From Barbecue to Bibimbap

In January 2008, while finishing up work on this book, I visited Seoul with two friends. The trip put everything into context—all of the cooking classes I’d taken with Taekyung in Japan and the three intensive weeks of daily shopping and recipe testing back home—making kimchi, peeling garlic, turning every vegetable in sight into namul or whipping up a quick pancake. Walks through the traditional markets and one-stop modern supermarkets revealed that old and new still coexist. The miniature mountains of prepared kimchi sold in huge see-through plastic bags was evidence that it is still an important part of the Korean diet but not everyone is making it at home. While some Koreans still bury clay pots in rural yards, the pungent odors have given rise to separate refrigerators in apartments, which also helps to keep the temperature constant, and well-designed containers with airtight seals.