Food Expert Publishes Book of Traditional Recipes
By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter
Yoon Sook-ja, director of the Institute of Traditional Korean Food has released ``The Beauty of Korean Food: With 300 Best/Loved Recipes,'' which introduces easy-to-follow instructions for Korean dishes.
``The recipes of Korean food have been passed down to us through word of mouth, like using measurements such as `some more' or `a little of.' Housewives who are good at cooking can follow these rather ambiguous instructions, but for others, it's very difficult. There are many books that carry the measurements of main ingredients, but not specific ones like the size of the pots and pans and the power of the flame,'' Yoon told The Korea Times during a phone interview.
The book includes dishes that have already been introduced in a similar book of 100 recipes published last year with the collaboration of the institute, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
As Korean food tends to be difficult to make due to the lack of documental material, the book will offer the SI Measurement, or the International System of Units, like grams and liters, allowing Koreans and foreigners to easily cook traditional dishes.
``In order to inform readers about conditions like obesity and associated diseases, we have also added nutritional information, including those regarding cholesterol and trans fat,'' said Yoon.
The book will be published in four languages ― French, English, Chinese and Japanese ― the previous book of 100 dishes is already out in these languages, except for French which will be published next month.
``My plan is to offer a recipe book that can be useful to not only Koreans, but also non-Koreans. People tend to think that Korean food is difficult and complicated, but I hope to change their minds and reach out to the world with our food with the book,'' said Yoon.