Growing up in a Korean Kitchen: A Cookbook by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall, Sonya Hepinstall (Foreword by)

Product Details

Synopsis

Part memoir and part cookbook, GROWING UP IN A KOREAN KITCHEN is one woman's cultural and culinary story, weaving childhood reminiscences with lovingly gathered recipes. With descriptions of the traditional Korean kitchen, preparations for special feast days, and the rituals of everyday family meals, author Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall draws an engaging portrait of a seldom glimpsed way of life. Easy-to-follow recipes, largely handed down through oral tradition, cover the wide range of main and side dishes, from the sumptuous elegance of "royal cuisine" to simpler countryside cooking. Korean cuisine has emerged as one of the most exciting and robust tastes of Asia, with great variety and some of the world's most sophisticated techniques for pickling and cooking with garlic and hot pepper. Cooks of all levels, as well as armchair travelers, will welcome this book to their collection.• Includes over 250 authentic recipes, a glossary, and a list of resources for finding uniquely Korean ingredients and utensils.• Illustrated with the author's travel and family photos, depicting the cultural and culinary traditions of Korea.For a list of markets that carry Korean ingredients visit www.koreanfeast.com

Library Journal

Although Korean food is poised to become the next favorite Asian cuisine, there are relatively few cookbooks on the subject. Hepinstall's book is both more ambitious than Jenny Kwak's Dok Suni (LJ 11/15/98) and more wide-ranging than Deborah Coultrip-Davis and Young Sook Ramsey's vegetarian Flavors of Korea (LJ 9/15/98). One of 12 children, she provides a personal glimpse of a disappearing way of life as well as a detailed introduction to traditional Korean cuisine (she even includes her family's recipe for soy sauce). American readers may recognize some of the dishes from Korean restaurants, but many will be new. The section on main dishes covers rice and cereals, soups and porridges, and noodles and dumplings, with a whole chapter devoted to kimchi, a signature dish; in addition to side dishes, desserts, and beverages, there are separate chapters on Korean barbecue and special-occasion recipes. Hepinstall writes well and knowledgeably, and her photographs of family and her visits to her homeland illustrate the text. Strongly recommended. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Biography

HI SOO SHIN HEPINSTALL began her serious culinary and cultural research while living in Europe in the 1970s. After attending a summer course at Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Paris, she continued her studies in Seoul, Korea, and Southeast Asia. In addition, she has written two novels, one of which won a Korean literary prize and was made into a popular movie. She lives in Washington, D.C.