UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

Korea Herald

Fusion kitchens are fashionable today, which adds to the creativity needed to move forward in the global society of the 21st century. One would think that many restaurants have uncovered all possible food creations — but that is not true according to Ferran Adria, renowned for his three-star Michelin El Bulli Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain. Despite the fact that Adria is closing his restaurant for two years to become a part of the vanguard of the next food revolution, there is still so much creativity just waiting to be tapped out there, but people have to know the myriad of ingredients that are available and discover how to incorporate them into known recipes. The world of food has not been explored fully as has the world of medicine, but the Internet and globalization has made it possible to import foods from all over the world. We have not discovered 10 percent of what is available worldwide because we fear the unknown and are comfortable with what we know. I personally have developed a salad dressing from Korean products and I dare not reveal the ingredients. My recipe is written on a piece of paper in pencil for only my daughter to know.

I had the privilege to attend a dinner with the Chain Des Rotisseurs last month at the Lotte Pierre Gagnaire Restaurant on the 35th floor. Lucky for me, I was sitting with many food experts from several hotels. I fantasized how it would feel if I were with an interesting man rather than with foodies; Imagine sitting next to a hot date while eating food created by Pierre Gagnaire. … That was a fantastic three hours of enjoying exquisite food and wine that matched like peaches and cream, champagne and strawberries, or white wine and oysters.

What Pierre Gagnaire created was a masterpiece. His imagination is beyond expectation. Pierre transformed kimchi juice into jelly and used it in a sorbet as a palate cleanser. Visualize kimchi used as a palate cleanser! It worked like a charm by adding turnip-curacao granite, chicory cream, and blue cheese. French ingredients fused into Korean ingredients? He used abalone from Wando in South Jeolla Province, local beef, and soju. Imagine how many countries there are and how many different cuisines are available. The choices could approach infinity! There are many dishes one can create, but only a handful of chefs dare to push the envelope with research and experimentation.

Dinner with Pierre is a precursor for love in the air. I had the time of my life and rarely do I feel this way because the ambience and the creations far exceeded most people’s imagination. As I walked into the hotel, I was greeted by the hotel concierge who escorted me to the elevator that whisked me to the 35th floor. The view was spectacular and once I approached the dining room I was assigned to a table with brilliant foodies and may I also say, these men were easy on the eyes. One of the guests mentioned that Pierre must be under much pressure tonight. My response was, “Without pressure, there is no creativity.”

I would like to begin with what the fantasy dinner included. I will take you through the eight courses that will guarantee “love will be in the air” before you are midway through the dinner. Take a minute to fantasize about what that feels like. The menu was so unusual; it took my breath away because of the infusion of many Korean ingredients, to include Italian de Parma prosciutto with chestnut puree and steak tartar. Yes, I was impressed … and it is not easy to impress me. Pierre knows how to infuse ingredients of different cuisines with ease, creativity, and class. I have no doubt he has researched every ingredient and their composition because that is what it takes to create a new and exciting menu.

The menu was as follows: As we walked into the room, we were served champagne and cylinder shaped wafers made with parmesan cheese. It was a nice start, because one should coat the stomach with an appetizer that will line the stopmach.

The first course consisted of oak-leaf lettuce stuffed with crab and vegetables, served with Pouilly-Fuisse Domaine Jadot 2006. The second course was custard of chicken and green juice, langoustines; radicchio foam. The third course was thin slices of abalone from Wando in a vegetal juice strongly peppered to include zighy-bay marmalade with a Vacqueyras Domaine Montirius 2004. The fourth course was sliced scallops poached in rosemary butter with cucumber and capers brunoise and corn cream with raspberry. Did you ever think that is possible? The fifth course was the palate cleanser to prepare the palate for the main course. The chicory cream and blue cheese, kimchi juice jelly; turnip-curacao granite was mind-blowing.

The question I would ask, “Was the sorbet a palate cleanser to get one ready for the main course?” I think it was although some would disagree. I am honestly still debating this most unusual combination. I would love to ask Pierre about his rationale for this combination.

The 6th course was grilled filet of beef rolled in fresh herbs blended with roasted chestnut puree and crispy Parma ham. Dregs of red wine with raisins, grated cocoa classical tartar, frosted omija. The wine to match the main course was Margaux Chateau Brane Cantenac 2004

The 7th course was unctuous camembert, small dices of truffle biscotti bread; yogurt ice-cream. That combination was amazing. Biscotti bread? I’d never heard of it before.

The final course was a served with one of my favorite wines; Sauternes Chateau Lamothe Guignard 2006 was the essence of heaven. Peel of Yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit), soju parfait, blackcurrant pulp emulsified with olive oil. Dried fruits sorbet, confit orange and abinao meringues. Syrup gelified with saffron. Chocolate: Mellow biscuit, creamy ganache and breaking disc. Lemon cream and caramelized nuts.

Where else in the world can one come up with such divine combinations? It may seem as if there was an overabundance of food, but the truth is, I felt great and I did not feel I had too much to eat. I would have not served the bread as it was not necessary. Water was not served unless one asked for it.

A note on The Chaine Des Rotisseurs, which is an international gastronomic society, dedicated to bringing people together who understand and share interest in food, wine, and fine dining. If you are interested in learning more, go to the international website http://www.chaine-des-rotisseurs.net/ or the Korea website at http://www.chainekorea.org/ or for a local person, e-mail Bernard.brender@hilton.com

Samia Mounts is a weekly food columnist for the Korea Herald.

By Samia Mounts

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KOREA HERALD

One thing that Japanese tourists find pleasantly puzzling is that kimchi is offered for free at all the restaurants in Korea. Why is such good food offered as a free side dish? One possible answer is that kimchi, despite the reduced intake due to a Westernized lifestyle, remains the essential and universal side dish for Koreans.

Kimchi was not for gourmets. It never was. From kings to beggars on the street, kimchi was — and still is — a universal food that represents Korean culture in general and a unique dietary pattern in particular.

Pregnant mothers in Korea, for instance, were allowed to eat cubed radish kimchi only with softened flavor and in precise rectangular shapes. This tradition implies that the well-proportioned shape of kimchi was believed to have a positive impact on unborn babies.

Pulmuone Kimchi Museum in Samseong-dong is an ideal place where visitors can learn how kimchi has secured its universal status at the very root of Korean culture and society.

In the 500-square-meter space, numerous documents about the history of kimchi-making are displayed together with earthenware jars collected from across the nation and the samples of a variety of kimchi indigenous to regions with detailed captions in both Korean and English.

“The museum hosts about 60,000 visitors per year, and the peak season is between October and November, when a lot of Korean students come here to learn how kimchi is made,” said Shin Su-sie, curator of the museum in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Shin said the museum runs various programs for not only Koreans but also foreign visitors. “We have separate monthly programs for foreign tourists, or expats living in Korea, introducing the kimchi-making techniques and related tips,” she said.

The museum, established in 1986, has been serving as a representative place where people can learn about kimchi, including its history, cultural background and varieties in different regions.

One positive development, Shin said, is that the government-led campaign for globalizing Korean food, along with foreigners’ renewed attention to kimchi as a healthy food, is resulting in more kimchi-related programs and museums in local areas.

The red-hot interest in kimchi and its positive effects on the human body has spread beyond Asia in recent years. But for Koreans, kimchi is simply an essential side dish for nearly every meal. When and how did this peculiar dietary pattern start?

Even though the exact origin of kimchi is arguable at best, the existing documents testify to the early emergence of the fermented vegetable culture. A Goryeo period scholar Lee Kyu-bo (1168-1241), in one of his books, referred to the pickling of homegrown radishes and other ingredients in brine for use in winter, suggesting the practice of eating fermented vegetables had started much earlier, probably before the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392).

The practice of eating fermented vegetables faced a turning point during the Goryeo Dynasty when people were strongly encouraged to eat vegetables rather than meat under Buddhist principles, then the official state religion.

However, it was not until the Japanese invasion (1592-98) when the spicy red kimchi was introduced. Scholars generally agree that the import of red pepper from Japan prompted the development of today’s kimchi. This is largely based on a book written in 1613 by renowned scholar Lee Su-kwang, in which he mentioned the existence of Japanese mustard, which is believed to be red pepper.

During the middle of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the spicy taste of kimchi, thanks mainly to red pepper, came to vary with the introduction of much more sophisticated techniques along with the addition of other ingredients.

Among the additional condiments, fish paste or “jeotgal” serves an interesting purpose if mixed in with kimchi. The savory ingredient is made from fermented anchovies, baby shrimp, oysters, small swordfish or shellfish — whatever is available in different areas. Jeotgal, in a sense, illustrates the unique local cultures and diet patterns reflecting regional differences.

Jeotgal smells strong but if mixed with hot pepper, the smell mysteriously disappears, and today’s scientists have discovered that capsaicin from kimchi’s red pepper prevents the oils in the jeotgal seasoning from turning stale.

The inclusion of jeotgal and other local foodstuff into kimchi is related to Korean lifestyle in which they used to get much-needed calories and vitamins from the very mixture of the various ingredients used for kimchi.

One conventional yardstick with which to identify as many as 200 variants of kimchi is how much salt is used and what kind of jeotgal is added. Kimchi from the central Gyeonggi area has a simple and light flavor. Chungcheong Province kimchi, meanwhile, has a relatively high proportion of jeotgal, resulting in a stronger and savory aftertaste. Kimchi from southwestern regions is known as a hot and stimulating kind. Mountainous Gangwon Province kimchi has such unusual elements as squid or walleye pollack. Also of note, if garlic is missing, it’s definitely from Buddhist temples.

This variety of kimchi often poses a question: What is kimchi?

Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish seasoned with mainly red pepper, garlic, ginger and salted fish. Also on the list for kimchi-making are various vitamins, abundant fibers, minerals and anti-cancer substances. All these things can be obtained with surprisingly few calories — approximately 33 calories per cup.

Kimchi also represents the cooperative spirit of Koreans. During the kimchi-making season, or “gimjang,” around late November or early December, Korean mothers used to help each other in turns mainly because the amount of kimchi for the then extended family was too burdensome (often over 100 Chinese cabbages were needed), not to mention the manpower needed for preparing all sorts of condiments and various ingredients.

With the rapid introduction of Western food, coupled with changes in apartment-oriented housing, today’s Koreans prefer buying bottled and plastic-packed kimchi at the supermarket.

“The intake of kimchi is definitely going down among Koreans,” said Shin. “However, it is still impossible for Koreans to live without kimchi. Where else can you find people who request kimchi as a side dish even when they eat pizza?”

Pulmuone Kimchi Museum is on the underground second floor of COEX Mall in southern Seoul. For further information, visit its homepage at www.kimchimuseum.or.kr or call (02) 6002-6456.

(insight@heraldm.com)

By Yang Sung-jin

News Clippings

NYT

Megistella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Cast members who will play the title role in a South Korean production of “Billy Elliot: The Musical.”

When your musical about an aspiring young dancer in a British coal-mining town has proved a hit in Britain, America and Australia, where do you take it next? That’s right: South Korea.

The producers of “Billy Elliot: The Musical” said that a Korean-language version of the show, adapted from the 2000 Stephen Daldry film, would play in Seoul starting in August after years of planning that began long before “Billy Elliot” won the 2009 Tony Award for best musical.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Eric Fellner, a co-chairman of Working Title Films, which produced the “Billy Elliot” movie and produces its stage incarnations, said that the company was first approached about foreign versions of the musical about five years ago, just as the original West End show was starting up.

Mr. Fellner said that producers from Japan, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands — countries where English-language musicals most often travel — all expressed interest before Broadway took notice of the show. The earliest foreign deals for “Billy Elliot,” he said, were struck in 2007 and 2008, including one for the production in South Korea. (“Or,” Mr. Fellner said, “amusingly, as I said to a friend the other day, we’re taking it to North Korea, and they looked at me in horror.”)

Despite the details of “Billy Elliot” that are specific to British culture, Mr. Fellner said, “There’s been less resistance, with the few people that have seen it from those countries, to the themes of what it’s all about, than there was initially from Americans.”

He continued: “They somehow totally and utterly engage in the notion of community broken by government, economic depression, recession, unions. It’s kind of extraordinary how much they identified with all of the themes that the show plays on.”

Local actors have been hired for the South Korean cast, including a team of four young Billys, and some dialogue or other minor elements may be changed to suit the hometown crowd. But over all the show (whose music is by Elton John and whose book and lyrics are by Lee Hall) will remain intact, and the show’s American design and construction team has built the sets for the Seoul production.

Mr. Fellner said that a Japanese version of the “Billy Elliot” musical was being prepared for the summer of 2011, and talks were continuing with German and Dutch producers but nothing had been set yet.

And, he added, “I look forward to seeing you in North Korea for the premiere in 2020.”

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