Koreatown: A Cookbook
By Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard
Hardcover
Published by Clarkson Potter
Feb 16, 2016 | 272 Pages | 8 x 10 | ISBN 9780804186131
I love this book! This is yet another recipe book that I will actually use.
Unlike most recipe books, this recipe has little anecdotes about how and why certain (famous) folks became Korean food-lovers Which is odd, right? Most recipe books don't deal with the cachet of why the author is doing a book on ethnic cuisine. I guess part of the reason is because the book is also trying to show the culture of Korea and Korean foods in addition to give us the recipes.
The authors are a chef of a famous Korea restaurant and a food writer who has lots of food cred. So yeah, this is not just a regular recipe book. There's a lot of fame, style, cred, "hauteness" ;-) in this book.
The book is divided into the following chapters:
Introduction
Ingredients & Equipment
Kimchi & Banchan
Rice, Noodles & Dumplings
Barbecue: Grilled, Smoked & Fired
Drinking Food: Pojangmacha
Soups, Stews & Braises
Respect: Guest Recipes
Drinks
Sweets & Desserts
Acknowledgments
Index
As in all good books on ethnic cuisine, one learns a lot about the culture's cooking style, food, and people. And of course one learns a lot about many Koreatowns across the nation.
There are full-colored pictures of the dishes and of food-workers and food eaters and drawings of the guests whose anecdotal histories with food are included. I'll say that the important people who are included to tell us about their love of Korean food was a bit off-putting. This book is great without famous people telling us about themselves. But some readers might like that. And mercifully these folks -- food critics, actors, etc-- don't take up more than two pages each.
The photos are amazing. The description of each recipe and the layout of each recipe is accessible and helpful to all readers.
Highly recommended.
I received this book free of charge in exchange for a fair and honest review.
