An energetic, fast-paced trip through the rapidly changing world of Korean cuisine by the author of Eating Viet Nam. Journalist, world traveler, and avid eater Graham Holliday has sampled some of the most exotic and intriguing cuisines around the globe. On a pilgrimage throughout the whole of South Korea to unearth the real food eaten by locals, Holliday discovers a country of contradictions, a quickly developing society that hasn’t decided whether to shed or embrace its culinary roots. Devotees still make and consume classic Korean dishes in traditional settings even as the cuisine modernizes in unexpected ways and the phenomenon of Korean people televising themselves eating (mok-bang) spreads ever more widely. Amid a changing culture that’s simultaneously trying to preserve what’s best about traditional Korean food while opening itself to a panoply of global influences and balancing new and old, tradition and reinvention, the real and the artificial, Holliday seeks out the most delicious dishes in the most authentic settings—even if he has to prowl in back alleys to find them and convince reluctant restaurant owners that he can handle their unusual flavors. Holliday samples sundae (blood sausage); beef barbecue; bibimbap; Korean black goat; wheat noodles in bottomless, steaming bowls; and the ubiquitous kimchi, discovering the exquisite, the inventive, and, sometimes, the downright strange. Animated by Graham Holliday’s warm, engaging voice, Eating Korea is a vibrant tour through one of the world’s most fascinating cultures and cuisines.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An homage to what it means to be Korean American with delectable recipes that explore how new culinary traditions can be forged to honor both your past and your present. IACP AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Simply Recipes ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Bon Appétit, The Boston Globe, Saveur, NPR, Food & Wine, Salon, Vice, Epicurious, Publishers Weekly “This is such an important book. I savored every word and want to cook every recipe!”—Nigella Lawson, author of Cook, Eat, Repeat New York Times staff writer Eric Kim grew up in Atlanta, the son of two Korean immigrants. Food has always been central to his story, from Friday-night Korean barbecue with his family to hybridized Korean-ish meals for one—like Gochujang-Buttered Radish Toast and Caramelized-Kimchi Baked Potatoes—that he makes in his tiny New York City apartment. In his debut cookbook, Eric shares these recipes alongside insightful, touching stories and stunning images shot by photographer Jenny Huang. Playful, poignant, and vulnerable, Korean American also includes essays on subjects ranging from the life-changing act of leaving home and returning as an adult, to what Thanksgiving means to a first-generation family, complete with a full holiday menu—all the while teaching readers about the Korean pantry, the history of Korean cooking in America, and the importance of white rice in Korean cuisine. Recipes like Gochugaru Shrimp and Grits, Salt-and-Pepper Pork Chops with Vinegared Scallions, and Smashed Potatoes with Roasted-Seaweed Sour Cream Dip demonstrate Eric's prowess at introducing Korean pantry essentials to comforting American classics, while dishes such as Cheeseburger Kimbap and Crispy Lemon-Pepper Bulgogi with Quick-Pickled Shallots do the opposite by tinging traditional Korean favorites with beloved American flavor profiles. Baked goods like Milk Bread with Maple Syrup and Gochujang Chocolate Lava Cakes close out the narrative on a sweet note. In this book of recipes and thoughtful insights, especially about his mother, Jean, Eric divulges not only what it means to be Korean American but how, through food and cooking, he found acceptance, strength, and the confidence to own his story.

Over the last two millennia, Korean food dishes and their complex preparations have evolved along with the larger cultural and social upheavals experienced by the nation. Pettid charts the historical development of the cuisine, using literary and historical accounts to examine the ways that regional distinctions and historical transformations played out in the Korean diet.

There was only one chair in the room. Fluorescent tubes on the ceiling hummed with blue light. The woman smiled and explained in a soothing voice that there were some "procedures" they had to go through. "We're just going to put you under for a few minutes," she said. One of the officials told me to turn around.. "Do I have a choice?" I lowered my pants, exposing most of my left butt cheek. The woman came up from behind me, and I felt a sharp prick as she pushed in the needle and rammed the solution into my muscle. When she finished, I sat down. "Which agency do you work for? CIA?" asked the other male official. "I operate independently," I said. I started to feel good. Very good. I had the urge to laugh, even though nobody had said anything funny. "I'm a lone wolf. And I make burgers for a living. I'm a burger-making lone wolf." I must have blacked out for some of it. When I opened my eyes again, the two men were there, but the woman was gone. I wiped my nose, and my hand came away bloody. I suddenly felt so sick and dizzy I thought I'd had a stroke. "What the fuck? In Pyongyang in 1994, Robert Egan was given Sodium Pentathol, or "truth serum," by North Korean agents trying to determine his real identity. What was he doing in the world's most isolated nation---while the U.S. government recoiled at its human-rights record and its quest for dangerous nukes? Why had he befriended one of North Korea's top envoys to the United Nations? What was Egan after? Fast-paced and often astounding, Eating with the Enemy is the tale of a restless restaurant owner from a mobbed-up New Jersey town who for thirteen years inserted himself into the high-stakes diplomatic battles between the United States and North Korea. Egan dropped out of high school in working-class Fairfield, New Jersey, in the midseventies and might have followed his father's path as a roofing contractor. But Bobby had bigger plans for himself, and after a few years wasted on drugs and petty crime, his life took an astonishing turn when his interest in the search for Vietnam-era POWs led to an introduction in the early nineties to North Korean officials desperate to improve relations with the United States. So Egan turned his restaurant, Cubby's, into his own version of Camp David. Between ball games, fishing trips, and heaping plates of pork ribs, he advised deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Han Song Ryol, and other North Koreans during tumultuous years that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the rise of Kim Jong-il, false starts toward peace during the Clinton administration, the Bush "Axis of Evil" era, and North Korea's successful test of a nuclear weapon in 2006. All the while, Egan informed for the FBI, vexed the White House with his meddling, chaperoned the communist nation's athletes on hilarious adventures, and nearly rescued a captured U.S. Navy vessel---all in the interest of promoting peace. Egan parses U.S. foreign policy with a mobster's street smarts, and he challenges the idea that the United States should not have relations with its adversaries. The intense yet unlikely friendship between him and Ambassador Han provides hope for better relations between enemy nations and shows just how far one lone citizen can go when he tries to right the world's wrongs.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST NEW COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Epicurious • EATER • Stained Page • Infatuation • Spruce Eats • Publisher’s Weekly • Food52 • Toronto Star The dazzling debut cookbook from Joanne Lee Molinaro, the home cook and spellbinding storyteller behind the online sensation @thekoreanvegan Joanne Lee Molinaro has captivated millions of fans with her powerfully moving personal tales of love, family, and food. In her debut cookbook, she shares a collection of her favorite Korean dishes, some traditional and some reimagined, as well as poignant narrative snapshots that have shaped her family history. As Joanne reveals, she’s often asked, “How can you be vegan and Korean?” Korean cooking is, after all, synonymous with fish sauce and barbecue. And although grilled meat is indeed prevalent in some Korean food, the ingredients that filled out bapsangs on Joanne’s table growing up—doenjang (fermented soybean paste), gochujang (chili sauce), dashima (seaweed), and more—are fully plant-based, unbelievably flavorful, and totally Korean. Some of the recipes come straight from her childhood: Jjajangmyun, the rich Korean-Chinese black bean noodles she ate on birthdays, or the humble Gamja Guk, a potato-and-leek soup her father makes. Some pay homage: Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake is an ode to the two foods that saved her mother’s life after she fled North Korea. The Korean Vegan Cookbook is a rich portrait of the immigrant experience with life lessons that are universal. It celebrates how deeply food and the ones we love shape our identity.

Yoomi loves Grandma's cooking—except for stinky, spicy kimchi, the pickled cabbage condiment served at Korean meals. "You can't eat it because you're a baby," her brothers tease. And they don't play with babies. Determined to prove she's not a baby, Yoomi tries to find a way to make kimchi taste better—but not even ice cream can help. Luckily, Grandma has a good idea, and soon everyone has a new food to enjoy. Celebrating family, food, and growing up, this story about a Korean-American family will appeal to picky eaters and budding foodies alike. Aram Kim's lively art is filled with expressive characters and meticulous details—and of course, mouth-watering illustrations of traditional Korean dishes and ingredients. Backmatter includes information about kimchi and how it's made, and best of all, a recipe for Grandma's kimchi pancakes to try yourself! For more about Yoomi and her family, don't miss Let's Go to Taekwondo! by Aram Kim. A Junior Library Guild Selection!

Can food be both national and global at the same time? What happens when a food with a national identity travels beyond the boundaries of a nation? What makes a food authentically national and yet American or broader global? With these questions in mind, Sonia Ryang explores the world of Korean food in four American locations, Iowa City, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Hawaii (Kona and Honolulu). Ryang visits restaurants and grocery stores in each location and observes Korean food as it is prepared and served to customers. She analyzes the history and evolution of each dish, how it arrived and what it became, but above all, she tastes and experiences her food—four items to be specific—naengmyeon cold noodle soup; jeon pancakes; galbi barbecued beef; and bibimbap, rice with mixed vegetable. In her ethnographic journey, Ryang discovers how the chewy noodles from Pyongyang continue to retain their texture and yet are served differently in different locales. Jeon pancakes become completely decontextualized in the United States and metamorphosed into a portable and packable carry-out food. American consumers are unaware of the pancake's sacred origin. In Hawaii, Ryang finds that it is the Vietnamese restaurant that serves unexpectedly delicious galbi barbecued meat. Intertwined in the complex colonial and postcolonial contexts, Korean galbi and Japanese yakiniku can be found side by side on the streets of Honolulu frequented by both the locals and tourists. In writing Eating Korean in America: Gastronomic Ethnography of Authenticity, Sonia Ryang is as much an eater as a researcher. Her accounts of the cities and their distinctive take on Korean food are at once entertaining and insightful, yet deeply moving. Ryang challenges the reader to stop and think about the food we eat every day in close connection to colonial histories, ethnic displacements, and global capitalism.