in this world of new ingredients. The market began with fish, shellfish, and swellfish (urchins for example). I do not even know where to begin with naming most of what I saw in the first section.

After travelling through wonderland, I entered into the produce section of the market. I felt a lot more comfortable there. From Nappa Cabbage to Watermelon, I knew a lot of what was located within this section. What I did not know, and still do not, is how the ingredients are prepared and paired with the creatures from the previous section of the market.

     Finally, there was a small section of prepared food, dried ingredients and sauces. I was able to recognize the dried anchovies, soy sauce and seaweed or Gim (김) in Korean. It was clear by the time that I reached the weird looking desserts that I need help in trying to uncover the mysteries of these ingredients. Moreover, I will need help finding out how to prepare these ingredients the traditional Korean way. I want to cook authentic (taking into account variation amoung provinces) Korean food which is not adapted to my Canadian taste. This will be a challenge for the foriegn cook but I will make it!!

I have a long way to go in learning to cook this foreign Korean food, but there is help on the way...





For more information on Tongyeong visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongyeong