CULINARY TRADITION OF KOREA

Korean food is still thought of as exotic in the West and non-Koreans still consider it an adventure to visit a Korean restaurant. The pungent aromas and tremendous variety of things served with a Korean meal raise many questions and heighten the mystery that surrounds Korean cuisine. Best known is the tangy kimch'i dish of pickled vegetables that challenges the palate with a hot and sour taste that takes a few tries to get used to. Rice is the central element of the main course in any Korean meal, whether breakfast, lunch, or dinner. A simple meal can be made of a bowl of rice and just a few side dishes for flavor. Kimch'i would be one of these. Others would be cooked vegetables and perhaps some fish along with sauces such as toenjang soybean paste or kochujang red pepper paste. There is also a cup of tea. Soup is the second element of a meal and usually comes in a bowl to the left of the rice bowl. It ranges from the bland vegetable soups, one of which, the seaweed soup called miyok-kuk, is often eaten for breakfast, to the fiery tubu chige, a stew made of tofu ("tubu" in Korean) and red pepper paste with the possible addition of boiled clams. Mae'unt'ang is a popular fish soup containing white fish (cod, snapper, or pollock), scallions and other chopped vegetables, tubu, kochujang, and sometimes egg. The variety is very broad.

Arranged around the rice and soup are thepanchan, or side dishes. Koreans do not use knives and forks, though they use spoons for mixing and stirring things as well as for eating soup. The main utensil is a pair of chopsticks for the rice and side dishes. The lack of a knife is not usually a problem since the cooking process involves cutting things into bits that can easily be managed with chopsticks. One of the few things that is eaten with the fingers is a lettuce-leaf rollup of rice, kochujang pepper paste, and samples from the side dishes, that is popped into the mouth. Koreans do not normally eat desserts such as ice cream or cake. Pastries and sweets are part of their diet but they tend to be consumed in bakeries and tearooms and not generally after ordinary meals. Instead, there is something that is intended to cleanse the palate at the end of the meal. One typical "after-meal" is sungyung, a broth made from water boiled in the bottom of the rice pot. Another is a selection of whatever fruit is in season, often together with tea.

The famous kimch'i pickle, which could be called Korea's national dish, has many variations, but the main one is made with Chinese cabbage, garlic, ginger, salt, and red chili pepper and occasional other vegetables. The cabbage is cut and packed into a brine containing the other ingredients where it soaks up the flavors and ferments in special crock pots for more or less time depending on the season. Winter kimch 'i is made during a kind of national festival known as kimjang, which follows the cabbage harvest in the fall.  The food markets receive truckloads of Chinese cabbage and the average family will buy as many as 100 heads, with all the accompanying necessities including the ingredients for the alternate forms of kimch / that are made with radishes, turnips, and cucumbers. At home the women of the household will trim and wash the vegetables, prepare the brine, and pack the raw kimch'i away in big jars (called tok) to sit for several weeks before it can be doled out in small side dishes at the table. Kimjang is a major social occasion, a kind of national pastime where people socialize in the markets and in helping each other prepare the food. The process is the same at other times of the year but involves smaller quantities and different combinations of ingredients, and the fermentation period varies. In the summer it may be just a day or two.]

If kimch'i  is Korea's most famous vegetable, its best-known meat dish is undoubtedly pulkogi, composed of thin strips of marinated lean beef that are barbecued over hot coals. Barbecued beef ribs called kalbi are also popular. Pork and poultry are also common meat dishes along with fish. Meats are cooked according to a wide variety of recipes: ground, sliced, roasted, fried, or broiled, always with appropriate seasonings.
Being surrounded on three sides by the ocean means that Korea enjoys abundant seafood. The coastline is dotted with fishing villages and communities that make their living from the sea. The inlets and bays of the southern coast are full of oyster beds. The deep cold waters of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) are rich in migrating schools of fish. Shrimp boats light up the surface of the sea at night, attracting shrimp to the fishermen's nets.
Mechanization of the fishing fleet has enabled Korean fishermen to go farther out in larger boats and bring back bigger catches: some go as far as the South Pacific and the Gulf of Alaska in search of salmon, tuna, and even whales. Along the west coast, where the water is more shallow, fishing is sometimes done with traps that take advantage of the high fluctuation in tides to catch mullet, shad, and corvenia. Boats go out to catch ray, eel, and croaker. Cuttlefish and squid are favorites, and a favorite snack in Korea is the dried squid jerky called 6jingo that is sold in every roadside shop and grocery and convenience store in the country. Since no place is very far from the sea and transportation is excellent, South Korea's fish markets are lively places full of fresh delicacies for the table.

Seasonal Foods

Koreans look forward to each of the year's four seasons for the different kinds of foods that are typical of each one. The spring brings strawberries. Summer brings peaches, melons, and tomatoes, which Koreans count as fruit. Fall brings apples and pears and other delicacies of the harvest season such as persimmons. During the winter, people warm up with tea and roast chestnuts. People delight in the variety. The wide-scale adoption of greenhouse farming has also made it possible to extend the growing season. Sheltering fields under vinyl "tents" makes it possible to harvest Korea's succulent strawberries much earlier in the year. Bananas, which used to be imported, can now be grown in heated greenhouses on Cheju Island off the southern coast. And although Korea has always had mandarin oranges, Koreans now grow their own Florida-style oranges in the southernmost part of the country.

Chinese, Japanese, and Western Food

Koreans do not normally entertain guests in their own homes, which are set up as private domiciles. Nor, for the most part, do couples entertain other couples. Instead, women have their own friendships that are confined mainly to the household and to aspects of women's work outside the home, such as communal kimch'i making. Social life—that is, interaction with those who are not related but are associates in the "public" sphere—is more typically a male prerogative, and it takes place away from the house.
Though the household head may have a sarangbang visitors' room at home in which to receive and entertain friends, he normally prefers to go out to a restaurant, coffee shop, or tearoom to meet his friends and associates. So much interaction goes on in restaurants, in fact, that even the smallest Korean village has an establishment where one can order food and get together outside the home. The menu in the village restaurant may be wholly Korean, but in any larger town there will invariably be one or more Chinese restaurants. In a small city there will also be at least one Japanese restaurant. In a medium-sized city such as Taejon or Taegu there will be Western restaurants also, and in the largest cities such as Seoul, Inch'on, and Pusan there are world-class international restaurants, many of them in international hotels. The capital city features not only French, Italian, and American cuisine but restaurants that feature Mexican, Indian, Thai, and Pakistani menus in addition to thousands of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean restaurants. Koreans are also shifting their dietary patterns at home. Though rice is still the staple at any meal, there is an increasing emphasis on wheat products such as bread and noodles. Korean food takes a lot of time to prepare and Western convenience foods are continually gaining popularity as family members spend less and less time in the home because of outside obligations. This change in the pace of life accounts for the popularity of fast-food chain restaurants including the ubiquitous McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King.

Wines and Liquors

No important occasion is complete without a celebratory meal or feast, and no feast is complete without wine. Korea now makes very good Westernstyle wine from grapes, but traditional wines and liquors have always been made from grains, chief among them rice. The lowliest wine for everyday consumption in village wineshops all over Korea is a coarse, milky-white brew called makkoli, sour to the taste and with a consistency like soup.  The commonest types of makkoli ("quick-brew") are made from a rice mash that ferments in ten days to two weeks and is stored in whatever tub, vat, jar, bottle, plastic or metal container is handy. It is usually dispensed from a metal teapot and drunk from a bowl. Makkoli quality varies by age and place; however, there are standard recipes and the taste is so basic to life in the village that it stirs a great homesickness among soldiers at camp and students away in the city where vast quantities of makkoli are consumed in university districts. Moving up the scale from lowly makkoli, the common types of wine are t'akju, yakju, and soju. T'akju is a wheat-based wine made from grain husks that are left in moist cakes to ferment for several weeks and then made into a mash that is eventually strained, fermented further, and served up as a light beverage with about 10 percent alcohol content. As with makkoli, the making of t'akju is completely unregulated at the village level and varies widely in quality, taste, and alcohol content. Yakju is made the same way as t'akju but it is strained better and has a higher alcohol content, often exceeding 15 percent. Both t'akju and yakju can be served warm, which tends to increase their effect. Soju, the most potent of village drinks, is made from rice mash and is thoroughly strained and allowed to ferment until it is something like vodka, with an alcohol content of 25 percent. Soju is brewed commercially by liquor companies that make it under strict controls and sell it in bottles under brand names. Accordingly, it is more expensive than the coarser kinds of village wine. Variations on these liquors include chongjong, a rice wine that is served warm and corresponds to the better-known Japanese sake, and ginseng wine, called insamju, which consists of a glass decanter of soju with a ginseng root in it. Ginseng, which is prized for its restorative qualities and medicinal value, is best when it occurs in a root that resembles a human body with limbs. A decanter of insamju that contains a finely shaped ginseng root can be very expensive and makes an excellent gift. Under Japanese rule (1910-45) the colonial authorities took over the liquor industry in order to establish standards and collect taxes. They also imported new alcoholic beverages such as beer. Korea thus has acquired much experience making Western-style beer in modern breweries that are now licensed to bottle American and European brands such as Budweiser and Heineken. Korean distillers also make their own Western-style whiskies.

Drinking as a Social Event

Drinking is an important part of Korean social interaction, especially among men. In the village there is always at least one wineshop where the farmers gather after hours to trade stories and drink from makkoli bowls or small (one-ounce) glasses. Drinking etiquette involves rounds of drinks that are traded. When a person's glass is empty he is never supposed to fill it himself. Instead, the host or someone else at the table will make sure the glass is refilled or will pass him his own glass to share.
An honored guest is supposed to drink from all the glasses that are presented to him and to return the compliments by refilling the glasses of others. The result is that people at the table quickly become drunk. There are endless kinds of drinking games and there is often much merriment. There are famous occasions when the drinkers challenge each other to compose couplets of poetry within a time limit or be forced to consume another glass of wine. Drinking is almost always accompanied by singing, both individually and in the group.  In the uppermost strata of society, the drinking establishments are mansions with luxurious rooms where fine food is served and the merrymakers are waited on hand and foot by beautiful young women in traditional Korean hanbok dresses. Since all these activities revolve around the consumption of alcohol, there is naturally a considerable amount of alcohol abuse, and Korea is no stranger to the social and familial consequences of alcoholism. It is considered inappropriate for Korean women to drink alcohol until after their children are grown up. Then it is common on social occasions such as picnics for women to get together in groups of their own. These outings are often accompanied by considerable alcohol consumption, with resulting high spirits, singing, dancing, and occasional mishaps and hangovers.

By Donald N.Clark in the book 'Culture and Customs of Korea' (Culture and Customs of Asia),Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. U.S.A, 2000, p.103-108. Edited, ilustrated and adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.