Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking: Authentic Dishes for the Home Cook -

Description: Hi, everybody!For those of you who aren't already my old friends, let me introduce myself. I'm not a professional chef. I didn't go to culinary school. I've never owned or worked in a restaurant. But as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by food-eating it, of course, but also by how it was made, and how I could make it myself at home.I was born in Imsil in North Jeolla Province and raised in Yeosu, South Korea, which is on the southernmost tip of South Jeolla, the southernmost province of the peninsula. Korea is a nation of food lovers. In daily life, delicious food is a given, to be devoured with gusto, and so it goes without saying that no party, no vacation, no occasion happens without something special being prepared. South Jeolla Province has a reputation for its wonderful food, and the people of Yeosu have the ability to make any type of fish that comes from surrounding waters taste incredible. Their dishes may be spicy or not, raw or fermented, and stewed, braised, or roasted over charcoal. My father owned and ran a fish auction business, and fishermen came from all over to sell their fish there. In gratitude, they often left my family samples of their best catch. We weren't rich by a long shot, but we always had great seafood.From an early age, I was interested in what my mom, grandmother, and aunts were cooking and would quietly determine who made the best version of each dish.I also watched the women in the marketplace who were known for certain special dishes and paid close attention to how they made them.I was a very social kid and a real organizer. I would schedule lunches with my friends, telling each one which dish or ingredient to bring to school that day. When we put everything together, we'd have a meal all the other kids would envy —a real feast of bibimbap, the one-dish rice meal full of tasty components like sunny-side-up eggs, hot pepper paste, cooked soybean sprouts, sesame oil, and various other colorful vegetables.I was sent off to high school in Seoul, where my family thought I would get a better education. Moving to the big city on my own was thrilling, and it gave me a chance to cook more. The friends I made in school were all foodies. Whenever we had free time on a weekend, we would cook something at one of our houses.One of my favorite things has always been sharing my knowledge, so after finishing high school, I went to teachers college in Seoul and got a certificate in social studies. University life convinced me that I wanted to be a college professor, and so l got a master's degree in education. I became a teaching assistant and then a research assistant and a part-time professor, but before I could start my career in earnest, I got married. My husband was a university professor as well, and when he got a posting in the city of Gwangju, in South Jeolla Province, we moved south, and I put my dream of being a full professor on hold to build our family.I had a son and then a daughter, and my passion for cooking turned toward my little family. I poured everything I had into making the best food I could for them.While the children were still young, my husband got the chance to study for his PhD in Columbia, Missouri. I was apprehensive about moving to the United States, but I knew it would be good for the children to learn English at a young age, and it would be good for my husband's career, so off we went.expat Korean cookingMissouri was an eye-opener for me. Part of it was living in America, of course, but part of it was the Korean expat community I found there. The small group of people had come from all over the country, and we helped and encouraged each other and shared delicious home-cooked Korean meals at epic potluck parties. Every woman brought her best dishes, and as we ate them, we discussed how they were made. As a result, I learned about many regional recipes that I would never have tasted if I hadn't left Korea.When my husband finished his degree, our family moved back to Korea. But after my children grew up, my husband and I divorced, and I returned to North America to start over in Toronto. I did all kinds of things to make a living: I was a cashier in my neighborhood grocery store, a movie extra, a translator, and an interpreter, and I also taught English grammar to Korean immigrants and students. It was difficult to be so far from my daughter, who was in college in Korea, and my son, who was working in Silicon Valley, but I was trying so many new things that it was always interesting, and I was grateful that I could make a living and be independent.No matter what I was doing, food was always on my mind. Watching customers buy sandwiches at lunchtime gave me the idea to sell gimbap (rice rolled up in seaweed paper, a bit like sushi) and Korean fried chicken in the store. I made a batch of my killer Korean fried chicken with peanuts and brought it in to convince the manager that it would be a top seller. The other cashiers raved about it, but it turned out that the most important judge, the manager, had a peanut allergy, so he couldn't even taste it!maangchi is bornI eventually landed a good job as a family counselor at a nonprofit organization, helping Koreans adjust to life in the West. I also developed a new hobby: playing online computer games. I found that I could turn on the computer every night and make friends in Singapore, Los Angeles, and Montreal as I ran around in a virtual world, fighting bad guys. We had camaraderie, mayhem, a sense of accomplishment-even fashion. My character was a tough, sexy fighter with purple hair and a big hammer. I led the team to battle and knocked the biggest enemies down. For a name, I chose Maangchi, "hammer" in Korean: a cool name for a tough girl.Right around this time, YouTube was rapidly gaining popularity. It was my computer-savvy son who suggested to me that I make videos about cooking Korean food and upload them there. There were already a few Korean cooking videos on YouTube, but I knew I could do better, and there was a video function on my digital camera. It sounded like fun!At first, though, I was afraid to show my face. My son suggested that I could just show my hands at work, and I thought about that for a few weeks. Then I decided that if I was going to do it, I would really do it. I'd show my face, and everyone would know who l was.In April 2007 I filmed myself cooking ojingeo-bokkeum, a sweet and spicy stir-fried squid dish. I edited it the next day. I added a Morrissey song for background, which might have been too loud. The camera wasn't always in focus, and the smoke detector went off. But I thought the video was great, and my recipe, of course, was totally delicious. I chose Maangchi as my account username, uploaded the video to the website, watched it there, and went to bed."For a name, I chose Maangchi, 'hammer' in Korean: a cool name for a tough girl."A few days later I found that people had started posting comments. They had questions about ingredients. They wanted to know what kind of hot pepper flakes and soy sauce I used, and where they could buy them. They also gave me a lot of encouragement. But mostly they wanted to know when my next video was com-ing. I filmed and edited one for doenjang-jjigae—a fermented bean paste stew with shrimp, tofu, and vegetables— and uploaded it about ten days later. And ever since then, l've been posting Korean cooking videos regularly to YouTube, which has brought together all my lifelong passions: cooking, teaching, meeting new peo-ple, and learning about different cultures. Inundated with comments, e-mails, and questions, I no longer had time for video games. My good friend Dave-now my husband-helped me create my own website, www.maangchi.com, and I put up my videos there, as well as recipes and information and photos of hard-to-find Korean ingredients. The site became a forum where everyone could talk to each other and chime in with their own answers to other readers' questions about Korean cooking.Eventually my site grew so popular that I was able to leave my job, move to New York City, and become Maangchi full-time. ORDER BEFORE 2 PM CENTRAL - SAME DAY SHIPPINGPRM247

Price: 19.99 USD

Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota

End Time: 2024-11-14T21:00:53.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.13 USD