The average Russian knows little about traditional Korean cuisine, although the Korean Peninsula shares a border with Russia. Korean cuisine is in some aspects similar to Japanese and Chinese, but it also has its own specifics, due to the climate, the range of products and even the fate of the Korean diaspora abroad.
Traditional Korean cuisine
The basis of Korean cuisine, like the cuisines of other East Asian countries, is rice. It is consumed boiled, and also fried, turned into flour and made into noodles. Rice has historically played a role in the country similar to that of wheat in European countries.
In addition to rice, in Korea they also use buckwheat, grinding it into flour and making noodles from it.
Both fish and meat are equally actively used in Korean cuisine. The most popular meat is pork and beef. Pulkogi is prepared from beef - for this, the meat is cut into thin plastics, dipped in soy sauce and oil and fried over an open fire. In a Korean restaurant, you may even be served a special brazier for this. Pork can serve as a base for a soup, and can also be served fried. A gourmet delicacy in Korea is considered to be specially prepared pork tails, which were traditionally served at the imperial table.
Fish in Korea is used both fried and raw. Pickled fish, or heh, is served as a snack. Also in modern Korea, gimpabs are popular - an analogue of Japanese sushi. Most often, raw fish is used as a filling, but kimbabs can also be meat.
Several hot snacks are served with every Korean meal. The main one is kimchi, a fermented Chinese cabbage with garlic and paprika. In many ways, the cooking technique of this dish is similar to the Russian style of pickling cabbage, but the kimchi is much spicier. Koreans believe that cooking kimchi is one of the pinnacles of culinary excellence, which is not available to all housewives.
Serving Korean dishes is also quite specific. Usually, each guest is offered a choice of savory snacks, and the main course in many cases is bibimbap - a deep bowl of noodles or rice, to which fried meat or fish, stewed vegetables and a raw egg are added.
Dog meat is consumed in Korea, but not often. It is mainly served in specialty restaurants as an ingredient in one of the traditional Korean soups.
Features of the cuisine of Soviet Koreans
Koreans who moved to the USSR were forced to adapt their cuisine to the absence of some of the usual products. As a result, there are dishes that Koreans living in their homeland do not even know about. A prime example is the Korean carrot. This dish is based on the principle of preparation similar to the traditional spicy Korean appetizer, but using carrots available and cheap in Russia.
Another Korean dish that appeared in the USSR is pyanse, pies made from yeast dough. which are cooked in a double boiler. This dish, apparently, arose as a mixture of Korean culinary traditions and recipes of Central Asia, in particular, in terms of preparation and composition, pyansa is in many ways reminiscent of manti. Pyanse can be both cabbage and meat, and vegetarian.
