Ask a Korean! News: Mr. Joo Seong-Ha on Kim Family Portrait Target Practice

[Index]

First of all, some background -- recently, North Korea threw a hissy fit over the fact that some platoons of South Korean army reserved used the pictures of Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un as target practice. Mr. Joo Seong-Ha gives a nice insight to the reaction. Below is the translation.

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Honestly, I was a bit surprised by North Korea's reaction over the fact that certain army reserve troops used the pictures of Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un and target practice. Of course, such action would never be acceptable to North Korea -- it would be like the reaction by a religious cult that got a wind of the news that the face of the cult leader is being used as a target practice by believers of other religions. But the problem is the methodology of how to report the incident. 

In a society like North Korea, something like "the South Korean traitors have used Dear Leader's portrait as a target practice" just cannot be said. I wrote this previously on the blog, but there was an incident during the 1990s, in which a South Korean entrepreneur was visiting North Korea. While having dinner and drinks with North Koreans, he said the equivalent of: "Men of Jeonju Kim clan can screw like a horse." Kim Il-Sung belongs to the Jeonju Kim clan -- in other words, the South Korean essentially said Kim Jong-Il is an animal in bed. In North Korea, you cannot let this type of story pass when there are other people listening also. That is the straight course to being a reactionary. A report was made, and the National Security Bureau arrested this businessman.

(More after the jump)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

But the problem was -- how can this incident be reported? You can't write: "This man said Dear Leader was great in bed." In North Korea, the writer of that sentence would lose his neck for blasphemy. The report writing itself was like putting a bell on the cat. In the end, no one could write the report, and the businessman returned to South Korea safely.

This is the kind of society North Korea is. While having an argument, one might point and yell. But the other person could shut him up by placing his hand to uphold the shirt breast which bears the Kim Il-Sung badge and retort, "Where do you think you are point your finger to?!" What I find strange is that a society like that would dare speak of Kim Jong-Il's face being a target.

Of course, the official statement does not refer to Kim Jong-Il's picture. This is the excerpt from the statement of the spokesman of the People's Army Central Command, released on June 3:

"The world will clearly see the vengeful response by our 10 million soldiers to protect the supreme dignity of our nation and people, and the fate of the traitor Lee Myoung-Bak and the puppet war-mongers who dare to provoke the heaven's wrath."

That's right -- North Korea is using the euphemism, "supreme dignity." That is an expression rarely used in North Korea.

Another strange thing is that Rodong Shinmun [TK: North Korea's official newspaper] is reporting the angry reaction of North Korean people. Reporting this on Rodong Shimmun serves no propagandizing purpose. No matter how much North Korean regime hates Lee Myoung-Bak, it cannot dare say "South Korea is using Dear Leader's portrait as a target practice." In that case, every North Korean would look at the portraits of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il in their house and imagine them being used as targets. This is not acceptable for North Korea.

But still, Rodong Shimmun reported in its June 5 editorial: "We can no longer bear the mutinous band's ploy against the Republic, which has progressed to the mentions of 'ideological unification' and has reached to the point of disrespecting our supreme dignity." Chosun Central Broadcasting and Pyongyang Broadcasting also reported the angry reaction of the North Koreans in Pyongyang Textile Factory, Mamyeong Cooperative Farm in Anak-gun, Hwanghaenam-do and a leather factory in Sariwon, Hwanghaebuk-do. 


The television stations also showed the criticisms by various North Korean public personalities in the press, education and labor union, such as the chief of the cabinet, dean of the Kim Il-Sung University Law School, manager of Pyongyang Botonggang District Quality Control Center, chair of the Central Committee of Agricultural and Labor Alliance, etc. They said things like "we will wipe Lee Myoung-Bak's thugs from the face of the earth by turning each of us into bullets and shells, exploding our accumulated vengefulness and endured indignation," or "the mutinous band must realize that there is no place on Earth where they can hide from the merciless strike by the People's Army."


Of course, the content of their speech is meaningless -- the speakers do not stand before the camera until they have been carefully casted and painstakingly practice down to their angry facial expression. They are just reading the script. But if their mock anger is based on the knowledge that Kim Jong-Il's picture was being used as a target practice, it would be a welcome news to me. As I said earlier, it is significant if North Korean people are given the room to imagine turning the portraits in their houses to a target practice.

The more North Korea talks, the more it loses. They might try to make their people hate Lee Myoung-Bak administration, but they will end up tarnishing the image of Kim Jong-Il. North Korean regime knows this, but why do they bother talking about "supreme dignity"? As someone who was born in and studied in North Korea, this made no sense.

I had a chance to speak on the phone with someone in North Korea, the same day the Rodong Shinmun editorial appeared. Before I even asked, he breathlessly spoke over the phone: "The border patrol is really stepped up because you guys are shooting at the flag of the Republic. The Security Bureau is on high alert and there is more cell signal detectors."

My jaw dropped. The regime must be telling the people that the "supreme dignity" means the North Korean flag. I should have known.

김정일을 김정일이라 말도 못하고 [Joo Seong-Ha's North Korea Real Talk]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

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Great article by Prof. Peter Beck of Keio University of the benefit of the potential Korea-Japan alliance, and what Japan needs to do to make it happen:

While Tokyo continues to claim Dok-do, the average Japanese just doesn’t care. Most Japanese would not be able to find the island on a map. Indeed, I could not find a single public sign in Tokyo or any other of the seven major cities I have visited concerning ‘Takeshima’. ...

I told my Japanese audiences that if Tokyo renounced its hopeless claim, there would be a flood of Korean goodwill. Yet, many Japanese believe this would undermine Tokyo’s claim to the Northern Territories (even though Moscow shows no intention of even discussing what it calls the Kurile Islands). Keio University’s Soeya Yoshihide argues that the real issue is Japan’s domestic politics: the right-wingers must be placated. Japanese are crazy about Korean food, dramas and Girls’ Generation, not Dok-do! Given Korea’s military control of Dok-do, Tokyo’s claim should be ignored.

A Korea-Japan alliance? [East Asia Forum]

Parts of the article sounds awfully like the Korean's idea of a potential Godfather offer that Japan can make to instantly improve its relations with Korea. The Korean can't help but think he might be in the wrong gig.

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The Korean's Summer Barbecue Recipe

The Korean strives to be a reasonable, even-keeled person, but he cannot help himself in one particular area: Korean food. When it comes to Korean food, the Korean will be more unreasonable than a tiger sports dad attending a peewee football game. He will be totally biased, irrational and obnoxious. He will utterly disregard the reasonable preference of everyone else. He will lose his shit and wantonly issue death threats to anyone who gives a bad recipe.

The most recent recipient of the Korean's rage is Mark Bittman, who presented this "Korean" recipe to the New York Times. Now, the Korean actually likes Mark Bittman's work, as Mr. Bittman presents great insights on food and food culture. Mr. Bittman also gave a clear disclaimer: "I will not (and cannot) claim that every element of this menu is legitimately Korean." And please, read the paragraph above just one more time -- the Korean is not a rational person when it comes to Korean food. He is a crazy raving lunatic. You don't have to listen to him.

Having said all that...

GO DIE IN A FIRE, MARK BITTMAN. Boston lettuce leaves for ssam? Why not eat sandpaper instead? And gochujang for ssam too? What are you, 10 years old? And who told you that there is such Korean food as "grilled scallion salad" and "Korean potato salad"? Where did you get your recipe from, David Chang?

And the greatest, most unforgivable sin of all -- soy sauce in kimchi. What the fuck. WHAT. THE. FUCK. The Korean nearly had a heart attack just reading that. Thanks asshole, soon all the trendy restaurants will serve soy sauce cabbage and call it kimchi (but pronouncing it "keem-shee".) Go to hell and die.

And the idiots who commented on the article about how gochujang (chili bean paste) is never made with beans, fuck you too. Gochujang is made with beans. Have you even seen a meju, dipshit? That's the fermented block of ground beans, from which doenjang, gochujang and ganjang are made. It also looks like your face -- ugly. Shut the fuck up if you don't know what you're talking about.

::::HYPERVENTILATING::::

Ok. Alright. Even amid this irrationality, the Korean still has enough sense to think: if you don't like something, don't just criticize -- offer an improved suggestion. So here are the Korean's suggested recipe for a real deal, backyard Korean barbecue.

The recipes, after the jump.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.


Here is the Korean's suggested Korean barbecue spread -- meat, a side dish, a nice chilled soup to wash it down, and a summery dessert.

L.A. Galbi  [L.A. 갈비]

Ingredients
Beef short ribs, cut horizontally
Soy sauce
Sugar
Minced garlic
Sesame oil
Toasted sesame seeds
Grated onion
Scallions
Kiwi

Cooking
- Soak the short ribs in cold water for at least 30 minutes, up to 1.5 hour. This lets out the blood from the beef and allows for a better marinade. Keep changing water until no more blood comes out, then drain.

- Make the marinade. Pour a few cups of soy sauce in the bowl. Taste, and remember that baseline. Add sugar until the marinade becomes significantly sweet. (Usually achieved at around 1/4 part of sugar for every one part of soy sauce.) Add minced garlic, about half to 2/3 of the amount of sugar. Add grated onion, in approximately the same amount as the minced garlic. Add some measure of sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and cut scallion, adjusting to taste. (Note: This marinade will take some trial and error, but each ingredient may be adjusted depending on personal taste. Just remember that the actual meat will be much less salty/sweet/etc. than the marinade.)

- Add grated kiwi to the marinade -- no more than 1/2 kiwi per pound of beef. Kiwi makes the beef soft, but too much kiwi ruins the texture.

- In a large bowl, put a layer of ribs. Use a spoon to apply the marinade, and add another layer of meat on top. Apply the marinade again, repeat. Marinade in the refrigerator between two to 24 hours.

- Grill, preferably on charcoal. Grill well-done, with slight char on the outside. Start with the meat on the bottom of the marinade bowl, as the liquid marinade sinks to the bottom.

- Note: the meat actually does not have to be the ribs, but that is the meat of choice for Korean Americans. The marinade works equally well with brisket or chicken, for example. In fact, as the name suggests, L.A. galbi is a distinctively Korean American dish, as Korean Americans popularized the use of short ribs instead of whole ribs as Koreans in Korea do.

Scallion Salad [파무침/파절이]

Ingredients
Scallion and/or Korean leek

Soy sauce

Sugar

Sesame oil

Toasted sesame seeds

Vinegar

Hot pepper powder (gochugaru)

Cooking

- Julienne the scallion and/or leek thinly and around two inches in length.

- Make the dressing. Two parts soy sauce, three parts vinegar, one part gochugaru, quarter part sugar. (Use a spoon to measure.) Just a splash of sesame oil and some toasted sesame seeds.

- Toss with the cut scallion/leek, serve with galbi.

Vegetable Wrap [쌈]

Ingredients

Red leaf lettuce
Sesame leaves
Garlic cloves, cut thinly.
Long hot green peppers, thinly cut diagonally
Ssamjang [쌈장] - buy it from a Korean market
L.A. Galbi
Scallion salad

Cooking/Eating
This is actually not a separate dish, but a manner of eating meat. Grab either a red leaf lettuce leaf or sesame leaf (or both layered together, as the Korean likes to do,) and place on top the meat, scallion salad, garlic cloves, cut peppers and ssamjang. The cut garlic gloves may be cooked on the grill also, if you prefer cooked garlic over raw ones. Make a small bowl with aluminum foil, place the cut garlic gloves and put it on top of the grill. Make a small wrap with the leaf. Eat.

Chilled Cucumber Soup [오이냉국]

Ingredients

Cucumber

Red pepper

Toasted sesame seeds

Sugar

Salt

Vinegar

Gochugaru

Soy sauce

Minced garlic

Cooking

- Chill cucumber in the refrigerator. Once chilled, julienne it thinly and around two inches in length. Place in a clear bowl.

- Using a spoon, add one part soy sauce, one-half part minced garlic, one-third part sugar. Toss with cucumber.

- Mix cold water with: one part sugar, five parts vinegar, half part salt. Adjust to taste. Go for tangy and slightly sweet.

- Pour the cold water mixture over cucumber.

- Float a dash of gochugaru and toasted sesame seeds. Thinly cut red pepper diagonally and add.

- Add ice and serve.

Chilled Watermelon Punch [수박화채]

Ingredients

Watermelon

Sugar

Salt

Cooking

- Cut a chilled watermelon in half.

- Using an ice cream scoop, hollow the half watermelon by making round balls of watermelon flesh. Save the watermelon balls in a separate dish.

- Use the knife to take out the remaining watermelon flesh until the half watermelon becomes a hollow bowl. Cut the bottom tip such that the shell can be used as a dish.

- Pour out the watermelon juice in a separate container.

- Puree or grate the leftover watermelon flesh and mix with the watermelon juice.

- Boil equal parts of water and sugar in a pot to make slightly viscous syrup. Chill the syrup.

- Add the watermelon balls in the hollow watermelon shell. Pour watermelon juice/puree mixture. Add the chilled syrup, adjusting to taste. Add a pinch of salt.

- Add ice to the mixture and serve. 

- Note: a punch bowl works just as well as a half shell watermelon.

Enjoy, and let the Korean know how they turned out.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

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Wesley Yang Replies -- The Korean's Short Reply, and Some Observations

Wesley Yang wrote a reply to my post about his New York Magazine article. Here is the link. I have a brief response, and some observations.

First, the response:

Asian Americans are unfairly stereotyped. That, I agree wholeheartedly. But what sets me apart from Yang is (as he correctly noted in his reply) that Yang dares to find a causal link "between those stereotypes and the reality of the way Asians behave," in an attempt to have a "balanced view."

I will present such "balanced view" in a different area to give some perspective as to why I find it so objectionable:

There is a dynamic relationship between rapes and the behaviors in which the rape victims engaged prior to being raped. We should acknowledge that relationship. Police records show ample objective indications of how rape victims behaved prior to being raped. They show that the rape victims seen by their rapists as unchaste, sexually promiscuous and inviting random sexual encounters. These rapists, I'm sure, were governed partly by their stereotypes about women who dress suggestively, drink profusely and dance provocatively. They were also, I'm sure, observing things that were really happening in the actual behavior of their victims. 

Is this "balanced," or odious?

To be perfectly clear: I do not believe at all that "Asian values" lead to timidity, passivity and all the other characteristics with which we are stereotyped. It is not true, for all the reasons I stated previously. But I do recognize that there is a reasonable doubt as to my position. It is not a bad idea to examine whether there indeed is a causal link between "Asian values" and the stereotypes held against Asian Americans. After all, I would certainly want my daughter to dress conservatively, drink moderately and avoid unsafe neighborhoods.

But if one wanted to discuss the relationship between (1) a social ill, and (2) the behavior of the victims of that social ill, one should make it blindingly clear that the fault wholly lies with the fuckers who cause the social ill. Rapists are not supposed to rape, regardless of the victim's behavior. Mainstream America is not supposed to stereotype, regardless of what some Asian Americans do. If indeed Wesley Yang's NY Mag article was dealing with unfair stereotypes that Asian Americans face as Yang claims in his reply, the article should have started with this moral message and interspersed the message throughout the story -- instead of slipping it in the middle of the reply to a lesser-known blogger made on his personal blog.

In my favorite part of his reply, Yang wrote:

But you know what? During all that time, I was nevertheless always a strong, healthy, well-educated, well-spoken, variously talented man in the prime of my adulthood, and dudes like that, if they are white, even if they are total losers, or assholes, or drunks, or drug-addicts, or on a half-dozen psychotropic drugs, always have some girl wiling to bed them in this city where I live in and everyone knows it.

I see where you are coming from, Wesley. Why didn't you write that in New York Magazine?

Some observations, after the jump.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.



Now, several observations.

Observation 1

The short version of my take on Yang's article is this: "Yang's article is about himself, not a larger social message. But the article will be inevitably taken as a social commentary. To the extent it will be, I disagree with that social commentary." By setting up my post that way, I actually gave Yang exactly what he craved from America -- being treated like an individual who tells his own story.

Yang's reply clarifies his intention -- he actually wanted to make a social commentary through his life story. That makes him a kind of an anti-Amy Chua. Amy Chua wanted to tell her own story, and that was all. But because of her minority status, she is being held as the stereotypically obsessive and abusive Asian mother. Now she needs to go around the world and defend the book that she never wrote. In contrast, Wesley Yang did not just write his own story. He wants his life story to be an archetype -- stereotype -- applicable to other Asian Americans.

Both Amy Chua and Wesley Yang faced the charges that they were feeding the stereotypes. But only one of them deserves that criticism.

Observation 2

On a lighter note: isn't the over-representation of Asian Americans in pick-up classes a victory for Asian values? The attendees of those classes correctly identified a challenge in their lives, and they are doing something about it despite potential for massive humiliation. Men, ask yourselves -- would you go to one of these classes if you were going through a dry spell in your dating life? I wouldn't. I would rather die alone. To me, Asian Playboy is not a creep at all -- he's a hero.

Observation 3

Different opinions are often the product of different assessment of reality. And the key difference between those who felt more in line with me (let's call them "Team TK" for short) and those who felt more in line with Wesley Yang ("Team WY" for short) is over just what "Asian value" is. It is the different assessment of the reality of "Asian value" that leads to the different opinions for Team TK and Team WY.

I have met many Asian Americans in my life in different areas of America. I have also met many more through this blog. And I find that Team TK and Team WY have certain recognizable membership profiles. Team TK is more likely to be 1.5 generation, bilingual, have regular exposure to (both traditional and modern popular) culture from Asia and grew up in the West Coast. Team WY is more likely to be second generation, monolingual, have little exposure to Asian culture and grew up in the East Coast, Midwest or the South. (I probably shouldn't have to say that this is a huge over-generalization, but out of abundance of caution I will.) This difference in experience leads to a different perception of Asian values. Team TK sees Asian value as complex and multidimensional; Team WY sees Asian value as flat and unidimensional.

For example, Wesley Yang speaks in his reply of deference to authority, a commonly given example of Asian value. But the rarely discussed flip side of that Asian value is how the lower-ranked person in a hierarchy can still get the boss to do what she wants while maintaining the appearance of the deference to authority. Yang sets up risk-taking and brashness as opposite of Asian values, but I see plenty of risk-taking in the immigrants' decision to come to America, and plenty of brashness in the Korean shopkeepers in Los Angeles swap meets. Even Yang recognizes in his reply: "Something that all people who think Asians are nerds and weaklings that they can pick on with impunity sometimes discover to their detriment is that Korean men, in particular, are angry, violent people who will fight and fight dirty." Our willingness to fuck up who dares to cross us is just as Asian as our willingness to listen to our parents and teachers.

The main fault line that divides the members of Team TK and Team WY (and their respective archetypes, The Korean and Wesley Yang) is the depth of engagement in Asian values. When one grows up in areas with relatively few other Asian Americans and speaks little Asian language, one's image of Asian values is thin and monochromatic. The stereotypes about Asian values seem more convincing, because the superficiality of such stereotypes corresponds well with the superficiality of one's knowledge of Asian values. On the other hand, when one grows up in areas with huge numbers of diverse Asian Americans and constantly interacts with Asia in some for or another, one's image of Asian values becomes dense and robust. The stereotypes about Asian values seem laughable, because the superficiality of such stereotypes obviously fails to correspond with the depths of one's understanding about Asian values.

I don't doubt that the feelings of marginalization and alienation felt by Team WY are genuine. It is not as if Team TK does not go through those feelings. But when it comes to worldview, which one is truer -- one that is based on more knowledge, or less?

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

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Very nice New York Times article about interracial dating featuring a Korean American man, his parents, and Diane Farr, the star of Numb3rs on CBS. A sample:

Once seated, I began to dissect my burrito, looking to expel anything that might singe my half-Irish, half-Italian and wholly American palate. While running my fork through the black beans, I asked my Korean-American suitor, “Do you intend to leave me for an Asian girl someday?”

Seung paused for just a moment too long.

As my smile began to wane, he finally replied, “I’m supposed to marry a Korean girl.”

My mind raced: What? Do you have another girlfriend? And was that her friend outside?

Seung added, “My parents have been clear about this my entire life.”

...

I told him that as a 35-year-old woman who had already made my way in the world, I didn’t need his parents to accept me. They lived far away, we were not financially dependent on them, and I could be respectful to them no matter what, because I respected the man they’d made.

Seung then smiled and said, “That’s good to know because I have a plan.”

He explained that, weeks before, he had begun a campaign to make his parents like, accept or at least not hate me, and to not disown him. This campaign included systematic leaks of information to his parents by family members who were sympathetic to his affection for someone outside of their race.

“Terrific strategy, honey,” I said, trying to hide how unsettled I felt.

Bringing Home the Wrong Race [New York Times]

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What is Korean Food?

The Korean is very serious and totally irrational about Korean food. He does not want any of the so-called "globalization" of Korean food that Korean government is pushing nowadays, because it will inevitably lead to vile bastardization of the food. (Like bibimbap with guacamole, for example.)

The objection to this view is consistent, and actually makes a lot of sense. It goes: "What can be defined as 'Korean food'? Kimchi is such a big deal in Korean food, but the current form of kimchi did not happen in Korea until the 16th century. What about kalguksu, which did not exist in Korea until the Americans brought in flour after World War II? Is that Korean food? If there can be no meaningful cutoff point as to what counts as Korean food, how can you say anything about 'bastardization'?"

To address this point, it is important to figure out the answer to the first question: Just what counts as "Korean food"? The Korean's favorite Korean food blog is 악식가의 미식일기, and Mr. Hwang Gyo-Ik who writes the blog has the best answer that the Korean has seen so far. It is a bit long, but Mr. Hwang's insight is hugely valuable if you consider yourself a food person. Below is the translation.

*            *           *

To Globalize Korean Food

Globalization of Korean food is the topic du jour in the restaurant business. The government is also actively developing policies for the globalization of Korean food. The first lady reportedly is taking an advisory role to this project. The government also established the "tteokbokki lab" to "improve" tteokbokki, which apparently is the prime candidate for globalization among Korean food. Surely it is expecting that Korean food would play a role in improving the value of Korea's national brand.

Any Korean would welcome the government's effort to enhance the national image by inviting the world to enjoy our food culture. As for myself who had been making a living around Korea's food culture for 20 years,  I am feeling thankful that the government is actively promoting policies in an area that was considered lower compared to other culture.

But there is a need to account for the definition and scope of just what is the Korean food that the government plans to globalize, and clarify the objects for globalization. This is because after having attended a number of events related to Korean food's globalization, I am experiencing a great deal of confusion -- the kind of confusion that is caused when shinseonro, the symbol of Joseon Dynasty's royal cuisine, and tteokbokki, the people's food developed in the 1960s, were placed side by side.

Shinseonro. The Korean has never once eaten this.

(The OP does not have any pictures; all pictures are the Korean's additions.)

(Source)

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.





Is all food consumed by Koreans Korean food?


Korea Advanced Food Research Institute and Yonsei University, which had been commissioned by the government to issue a research report titled "Visions and strategies of Korean food's globalization and Korean food's marketing model," define "Korean food" as following:

"The food that: (1) is created by utilizing the food ingredients that had been traditionally used in Korea and similar ingredients, (2) is created by cooking with Korea's own methods or similar methods; (3) has Korean people's historical and cultural characteristics, and; (4) is invented, developed and inherited in accordance with Korean people's living environment."

This may be an excellent scholarly definition. But the problem is that if one applied this definition to each dish that today's Korean people eat, there is no food that is not Korean food. "Food ingredient" means the meat and plants that can be obtained in nature that do not cause death or illness after consuming. In other words, "the food ingredients that had been traditionally used in Korea and similar ingredients" might as well mean "all food ingredients." If one points out that caviar is not a Korean food ingredient, for example, we could retort that Koreans have traditionally used similar ingredients, i.e. fish roe.

The same goes for "created by cooking with Korea's own methods or similar methods." Cooking methods include cutting, pickling, boiling, blanching, roasting, steaming, reducing, simmering, fermenting, etc. Looking at the world's food cultures, these cooking methods are globally similar. It would be fair to say that for thousands of years since humans discovered the use of tools and fire, people of the world have been cooking in approximately similar manners.

The last requirements, "has Korean people's historical and cultural characteristics" and "is invented, developed and inherited in accordance with Korean people's living environment," show that Korean food has a spiritual/cultural component to it. In fact, this spiritual/cultural element may play the most important role in defining Korean food. An example of the historical/cultural characteristic could be the "clash of flavors" exemplified by the mixture of rice and several side dishes or a wrap involving meat and vegetables. It could be the "manners" in which the meal begins only after the elders pick up their spoon; it could also be "table culture" in which a group of people sit around and enjoy the food together. But the limit of this approach is that Korean people's historical/cultural characteristics are varied, dualistic and often clashing in a confusing manner.

Then, just what is Korean food? Is Korean food something that can feature the whole world's ingredient, the whole world's cooking methods, and at once the genteel table setting of a Joseon Dynasty nobleman and a rowdy festival of roasted pork grilled on the table? In fact, this confusion is not confined to myself. For the last year, I had been asking everyone who is involved in Korea's food culture -- "What is Korean food?" A hundred people gave a hundred different answers. Actually, a hundred people gave forty different answers -- about 60 percent of the people thought out loud for a bit, then could not settle on an answer. Among the answers, the most common was "fermented food." Other answers included: "food with rice and side dishes"; "food with rituals"; "food with merriment"; "instantly cooked food" (addressing table top barbecue); "healthy food", etc.

What do you think Korean food is? We all eat Korean food three times a day, but defining the idea is tremendously difficult. Three times a day -- this is actually the precise reason why the defining the scope of Korean food is so difficult. The spectrum of Korean food is just that broad. It is an undefinable chaos.

This confusion arises from treating Korean food as some type of cooked dish. The researchers for traditional Korean food usually consider Joseon Dynasty's dishes as Korean food; they re-create the dishes and study the variation and improvement of such dishes. So they give a show of shinseonro [TK: hot pot], gujeolpan [TK: special plate setting with various vegetables], domijjim [TK: steamed red snapper] and tell the people, "This is Korean food." But they are the kinds of food that are rarely eaten by Koreans, either at home or at a restaurant. All Koreans do with such dishes is to look at (not eat!) them at an event like "traditional food exhibition," and think to themselves, "So this is what traditional Korean food looks like."

Gujeolpan. Never tried this either.

(Source)

Such confusion is the same for foreign tourists. I often hear from foreign visitors that they discovered there were very few places where they could try the dishes featured in Daejanggeum [TK: Korean drama about the royal cook during the Joseon Dynasty] only after actually visiting Korea. On the other hand, doubt may arise as to the common Korean food of today that did not exist in the Joseon era, such as samgyeopsal [TK: roasted pork belly], gimbap [TK: rice/seaweed roll], gamjatang [TK: spicy pork and potato soup], budaejjigae [TK: spicy stew with kimchi and spam].

The only unchanging axiom is: "Everything changes." Food is not an exception. As new ingredients get introduced, as cooking tools change, as lifestyles change, as appetites change, as the climate changes, food changes also. It is incorrect to think that today's French cuisine, or Japanese sushi, or Thai rice noodles were the same form and flavor hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago. It is silly to think that Korean food of the 21st century must be the same as Joseon's food.

So let us revert to the first question: what is Korean food? In fact, humans -- Korean or not -- are generally satisfied as long as the food is tasty, nutritious and not dangerous. In other words, there is no reason why the food consumed by Korean people has to be "Korean" food, nor is there any reason for foreigners to eat such food while telling themselves, "This is Korean food." If Italian olive oil is healthier than Korean pea oil, Koreans will choose the olive oil. If American dry-aged steak is tastier than Korean bulgogi, Koreans will cook the steak even if they are given Korean beef. The choice, cooking and consumption of food ingredients is more often determined by human instincts rather than Korean people's national identity.

How to secure the identity of Korean food

Then why bother with defining Korean food and set the scope? Why not eat and enjoy any ingredient, any cooking method, with any historical/cultural characteristic, as long as the food is delicious, nutritious and not dangerous?

Usually to define and set a scope for something is in order to utilize that something for a purpose. That is, it is to utilize Korean food beyond the purposes of eating and enjoying; it is about creating a cultural product to export. It is a type of branding strategy -- establish the dishes that have a Korean identity, have such dished to be consumed by non-Koreans, and in the process lead them to understand and like Korea such that they will further consume Korean products, not simply Korean food.

Therefore, the first order of business to globalize Korean food is to establish the dishes that hold Korean identity. But we already noted that this is a confusing process, and that the confusion arises from the mistaken idea that food does not change. Then just what is the dish that holds Korean identity?

For globalization of Korean food, we often examine other cuisines that we consider globalized, such as French, Italian or Japanese. We usually encounter these "globalized" food in a restaurant. In a space in which we could feel the national image of each country, we eat their food and ponder about how to present Korean food. So we think about the restaurant's interior, the presentation style of the food and the flavor. Of course, this level of thought is necessary. But this method of research clouds us from the core question. The rightful beginning of this inquiry should be figuring out the identity of each country's food -- why is French cuisine French? Why is Italian food Italian? Why is Japanese food Japanese? Answering these questions would naturally bring the answer to the question about Korean food's identity.

Then let us try to reason how the identity of such cuisines are established. Take French food, for example. Where does the French food's identity --  recognized to be French food by not only the French people but also everyone in the world -- originate? Cooking methods? Presentation style? Eating methods? Restaurant interior? These are but the supplementary factors that aid the identity establishment. The most important core that forms the identity is the food ingredient of France which constitutes the food. We call something French food because the food is made with the wheat that grew in France, the cow that fed on the wheat, the cheese and butter made with the cow's milk, the olive oil and wine made by olives and grapes grown in Southern France, various herbs commonly grown in France, etc. Even if a France-produced ingredient is not used, we would at least require the ingredients that taste similar to French ingredients -- the "French-style ingredients" -- in order to consider something French cuisine. To explain how French cuisine tastes, a French chef would begin with the foodstuff produced out of France. The same applies to Italian food, Japanese food, etc.

This is how Korean food identity issue should be resolved as well. In other words, the core of the identity that makes a food a Korean food is the food ingredient that is only available in Korea or tastes the best when produced in Korea.

But I cannot shake the feeling that our efforts to globalize Korean food is quite far removed the identity of Korean food. We consider a chef who used to cook Western food in a foreign hotel chain could globalize Korean food, and we try to re-create Joseon's food and publicize the recipe to foreigners. We even consider a fried chicken franchise to be a pioneer of the globalization of Korean food. All these things are the runs into dead ends while searching for the identity of Korean food.

Collecting the information about and the value of Korea's food ingredient comes first

As a food columnist, I have been covering Korea's farming and fishing products, the local cuisine, restaurant food, etc. It has been many more than a few times when I felt disappointed -- nay, despaired -- that the people in the food business are totally ignorant about the farming and fishing products of Korea. The young chefs study abroad the learn about the Western ingredients and cooking methods, but not even Korean restaurant chefs care much about what foodstuff our land produces, how different they are depending on the locale, how different they taste depending on the season.

It is a huge mistake to think that they can simply go to the market and pick out something fresh and delicious. The foodstuff readily available at markets frequented by most chefs carry less than one-tenth of the food ingredients available in Korea, because the ingredients that do not attract mass consumption do not reach the markets of the cities. Among the plants that grow in Korea, more than 1,000 types are edible. Their flavor and nutritional values frequently exceeds the herbs used in Western cuisine. How many of them are we using in Korean food?

In this kind of environment, in some cases a foreign country would figure out the value of Korea's food ingredients before Koreans do, and sweep away the best kinds or transplant them and make their own. The best, in-season stocks of ark clam [피조개], pike eel [갯장어], razor clam [키조개], hiziki [톳] produced from the South Sea are exported entirely to Japan, because Korea does not actively use them as ingredients. The Japanese long have known the value of the chopi tree fruit, which Koreans barely use as spices for freshwater eel soup [추어탕] -- they have imported the fruits, processed them and sold them to the world, as well as taking the saplings to grow the trees in a larger scale. [TK: 초피 is already starting to be known in English as "Japanese pepper tree," although no chopi ever grew in Japan before they were transplanted.]

Razor clam [키조개] from Boryeong [보령]

(Source)

As Korean food is becoming more popular in Japan, Japan's food businesspeople are sweeping the production centers of Korea's food ingredients. I have advised such a Japanese company. To give an example, the company already had detailed knowledge of the characteristics of red pepper grown in different regions, the difference in aroma and flavor depending on the crushing method and the granular size, and even the way to make fake sun-dried peppers [태양초] and how to tell them apart. I have heard reports that a Japanese supermarket company is in the process of creating a website with the complete set of information about every Korean food ingredient, which does not yet exist in Korea.

The value of Korea's foodstuff clearly reveals itself when compared against other similar foodstuff produced in different countries. For example, the whole world loves crabs. If we could understand the precise flavor of Korean blue crab [꽃게] and how it compares to other crabs, its value could be greater than Hong Kong's mud crab which is being marketed to gastronomes worldwide. Korean blue crab has a unique sweet flavor and strong aroma that sets it apart from mud crab, king crab, snow crab, etc. -- it can very well be a world-class crab. Same with Korean beef [한우], which develops great umami after aging without the need for excessive marbling unlike the Japanese wagyu. With improvements in butchering, aging and cooking methods, it can also be world-class. Same with the red pepper that beautifully combines sweetness and spiciness; wild herbs like wild garlic shoots [산마늘] that complements the meat with its aromatic and tangy flavor; Korean citron [유자] with a unique blend of sweetness and intense sourness; sand lance fish sauce [까나리 액젓] with deeper savoriness than Southeast Asian fish sauces; the "single-day" sun-dried salt [당일 천일염] of the Shinan region that could rival the Guerande salt. There are countless "the food ingredients that are only available in Korea or taste the best when produced in Korea."

The information about such food ingredients do exist in the files of the central government, local government, producers' association, university, research institutes, etc. But they are not systematically organized in a way that can be utilized by the food industry. Even if an aspiring chef wanted to buy the chopi fruit and utilize it in Korean food, there is no place that gives the information about the characteristics of the fruit, difference between chopi and the similar fruit from sancho tree, the seasons for chopi fruit depending on the region and the difference in quality depending on the season, processing methods and the difference in flavor based such methods, sample cuisines, keeping methods, the producers' contact information, pricing and location, etc. The chef would surf the Internet countless hours, make a number of phone calls, and then give up.

To emphasize once more: food changes. Korean food eaten by Korean people today is very different from the food of Joseon a century ago. The major crops grown in Korean Peninsula changed, and so did the fish caught in her coasts. The heating and cooking devices in the kitchen changed, and so did the plates and dishes that present the food. More than anything else, our life style changed as we progressed from agricultural society to an industrial one, and our appetite changed as we were introduced to foreign cuisine. Looking at our food from Joseon's perspective only causes confusion in finding our tradition and identity. Joseon had Joseon cuisine; in the 21st century Korea, there is Korean cuisine. In order to find the identity amid the changing Korean cuisine, we have no choice but to focus on "the food ingredients that are only available in Korea or taste the best when produced in Korea." Everything else, such as style development or standardization of recipes, must come after figuring out the value of Korea's foodstuff, and making that information available.

뜻하지 않은 한식 세계화 논란 [악식가의 미식일기]

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

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The Korean's Advice for Recent College Graduates

Dear Korean,

Do you have any good life lessons for a recent college grad?

Michael

Dear Michael,

First of all, big congratulations on your graduation and everyone's.

The Korean was hoping that he is too young to give "life lessons" to anyone, particularly to those who just graduated college. (The Korean is a class of 2004.) But looking back the last seven years since the Korean's graduation out of college, there definitely is one life lesson that he wishes someone had told him.

The lesson is: don't be in a hurry.

At around age 21-23, the majority of the years in a fresh college graduate's life was spent getting ready for college (to varying degrees, of course.) As a college graduate, one cannot help but feel like having done everything there is to be done, and the only thing that remains is to enjoy the spoils. There will be jobs, money and boy/girlfriends galore at the end of the rainbow.

But of course, that is not true -- especially not in this economy. So the time after college graduation feels like a strange letdown. Everything that was supposed to be waiting for you is not just not there -- you have to go out and earn them, and that process is not any easier than any part of your life you have already experienced. Unless you are among the lucky few, you will find that the huge dreams you once had for yourself will probably not happen in reality. (This is usually the point in life at which going to law/business/medical school in a vain attempt to recapture the college experience becomes increasingly attractive.)

The same type of thing also happens in the dating life. This will usually be the period in your life in which you have a torrid love affair with someone. Being with that person will bring you supreme ecstasy, and getting rejected by or breaking up with that person (which, let me tell you right now, will most likely happen) will feel like death. The time spent being between significant others will feel like trudging in a vast, unending desert.

This is the moment to remember the Korean's advice: don't be in a hurry. Don't despair over the feeling that you are not going anywhere. Things always work themselves out as long as you have a clear goal in mind. If you do not have a clear goal in mind, it is not a waste of time to spend one or two or five years figuring that out. The goal does not have to be anything grandiose -- unless grandiosity is what makes you happy. And when you do figure that out, never let it go. The right boy/girl usually comes along when you finally have a good idea who that right boy/girl is. Same goes with the right career and the right lifestyle.

Once those things are figured out, life just gets really easy. Not easy like not having to try hard, but easy like not having to feel lost all the time. As long as you keep moving toward the goals you set for yourself, life gets better and better every day.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

p.s. Google/Blogger added a "+1" button at the bottom of each post, which acts like Facebook's "Like" button. If you liked this post, please click that button before you move on. :)

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