Preface

 

 

With international travellers today being eager to grab an opportunity to sample local cuisine, Korea offers a rich variety of culinary delights. Yet finding reliable information on Korean food is no easy task for foreigners. It is a rare Korean individual who is capable of describing various Korean dishes in a manner intelligible to foreign visitors. Restaurants serving Korean food are seldom equipped with menus printed in English or other foreign languages. And even when foreign language menus are available, restaurants tend to use different expressions for the same dish, thus creating urnnecessary confusion.

 

This guide, consisting of over 800 terms for traditional and modern Korean foods in English and French, has been compiled primarily to help Koreans who would like to dine on Korean food at restaurants or at home, and provide an explanation of Korean cuisine to foreigners. We are hopeful that this guide will help Korean restaurateurs in and out of Korea to prepare menus in a more standardized and appealing manner.

 

There is another purpose to this guide: to help foreigners understand Korea's food culture and feel more confident about ordering food in Korean restaurants. Each dish is presented with a brief description of its cultural background and how it is prepared, so that its flavors can be fully appreciated and enjoyed. The index is organized by name and keyword so it is easy to find any item and obtain more detailed information about any particular dish.

 

This book has been three years in the making. Since the Korea Foundation actively engages in a wide variety of international exchange projects to promote Korea's image abroad, we have long recognized the need for a book about Korean food such as this. The task of translating Korea's unique cuisine into English and French has been difficult and challenging. As such, linguistic factors and cultural issues as well, not to mention informational science, have been taken into account. This has required consultation with 20 Korean and international experts. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have contributed their expertise, time, and patience to this effort. With the continuing interest and research of restaurateurs and scholars, we hope to keep adding to this guide and making it even more informative.

 

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The Korea Foundation