Korean Cuisine

Rating:
Summary: Excellent picture and Easy to Follow
Review: I actually own 3 of Wei-Chuan books because all of the books I have great pictures and easy to follow instructions. I'm a beginner so it was easy to follow; however, it didn't quite
explain what some ingredients are like tzuyoum, mirin, five-spice power and more. As a beginner, I had no clue where to
find these ingredients besides that they are in a Chinese market. Problem is, I don't know what it is supposed to look like and the Chinese people there don't understand what I am looking for.

Rating:
Summary: Recipes that really work, for authentic Korean cuisine
Review: I am so excited about this cookbook. For a while I had been struggling to make Korean dishes using an English translation of a cookbook originally published in Korea; the translation was poor, recipes were hard to understand, and ingredients were not well-described and were hard to find. Finally, here is an authentic Korean cookbook that makes sense to an English-speaker like me who did not grow up with this cuisine, that takes the mystery out of the ingredients with clear descriptions and close-up color photos. Korean cuisine makes sense to me now. The recipes in this book are well-written and well-organized, and the step-by-step photos are invaluable. It doesn't hurt that the author is the owner of the world-famous Woo Lae Oak restaurants, which happen to be my husband's and my favorite. My husband, who grew up with Korean food, says the recipes are authentic. All I know is that the recipes work, and Korean cooking is a lot less mysterious now! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent picture and Easy to Follow
Review: I have to say that this is one of the easiest to follow Korean cookbooks out there. And for the reader who reads Korean, and was disappointed that it wasn't Korean, bear in mind that this book was written by owners of the Woo Lae Oak restaurant. And the publishers originally translated this book for Chinese readers who are interested in making Korean food at home. And there are many people who are interested in international foods, and English translations were added. These are great recipes, with pictures showing the different steps. I highly recommend this book as a beginner / intermediate Korean cookbook.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to follow Korean cookbook
Review: I have to say that this is one of the easiest to follow Korean cookbooks out there. And for the reader who reads Korean, and was disappointed that it wasn't Korean, bear in mind that this book was written by owners of the Woo Lae Oak restaurant. And the publishers originally translated this book for Chinese readers who are interested in making Korean food at home. And there are many people who are interested in international foods, and English translations were added. These are great recipes, with pictures showing the different steps. I highly recommend this book as a beginner / intermediate Korean cookbook.

Rating:
Summary: Best Korean Cookbook
Review: I love this book. It's made me buy the whole Wei Chuan collection. These recipes are authentic and simple. Some of the ingredients you will have to go to a Korean market to find. I don't use exact measurements but this book has given me great ideas. Great start if you are serious about mastering Korean cooking.

Rating:
Summary: more for a western palette...
Review: I must admit this book is great for its visual appeal. It makes my mouth water just looking at the pictures. But aside from this, I think the final dishes taste less authentic in my opinion (fyi.. I am Korean) As another reviewer pointed out, the owners of Woo Lae Oak put this book out. Those restaurants are more geared towards the Western palette- food is much, much sweeter and different from what I am used to. If you are looking to emulate the taste of the dishes in Korean restaurants in a Korea-town area of a certain city then these recipes will not give you that..

Rating:
Summary: disappointed
Review: I was truely craving Korean food and want to learn to make it. Well, i have to say, the book has too exquisite of food in it. Not traditional food you will find at most restaurants or even in the open market. And what's up with it being written in a language other than Korean??? I speak English but also know some Korean and am very disappointed with the fact that it isn't even written in Korean.........

Rating:
Summary: i love wei-chuan!
Review: this is a great book! I'm chinese american- so korean ingredients are similar to ingredients i'm used to- but at the same time completely different! the ingredient list with pictures in the beginning of the book- greatly helped me in the korean grocery store. ie my best friends mom always had these big bags with a picture of a raw steak on the front. everytime i walked through their pantry- i thought- "man they must need to tenderize a lot of meat." It turns out the "meat tenderizer" is actually beef soup base! And it's REALLY good soup base for those who like to cheat with food prep! i also liked the fact that it had photos of the different kinds of dried seaweed used- because in korean and japanese grocery stores- the seaweed section can make your head spin with all the different choices you have!

i really liked the recipe for chapchae- most of the other korean cookbooks have meat strips or ground meat in them. this one was simple- and if you keep a well stocked pantry you can make this whenever you want! I like to add julienned dried black mushrooms to the recipe as well. the spicy tofu stew with clams is so completely easy to make- and honestly- i leave out the clams and fresh shrimp- and it's still wonderful without! I do like to throw large pink dried shrimp with their heads on- into the soup- primarily because it adds flavor- and because there's a korean restaurant that does the same.

The cooking tips that are found throughout the book are priceless. like throwing in dried anchovies if you don't have anchovy stock. I never knew what to do with those things- and now i do. and despite they're smell and appearance they add wonderful flavor to soups.

if you have a korean market nearby and you're too lazy to actually cook- i would recommend getting a few bags of the different types of dried soup stock powders. in the same section they should also have these yellow boxes of freeze dried soup. there's no english- except- what type of soup it is- i personally like the pollack soup and the beef and vegetable soup. (and what you see in the picture is actually what is in the box!) one box with 2 cups of water- throw in half a container of soft tofu, some dried shrimp and a dried anchovy and some hot sesame oil and you've got yourself instant goodness.

this book really helped me experiment with korean ingredients. (ie putting a tablespoon of the beef soup base powder in the above soup mix adds flavor and is really good) i've even expanded my pantry to include fernbracken. A little scary looking dried and in the package- but i'm sure it's going to be wonderful! i absolutely love this book and the entire wei-chuan series.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This is a grqerat book. Picture s and recapies are great