Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Next stop: Korea


From the complex Korean royal court cuisine to regional specialties to modern fusion cuisine, the ingredients and preparation are richly varied, and many dishes are becoming internationally popular. Korean royal cuisine, once only enjoyed by the royal court of the Joseon period, takes days to prepare. It must harmonize warm and cold, hot and mild, rough and soft, solid and liquid, and a balance of presentation colors. It is often served on hand-forged bronzeware. The foods are served in a specific arrangement of small dishes alternating to highlight the shape and color of the ingredients.

Korean meals are notable for the number of side dishes (banchan) that accompany the ubiquitous steam-cooked short-grain rice, soup, and kimchi (fermented, spicy vegetable banchan, most commonly cabbage, radish or cucumber). Although there is no prescribed order for eating the many dishes served at a traditional Korean meal, many Koreans start with a small portion of soup before eating the other dishes in any order they wish. Traditionally, meats are cooked at the center of the table over a charcoal grill, surrounded by various banchan and individual rice bowls. The cooked meat is then cut into small pieces and wrapped with fresh lettuce leaves, with rice, thin slice of garlic, ssamjang (mixture of gochujang and dwenjang), and other seasoning.

Snacks play an important social role in Korean culture. In Korea, snack foods (such as those listed below) may be purchased from street carts during the day, and at night many streets are filled with small tents that sell inexpensive food, drinks, and alcohol.

- Dumplings: typically filled with pork or beef, vegetables, special noodles, tofu and kimchi.
- Pajeon: pancake made mostly of eggs and flour, with green onion, oysters, or fresh baby clams cooked on frying pans.
- Bindaetteok: pancake made of ground mung beans, with green onions, kimchi, or peppers cooked on frying pans.
- Soondae: Korean sausage made of chitterlings stuffed with a mixture of boiled sweet rice, oxen or pigs blood, potato noodle, mung bean sprouts, green onion.
- Ddukbokki: a broiled dish which is made by sliced rice cake, seasoned beef, fish cakes, and vegetable with gochujang.

Other popular Korean dishes include:

- Bibimbap (mixed rice): rice topped with vegetables, beef and egg, and served with a dollop of chili pepper paste. Variation of this dish include, dolsot bibimbap, which is served with a raw egg is cooked against the sides of a heated stone bowl; and yukhoe, comprising raw beef strips with raw egg and a dash of soy sauce mixed with Asian pear and gochujang.
- Hoedeopbap: cubed raw fish mixed with fresh vegetables and rice and gochujang.
- Doenjang jjigae: soybean paste soup, served as the main course or served alongside a meat course. It contains a variety of vegetables, shellfish and tofu, including small mussels, shrimp and/or large anchovies. Usually, anchovies were used for preparing base stock, and were put out before adding main materials.
- Gamjatang (potato stew): a spicy soup with pork spine, vegetables (especially potatoes) and hot peppers. The vertebrae are usually separated. This is often a late night snack but is also served for a lunch or dinner.
- Haejangguk: this soup is a favorite hangover cure consisting usually of meaty pork spine, dried cabbage, coagulated ox blood, and vegetables in a hearty beef broth.

For more on Korean cuisine, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_cuisine

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