Customer Reviews

Quick & Easy Korean Cooking for Everyone (Quick & Easy (Japan Publications))

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been looking for a good Korean cookbook for ages and have already purchased 8 of them through various sources (Amazon being one of the main ones) and been disappointed almost every time. Not so with this one. I assumed from the somewhat cheesy cover that this book would be fairly Americanized and a gamble at best, but it's proven to be one of the most comprehensive Korean cookbooks out there. There are several sections which deal with things like table settings, manners, customs, and recipes for the most basic of sauces and dips that you will use over and over again. The back has a nice little index of useful information and illustrations that demonstrate various techniques in the cooking process. Also, the recipes are quite authentic and don't leave out important steps. The author tells you how to press the Dubu before cutting and frying it...which I know seems fairly simplistic...but you don't know how many countless cookbooks have left out that most important step when making fried tofu. I've tried several of the sauces and have been very satisfied with the flavors. The only downside is that I wish the author would have included useful substitutions when it came to the cuts of meat. Some of the pork and beef sections used were unclear on which cuts were used and were simply referred to as "pork" or "beef" even when you knew a specific cut was probably used.

Overall it's one of the best tools in my kimchee making kitchen. Another I recommend is Duk Suni's cookbook. Please avoid the Kimchee Cookbook and Flavors of Korea though, as the recipes in them are vague, missing steps, and or just not authentic.

...the recipes just don't taste quite right to this Korean-American. Some are downright weird (like boiling apples for bulgogi marinade). Plus, the recipe selection seems random--I had never heard of lots of the dishes in here. I refer to this to get a sense of the basic ingredients for a recipe, but I end up changing the portions or adding other ingredients. However, the color step-by-step photos are helpful.

I cook Korean food regularly but decided to check out some cookbooks for improvement. This book is a joke. Almost every recipe requires MSG (an unhealthy shortcut to authentic cooking). And almost every recipe requires Japanese products like Mirin and sake. Koreans take national pride in their food (developed over 5000 years) and repeated reference to the cooking style and ingredients of its recent past colonizer was rather offensive. The book also mentions dishes most Korean have never heard of; doesn't specify the time for certain steps; and uses ingredients that don't even grow in Korea or don't belong in the dishes. I think the book was geared to Japanese people who want to dabble in Korean cooking -- if you want to cook Korean food the way Koreans cook it, this book is not it.

While I was in College friends introduced me to Korean food, and I have been hooked ever since. As a non-Asian, I had never been exposed to this type of food growing up and knew little about the ingredients. This books is great! It gives clear color pictures (instead of b/w drawings) of the individual ingredients needed, concise measurements and step-by-step directions. I have been able to locate all needed ingredients at my local asian food store and have been much surprised that things have actually worked out and tasted good. I highly recommend this book for the beginner!!

my best friend is a fabulous cook and in the past couple of years has been perfecting her korean cooking skills (her boyfriend is mostly korean). She recently introduced me to a korean restaurant that i fell in love with. she recommended this cookbook to me- because she and her boyfriend use recipes out of it on a weekly basis. the ingredients are easy to since there's a korean district in my city.

this book's layout is similar to the wei-chuan series and noh chin-hwa' book practical korean cooking. they all have gorgeous photos of all the recipes and photos of instructions. i also liked at the end of this book it had cooking tips, measurment conversions, cooking methods, and korean table etiquitte.

i love the tofu casserole with miso, and the boiled potatos with beef- well i leave the beef out. they're easy to prepare and i like the fact that it has tip's scattered about the different recipes- for example preparing live clams for cooking by soaking in salt water. I already knew to do this but it was a helpful reminder.

fabulous book- even if you don't intend to actually cook anything!

Step-by-step directions for some of the most common components of Korean cuisine. Color photographs make the techniques easy to understand. Most recipe ingredients can be found at any large American supermarket. I hardly ever cook, and I wouldn't mind cooking these dishes to serve to my Korean mother-in-law!

In the list of ingredients there are Japanese names that are not used by Korean people. Besides, explanations of ingredients include too many references to Japanese influence. There should be some words for Chinese influence as well as the appropiate conditions of Korean climate to cultivate some of the products and the adaptation of these products to Korean style.
The author says that "most of the recipes contained in this book have been adapted to Western style". It is true.
Excellent pictures but finally unuseful if you want real Korean recipes.

I was somewhat disappointed in this book as I was hoping to get more cooked recipes (especially for Korean Beef) and these are cold/raw recipes. It would have been nice if there was more of a description of the contents.

I do admit it has great pictures and might be a good book--just not what I was looking for. . .

After having looked over the recipies in this book I would discourage you from using it. There is too much MSG in this book. It isn't healthy for you nor is it necessary in korean cooking. I am a korean american and grew up eating and learning korean food. I am looking for a good cookbook to supplement the cooking taught to me by my mother. My mother always told me that using MSG in foods is cheating and it is not good for your health. Not to mention that food cooked w/MSG tends to have a funny msg taste. Also, some people have very bad reactions to msg. so please either stay away from this cookbook.. or leave the msg out of the recipies

I am married to a Korean man and wanted to try to make some of his favorites. This cookbook really does show you step by step how to do things to make it right. Very easy to follow the instructions. The only thing I would like better is if they were to give pictures of what the foreign ingredients look like. Overall a great book.