Korean food, the gastronomy that is going to explode
Sook Ja Yoon has traveled from Korea to Madrid to promote Korean cuisine at Madrid Fusión. As president of the Korean Food Foundation, her role is to represent the cuisine of this country.
She waits at the stand of the Madrid fair with her traditional dress and broken English to explain each of the wax plates that she has brought. Ten specifically. The 10 recipes they have created for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics , during which they will take advantage of the influx of tourists to introduce classic recipes, giving almost all of them a more modern twist. To show that, despite the millenary tradition of her cooking, t It can also be updated and exported.
Sook Ja Yoon warmly welcomes you, she grabs your hand and counts each dish. Among them, **there is from a kimchi, of course, to some corn porridge or a sweet rice cake (and very cute, pink, green and white) **. When she's done, if you're not careful, she takes a selfie with you (she did!). Earlier she told us what we should know about Korean cuisine or Hansik.
A commitment to seasonal products
HOW DO YOU EAT IN KOREA?
There are two basic cutlery in Korean food: the spoon “for soup” and the chopsticks “for portioned food” explains Sook Ja Yoon with mime and a translator. "But unlike the Japanese or the Chinese, Korean chopsticks are always metallic” , she nuances.
Both the bowls and the chopsticks or spoons are made with the same material called yugi or Bangja, which is a mixture of bronze and tin. All these utensils are presented on the table together, at the same time. A ritual they call: bansangcharim.
Also, it is always eaten with rice. "It's our bread," she says. The bowl of rice is placed to the left of the bowl of soup or main course.
Bansangcharim: the table ritual in Korea
WHAT DOES THEY EAT IN KOREA?
When asked what the most representative dishes were, Sook Ja Yoon laughs and begins to list. "In Korea we eat everything: meat, fish, vegetables, wheat... Everything" she explains. "And each ingredient can be prepared in many different ways."
“Furthermore, the seasons of the year are very important to us. We use the best ingredients that are in each season ”, she continues. “In spring, we cook with flowers. In summer, it's hot and we eat a lot of vegetables, because we have a lot of great vegetables. In autumn: mushrooms and mountain products, such as ginseng. And in winter: kimchi ”. Oh the kimchi! This is where we wanted to go.
vegetables, lots of vegetables
WHAT IS KIMCHI?
Sook Ja Yoon laughs again. "Kimchi is the face of Korea," he says. “It is a fermented food that we make from different vegetables, turnips, Chinese cabbage, onions… and with different seasonings. It can be spicy,” he says. “There are a thousand ways to cook it. There are 200 kinds of kimchi." It is prepared and left to ferment in clay pots that let air in and out.
"It's a very healthy food," he says. And to explain it, he gives us an example. "After yesterday's flight from Seoul to Madrid, I arrived very dizzy, I had a little kimchi and I'm like new," he laughs. For Koreans, cooking and medicine are one and in fact, they call it "yaksikdongwon". Y kimchi is the basis of this philosophy which is seasoned until it achieves the five colors with which they play in all their dishes (which are the colors of the Korean Food Foundation): white, black, green, yellow and pink.
“Kimchi is the face of Korea”
WHAT IS JANG?
They are the fermented pasta with which they cook and accompany their ingredients apart from the kimchi. The main ones are: gangjang (liquid soy sauce obtained after fermentation for more than 40 days); doengjang (fermented soybean paste) , gochujang (fermented red pepper paste) .
“Doenjang chi ge (it would be something like that written using our spelling) is my favorite soup,” says Sook Ja Yoon, fermented soybean paste soup.
Eat authentic Korean in Madrid
THE BIGGEST MISTAKES ABOUT KOREAN FOOD?
“That is confused with Japanese or Chinese food. In Japan, the quantities are very small. In China, it's good, but it's very greasy. In Korea we eat a lot of it and it has a lot less fat.” he explains.
IT'S SPICY?
He laughs again. "A lot," she says. “We eat a lot of spicy food in Korea” . Although it is not mandatory.
WHAT IF WE WANT TO EAT GOOD KOREAN FOOD IN MADRID?
Sook Ja Yoon doesn't know restaurants, but her translator recommends Seoul Restaurant. On her side, Jutlee Kong, a Korean correspondent in Madrid, believes that Gayagum is the best.
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