Practical Korean Cooking

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Summary: The Korean Cooking Bible
Review: After spending a year in Korea, living on korean food, I found this book to be the best the I have found on the subject. The pictures of the raw ingredients, the preparation pictures, the finished dish pictures and the text were very well adapted to the novice american/korean cook. If you want real korean taste, get this book!

Rating:
Summary: the most correct cookbooks for authentic korean cooking
Review: After spending a year in Korea, living on korean food, I found this book to be the best the I have found on the subject. The pictures of the raw ingredients, the preparation pictures, the finished dish pictures and the text were very well adapted to the novice american/korean cook. If you want real korean taste, get this book!

Rating:
Summary: reminiscent of my mom's cookbooks
Review: first of all- if you're going to buy any books by noh chin-hwa- make sure this is the one. i bought traditional side dishes by the author- and it was basically just a chapter cut out of this book. i should have listened to the person who also stated the fact in a review.

i'm twenty something- and this cookbook reminds me of my mom's chinese cookbooks from the 70's. Sure it's photography and dish ware are dated- but the recipes and instructions are fantastic. i'm completely leery of the recipe for raw liver, and it is true the instructions do seem very time consuming... however i read in Korean cuisine by wei-chaun- that a lot of traditional korean cooking techniques are very daunting tasks.

i bought about 6 korean cookbooks after eating at a korean restaurant- they all seem to have the same dishes with very little variation. this book however expands beyond the bulgogi... the chige...and the kimchi. One such item would be the fermented soy bean lumps. now i don't intend to try this recipe- but i found it really interesting that the instructions include- "remove the mold and dust from the fermented soybean lumps two days before using" I'm chinese american- so i'm pretty much used to weird ingredients. the american side of me however is pretty nitpicky about "is this clean? is that mold? is that still good?" i often buy dried wood ears- but because they have a faint white moldy look to them i'm reluctant to actually use them.

anyways this is what i consider to be what a cookbook should be. pictures of every single recipe and photos of instructions as well. i wish it also had photos of the ingredients- with the glossary area- but there are plenty of photos of the ingredients pre cooking- to get an idea of what to look for in the korean grocery stores. fabulous! worth the $$ !!!!

Rating:
Summary: the most comprehensive korean cookbook
Review: From the beautifully laid out step-by-step pictures to the detailed instructions, this book is far and away the best cookbook for authentic korean cooking. This book contains 200 recipes. The recipes cover the range from side dishes to desserts and beverages. It is appropriate for those looking for popular korean dishes(such as "bulgoki" or "galbi") but also more traditional, authentic recipes(such as "gopchang jungol" as well. Buy this book if you want to experience true korean cooking. Don't buy the other books by this author, however, as I have seen them in bookstores and they are only repeats of what is contained in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good if you don't know the difference
Review: I bought this book in Korea hoping it would help me get started on learning more recipes, but the ingredients are most often unnecessary and in some cases wrong. Take ¹Ì¿ª ¿ÀÀ̳ñ¹ (Cold Seaweed and Cucumber Soup)... She says to put in soy sauce, which is just plain wierd... and doesn't say anything about putting in garlic powder/minced garlic. Instead of soy sauce just put a lot of coarse salt. I am just grateful that I have friends to help me correct the recipes.
As for the comment that there is no Bibimbap, that is just wrong, you can find that on page 160 although many of the ingredients are unnecessary.
I must say that on the whole this book was a big disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Good if you don't know the difference
Review: I bought this book in Korea hoping it would help me get started on learning more recipes, but the ingredients are most often unnecessary and in some cases wrong. Take ¹Ì¿ª ¿ÀÀ̳ñ¹ (Cold Seaweed and Cucumber Soup)... She says to put in soy sauce, which is just plain wierd... and doesn't say anything about putting in garlic powder/minced garlic. Instead of soy sauce just put a lot of coarse salt. I am just grateful that I have friends to help me correct the recipes.
As for the comment that there is no Bibimbap, that is just wrong, you can find that on page 160 although many of the ingredients are unnecessary.
I must say that on the whole this book was a big disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I only paid 19 dollars for this book, brand new in a military post exchange?. Why is it 47 dollars here?

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Summary: Which Korean cookbook should you get? This one, no doubt.
Review: I was raised eating Korean food, but when I moved away from home, I didn't know how to cook it for myself. My sister uses this book, and now I do, too.

Rating:
Summary: Good food, but NOT "Practical"
Review: I'm the kind of cook who does not mind pinching the leaves individually off cilantro. I like to chop and prepare fresh vegetables in all kinds of futsy ways. However, I draw the line at recipes that ask me to pound cooked rice in a mortar to achieve a thick paste. Would a blender or food processor work? How about rice flour? Without hours of experimentation, I'll never know, and the author does not tell us...To it's credit, this book has wonderfully detailed instruction, but the preparation for most recipes is so intense that I don't find myself using it as a cookbook. For me, it's more of an "authentic" reference, a jumping-off point for creating meals with what's on hand...If you really want to make your own konju-jang or your own soy sauce, it's in there, but unless you're confined to the kitchen with nothing to do all day but cook, you may end up using this book as interesting reading material more than a "practical" cookbook.

Rating:
Summary: Simple easy to use with flavorful results even to the novice
Review: Practical Korean Cooking is well worth the investment. Its easy to follow directions, supported by pictures with step by step directions make this one of the easiest Asian cookbooks to use. With its well laid out sections it is easy to plan a traditional Korean meal down to what the table should look like. The handy glossary of terms make it valuable to the seasoned cook or the beginner. A must have cookbook for the eclectic cook.