Food for Thought: Koreatown a Cookbook

Koreatown: A Cookbook immediately repays your investment with the quick kimchi recipes in the opening pages: through some alchemy involving Asian pears, fish sauce and of course gochugaru you can get a pretty decent rendition in 24 hours instead of burying your crock in the ground for months. Add the Jangajji (quick soy sauce pickles) on page 49 and the Kongamul Muchim (crunchy sesame bean sprouts) on page 51 and you’ve got yourself a pretty serviceable spread of panchan.

There’s also lots of Korean street and bar food, Korean recipes contributed by an impressive array of famous chefs, and tasty, browsable food writing in the style of David Chang though not quite as potty-mouthed. And the ultimate tweak to Shin Lamyan which I will tweak further and share with you shortly. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as your first Korean cookbook since the recipe selection is eclectic rather than encyclopedic, but it could easily be your second. And it’s a bargain at just a few cents over $20 on Amazon. Check it out.