• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.613-630
• /
• 2009

This thesis, which involves honest life stories of members of the ìtraditionalî Korean generation that lived through the turbulent times of the first half of the twentieth century, assesses the meaning and import of Korean cuisine during an individual Korean's lifetime, as well as the relevant properties of the culinary culture of the traditional generation and how those properties continue to influence the present generation of Koreans. Thus, traditional Korean culinary culture was subdivided into the following four aspects, each of which were exemplified by representative examples. The first of these is slow-food dietary life, which is exemplified by fermented foods. The development of side dishes (panchan) based on fermentation - kimchi, different types of soy and bean paste, salted seafoods, dishes of dried radish or cucumber slices seasoned with soy sauce, and so on - made the quantitative and qualitative supplementation of food possible for traditional Koreans. The second of these aspects, referred to as friendly dietary life, is exemplified by self-sufficiently produced foods. The system of many species and small production suitable with the season made it possible to produce food from sustainable ecological systems and to maintain locally grown food-cultures, each of which was distinguished from others by a local specialty product. The third aspect of the traditional Korean culinary culture involves the same use of medicinal roots and plant materials for foodstuff, and this is exemplified by the use of foods to cure and prevent diseases. The notion, for example, that 'boiled rice is an invigorant' is characteristic of the notion that diet can function in a preventative medical context, and other similar Korean notions illustrate the importance, also, of the curative properties of food. The fourth and final aspect of traditional Korean culinary culture identified herein is creative dietary life, which can be viewed essentially as a Korean adaptation to the turbulence of life during the early $20^{th}$ century in Korea. This trend is exemplified by many Korean foods that were created in response to foreign influences, such as onions, cabbages, curry, etc. which found their place in overall Korean culture through the age of Japanese settlement, as well as the Korean war.