Customer Reviews

A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My aunt gave me this book and it was just wonderful! The Korean edition was a best seller in Korea, so popular it was translated into english. It has the most common Korean dishes. It's taken the mystique out of some foods that I thought I wouldn't be able to make. For Kyopos it's a good way to learn some of the culture and what goes into the foods. In easy english w/photos. Some errors but overall understandable and easy to follow. It's the best Korean cookbook I've come across in english.

I am an American who has been living in Korea for the past 4 years. I use this book for my Korean cooking and I get many compliments. It is easy to follow, though there are some minor errors (some ingredients are left out in the preparation instructions) but it's not hard to figure out. It's a great book if you want to impress your Korean neighbors, though having a little cultural background helps. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy Korean food but aren't sure how to cook it.

I first pick this up so that I could pick up a new skill, but what I got out of it was far more than recipes. The book gave insight not only to Korean culture, but some unique perspective from a mother-in-law point of view. I highly recommend this to any daughter in laws and son in laws for an opportunity to see the other side of the coin.

This book holds a special place in my heart. I'm a single guy who hosts foreign students in my house. They attend our local community college. I'm obligated to cook 5 meals a week for them. Over the past 5 years, I've almost always had a Korean guy in my house. I love to cook Korean food and own over 15 Korean cookbooks. I cook Korean food on a continuous basis.

I've used recipes from all the cookbooks but "A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes" is my "go to" cookbook. I've had Korean students reduced to tears because these recipes are so close to their own mother's cooking. At the very first I thought my cooking was bad but they explained to me that it was because it was so authentic. I've even had students request to stay in my house because the food here was so good. What better recommendation is there than that!

My favorite recipes (English titles) are:

Pulgogi Sauce
Meat Ball Soup
Kimchi Stew
Beef Boiled in Soy Sauce
Potatoes Boiled in Sauce
Chicken in Sauce (a popular student favorite)
Broiled Pork (a party favorite)
White Korean Radish Strips
Mixed Vegetable - Chapch'ae - my all time favorite but I use less bellflower root
Pre-Cut Cabbage Kimchi

It's a shame that this book is out of print. I'm convinced that with a few updates it would compete with all the other Korean cookbooks currently on the market.

If you look, you can find this for about $20 from some sources.

Since I purchased this book, I have been continued refering back to it and cooked following the recipe. I have my menu planned for a month but this book made me changed my menu this month. Since the meat I purchase basically a standard meat, and most of the condiments are all easy to find in the grocery store (if you dont have some of them, no worries, the book also jot down ALTERNATIVES we can use to make them--i.e. red pepper paste). I happened to have most condiments available in my pantry. So I tried several recipes out of the book and have been really pleased with the result. I never imagine I can cook bulgogi/kalbi sauce from the scratch (I usually buy the pre-mix sauce). I skimmed through the recipes and most of it are not too intimidating or hard to follow. On addition to those great recipes, I love reading the story/introduction of the book. Must have!!

A few names for some ingredients are mistranslated or misleading (e.g. 'Sesame Salt' does not mean a kind of salt but crushed sesame seeds) and the instructions are not detailed enough for a beginner to follow.
Overall, this book is helpful just because Korean recipe books in English are rare.

Finally...the cookbook I've been searching for! I am of Korean descent and grew up on its cuisine, but never really learned the ins and outs of Korean cooking other than the most basic dishes. I always thought many of the dishes were cumbersome and time consuming, but this book made the process enjoyable.

I have several other Korean cookbooks and none of them can compare to this one. It's chock full of information and excellent tips that my mother or mother-in-law never even taught me. It made me want to try recipes that I never thought of making, and they were all excellent! I would give it 10 stars if I wasn't limited to 5.

This is by far, the best Korean cookbook I've come across! Everything I've made from this book is very delicious. I'm sure that if you got this book, you'd really enjoy it, too!

i've made some stuff from this book, and it's really easy to use, and the meals come out great

I lived in Korea for a year, so I was already familiar with Korean food from the great little restaurants there and from my students' families. Some of the instructions are a little vague, so if you're not familiar with the food style, you might really have trouble using the book. I do like it for its tips on what to do if you can't access Korean groceries/ingredients, its everyday recipes, its suggestions for menus/meal planning.... Overall it's a good buy for experienced cooks.