Seoul Food- Cooking Korean at Home

January 9, 2006 4:27 PM

Korean Food—Help me get started making it at home.

I am interested in learning to cook Korean food, but have no real idea how to get started. I have had both homemade Korean, as well as the restaurant fare. Additionally, we have a “fast food” Korean place on campus here, and most of my Korean colleagues cannot answer questions I have about some of the yummy things I get there. I know what they serve is the junk food of Korea, but I am interested in learning the equivalent of Hamburger Helper right along side the home-style and finer cuisine. I love it all.

I can’t really ask the people at the restaurant for help, and my Korean officemate admits to not being such a good cook. With her child, her husband and her dissertation, she has little time to help me around the Korean kitchen. Trying to orchestrate a translation session with my officemate and the cooks at the restaurant is rather out of the question, as well.

I am looking for any and all resources that can help me out, as well as help me answer some very practical questions (Can a fishcake roll be thawed and refrozen? Which red pepper paste is the best one? Can I get that seaweed-nut candy here?). I cannot read Korean, so any visual help is especially appreciated.

posted by oflinkey to food & drink (8 comments total)

I like this cookbook. It is for total novices, but it had the bibimba recipe I was looking for.

Also, if there is a Korean church in town most have an annual food festival to raise money. There is an one around here and there is no short supply of old ladies happy to had down the wisdom of the right ingredients and where to find them. It's also a chance to stock up on homemade pickles.
posted by Alison at 5:38 PM on January 9, 2006

Try some blogs. This one frequently cooks Korean food and I'm usually impressed.
posted by stuart_s at 7:32 PM on January 9, 2006

I highly recommend the book linked above, especially for its overview of traditional Korean ingredients, kitchen equipment, the history of Korean cuisine, rules and rituals for the preparation and serving of food, and great pictures. The quantities for the condiment recipes are a hoot - feel like 160 fl oz / 5 litres of gichujang (hot red chili paste), or 240 fl oz / 7.5 L of nabak kimchi (watery radish kimchi)? You could feed your whole neghbourhood, or a single Korean family ;)

Start with japchae (mung bean noodles with sesame, beef and mushrooms) - it's really easy, and you'll be stoked by how close it is to the stuff you get in restaurants. Try Ken Hom's vegetarian version - it's great. Bulgogi (barbecued beef in lettuce) is easy, too. Work your way up to naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles with pear , hot mustard and cucumber) and haemul jeon-gol (an elaborate seafood hotpot).

Damnit, now I've gotta go buy me a big-arsed bucket of kimchi.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:10 PM on January 9, 2006

Spelling corrections:

'bibimba' = bibimbap (say 'beebeembop', basically), where bibim is (roughly) 'stir' and 'bap' is rice.

'gichujang' = gochujang (say 'go chew jahng', basically), where gochu is 'pepper' and 'jang' is sauce.

Probably both typos, but I thought I'd play pedant.

While we're at the literal translation game, bulgogi, which obiwanwasbi mentioned, is literally 'fire meat' and naengmyeon is 'cold noodle(s)'. I love me some Pyongyang-style naengmyeon.

I cannot read Korean, so any visual help is especially appreciated.

Learning to read hangeul, the Korean alphabet, takes literally a few hours to get down, and a few days to master. The sounds are, unlike in English, invariant, which makes it pretty straightforward. A little guidance from a Korean speaker on a few of the sounds that don't quite exist in English, and you're good to go. You'll find the ability to read and write the correct names of foods and ingredients invaluable. Haphazard pronunciation as a result of inconsistent romanization (which is as much the fault of Koreans themselves as anyone else, and is a long story) will frustrate the hell out of you, and any Koreans you end up quizzing about stuff.

There is only one way to make good, authentic food of any stripe, and that's to use the right ingredients. Unless there are some good, comprehensive Korean grocers where you live, where you can buy the real stuff, you're going to find it tough to make anything authentic. This includes some pretty arcane roots and twigs and shit that I'd never seen until I came to Korea, and that there are literally no English words for, that I'm aware of.

It's a relatively simple cuisine, but when it goes wrong, hoo boy, does it go wrong.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:28 AM on January 10, 2006

If possible, try searching for Korean grocery stores in your area. It's amazing how many dishes are now prepackaged (think "Hamburger Helper" but for Korean food so you just have to add a few ingredients). I'm Korean and I'd swear my mom makes the best stuff, but the prepacked things are not half bad (if you can get past the Engrish directions ;) )
posted by like_neon at 9:04 AM on January 10, 2006

It's amazing how many dishes are now prepackaged (think "Hamburger Helper" but for Korean food so you just have to add a few ingredients).

I think this may be more of an 'abroad' thing. My wife would certainly be aghast at the very idea. Then again, we're kinda purists about stuff like this.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:11 PM on January 10, 2006

But Stavros, from what I know don't you live in Korea? I would avoid freeze-dried, "add water and onions" sort of things too if I were as lucky as you ;). I'm just saying, as a person living somewhere that "Koreatown" is basically a half-mile street with two bbq restaurants and one grocery store, those "instant" meals are a pretty good option. And oflinkey did specifically ask for "Hamburger Helper" kind of things (in addition to the "good stuff").

At any rate, I've found that some Korean canned/prepackaged/instant stuff actually call for and recommend adding authentic, fresh ingredients. For example if you get the dukboki package you have to add your own gochujang (red pepper paste). Add a hard boiled egg and cooked ramen noodles for instant Korean cafe fare!

I've also been pleasantly surprised by the canned ox tail soup. I mean, come on, it's not mom's but it will do in a pinch and it won't take 2 days to make.

Here is a list of popular korean dishes. If you can find a korean grocery store, match up the characters (or just ask) to find the ones that appeal to you and perhaps there are instant ones available.

That geocities site I linked above is not too shabby a place for recipes, a quick glance shows that her recipes look very familiar to me. And she has a link to quick and easy recipes as well.
posted by like_neon at 2:13 PM on January 12, 2006

But Stavros, from what I know don't you live in Korea? I would avoid freeze-dried, "add water and onions" sort of things too if I were as lucky as you ;).

Yup. That's why I said I knew it might be a bit hard to find real ingredients. I know things are easier than they used to be overseas, as the sizes of Korean communities in other countries have grown in recent years, but I suspect it can still be hard to find the good, obscure greens or seafood, and so on.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:27 PM on January 12, 2006