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Search engine marketing Myeong-whan, CEO of Mijeoggamgag, poses at an interview with The Korea Herald at his place of work in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul, April 26. (Kim Hae-yeon/ The Korea Herald) |
Korean delicacies, an crucial component of the country’s delicate electrical power along with K-pop and K-dramas that have a reasonably small record, dates back again centuries, with written documents of it heading back to the 3 Kingdoms interval (57 BC–AD 668).
In metropolitan cities, fantastic dining eating places that serve ornate modern Korean cuisines and smaller eateries with chunk-sized Korean treats are uncomplicated to obtain. Even so, locations that serve common food in manners and type that Korean ancestors applied to appreciate are hard to obtain.
The good thing is, there are those people who are fully commited to finding out, recording and passing down the traditions of Korean cuisine. 1 this kind of particular person is Web optimization Myeong-whan, a meals researcher and CEO of Mijeoggamgag, a food stuff consulting and cooking class heart.
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Poached egg with greens, 1 of the dishes served at royal court docket banquets through the Joseon era, as well prepared by Website positioning (Mijeoggamgag) |
For about 20 several years, Website positioning has been training and advising major business owners, restaurateurs and men and women who simply wish to prepare dinner Korean foodstuff in the classic way.
“When I was young, my father usually took a spoonful of handmade soy sauce just before starting up his meal. The proper sum of saltiness stimulated his appetite and helped digestion,” he claimed.
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Apprentice chefs prepare scallops for a seasonal dish at Mijeoggamgag. (Kim Hae-yeon/ The Korea Herald) |
Web optimization commenced performing at a huge Korean restaurant in Jinju in the late 1990s. Every time Search engine marketing, an apprentice prepare dinner, tried to obtain out and history the recipes, the cooks would yell at him, maintaining the awareness and know-how to on their own.
“They instructed me that the kitchen is a place to perform, not to learn. But I was certain that there had been numerous newbies who wished to see and discover the correct recipes, stage by action. Soon after work, I started digging into old Korean culinary archives and recipe publications,” he explained.
Website positioning would vacation much to get his fingers on aged publications on common delicacies. Amid them are rewritten variations of those to start with recorded in the 1670s.
Seo’s cooking lessons center about 3 themes — fermented foods, seasonal food items and tteok.
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Jangdok, common earthenware jars, are on display screen at Mijeoggamgag. (Kim Hae-yeon/ The Korea Herald) |
When training cooking courses, Web optimization emphasizes the relevance of time and tolerance involved in the procedure of building fermented food items, which he calls the to start with and the final stage of a “decent Korean dish.”
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Gujeolpan, a traditional platter of nine delicacies (Mijeoggamgag) |
Our ancestors did not try to eat namul uncooked, because of to the poisonous factors that keep on being when not rinsed or heated thoroughly, Web optimization said. Cooking namul effectively so as to not problems the freshness of the components and its dietary price is a tough skill to learn, he extra.
Search engine marketing retains six courses, every single with 5 students, a yr at Mijeoggamgag and finds that foreigners who be part of the lessons have a knack for comprehension seasonal foodstuff and elements.
“When it will come to namul, it’s not a make a difference of getting prior awareness about Korean foodstuff. It is essential to have keen senses to smell the scent and style the texture with no any prejudice,” Website positioning reported.
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Seo’s beloved picket tteok pattern applications (Kim Hae-yeon/ The Korea Herald) |
“I preferred to make tteok that I could enjoy, people that are uncomplicated to swallow, and fewer sweet,” he mentioned. He also learned that regular tteok was intended to be a lot less chewy and alternatively nutty and humble on the palate.
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Yaksik, rice with nuts and jujube (Mijeoggamgag) |
When asked for his definition of common Korean food, Seo’s face lit up.
“I research just about every day. The extra I examine, Korean dishes feel an unlimited question mark to me, rather than an exclamation mark,” Website positioning reported, incorporating that he is even now in the system of figuring it out. “Sometimes I would like I could time journey to the Joseon period to knowledge its culinary tradition myself, but that is only in my desires. Fairly than defining (what traditional Korean foods is), I hope I can get an inch nearer to symbolizing the original dishes.”
By Kim Hae-yeon ([email protected])