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Two foods that people have come to identify with Korea
are kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish, and bulgogi, a
marinated meat dish. Whereas kimchi is a staple dish that
is eaten at every meal, bulgogi is more like a party food
in that it is generally eaten on special occasions and
when dining out or entertaining guests.
Bulgogi
The word bulgogi is commonly translated as Korean barbecue,
though it literally means "fire meat" as bul
is "fire" or gogi is "meat". Beef
is most often identified with bulgogi, but even pork,
chicken, lamb, squid and octopus, for example, can be
cooked bulgogi style as bulgogi, like barbecue, is a method
of cooking.
For the most common beef bulgogi, thin slices of meat,
usually tenderloin, are marinated in a sauce made of soy
sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, sesame seeds and other
seasonings, and then cooked over a charcoal grill, usually
at the table. The grilled beef slices can be eaten as
are or wrapped in lettuce along with slices of fresh garlic
and green pepper and a dab of soybean paste, red pepper
paste, or a mixture of the two, all of which are rich
in vitamins, minerals and cancer-fighting substances.
In some restaurants, bulgogi is cooked on a dome-shaped
pan that is placed over a charcoal brazier or a gas range.
The pan has a trough around the edge to catch the tasty
juice that cooks out of the meat so that it can be eaten
with one's rice.
For pork and other types of bulgogi, a little red pepper
paste is usually added to the marinade. This gives the
bulgogi a spicy taste and aroma.
Recently, people have been finding that bulgogi is not
only tasty and healthy but also very versatile. It has
been adapted to today's fast foods with some fast food
chains adding bulgogi burgers to their menus and a number
of well-known pizza restaurants even adopting it as one
of their pizza toppings.
Kimchi
Kimchi is a pungent, fermented dish generally consisting
of cabbage or turnip seasoned with salt, garlic, green
onions, ginger, red pepper and shellfish. It is low in
calories and cholesterol and very high in fiber. It is
also very nutritious. In fact, it is richer in vitamins
than apples.
In fact, 100 grams of cabbage kimchi, the most common
variety, contains 492 units of vitamin A, 0.03 mg of vitamin
B1, 0.06 mg of vitamin B2, 12 mg of vitamin C and 2.1
mg of Niacin, a medium-size apple weighing 130 grams contains
only 50 units of vitamin A and only a trace of vitamins
B1 and B2, 3 mg of vitamin C and a trace of Niacin. Kimchi
also contains a number of organic acids, produced during
the fermentation process, that help sterilize the digestive
tract and aid in digestion. Kimchi also contains high
levels of
protein, calcium and iron that are derived mainly from
seafoods such as oysters, squid, shrimp and anchovies
that are used for flavoring. Kimchi is a good source of
fiber and, depending on the ingredients, may contain many
of the nutrients and naturally occurring chemicals that
can help combat cancers of the mouth, throat, lungs, stomach,
bladder, colon and cervix.
Chinese cabbage, the main ingredient in the most commonly
eaten kimchi, has a higher protein content than many other
vegetables and a significant amount of minerals and vitamin
C, and its green leaves are rich in vitamin A. Radish
roots, another major ingredient, are not only rich in
vitamins but also diastase, an enzyme that promotes the
digestion of carbohydrates.
Watercress, which is also rich in calcium and vitamins
A and C, is also used in most recipes for its rich flavor
and aroma. Indian mustard leaves, which are also widely
used because of their aroma, are rich in minerals, especially
calcium and iron, and in vitamins A and C. Sponge seaweed,
which is known to be helpful in preventing heart disease,
is another common ingredient that produces a cool, crispy
taste. It is especially rich in calcium and iodine and
has a unique aroma.
Garlic, which is eaten in many ways including raw, is
an essential kimchi ingredient as well as a mainstay of
the Korean diet. It even figures in the national foundation
myth. Dangun, who, according to legend, founded the Korean
nation in 2333 B.C., was born of the union of a heavenly
god, Hwanung, the son of the God of All and ruler of Heaven,
and a bear who became a woman after eating 20 cloves of
garlic and a bundle of mugwort and staying out of the
sunlight for 21 days. Recent studies show that garlic
may help prevent stomach cancer and reduce blood cholesterol
levels.
It is the red chili peppers, however, that make kimchi
a truly remarkable health food and different from the
ju and osinko of China and Japan that are often likened
to kimchi but are basically nothing more than Chinese
cabbage or radish pickled in salt. Chili peppers not only
give kimchi its distinctive spicy flavor and appetizing
color but also contain an element called capsicin that
prevents kimchi from spoiling. It also checks the acidifying
process to which vitamin C is exceptionally vulnerable
and keeps the vegetables fresh so that the eater experiences
the sensation of biting into fresh crispy vegetables.
Capsicin also has another remarkable property that is
only activated in kimchi; it can break down fats in the
body. These properties and the large doses of vitamins
A, B and C make peppers truly remarkable.
But chili peppers have not always been a major ingredient
in kimchi. Koreans were not introduced to the chili pepper
until the late 16th century or early 17th century when
Portuguese traders based in Nagasaki, Japan, who, having
brought it from Central America, imported it to the country.
Early historical records of kimchi making do not mention
red peppers or garlic. Various spellings of the dish appear
but they all share the same meaning: vegetables soaked
in salt water. One of the earliest, if not the earliest,
descriptions of kimchi making is in a work by Yi Gyu-bo
(1168-1241), a noted literary figure during the Goryeo
Dynasty (918-1392), in which he describes the preparation
of turnips for winter storage.
Regardless of when red pepper was added to kimchi, it
was an epochal event in Korean culinary history. The addition
of red peppers not only enhanced the taste of the otherwise
salty vegetables and kept them crunchy, but also turned
kimchi into a healthy, vitamin-packed food that can play
a vital role in preventing disease. Of course, over the
years kimchi has become even more nutritional with the
addition of more and more ingredients such as carrots,
pears, chestnuts, pine nuts, abalone and seaweed.
There are basically two kinds of kimchi, seasonal and
winter, with numerous varieties of each. The seasonal
varieties are made with whatever vegetables are available
and are for short-term storage. The winter varieties,
made with mostly cabbages and turnips, are for long-term
storage to provide vegetables during the cold winter months.
Baechu kimchi is the most common type of kimchi. To
make it, Chinese cabbages (baechu) are first trimmed,
split down the middle and put in brine to soak. When they
are soft, they are rinsed in cold water and drained. Meanwhile,
julienne cut radish strips are mixed with a red pepper
paste made of red pepper powder and water. To this are
added crushed garlic, salt, thinly sliced green onions,
and a variety of other seasonings, depending on the region
and the cook's budget, to make stuffing. The stuffing
is packed between the layers of cabbage leaves and each
cabbage is wrapped with a few leaves. Finally, the cabbages
are stacked in a crock, jar or other appropriate container,
covered with salted cabbage leaves, pressed down firmly
and covered.
The storage temperature of the gimjang kimchi, as winter
kimchi is called, should be well controlled throughout
the winter to prevent overfermentation and souring. The
traditional way of doing this is to bury the crocks of
kimchi in the ground but, because this is not always possible
for urbanites, specially designed containers have come
into use in recent years.
Winter kimchi is usually made in late November and early
December when the weather is quite cold. At the time,
women gather in groups throughout the country to turn
mountains of cabbages and turnips into kimchi to feed
their families throughout the cold winter months.
However, kimchi is not made in as great of quantities
as it used to be. Today an urban family of five will make
20 to 30 cabbages into winter kimchi whereas in the past
it would have made between 70 and 100.
In addition to being eaten as a staple side dish, kimchi
is also used in a variety of cooked dishes. The most common
is kimchi jjigae, a hot, fiery stew made by boiling kimchi
with pork. Kimchi is also stir-fried with thin strips
of pork and eaten with fresh tofu or dubu as bean curd
is known in Korean. It is also dipped in a flour-based
batter and fried.
To most Koreans, a meal without kimchi, no matter how
lavish, is incomplete or even unthinkable. It spikes
the rice, titillates the taste buds, and, perhaps, keeps
the doctor away. It is an ideal health food as well
as diet food and with its increasing inclusion on supermarket
shelves around the world and its designation as an official
food at events such as the 1998 World Cup in France, it
is fast becoming an international food to be enjoyed around
the world.
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