K-BAP the Third.

           It is my pleasure to post this story of K-BAP for the third time. Thank you for your continuing following of my blog posts. From the previous story, you could get general information about difference of Korean dishes by regional groups. K-BAP the 3^rd is dealing with specific explanations of different Korean dishes by regional groups. As stated in the second story, South Korean territory can be divided into four regional groups. (Warning: following information is based on my own experience. It means there would be no information about North Korea.)

1.     First region is capital area includes Seoul, which is the capital of South Korea, and Gyeong-gi Province, and Chung-cheong Province. Because population of capital area is organized by so many people from all around Korean territory, you can easily find foods of other regional groups. However, those foods would be a little different from original ones because people in capital area add lesser salt to their foods than original ones. From more than thousand years ago, this area has been capital of previous dynasties of Korea. Thus, you can easily try the royal cuisine with small efforts.

2.     Second region is Gang-won Province. This regional group locates right on the Tae-baek Mts., the middle part of Baekdu-daegan. Because it mostly located on high mountains, people of this region were in short supply of food ingredients from many centuries ago. Thus, the food culture of this region concentrated on fresh vegetables. Furthermore, people of Gang-won Province add less salt to their foods for saving true flavors of those fresh vegetables. Eating those foods made by its fresh vegetables would be the greatest selection to try the original taste of Korean food ingredients.

3.     Jeon-la Province is the third regional group. It is located in southwestern side of overall Korean territory. This region is the widest breadbasket of Korea. In addition, this region has the most distinct change of weather by four seasons. Thus, people of this regional group tried to save the true flavors of foods to make the best tasting by the most appropriate seasoning in South Korea. Usually, Jeon-la Province is highly well-known for its great flavors of foods. If you want to try the best of Korean food, try those from Jeon-la Province.

4.     The last one is Gyeong-sang Province, which is the region where I came from. This regional group is located in southeastern side of Korean territory. Additionally, this group is very hot and humid region compared to other regional groups. Thus, people of this region added a lot of salt to its foods to prevent those from going bad. If you prefer to eat more seasoned, but more appetizing foods, try foods of Gyeong-sang Province.

Contrary to first two regions, Jeon-la and Gyeong-sang provinces are southern part of Korean territory. It would not be easy to go to those provinces. However, I strongly suggest you traveling those regions or trying foods of those regions. Those regions’ foods would make you satisfy enough. Thank you!!!

- S.Choi -

K-BAP, the Second.

           If you have read the first K-BAP story, you already have learned 15 percent of Korean food. Congratulation!! If you haven’t read the first story, this story can be difficult to understand. I strongly recommend you to read the first story. You can easily find it in the K-BAP Stories page. For this time, I am going to talk about the regional difference of Korean Food.

You all would agree that the foods of Southern U.S are different from Northern U.S. Even, the recipes of same dish are different from each other. Because United States is very large country, there is no wonder for regional difference. Compared to United States, Korea has a lot less wide territory. Thus, most of you might think there would not be regional difference of dishes in Korea. However, the taste, recipes, and even appearance of foods are different among the Korean regions. There are some expectable grounds for the difference, but two features of Korea are most important.

The first cause is the geographical features of Korea. There is a long mountain range called as the spine of Korea. The real name of this mountain range is Baekdu-daegan. (If you click on Baekdu-daegan, you can see the map of it.)  Baekdu-daegan ranges from Mt. Baekdu in the North Korea to Mt. Jiri in the very south of the South Korean peninsula. Because of this spine and its connected small mountains, Korean people could not avoid building different food cultures by regional groups.

The second cause for the difference of dishes is the meteorological characteristics. From so many centuries ago, Korea has been well-known as having distinct four seasons. Koreans have been set their whole life to weather of different seasons. The food culture was, also, no exception. However, the food culture affected by weather has been differently applied by the degrees of latitude. Southern Korean people added much more salty ingredients compared to Northern people added less salt to their foods.

According to overall characteristics include weather and geography that affected Korean food culture, South Korea can be divided into four regional groups. Capital area, Gangwon-province, Jeonla-province, and Gyeongsang-province are those four groups. In the next post, specific explanation and examples of these regional groups would be treated. Thank you!

- S. Choi -

K-BAP

The word ‘Bap’, part of this blog’s name, refers to meal in Korea. Usually, people say “Come and have bap” when they invite someone to his or her meal. This blog was made for you to have a delicious ‘Bap’, through reading future posts.

Some of readers might think “Why do I need to read this post despite there are so many Asian restaurants like Japanese and Chinese near the city, aren’t those same?”. In fact, that is half correct and half wrong idea. Usual Asian restaurants are the ones selling traditional dishes of East Asian countries, which include Korea, China, and Japan. Because those countries are close with each other, they have many things in common in the food culture, such as living on rice, handling chopsticks to eat. However, there are so many differences about specific dishes and ingredients among them because of the geographical features. There is ‘East Sea’ between Korea and Japan, and ‘Yellow Sea’ between Korea and China, so they could not fully share their foods. Therefore, I strongly argue that you would experience those different features of Korean foods from the other Asian foods through this blog.

Korean meal can be largely divided into three parts such as, Bap, Gook, Banchan. At first, Bap has various meanings in Korea. In addition to the meaning of meal as stated above, Bap means steamed rice, the staple food of Korea. Thus, Bap is so important to Korean people. It is usually steamed with only white rice, but you can mix rice with any other grains like beans or barley. Specific recipe to make Bap would be posted soon. Next, Gook is probably the second important food to Koreans. It can be easily explained as kind of soup. Normally, Gook is watery soup that boiled with many ingredients raised from Korean territory. Almost all kinds of meats, vegetables, and fishes are the main ingredients to make Gook, even sometimes pupa can be cooked for Gook. Finally, Banchan refers to side dish. As same with Gook, almost all kinds of ingredients are cooked for Banchan. Typical example menus of Banchan are Kimchi, steamed egg, dried laver(sea weed), and so on. There are so many kinds of Banchan in Korea. Even I haven’t eat more than quarter of them. Therefore, there would be many future posts about Banchan for this blog.

It is not easy to cook Korean food in United States. However, one thing you should keep in mind is that K-food has so many merits. Try it in your own kitchen, and Korean restaurants (if you can find them). Thank you.

          - S.Choi -