If you read most Korean food blogs, they will tell you that Koreans don’t eat coriander, aka cilantro. They’ll tell you straight to your face that cilantro and Korean cuisine have never crossed paths before.
As the Ask the Korean blog reported a couple of years ago:
“Korea has never grown cilantro, and cilantro is not a part of Korean cuisine. …
But Korean people’s cilantro-hate is nonetheless interesting, because it is a nice reflection of Korea’s insularity.”
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Korea has gotten much better for finding foreign products than when I started this blog. But some stuff is still difficult to find. One thing I have never made in Korea is lasagna. That already requires a good bit of work even if you do have ingredients on hand. What got me started was finding lasagna noodles at Home Plus....
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Many keep some cans of tuna in the pantry as an inexpensive source of protein. But for a number of Americans, the only purpose for canned tuna is tuna salad or cat food. Veer from the deep-rutted tuna salad trail with this easy recipe for 참치전 chamchi jeon. These little, two-bite-sized tuna cakes are seasoned simply with salt,...
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Cho ganjang is one of those recipes that is so basic and fundamental, I can almost make the recipe in my sleep. It is a quick, flavorful dipping sauce that complements “dippable” dishes. That includes fried foods such as 감자전 gamja jeon (Korean latke) or 부추전 bu chu jeon (chive pancake) as well as fish and 김밥 kimbap...
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Adzuki are small red beans commonly used in Korean, Japanese and Chinese confections. Called 팥 pat in Korean, these beans have a natural sweetness uncommon in legumes. Added sugar or honey during boiling to make the bean paste accentuates the sweetness for use in a number of East Asian desserts. Based on archaeological findings,...
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The onion does not have an ancient connection to Korean cuisine. But you wouldn’t know that, based on how popular the root vegetable is now in Korea. That’s in sharp contrast to the milder green onion, which has been a part of Korean cuisine for hundreds, even thousands of years. Onions were introduced to Korea just...
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Gochujang (고추장) is one of Korea’s most important “mother sauces.” It is the backbone of many popular recipes: 닭갈비 dakgalbi, 김치찌개 kimchi jjigae and 떡볶이 tteokbokki. It’s also used to make 쌈장 ssamjang, the quintessential barbecue condiment. Gochujang‘s fermented yet sweet demeanor can also add some spicy...
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I came up with this recipe the other night by combining that pumped-up pasta with a little kitchen craziness and some fresh 총각무 chonggakmu (Korean ponytail radish) from my garden.
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I will show you how to make a very simple recipe of stuffed cucumber kimchi called oi sobaegi.
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I couldn’t get my mind off that nakji gguri I had a while back, so I thought I’d try to make it at home. Nakji (little octopus) was on sale, so I picked up a pack. Also, this was a good time to use my jar of [amazon_link id="B000NB1NYI" target="_blank" ]Airborne Thyme Honey[/amazon_link], which I received as a gift...
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