KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I began my career as a food critic and reporter at the Kyunghyang Shinmun. I have explored food and select restaurants for the past 35 years and am still studying food, now by going through old materials and s.

2. What made you change your profession from newspaper reporter to food columnist? Was there a particular moment that led to this change?

Like I said earlier, I was always interested in food, even when I was active as a reporter. While working as a reporter, I paid visits to highly recognized restaurants across the country and introduced some of them. Many of the places I covered in the 1980s and 1990s are now called “time-honored.”

3. Seollal will be upon us shortly. Among the various dishes we enjoy on the holiday, tteokguk seems to be at the top of the list. Please tell us about it.

Seollal is Lunar New Year’s Day. Being the first day of the year, it is a significant occasion. In Korea, the preparation of food is based on the Confucian spirit of bongjesa jeopbingaek, meaning “ancestral worship and welcoming guests.” Food is essential in paying tribute to ancestors and receiving guests, and on Seollal, or Seol, it is common to observe ancestral rituals or similar events. Since long ago, we have held such rituals for our ancestors on Seollal, Chuseok (the autumnal harvest moon), and their death anniversaries, and we still prepare food for these occasions.

Tteokguk is a soup that contains round, sliced tteok (rice cakes) or cakes of other grains. For ancestral rituals, prepared food as well as fresh ingredients are placed on a table. In the old days, as fresh produce was scarce in the winter, the precious tteok were made of rice harvested in the preceding autumn to be used in making soup that reflected the devoted efforts of the family’s descendants. Some people say that the soup contained tteok in the southern part of the Korean peninsula but dumplings in the north, but this is not true. As the production of wheat was rather limited in the peninsula, it was mostly used in making malt and not in cooking. Flour gradually became more common from the late Joseon Dynasty to Japan’s occupation of Korea, and dumplings came to be eaten in the northern part of the peninsula under the influence of China. Tteokguk is a dish made of guk (soup) and tteok, which were so precious that they were used only for ancestral worship and similar rituals. In the form of a soup loved by the people, tteokguk was served with garnishes like julienned beef, chicken, or pheasant meat.

4. Can you tell us about some other seasonal dishes?

Dongji, the winter solstice, was also called Ase and regarded as a “little Seol.” From this day on, the daytime grows longer and nighttime becomes shorter. As day corresponds to the concept of yang and night corresponds to yin, the winter solstice marks the increase of yang and decline of yin. Thus, Dongji signified a new beginning and was called a “little Seol.” On Dongji, we eat patjuk, a red bean porridge. Its red color symbolizes the sun and fire and corresponds to yang; thus, the porridge itself represents yang as well. Rice balls called saealsim are often added to tteokguk and patjuk. Some say that the number of saealsim in one’s dish equals the eater’s age, but this is only a saying without any historical backing. During the Joseon Dynasty, some people painted their walls or doors with patjuk, believing that the red porridge would dispel evil, but King Yeongjo prohibited such acts, branding them as a “superstition that originated in China.”

5. What are your New Year’s plans and wishes?

I am ceaselessly studying food by going through many materials. My future plans and wishes are to spread accurate information about hansik (Korean food).