Korean food instructions

Although many people often say that they love Korean food, their knowledge of Korean food is mostly confined to the barbecue method. At most, they know a little about ginseng chicken soup or kimchi, and they know nothing about the rest of the food culture and etiquette.

Since ancient times, South Korea has attached great importance to etiquette. In terms of language, young people must use honorific words to their elders. As for food, when serving or filling meals, they should also give them to their elders first, or even set up a single table, which will be respectfully brought to them by their daughter or daughter-in-law, and the rest of the family can eat only after the elderly raise their chopsticks. As for pouring wine on the table, it is also necessary to order it according to age, from long to young. When the elders raise their glasses, the young can drink. In addition, there is a traditional habit that men and women sit at different tables at the age of seven, and girls will not sit in the same room with any men (including fathers and brothers) after the age of seven. However, this custom has been gradually broken in big cities, and it can still be seen in the countryside occasionally. In the past, Korean families put the utensils containing rice in the center of the table, while the dishes were in bowls and placed around. Everyone had a flat spoon with a long handle and round head, a pair of chopsticks and a plate of cold water. When eating, they used the spoon to send the rice directly to their mouths. Chopsticks were used to hold the dishes, while cold water was used to rinse the spoons. Modern Korean dining habits have changed a lot. Many people use food plates, and each person's meal is put on the plate. Some more modern families have used bowls instead of food plates.

Korea has a long history, and it also retains many traditional cultures. The Korean dining table is a short table, and the host and guest sit cross-legged on the floor. Young people will kneel on their feet in front of their elders and never straighten their legs, otherwise they will be considered impolite. If the room is too small, you can put the dining table in the yard and put a mat on it. However, modern Koreans are more and more advocating foreign trends, and they are getting farther and farther away from tradition, regardless of table manners or food etiquette.

Eating in Korea

As a national with a big food country, returning from Korea, it is inevitable to complain about the food there. I have met such compatriots more than once. On the eve of going to Korea, someone "warned" me: "Have a good meal, and you won't want to have good food when you go." But the result of my practice is quite different. Although I didn't stay for a long time, I was very impressed by the Korean food and the Korean way of eating.

Let's talk about tableware. Koreans use chopsticks just like us, but most of them use metal chopsticks. We can't find a pair of bamboo chopsticks in restaurants, let alone disposable "convenience chopsticks". I asked them, and the answer is that metal chopsticks are crisp, hygienic and durable, and disposable simple chopsticks are too wasteful, which consumes resources and pollutes the environment. That alone, I think we should follow suit.

Koreans, like Japanese, are used to sitting on the floor and eating cross-legged. Its traditional diet is relatively simple, the staple food is rice, and it loves to eat kimchi. The export volume of kimchi is said to be the highest in the world, and I think it can win the championship because every meal has its own table, and many tricks can be put on the exquisite dishes: cabbage, radish, pepper, and what we call unknown, which are both appetizing and delicious. They obviously have more vegetarian dishes on the table than we do, because they are near the sea, and there are quite a few vegetarian seafood dishes. Another "multi" is sauce products. The influence of our "sauce jar culture" there has probably reached the point where "green is better than blue". They have a sauce specially used to mix vegetables with rice. I tried it and it tastes very good. The above "three excesses" may constitute a reasonable factor that their diet is low in sugar and fat and meets the requirements of nutrition. We have noticed that there are not many obese people in Korea. Generally, middle-aged and elderly people can keep fit and have a healthy complexion. Is this related to good eating habits?

Koreans are as warm and thoughtful as we are, but they don't show generosity with a table full of "big fish and big meat". At least we didn't enjoy the "Gao Daquan" that we often encounter in China, from official banquets to folk banquets and from Korean to non-Korean eating methods. Their meat dishes, such as roast duck, are also very authentic. The lean meat layer is thick, neither fat nor greasy, smooth and tender. The way of eating is different from ours. They don't use bread to wrap duck meat, but use vegetable leaves. The green lettuce is accompanied by onion, garlic and seasoning, and the roasted duck pieces are sandwiched. The color, smell and taste are good. There is also a kind of vegetable leaves that we didn't expect: sesame leaves. The host specially introduced that this is a new product of fashionable food and scientific research. Sesame leaves contain many substances needed by human body, and also have anti-cancer and anticancer effects. Later, I saw "canned sesame leaves" for sale in the store, and I also caught up with the fashion.

I'm afraid the most famous Korean food is barbecue. Teppanyaki is not only used for cooking, but also for fried noodles. The most interesting thing is a kind of "stone barbecue": put a pile of pebbles on the iron frame to heat up, spread the meat pieces first, and then twist the large pieces of meat into small pieces with long scissors when the temperature is certain, and put them into the rolling stones. After a while, they will creak and smell, and you can eat it. According to reports, pebbles are imported, since they can store heat and even the temperature, so that the meat is free from scorching, and the oil can be removed and the smell can be removed. We tasted this quaint and modern delicacy in a restaurant called "Haifeng" in Incheon, and we were deeply impressed.

The saving and science of Korean food can also be proved by a kind of "miniature paper cup" specially used for drinking fountains. It is a small piece of paper that is only the length of the middle finger and the width of two fingers. After special treatment, it becomes a very small cup when you take it and put it on the tap to receive water. Compared with transparent plastic cups and ordinary paper cups, it has its own advantages of small size and simplicity, which can often be seen in Korean streets and fast food restaurants.