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!!