K-BAP the Seventh

          Hello, K-BAP followers. How have you been? It is already the last week of September in 2016. It’s been a week from the last K-BAP Story post about ‘Doen-Jang’. I am sorry. I was a little busy to study for my university exams last week, so I could not post anything. From now on, I’ll post 2 to 3 posts every week. Finally for this week’s K-BAP story, I’m going to give you the third post of Korean traditional sauces series. I don’t know whether you like the series or not, but I’ll do my best because the sauces are the most fundamental things in Korean food culture.

            Like the other foods of many countries, Korean foods also need many kinds of sauces. As a third post of sauce series, K-Bap the Seventh is about one of the most important sauces, ‘Gan-Jang’. Probably, ‘Gan-Jang’ would be the most familiar to U.S. people among Korean sauces. The name of ‘Gan-Jang’ is spelled phonetically. Practically in United States, this sauce is called ‘Soy sauce’. I’m sure that you have already seen this sauce before. It is being used in many Chinese and Japanese restaurants. Therefore, you can think that ‘Soy-sauce’ is Japanese or Chinese traditional sauce. However, ‘Soy-sauce’ is derived from original Korean sauce, ‘Gan-Jang’. Even, ‘Gan-jang’ was listed one of the gift items for royal wedding in Korean traditional history book, ‘Samguk-Sagi’. Based on this publication, it is being known that ‘Gan-Jang’ has been used from 6^th Century.

           Although the smell and appearance of those two sauces are similar with each other, there are clear differences between them. The easiest difference to be found is the taste of those sauces. Soy sauce is sweet while ‘Gan-Jang’ is more salty than Soy sauce. It is true that soy sauce is being used for more foods than ‘Gan-Jang’ because the taste of soy sauce is less stimulating. However, if you try foods seasoned by ‘Gan-Jang’, you might think it is better than general soy sauces. The essential difference between those sauces is the main ingredient of those. The main ingredient of soy sauce is the dough made of flour and bean powder. On the other hand, fermented bean is the main ingredient of ‘Gan-Jang’. You are familiar with the ingredient of ‘Gan-Jang’, right? Yes, it is also the main ingredient of ‘Doen-Jang’. In the process of making ‘Doen-Jang’, salty and black liquid is naturally formed. That salty liquid is ‘Gan-Jang’.

           Until now, I’ve posted stories of the most basic sauces of Korean food through 3 posts of K-BAP story. I hope that those stories about ‘Gochu-Jang’, ‘Doen-Jang’, and ‘Gan-Jang’ can help you to be more familiar with Korean food culture. Thus, for the future K-BAP stories, intensive course of Korean sauce would be posted. Thank you

- S.Choi -

K-BAP the Sixth

           Hello, My K-BAP followers. I think some of you might read the post about first ranking post of this K-Bap Blog. Do you think it was great information enough for you to find the places to buy Korean foods? If you have other specific questions about the shopping place for Korean food, leave your question in Q&A Page. It is already the sixth post of K-BAP story. K-BAP the Sixth would deal with the continuing series of Korean traditional sauce. The fourth K-BAP story was about Gochu-jang, which posted as the first one of traditional sauce series. Today’s target sauce is ‘Doen-jang’.

           At first, let’s see how this Korean sauce is literally made from. As I explained in the fourth story, Korean word ‘Jang’ usually refers to thick sauce. If you find any sauce’s name ends with ‘Jang’, it would be probably Korean sauce. Thus, if you wonder what the Korean sauce’s kind is, you should focus on the first syllable of it. In the case of ‘Doen-jang’, the first syllable is from the adjective means stiff. In other word, ‘Doen-Jang’ is traditional thick paste sauce. In Korean alphabet, ‘Doen-Jang’ is ‘된-장’. Remember what this sauce’s name looks like in Korean alphabet, and use it whenever you are trying to find it in Korean market.

           Secondly, let’s talk about how it looks like. Click this hyperlink ‘Doen-Jang’. That is how this sauce looks like. Yes, I know. It can be looked a little dirty. However, it is not the photo of “that” thing you are thinking now. Frankly, when ‘Doen-Jang’ is in its original state without any cooking procedure, it smells bad, especially for the people who have never tried to smell it. But, if you cook some kinds of Korean foods with this smelly paste sauce, those would become very delightful foods.

           Finally, let me tell you what exactly ‘Doen-Jang’ is. 된-장 is Korean fermented soybean paste sauce. I think some of you might already saw the Japanese ‘miso’ soup. The ‘miso’ is also fermented soybean sauce, but it was originally derived from Korea. Usually, Koreans use this sauce to cook ‘DoenJang-Jjigae’, which is a kind of ‘Gook’ made of ‘Doen-Jang’ and other vegetables. Sometimes, it is being used as dipping sauce for fresh vegetables or cooked meat. Although its smell is bad, it can be used to lose the odor of other foods like fish soup and meat soup.

           I can tell with confidence that ‘Doen-Jang’ is the most important sauce in Korean food culture. The delicious smell of ‘DoenJang-Jjigae’ makes Korean people to remind the memory of their mother's dishes. Despite it looks and smells bad, ‘Doen-Jang’ has meaning of home for Koreans. Thank you.

- S.Choi -

K-BAP the Fourth

           Hello, my K-BAP followers. It’s good to see you again. Thank you so much for your continuous following. I know you have waited for this time for every week. This is the fourth story about K-BAP. In the last K-BAP post, the story about specific explanations of the regional difference of Korean foods was treated. Even this fourth K-BAP post has no relationship with the third one, I strongly recommend you to read the last K-BAP story. The 4^th K-BAP story is about Korean paste sauce, Gochu-jang.

           If you have ever tried spicy Korean foods, you have already tried the Gochu-jang. Gochu-jang is one of the typical Korean sauces. This sauce is being used to cook most of spicy Korean foods. I do use this sauce when I cook some spicy Korean foods. Therefore, this sauce would be listed a lot as one of the ingredient for future K-recipe posts. As stated above, there are some typical Korean sauces including Gochu-jang, Doen-jang, Gan-jang and other sauces. Because of the geographical distance, some of them are also being used in other East Asian countries like China and Japan. However, different from other sauces, Gochu-jang is very unique sauce. It can be found only in Korean food culture. Now, you might wonder what Gochu-jang is. In literal explanation, ‘gochu’ is Korean word for red pepper and ‘jang’ refers to paste sauce. Namely, Gochu-jang is Korean spicy paste made from red pepper, malt powder, glutinous rice, fermented soybean, salt and sugar. I know how to make Gyeong-sang province(if you click this, you can see what this province is) version of this sauce. However, getting those ingredients and cooking utensils is very hard in this country. Thus, I would not post recipe for Gochu-jang. If you really want to see how it is made, follow this hyperlink. You can see the original process to make it.

           There is a Korean proverb saying “If you try Gochu-jang of any family, you can find out how the dishes of that house tastes like”. As the proverb says, Gochu-jang means a lot in Korea. Thus, trying Gochu-jang means that you already tried Korean culture a lot. I strongly recommend you to buy one from on-line shop like Amazon or from the nearest Korean food shop. If you have Gochu-jang, you can cook more than 100 kinds of Korean dishes without other typical sauces. Thank you!!

- S.Choi -