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In Korea, rice is served at every meal. At breakfast it is
sometimes served as gruel, especially for elderly people and children. At
other meals, steamed rice, cooked by the absorption method, is accompanied
by soup, meat, fish, vegetables and, of course, kimchi. Rice is of such
importance that meals are described as consisting of rice and panch'an, a
term that takes in whatever else is served with the rice.
Sometimes the rice is combined with other grains such as
barley and beans. Among the beans used are dried lima beans, azuki beans
(red beans) and soy beans, or soybean products such as bean curd, bean
pastes and soy sauce.
Korea has an abundance of fish and other seafood, and often
the fish is combined in surprising ways with meat or poultry. Like the
Japanese, Koreans use seaweed, especially the dried laver seaweed known as
nori by the Japanese and kim by the Koreans. It is used as a relish.
Beef is the most popular meat in Korea. Pork and chicken
are also used, but mutton never. Beef is not usually cooked in one big
piece. It is very thinly sliced and cut into bite-size pieces; sometimes
the slices are beaten out for extra thinness. The beef is then kneaded
well with a marinade and left for 2-4 hours so that it is tenderized and
flavored. While Korean charcoal grill or broil such meals as bulgogi or
bulgalbi, everyday cooking includes boiling, steaming, stir frying and
deep or shallow frying; baking is not one of their cooking methods, for
few Koreans have ovens.
The seven basic flavors of Korean food are garlic, ginger,
black pepper, spring onions, soy sauce, sesame oil and toasted sesame
seeds. The sesame seeds are crushed before being added to marinades or
mixed with cooked dishes, thus releasing their full flavor.
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