22.So many side dishes!

Whenever you order food in a korean restaurant they will bring you many side dishes. In Korea there are not appetizers, main dishes or that kind of dishes western restaurants have. Some restaurants, however, have adapted this western way of serving food, but there are still many that keep the korean way. It all comes at once! The basics of korean dishes are rice, soup, and kimchi. In early times, during the Joseon Era, sometimes food was described by the number of side dishes, for example: samcheop (three side dishes), chilcheop (seven side dishes). The king's table had twelve side dishes (sibicheop bansang) !!!!!!! Rice and soup are served in individual plates, while the other side dishes are placed in the center of the table so that they can be shared. Hundreds of side dishes can be found in Korea, different regions offer unique side dishes. 

As delicious as these side dishes might be, koreans meals are mostly based on rice. On the dramas I have seen, when the characters are eating rice is always present. On special occasions, instead of serving rice people serve noodles, porridge, or tteokguk. The trend of eating bread, sandwiches, or noodles for breakfast or lunch is becoming very usual, but still rice is eaten a lot in Korea. There are many cooking techniques. Soup dishes are categorized in two groups, the ones that have clear broth with some solid ingredients, which are jjigae, and the ones that are like stew with more solid ingredients, which are jeongol. Food can be boiled, pan-fried, grilled, or steamed

I don't think that I would be able to eat so much, I'm not used to that, but it's worth the try! 

21. Korean Birthday Celebrations

Have you ever hear of seaweed soup? It is a delicious korean dish made specially on birthdays. As we have our cake tradition, Koreans enjoy a delicious breakfast with seaweed soup on their birthdays. Cake is also eaten on birthdays, but seaweed is more common. There are even times when friends say hi to each other on their birthdays by saying "Have you eaten seaweed soup?". Back in the day, expectant mothers ate seaweed soup one month before birthday, as it is high in iodine and calcium, and these are thought to be beneficial for milk production and uterine contraction. Koreans are very respectful towards their ancestors, this seaweed soup stands as a symbol to remind the child that his/her mother works very hard and to be grateful towards the mother for the care she gives to them. Western customs have influenced many koreans, as they give each other birthday cards and make cakes and put the candles according to the person's age. 

A big difference between Korean and Western birthdays is that Korean age is based on the lunar calendar, while the western age is based on the solar calendar. Korean age is basically measured by year, not by the birthday, it adds 1 or 2 years to your age. In case you got confused, try this to calculate your korean age: (this year-your birthday)+1, for example (2014-1996)+1= 17. Big parties are usually made on the first birthday, the 60th and 70th birthday. 

Since in past times food was scarce and many children died, if the child made it to the first birthday it was considered a blessing. People made feasts of delicious food like rice cakes to celebrate with the family and village. This tradition still continues, people make feasts usually at hotels or restaurants. A tradition which I think its funny but I respect, is the doljabi ritual. What happens here is that the child is placed in the front of a table, and he has to choose between a string, rice, money, or book, and people make predictions of his future according to this. Maybe I will try it when I have a child. 

People share the food with friends, family, and neighbors as it is believed that if they share a lot, they will receive many things in return. A snack that is always present baekseolgi rice cake made with flour dough. Children many times even have their own photo shoot at different locations and with different clothes! Amazing isn't it? 

Sources:

http://blog.korea.net/?p=2320

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/AK/AK_EN_1_4_9_2.jsp

20.Tteokbokki

When you go out in South Korea, you can see a lot of street food stands. Tteokbokki and Sundae are some of the most served snacks. Tteokbokki is made by boiling rice cakes, that have a cilindrical form, with rice cakes in a gochujang sauce. Tteokbokki dates back to the Joseon Dynasty. Back then it was a stir-fry  made with rice cakes, mushrooms, meat, vegetables, and was seasoned with soy sauce. But, since after the Korean War soy sauce was hard to get, people made a new recipe. This new recipe consisted on seasoning the rice cakes with the spicy-sweet gochujang sauce (spicy fermented soya bean and red chilli sauce). You can taste a wide variety of tteokbokki in the Shindang-dong Tteokbokki town. The original restaurant of the gochujang tteokbokki is in this alley. But, on this restaurant they don´t serve it the same way street vendors do, they don´t serve it so hot and it is seasoned with gochujang ang jajang (black bean sauce). Many people say that this recipe was created by accident, when Mak Bo Rim (a street vendor) dropped the rice cakes in a bowl of chinese noodles with black bean sauce (jajangmyeon). Since they tasted good, she tried to do a recipe with this and sell them, and it was a total success. 

Since in the 1970s food was more easy to get, people started adding boiled eggs, fish cakes, and glass noodles. In the 1980 many other tteokbokki restaurants started opening, each with a unique recipe. This was when the Shindang-dong tteokbokki town was formed. Since cooking tteokbokki is not an easy thing to do (it gets very messy) restaurants offer aprons. It is cooked on the table, many different ingridients are added, like onions, sauces, cabbage, eggs, mandu and different types of noodles. Many people even ask for more of these! 

Tteokbokki has risen to fame, many new restaurants have been opened. Also, every october, there is a festibal of tteokbokki in Shindang-dong town where you can taste many different tteokbokki recipes, listen to music and see traditional dances. It´s a total parade! I would love to go, tteokbokki is a dish I´m looking forward to try when I go to Korea this summer. 

Source:

http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=100375

19.Yasik: Chicken and beer

We all have those delicious late night snacks we like to eat when we have an empty stomach. So do koreans, and a very famous snack is Chicken and beer. Late night snacks are called "Yasik" in korean. Although they are also eaten at other times in the day, they are very popular at night. Koreans until the 1970s ate chicken either stewed, steamed, or roasted. Many say that fried chicken was introduced to South Korea in 1984 by KFC (which opened its first store in Jongno, Seoul). As years have passed, chicken and beer has changed and many plates today are made with gochujang red pepper paste, garlic, soy sauce, red pepper falkes, and many other popular korean condiments. You might think that these ingridients make the chicken taste really bad, but koreans enjoy it a lot, its a perfect flavor for them. As the popularity of this snack has risen to the top, many Chimaek (chicken and beer) restaurants continue on opening. All these restaurants give their own touch to the snack, you can see a variety of menus, you can have your chimaek with a spicy or sweet dressing, a sauce made of soy sauce, and many other kinds of sauces. 

  

The anju are the side dishes for korean drinks. As koreans like to drink while eating, some side dishes make good combinations with alcoholic drinks. Beer  makes a good and refreshing combination with chicken, and rice wine (makgeolli) also does with pajeon (savory green onion pancakes) for example. Chicken and beer is one of the most delivered meals in South Korea, people eat it at work, home, parks, and many other places. You can see a group of friends in front of a convenience store enjoying some chimaek. Although chimaek is for any time of the year, you see it mostly in summer, many say it is the perfect weather for eating it. In every town, there are at least 2 franchises of chimaek, it is indeed very popular. There´s even an event held at Daegu (where many chimaek restaurants are) where many owners of different chimaek restaurants go and set up tents, different recipes of chimaek can be tasted in this festival, it makes your mouth water. 

Kyochon is one of the most popular franchises of chiken and beer, it opened 20 years ago. They have stores in the US and China, they are introducing korean chicken to other parts of the world. I haven´t had the chance of tasting korean chicken (can´t drink beer at my age) but I´m sure it tastes really good, seeing all these images makes me want to eat it even more!

 

If you ever have the chance of tasting it, make sure that you don´t waste it! And if you are thinking about calories, just don´t! Enjoy a little snack that you won´'t regret! 

Sources:

http://blog.korea.net/?p=2196

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/AK/AK_EN_1_4_9_4.jsp

18. Korean Names

South Korea has unique and beautiful names, their names are a very important part of their culture. Unlike many western cultures that put the family name after the given name, korean names have the family name before. Korean names usually have 3 syllables, for example, in Kim Jong Hyun the family name is "Kim". The most common family names are "Kim" "Choi" "Park" "Lee", most family names have one syllable, but there are also some rare cases in which they have 2 syllables like "Namgung", "Sagong". As the names have 2 syllables, people might ask if it is a middle name, but there are no middle names in Korea.

Many korean names are based on chinese characters, but many people want an original hangul name. Names written in hangul have a very thoughtful meaning. For example, in the name Moon Ga Young, Ga Young means beautiful flower, a very beautiful lady. Many people think that the name might determine the person's fate, and this is why parents think really carefully about their child's name. Parents want the best for their child's life, full of health, success, love, etc, so they take the naming job very seriously. Some even ask a naming specialist for help! They believe that aspects such as saju (meaning the four pillars-the hour, day, month, year of birth) and eumyangohaeng (the theory of universe balance, ying and yang) should be taken into account. Despite many people saying that naming their children according to these aspects is old-fashioned, naming specialists have a lot of costumers. As the naming "business" has risen, there are many sites online for naming koreans, there are also many books about korean names. Others like to ask for advice to their elders. 

Many people in Korea these days like to name their children with meaningful and soft names, Hangul based names like Iseoul (which means dew "이슬"), Oejin (which means generous and wise heart "어진") are very nice. Another very popular way of naming children is using the "english style", names like "Su-ji", "Yu-Jin", and "Je-In" are easy to pronunciate and have a nice meaning. I really like Korean names, and I think it's very creative that they are using english names, I love korean culture. 

Try this, it is not very accurate, but it's fun:

Source:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/AK/AK_EN_1_4_9_1.jsp

17. Dramas

Dramas are a big part of the hallyu wave. They are great representatives of the korean culture as you can see the daily life of korean people, what they like to eat, their customs, stories, etc. I watch a lot of dramas, and they are really good, and the best part is that there are some that you can laugh with, others that you can cry about, you can also sing along. There are many dramas, this since they usually have between 16-30 episodes. The main channels that broadcast these dramas are SBS, KBS, MBC and TvN. Most of the times, two episodes of the drama are aired weekly (monday-tuesday or wed-thur or sat-friday). Each episode leaves the viewer wanting more, with high expectations for the next episode. I have learned a lot about South Korea from watching them, and I have also learned many words in korean, I practice a lot with them.

 A very popular drama is Boys Over Flowers, which gave a great contribution to the hallyu wave as it rose to fame. In this drama, the good-looking flower boys are the center of attention, as a high school girl falls in love with one of the members of the F4 gang, which is a group of high schoolers who are the heirs to big enterprises. Another hit drama is The Moon Embracing the Sun, in which a very popular korean actor, Kim So Hyun, starred. This is a historical drama, it takes place in the Joseon Era, and is a passionate love story between the king of this era and a  female shaman who lost her memories. As you can see, dramas are very entertaining. If you think the problem is the language, dont worry, dramas come out with english subs on youtube, and also on webpages like dramafever and viki. K-pop idols also star in some dramas, as many of them are also interested on acting, and many k-pop songs are promoted through dramas.

To The Beautiful You (drama in which my favorite k-pop idol stars)

Some other very popular korean actors include Lee Min Ho, Park Shin Hye, Lee Seung Gi, Jang Geun Seuk, Han Hyo Joo, Suzy, Yoon Shi Yoon, Song Ji Hyo, etc. All of whom are very talented. Many products are also promoted through dramas, you can see the samsung cellphones, brands of food, makeup, and also many interesting places of South  Korea are shown. There are dramas in which fantasy is implemented, there are love stories between humans and fantastic creatures, like the famous korean gumiho (nine-tailed fox, a magical fox with "nine tails"). 

I really reccomend watching korean dramas, you can have a good time watching them, and my "korean obssesion" started with them.

16.Commentary

As this commentary is going to be about influential people of Korea, how can I not talk about King Sejong the Great? During his reign Korea went through a golden age, as many cultural, economic and scientific developments were made. King Sejong's aim was to improve education. As the kingdom had been founded with the principles of confucianism, he followed them rightfully. King Sejong was a king who wanted to improve the lives of the lower class people. To do this, when hard times came, such as floods, he established places where people could find food and shelter and also found relief programs. Also, for farmers who were having problems with their harvests, he began to use again a loan system used in the Koryo Kingdom, in which the government loaned them grains, which were not in need to use, and they could be paid back later on. As he was really focused on education, he greatly promoted new developments in music, science, linguistics and philosophy. To convince the scholars to focus greatly on their studies, the government gave them great support. And how can we forget about his greatest invention?. Hangul was a great development for korean society. They previously had been using the chinese characters, as illiteracy was not the big deal back then, it was thought that it was not good to put such a high-class form of writing into the hands of common people. But Sejong disagreed with this, he wanted a language that has easy to learn so that he could easily communicate with the people of his nation. He worked with a group of scholars to develop it. Although it was first not accepted by many scholars, Sejong did his best to promote Hangul. This was a very important creation, people could now communicate easily and information could flow across the kingdom. King Sejong is considered a very important hero of Korea, his inventions helped for the great development of the Korean society.

People like King Sejong deserve wide recognition for their great efforts to improve their society. Language is a great characteristic that gives a nation an identity. To get to know your country, you need to listen to what people living in different conditions have to say, and King Sejong did his best to achieve this. If only the nobility could know how to write, then he could not easily know what was happening around his kingdom, having this new language approved, I think he totally changed the korean society. Also, by giving a hand to those in need, he really helped to the fast recovery of the society, so that it could continue running. Inventions are the ones that get our world ahead, and with a leader thats full of ideas, the nation can go to a higher level. If a nation is full of thinkers and educated people, they can work together to develop new inventions, but if only a small part of the nation can be educated, there will not be that much success, as King Sejong sought to educate the nation, I think he was looking towards the future, he wanted to leave an inheritance of good thinkers to the kingdom. As he was devoted to make the lives of the people of his kingdom better, he was thinking like a real king. A king works to improve his kingdom, not only his life. A person that worries for human rights like him is the kind of person we should follow. By giving people a characteristic that differs them from other nations is a great incentive for them to take care of the nation in which they live in. He was very right about books being essential for knowledge, books are the ones that keep record of history and help us understand more, and as more people were then able to read them, knowledge could flow through the kingdom.

Sources:
http://asiasociety.org/countries/traditions/king-sejong-great
http://www.chosonkorea.org/index.php/people/kings/king-sejong-the-great