Dae Jang Geum

Even after the boom of Korean telenovelas in the country, such as “Jewel in the Palace” which frequently featured the exquisite cuisine of Korea, kimchi remains the most popular Korean dish in the Philippines. Like mangga, kamatis at bagoong or atchara, kimchi also found a place in Filipino tables because of its power to complement most dishes it is eaten with, making eating more exciting and enjoyable.

Korean Food Preservation

Korea’s affinity for food preservation is due to their climate; it has very cold winters. As early as the 7th Century, Koreans already started pickling their vegetables. They called the preserved vegetables (preserved with salt) yumjang; preservation ensured that they would have vegetables in their meals even during winter when vegetables are hardly available. Food preservation was so important to Koreans that even today, in apartment buildings with limited space, Korean families still keep rows of preserving jars in the spacious part of their houses.

Kimchi Notes

Kimchi does not only use cabbage as its main ingredient; as early as the 12th century, it was already made of pickled vegetables. Some of the vegetables used then were radish, cucumber and eggplant. According to Koreans, there is a historical record that shows that during the last part of the 17th century, there were already eleven types of kimchi. In fact, there are other types of kimchi that are not made of vegetables, like fruit, squid, and fish kimchi.

Actually, kimchi made from cabbage came only in the 19th century, when traders brought the vegetable to Korea. From then on, cabbage kimchi became very popular.

Kimchi came from the word chimchae which means preserved vegetables with salt; with that, the word developed and was changed to dimchae-kimchae-kimchi. And these days, it was already shortened to kimchi.

However, there are also other writings that state that the word came from chim-chae which means “submerged vegetable,” and was also known as gimchi or kimchee. The Japanese people have their own version of kimchi that is according to Japanese tastes and they call it “kimuchi.”

In the early days, kimchi, called yumjang, was just salted vegetables but, later on, was developed with the addition of other ingredients like garlic, onions, carrots, ginger and fish sauce. It was only in the 18th century that chili pepper (today chili powder) was added in the pickling mixture. Chili pepper came to the knowledge of the Koreans through the influence of Portuguese, Spanish and other Western explorers. The addition of chili pepper made kimchi more delicious and popular.

The mentioned mixture was then spread to the chosen main ingredient and sealed in jars, and allowed to ferment for about two weeks to a month (the longer the better).

Because of kimchi’s unique taste it was used in other Korean dishes and served as part of regular dishes such as kimchi soup, kimchi fried rice and others. The origin of kimchi may not be certain but what’s important is that kimchi has brought joy to Korean tables and today has spread out to other countries.

Source: Manila Bulletin

While the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) group wrapped up the annual summit yesterday, a buzz of a different kind took place at the lobby of the Busan Exhibition and Conference Centre.

A group of actors, all dressed in traditional Korean royal court costumes, including a couple as the “King and Queen”, gave the crowd a short demonstration on the royal court meal time and traditional Korean dishes.

The display, part of the exhibition on Korean royal court food, is aimed at giving foreign delegates and the media covering Apec 2005 here a taste of traditional Korean food.

Kwak Yong-hwa, a student of the Institute of Traditional Korean Food in Seoul, which took part in the exhibition, said most of the dishes exhibited were shown in the hugely-successful TV mini-series Daejanggeum (The Jewel in the Palace), which was also aired in Malaysia.

SHOW AND TELL: Kwak (right) explaining the set depicting how and what the royal couple ate at the exhibition on traditional Korean royal court food at the Busan Exhibition and Conference Centre yesterday.

The series is about Jang-geum, the first and only woman to serve as head physician to the King in the rigidly hierarchical and male-dominated social structure of the Joseon Dynasty.

The story tells how she had defied all odds to become chief cook, among other positions, at the palace.

One of the dishes prepared and exhibited by Jang-geum was bomandu (meat dumpling) – a dish she and a rival had prepared to vie for the best cook title.

Another was the geumyeong (fried sweet cookies made from strawberries), which a young Jang-geum had made for her ailing mother.

Kwak noted that three basic food represented authentic Korean food – kimchi (fermented vegetables, garlic and sometimes fish), bulgogi (fried marinated beef) and tteok (rice cake).

The exhibition, she said, had been successful as many foreigners had stopped by and sampled the food.

Source: The Star 20th Nov 2005

The popular Korean TV series Dae Jang Geum has not only piqued Chinese people’s interest in traveling to South Korea, it has also boosted a market for recipe books.

At bookstores in Beijing’s Wangfujing area, you can find recipe books from Dae Jang Geum, teaching you how to cook Korean-style dishes.

And, according to the books’ philosophy, family cooking is not just for housewives. Recipe books targeted to men are also available and are very hot items.

Source: Xinhua 1st November 2005