“In contrast, Korean dishes are only completed in the mouth of the person eating. For every meal, rice, soup, vegetables, meat, fish and even desserts such as tteok and sikhye (sweet rice drink) are served simultaneously. Presented with parallel dishes served at the same time, Koreans put whatever they want to eat in their mouths. They might have a spoonful of rice with a slice of kimchi, they might mix a bit of galbi (grilled short rib) sauce with rice, or they might dump all of their rice into their soup. Depending on what you mix with rice, you can create bites that are salty, mild, or spicy. It’s up to the eater to create the exact taste of the food. Therefore, Korean food culture is defined by the concepts of becoming and creation. It’s inclusive - it embraces and combines.”
--- 「Preface of Volume 1, ‘K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors」

“When cooking Korean food, Koreans don’t say mandeulda (make) but rather bitda (shape). Bitda refers to striving to make good food by hand and is exemplified by the act of mixing. Fermented Korean foods require attentive mixing. Seasonings must be mixed to make kimchi. Preparing jang (fermented sauces) requires the same action, and the same can be said of vinegar and jeotgal (salted seafood). The best Korean food is made by carefully mixing and blending different ingredients. One of the most widely known Korean foods, bibimbap, is made by mixing all kinds of namul (seasoned greens).”
--- 「Preface of Volume 2, ‘The Fusion Culture Created by Rice’」

“Korea’s most fundamental side dish and most prominent fermented vegetable is kimchi. Kimchi is worth 100 other side dishes and is the banchan that’s served when others can’t be made. In Korea, the phrase ‘no side dishes’ means no other banchan are available, though kimchi is always there, obviously. In addition to kimchi, most side dishes, including soups, are made with fermented foods such as ganjang (soy sauce), doenjang (soybean paste), gochujang and aekjeot (fish sauce). [omitted] As a result, practically every food served on Korean table will have a fermented taste. Rice is often the only exception. Korean meals are designed to provide the daily vitamins, minerals and amino acids people need-and can’t get from grains-through soup and a few small, fermented side dishes.
--- 「Preface of Volume 3, ‘Korean Fermentation Culture: Born from Scarcity’」

“A wide variety of recipes that feature vegetables have made the Korean people the namul nation. From rice to dessert, they’re part of every Korean dish. Vegetable rice and vegetable porridge once filled stomachs when grains were scarce. Now, however, as concerns about obesity have increased, these dishes are treated as outstanding diet foods. Almost every vegetable can become an ingredient for Korean guk (soup), which are perfect health foods thanks to the nutrients provided by the vegetables and the other ingredients, such as ssaltteumul (water used to wash rice) and doenjang (soybean paste). Whether raw (sangchae) or cooked (sukchae), vegetables can be flavored with salt or other seasonings as needed to maintain color and taste.”
--- 「Volume 4, ‘Namul Nation’」

“No Korean meal is complete without a soup. Rice and guk have always been the centerpiece of a traditional Korean meal. Kimchi, jjigae and other side dishes are added to complete the table. Oftentimes, a meal will have both a guk and a jjigae, but all meals normally include at least one of the two. And in those rare cases when there is neither a guk nor a jjigae, there’s sungnyung (scorched rice water), an after-meal drink made by toasting the rice left at the bottom of the pot and deglazing it with water. If a meal lacked guk, jjigae and sungnyung, then a Korean would fetch a bowl of water and dunk his rice in it instead. So important is guk in Korean culture that a number of related sayings have developed, the most widely used being gungmuldo eopda, or ‘no soup for you.’ One who hears this has clearly exhausted the speaker’s goodwill. If a Korean is fed up enough with you to deny you soup, then you are, for all intents and purposes, dead to them.”

K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors: Part 1, The Special Flavors of Korea
This is a general overview that outlines Korean food with the codes of 'flavorlessness ', 'fusion', 'fermentation', 'gathering,' and 'moist-heat.' In addition, we explored the special tastes of Korea, such as royal cuisine, Jongga food, Banga (nobleman house) food, temple food, seasonal holiday food, and rite of passage ceremonial food. It also contains basic information on ingredients that Koreans enjoy these days, Korean seasoning and garnish, Korean cooking tools, Korean dishes, such as white porcelain, brassware, Onggi, Korean ethnic earthenware, and woodenware, etc., and dining table and soban (a small portable dining table).

K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors: Part 2, Bland, Wrapping, Mixing
The basic composition of Korean food is rice, to the extent that all food except rice is considered a side dish to accompany rice. The bland and mild rice differentiates the taste of all kinds of side dishes and fuses them simultaneously. We explored the secrets of fusion culture, such as 'ssambap' and 'gimbap,' where you put together all kinds of ingredients and put them in your mouth, and 'bibimbap,' which is eaten by mixing various ingredients. It also includes recipes of everyday dishes that are eaten wrapped and mixed.

K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors: Part 3, Pickling, Fermenting
Like kimchi and sauces, the characteristic of Korean food is the taste of fermented food, neither raw nor cooked. We looked at ingredients for making soybean paste, soy sauce, red pepper paste, kimchi, fermented liquor, etc., and explored tools necessary for fermentation, such as earthenware and jangdokdae, a platform for traditional earthen jars. It also includes recipes for fermented foods that Koreans enjoy in their daily life.

K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors: Part 4, Pickling, Digging, Plucking
Koreans dig up, pick, and pluck almost all parts of plants, like mountain herbs, wild vegetables, and garden vegetables, to make them a meal. The culture of enjoying marine plants such as seaweed and laver, and the culture of collecting and enjoying root plants and tree fruits are also old traditions. It examines the gathering culture of Koreans, which can be called the 'namul nation,' and includes everyday recipes.

K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors: Part 5, Simmering, Boiling, Steaming
One of the most important codes for interpreting Korean food is the "wet culture," a mixed system of eating solid ingredients and broth together. Soup food represented by broth, such as soup, stew, and hotpot, and noodles, such as noodle soup and ramen, and foods that steam for a long time, such as rice cake and steamed foods were examined.

<B>Five Codes to Examine Korean Food: ‘Flavorlessness,’ ‘Fusion,’ ‘Fermentation,’ ‘Gathering,’ and ‘Moist-Heat’</B><br/><br/>『K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors』 is the result of an effort to examine the spirit and substance, and the past and the present, that has taken root in the Korean table, with a dense and bold eye. Above all, this book looks at Korean food in terms of cultural codes such, as 'flavorlessness,' 'fusion,' 'fermentation,' 'gathering,' and 'moist-heat' instead of traditional standards, such as 'season' and 'ingredients.' Korean food begins with a bland and mild ‘tasteless’ rice, and that rice is wrapped up in a ssam or mixed with meat and vegetable ingredients, sesame oil, and red pepper paste for ‘fusion’ properties, which are the first and second codes. While the Western cooking code consists of the confrontation between cooked and raw, and meat diet and vegetarianism, the third code examines the taste of fermented Korean food, that is, Korean food through ‘fermentation.’ The fourth code, ‘namul culture,’ looks into Korean food through the tradition of the ‘gathering era’ of digging for namul (greens), picking tree fruits, and plucking marine plants. The fifth code, ‘wet culture’, focuses on foods that are always included in Koreans' meals. They are broth-based foods such as soup, tang, stew, and hot pot, foods that need to be simmered, such as yeot (Korean taffy), grain syrup, and syrup, and foods cooked with steam, such as rice cakes and other steamed foods. Former Minister of Culture Lee O-young, “Korea’s best scholar,” took on the task of coding through this insight into the spirit and matter, and the past and the present of Korean food. Han Bokryeo, the director of the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine, Chung Haekyung, Professor in the Department of Food and Nutrition at Hoseo University, Park Chaelin, Ph.D. at the World Institute of Kimchi, and Cha Gyunghee, Professor of Korean Cuisine at Jeonju University, were responsible for the task of specifying and presenting the code in detail across each volume.<br/><br/>The two-year-long journey bundled into five volumes originated from the idea that food, especially Korean food, is not just a material substance that fills the stomach but somewhat of a 'media' with strong communication powers. This is the result of a comprehensive examination from the roots of Korean food such as royal cuisine, temple food, and Jongga food, to the scenery of the dining table where Koreans live in 2021, and from the source of ingredients to producers, from representative local foods to popular products on the market. <br/><br/>Korean food, which is prepared by mixing, fermenting, seasoning, and boiling, harmonizes with the principles of circulation and paradox. They do not ‘exclude’ but ‘include,’ and embrace and harmonize with each other. It not only adheres to the memories of the past or the taste of tradition, but also fuses and develops with the present taste and foreign culture, and as this book struggled to find this, it would be very reasonable to name this book ‘K-food,’ like ‘K-pop,’ ‘K-drama,’ and ‘K-beauty.’<br/><br/><B>A cookbook co-created by the ‘Korean Food Avengers’</B><br/><br/>『K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors』 consists of the ‘Food Humanities’ section at the beginning of each book which unravels Korean food by code. At the back of each volume, according to the code, there are ‘everyday Korean recipes’ that Koreans enjoy these days. A total of 158 recipes were recorded in detail, from the selection of ingredients to recipes: 33 everyday Korean food made by wrapping and mixing, 54 recipes of everyday Korean food made by pickling and fermenting, 36 recipes of everyday Korean food prepared by digging, pickling and plucking, and 35 recipes of everyday Korean food made by boiling, simmering and steaming. Korean food chef Cho Heesuk (2 volumes), Lee Hayeon (3 volumes), the Kimchi Association of Korea’s president and Food Master designated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (3 volumes), Korean food chef Roh Younghee (4 volumes), and Han Bokryeo (5 volumes), a master of royal cuisine of the Joseon Dynasty, participated in this work. It can be said that it is a work in which the ‘Korean Avengers’ participated. As a result, Korean recipes that started from the authenticity that captured the present and daily life were completed. This cookbook, 『K FOOD: Secrets of Korean Flavors』 has the attitude of seeking truth from facts.