April 2022

When traveling in South Korea, you may notice how expensive fruit is in grocery stores. When living in Korea, I was shocked by the price of specialty apples, kiwis, pineapples, etc. Though that is the case, some of the locally grown fruits unique to parts of East Asia are much cheaper and more readily available. One of these fruits is the Korean melon! Many people describe this fruit as tasting like a combination of a honeydew melon and cucumber. Compared to Western varieties, this fruit tastes less sweet and milder.

In English, ‘Mirim’ (미림) is known as ‘Korean cooking rice wine’ or just ‘Korean cooking wine.’ In South Korea, people use this alcohol-based sweetener to remove undesirable smells and flavors of meat and fish as well as enhance and balance the flavors of a dish. Beyond that, people use this ingredient to tenderize meat!

In many East Asian countries, black sesame plays an important part in their food cultures. These days, black sesame has become a more popular ingredient in the west as the world gets smaller and people try other cultural foods. One way people use black sesame is to make a nutty milk substitute. People drink black sesame milk because it is packed full of nutrients and gives a new and unique flavor to boring coffee drinks.

Have you ever heard of black sesame seeds? For many countries, such as China, Japan, and South Korea, these seeds are an integral part of the traditional food culture. Here, we learn about this ingredient and how to use it in Korean cooking.

Fermented salted shrimp is a traditional fermented condiment used to make some of South Korea’s most famous dishes, such as kimchi. In the Korean language, the word for these shrimp is ‘saeujeot’ or ‘saeu-jeot’ (새우젓). The term is a combination of two words: The first being ‘saeu’ (새우), meaning ‘shrimp,’ and the second being ‘jeot’ (젓), meaning ‘salted seafood.’ Let’s discuss this ingredient in-depth!