Product Description

Known for its sumptuous array of cool and spicy pickles, the richly aromatic barbeques, and the boldly flavored red-hot spicy stews, Korean cuisine is one of the most fascinating cuisines in the world today. Ms. Choi, owner of the famous Woo Lae Oak restaurants in cities around the U.S. and Korea, has selected a kaleidoscope of over 79 sensational recipes in this fabulous collection. In addition to the most popular Korean dishes, such as Korean Barbeque, Kimchi Stew, and Spicy Cucumber Salad, a wide range of less familiar Korean dishes can be found here - from Dungeness Crab Crepes, Spicy Octopus, to Ginseng Chicken Soup, Five Grain Rice, to traditional desserts and teas, such as Persimmon Punch and Ginseng Tea.

Most of the recipes are easy to follow, with special sections on frequently used ingredients, seasonings, condiments and special sauces. This is a wonderful addition to Wei-Chuan's "International Cuisine Series" and it is sure to become another "must-have" for those who are still discovering the wonders of Asian cuisine.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243833 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

From the Publisher
KOREAN CUISINE offers many easy to follow and popular Korean dishes. All the procedures and steps for cooking are presented in a clear and concise manner, utilizing contemporary home cooking methods anyone can follow. In addition, the bilingual translation provides for a broad community of interest. Following popularity of "Chinese Cooking Made Easy," "Thai Cooking Made Easy," "Japanese Cuisine," "Vietnamese Cuisine," and "Mexican Cooking Made Easy," We are proud to present another wonderful addition to one of our most popular series,"International Cuisine."

From the Author
I believe that all knowledge must be shared in order to progress. The contents of this book, for which I have made my best efforts through several years, can only be improved with the reader's contributions, and I welcome readers' comments in that regard.

About the Author
Ms. Young Sook Choi is a second generation family owner and operator of the famous Woo Lae Oak restaurants in the U.S., these restaurants have been instrumental in popularizing Korean cuisine in the U.S. During the 1980's, when she became more integrally involved in the overall management of the restaurants, she determined it was time to re-evaluate Korean cuisine from a "modern" perspective. Her success can be seen by the growing popularity of her restaurants in major cities - Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, New York, and another expected to open in London. This book has long been a dream of hers - she hopes that with this book, she may share her years of experience and enjoyment of this wonderful culinary tradition with a wider audience.

Customer Reviews

more for a western palette...
I must admit this book is great for its visual appeal. It makes my mouth water just looking at the pictures. But aside from this, I think the final dishes taste less authentic in my opinion (fyi.. I am Korean) As another reviewer pointed out, the owners of Woo Lae Oak put this book out. Those restaurants are more geared towards the Western palette- food is much, much sweeter and different from what I am used to. If you are looking to emulate the taste of the dishes in Korean restaurants in a Korea-town area of a certain city then these recipes will not give you that..

Recipes that really work, for authentic Korean cuisine
I am so excited about this cookbook. For a while I had been struggling to make Korean dishes using an English translation of a cookbook originally published in Korea; the translation was poor, recipes were hard to understand, and ingredients were not well-described and were hard to find. Finally, here is an authentic Korean cookbook that makes sense to an English-speaker like me who did not grow up with this cuisine, that takes the mystery out of the ingredients with clear descriptions and close-up color photos. Korean cuisine makes sense to me now. The recipes in this book are well-written and well-organized, and the step-by-step photos are invaluable. It doesn't hurt that the author is the owner of the world-famous Woo Lae Oak restaurants, which happen to be my husband's and my favorite. My husband, who grew up with Korean food, says the recipes are authentic. All I know is that the recipes work, and Korean cooking is a lot less mysterious now! Highly recommended.

i love wei-chuan!
this is a great book! I'm chinese american- so korean ingredients are similar to ingredients i'm used to- but at the same time completely different! the ingredient list with pictures in the beginning of the book- greatly helped me in the korean grocery store. ie my best friends mom always had these big bags with a picture of a raw steak on the front. everytime i walked through their pantry- i thought- "man they must need to tenderize a lot of meat." It turns out the "meat tenderizer" is actually beef soup base! And it's REALLY good soup base for those who like to cheat with food prep! i also liked the fact that it had photos of the different kinds of dried seaweed used- because in korean and japanese grocery stores- the seaweed section can make your head spin with all the different choices you have!

i really liked the recipe for chapchae- most of the other korean cookbooks have meat strips or ground meat in them. this one was simple- and if you keep a well stocked pantry you can make this whenever you want! I like to add julienned dried black mushrooms to the recipe as well. the spicy tofu stew with clams is so completely easy to make- and honestly- i leave out the clams and fresh shrimp- and it's still wonderful without! I do like to throw large pink dried shrimp with their heads on- into the soup- primarily because it adds flavor- and because there's a korean restaurant that does the same.

The cooking tips that are found throughout the book are priceless. like throwing in dried anchovies if you don't have anchovy stock. I never knew what to do with those things- and now i do. and despite they're smell and appearance they add wonderful flavor to soups.

if you have a korean market nearby and you're too lazy to actually cook- i would recommend getting a few bags of the different types of dried soup stock powders. in the same section they should also have these yellow boxes of freeze dried soup. there's no english- except- what type of soup it is- i personally like the pollack soup and the beef and vegetable soup. (and what you see in the picture is actually what is in the box!) one box with 2 cups of water- throw in half a container of soft tofu, some dried shrimp and a dried anchovy and some hot sesame oil and you've got yourself instant goodness.

this book really helped me experiment with korean ingredients. (ie putting a tablespoon of the beef soup base powder in the above soup mix adds flavor and is really good) i've even expanded my pantry to include fernbracken. A little scary looking dried and in the package- but i'm sure it's going to be wonderful! i absolutely love this book and the entire wei-chuan series.