Kay in the Beautiful World: Korean Foods

On the previous posting, I introduced “Hanok,” Korean traditional buildings. Today, I will write about another part of Korean culture, Korean foods.
First, I want to let you know the most common meal that every Koreans have at home. Three basic components of Korean foods are steamed rice, soup and side dishes and all these components are set on a table together.
Koreans usually eat steamed white rice as a carbohydrate source and various grains such as beans and barley are sometimes mixed with rice.
And there are countless kinds of Korean soups and every vegetable, every meat, and every seafood can be ingredients of Korean soups. My favorite soup is beef brown seaweed soup whose main ingredients are brown seaweed and beef. It’s very easy to expect the ingredients if we know the name of the foods in Korea :-).
There are three major categories in Korean side dishes: vegetables, fish or meat, and Kimch. Steamed or fresh vegetable are usually mixed with seasonings and sauces. Common seasonings and sauces in Korea are salt, sesame, chilly pepper powder, soy source, bean paste, chilly pepper paste and sesame oil. Fish or meats are usually grilled or boiled down in various sauces. Kimchi is the most famous Korean foods. Kimchi is mainly made of cabbage and radish. They are salted and mixed with chilly pepper powder, chopped garlic and some fish sauce. Taste of Kimchi changes as it is fermented. When well fermented, the taste of Kimchi is sour and fresh.
The first picture is the most common and basic everyday meal in Korea.