Rating: 
Summary: A record of the past...
Review:
I was thrilled when this cookbook was first released. I grew up with fantastic Korean cooking all my life, and was looking forward to having recipes written down that I could refer to when cooking mainly from memory.
After having owned the book for several years, I now realize that is exactly how I use the cookbook -- as a reference and reminder on how to do things. But I almost never follow a recipe to the letter. That may be because I am used to doing things the way my mother did, which may vary slightly from Hepinstall's method. But more often, I think it is because Hepinstall seems to add on extra steps to recipes which should be less complicated. When I read her recipes, I'm often inspired by the idea of the dish, but put-off by the numerous steps it would take to get to the final result. For those of you who are looking for quick yet tasty home-cooked Korean meals, I would suggest looking up "Flavors of Korea" by Coultup (sp?). The recipes are vegetarian, but I think even meat-eaters would enjoy the wonderfully spiced dishes.
If you love Korean cooking, and want to kick your home-cooking techniques up a notch, by all means invest in Hepinstall's volume. It is a valuable record of a style of Korean cooking that is rarely being practiced these days in Seoul. I especially loved the sections on making your own soy sauce and daenjang. I won't ever actually make my own soy sauce probably, but I like having a record of how it was done, just for posterity's sake.
Rating:
Summary: Korean culture through cooking
Review: **If you are just looking for quick and easy Korean "fast food" or "fusion" recipes, look elsewhere (there are simpler texts with newer updated recipes and better pictures).**That said, this is a wonderful book for those interested in learning about Korean history and culture via cooking. I got teary eyed reading about the history (or maybe it was when I was eating the kimchi?). The recipes are comprehensive and include a few that many contemporary Koreans don't even cook at home (life would be much more difficult without prepared red bean paste and soy sauce). This should be a staple for anyone interested in discovering their roots (no, not the radish type). Or interested in "culinary anthropology" (is this a real field?). As well as anyone just addicted to Korean food. If only this book had PICTURES of the foods, it would get 5 stars. And possibly a section depicting how properly cut foods should look.
Rating:
Summary: Korean culture through cooking
Review: **If you are just looking for quick and easy Korean "fast food" or "fusion" recipes, look elsewhere (there are simpler texts with newer updated recipes and better pictures).** That said, this is a wonderful book for those interested in learning about Korean history and culture via cooking. I got teary eyed reading about the history (or maybe it was when I was eating the kimchi?). The recipes are comprehensive and include a few that many contemporary Koreans don't even cook at home (life would be much more difficult without prepared red bean paste and soy sauce). This should be a staple for anyone interested in discovering their roots (no, not the radish type). Or interested in "culinary anthropology" (is this a real field?). As well as anyone just addicted to Korean food. If only this book had PICTURES of the foods, it would get 5 stars. And possibly a section depicting how properly cut foods should look.
Rating:
Summary: Korean culture through cooking
Review: **If you are looking for quick and easy Korean recipes, then choose another book-- there are simpler texts available with westernized recipes.**
That said, this is a wonderful book for those interested in Korean history and culture, via cooking. The author infuses personal and cultural notes throughout the recipes. When you taste the food, you will also taste a bit of Korean life.
The recipes are comprehensive, including a few that most Koreans buy pre-made (i.e., soy sauce, bean curd, red bean paste). However, they are fun to try once or twice! I'm currently making the soy sauce, it takes patience.
The recipes are regional, so don't be surprised that the ingredients may be different from what you are used to in your local restaurants. For example, many of the recipes include walnuts, which my own family never uses.
This book would have 5 stars if it had color pictures of the foods and a section on how to properly chop the ingredients. Presentation is an integral part of Korean cooking.
Rating:
Summary: Korean culture through cooking
Review: **If you are looking for quick and easy Korean recipes, then choose another book-- there are simpler texts available with westernized recipes.** That said, this is a wonderful book for those interested in Korean history and culture, via cooking. The author infuses personal and cultural notes throughout the recipes. When you taste the food, you will also taste a bit of Korean life. The recipes are comprehensive, including a few that most Koreans buy pre-made (i.e., soy sauce, bean curd, red bean paste). However, they are fun to try once or twice! I'm currently making the soy sauce, it takes patience. The recipes are regional, so don't be surprised that the ingredients may be different from what you are used to in your local restaurants. For example, many of the recipes include walnuts, which my own family never uses. This book would have 5 stars if it had color pictures of the foods and a section on how to properly chop the ingredients. Presentation is an integral part of Korean cooking.
Rating:
Summary: Can't wait to try some of these recipes
Review: Being half Korean, I was hoping to learn at least some of what my mother has cooked for me since I was small. Upon reading the book, I did. There is a lot of history recorded in there about many traditions. There is even a recipe for soy sauce made from scratch. I recognized some recipes,but, am eager to try the many more tantalizing dishes that I've never heard of until now. Although it is difficult to obtain a lot of ingredients where I live, I am willing to try to experiment with what I can. It is an excellent source for learning the cuisine, although, there should have been more photographs of the food.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected.
Review: I bought this book after I got married, in the hopes that it would save me from calling my mother every time I wanted to make dinner. This book uses too many fancy non-essential ingredients and seems to make everything a lot more complicated than it needs to be. I've tried several of the recipies but they don't even really taste like what I consider authentic Korean.
Rating: 
Summary: skip this book and buy a more practical one...
Review: I bought this book and noticed that everything seem really complicated to make. It has fun cultural information, but that's not really practical when you need to cook something! I was looking for an easy to use cookbook, preferably with photographs, and this was most definitely not it. It has you make things from scratch that you could just buy at your Korean grocery store. Why bother? Your money would be much better spent on a shorter cookbook with more pictures. It can be really easy to make tasty Korean food, so why bother with all of this fancy stuff. Especially when you have a full-time job and are coming home hungry! Give me some simple kimchi chiggae anyday!
Rating:
Summary: No, no, no. No.
Review: I have a couple of questions about this cookbook: 1) Why are the actual Korean names of these dishes not listed in the index? Shouldn't people unfamiliar with Korean food be able to talk to other people about bulgogi and not "fired beef"? Shouldn't people familiar with Korean food be able to look up "japchae" in the index instead of "Sweet Potato Noodles with Meat and Mixed Vegetables"? 2) Why, dear God, WHY is she putting hot peppers in japchae? Or napa cabbage, while we're on the topic of Things That Have No Business in Japchae. Some of these recipes were so foreign that, if they had not been in a Korean cookbook, I would have been unable to guess that they were Korean. I can only assume that this is the author's European influence, since she spent time in Europe studying cooking techniques. (Would that explain her fondness for walnuts, even in radish kimchi?) One redeeming quality of this cookbook is its inclusiveness of particularly festive Korean dishes, including desserts. This is something that is typically so lacking from Korean cookbooks that it might seem that Koreans only ate "peasant" food when in fact, Korean ceremonial and party foods are among the most sophisticated in the world. Another is that the book contains more obscure recipes that people like my mother might perish if they had to do without. One of these is kosari (fernbracken). On a beautiful day in spring, my mother and father might be driving down a highway and my mother will scream, "Stop!" and my father will have to pull over and they will spend the next 45 minutes collecting fernbracken for her to eat. While this type of food is wholly unappealing to most Americans, it is so Korean that it demands a place this type of cookbook.
Rating: 
Summary: A magnificent book
Review: I have been to Korea many times, I love Korean food and have found most Korean cookbooks unsatisfying. They usually simplify the recipes so much that the dishes taste like fast food. The wonderful thing I found about this cookbook is that it has the whole range of recipes -- from easy things to the more complicated dishes for more adventurous cooks. The other thing is this: I always look at cookbooks just before I go to sleep to think about what to make the next day and the book contains memoirs that provide really good nighttime reading. I got Sting's wife's cookbook last year -- which also has information about their family and it was neither interesting or moving as this one is. Plus, the recipes were so complicated that it was completely useless (unless you have a private cook like Sting does and he/she can spend all day cooking!). Anyway, this Korean cookbook will hold an important place in my kitchen.
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