An energetic, fast-paced trip through the rapidly changing world of
Korean cuisine by the author of Eating Viet Nam
Journalist, world traveler, and avid eater Graham Holliday has sampled
some of the most exotic and intriguing cuisines in countries around the
globe. However, none has intrigued him more or stayed with him longer
than Korea's. On a pilgrimage to Korea to unearth the real food eaten by
locals, Holliday discovers a country of contradictions, a quickly
developing modern society that hasn't decided whether to shed or embrace
its culinary roots. Devotees still make and consume traditional dishes
in tiny holes-in-the-wall even as the phenomenon of Korean people
televising themselves eating (mukbang) spreads ever more widely.
Amid a changing culture that's simultaneously trying to preserve what's
best about traditional Korean food while opening itself to a panoply of
global influences, that's balancing new and old, tradition and
reinvention, the real and the artificial, Holliday seeks out the most
delicious dishes in the most authentic settings-even if he has to prowl
in back alleys to find them and convince reluctant restaurant owners
that he can handle their unusual flavors. Holliday samples soondae (or
blood sausage); beef barbeque; bibimbap; Korean black goat; wheat
noodles in bottomless, steaming bowls; and the ubiquitous kimchi,
discovering the exquisite, the inventive and, sometimes, the downright
strange.
Animated by Graham Holliday's warm, engaging voice, Eating Korea is a
vibrant tour through one the world's most fascinating cultures and
cuisines.
