While food is only one aspect of a culture, I think food especially embodies the character and soul of the people, those who have brought recipes down through generations or mixed their own new flavors with old standards in the creation of something new. The food we eat sustains and grows our families; a carefully prepared meal can express our love for someone, celebrate the birth of a child, or rejoice in the union of families in marriage. The foods we prepare can reflect our society's bounty, or delineate the space between prosperity and poverty. Food is symbolic and meaningful; what we eat tells the story of our lives, simply.
When we knew we were going to adopt from South Korea, one of the first things I wanted to do was try Korean food. I had never had it before, and while eating the food specific to a country is not an education in its culture, values, or mores, it was at least a starting point, a place from which to jump into our greater education of Korea. Three plus years down the line from that jump I can safely say this: If the only requirement for moving to a country was a profound love for its food, I would be able to move to South Korea (among others) in a heartbeat. The unique flavor combinations, the spicy hot kimchi, and the pride taken in the presentation of the food itself felt both new and like home at the same time for me.
Even if I didn't love Korean food I would want my children to grow up knowing (and hopefully loving) the smells, textures, tastes, and sights of the food of their country and culture of birth, but living in Upstate NY we have very limited access to Korean restaurants. So we did the next best thing: we bought Korean cookbooks, researched recipes online, and began a culinary adventure in our very own kitchen. We have churned out some great meals by flipping to a page and following a recipe, but we're never quite sure if we obtained the proper texture or presentation of a dish. That all changed when I stumbled upon this website: Cooking Korean Food With Maangchi. Maangchi is my new hero for taking the time to make online videos showing how to cook Korean food. It's like beaming up a culinary teacher whenever I want to make a new dish. I get to see what the ingredients look like, how the vegetables should be cut, what consistency the marinade should have, what substitutions will work, and how the finished dish should be arranged for the table. And her recipes are great, too!
My very favorite Korean dish, bulgogi (fire meat) is easy to make and is so scrumptious it's like eating candy...whenever we make it we fight over the leftovers, and the kids wolf it down as if they haven't eaten for months. The same marinade is awesome on chicken, too.
A dish my mom and I had in Insadong that was terrific was bulgogi jungol (fire meat hot pot or stew). It is a great way to get your vegetables in, as they soak up the amazing flavor of the beef marinade and are hard to resist.
I also love bibimbap (mixed rice with vegetables), which takes a while to prepare but is well worth all of the effort.
While we haven't tried all of her recipes yet, we are happily working our way through them. I am so excited to have a visual resource to go along with our cookbooks. Really, go check out her site. The videos are fun to watch and the ingredients section in the left sidebar is especially helpful for those of us who are clueless as to what certain pastes, noodles, or spices look like. Cooking your own Korean food has never been so easy! Of course, it helps if you have a laptop that you can perch on your kitchen counter as you cook.
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I also recommend the books eating Korean (Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee) and Dok Suni (Jenny Kwak), both available on Amazon.com. We especially like the gamja-buchim (potato patties and dipping sauce) in Dok Suni, and the d'ak-dori-tang (stewed chicken with potatoes) is excellent as well. In eating Korean the recipe for yuja cha (citron tea) is as close as I have come to recreating what I had with my lunch in Insadong (my mouth waters just thinking about it), and the recipe for mandu (dumplings) is great. Happy cooking and, more importantly, happy eating!
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