Recent Books
Dining Culture of China, Japan and Korea Kim Kyung-eun; Leegaseo Publishing: 336pp., 16,500 wonChina, Japan and Korea have repeatedly coexisted and confronted each other over thousands of years. Their cuisines share similarities such as rice being a staple food; but their peoples have distinct traits. In this book, Kim Kyung-eun, an editor of the daily newspaper, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, compares the foods of the three countries and explores these features.There are differences among China, Japan, and Korea in terms of rice use for example. In Korea, meals are made with rice and side dishes. In Japan, such foods as sushi and curry using rice as an ingredient are main meals. They don’t apply the concept of “main dish and side dish” to rice as Koreans do. In China, there is “fan” and “cai,” corresponding to the rice and side dishes of Korea, but cai alone can be a good meal. The Chinese tend to, if anything, put emphasis on cai, in that they need not eat fan if they are full.Kim wrote a series of project articles, “Korean Food and Hal
Dec 21, 2012
