Koreans have long been famous for their love of food and drink. Ancient Chinese histories tell of the Koreans' fondness for good food and wine as early as the Three Kingdom period(57 B.C.-A.D. 668), and the abundance of restaurants, drinking establishments in modern Korea suggests that the Korean love affair with food and drink lives on today.

Koreans began growing cereals from the mid-Neolithic period, and rice cultivation was introduced to some parts of the country around 2000 B.C. Rice remains the main staple and is eaten with an array of side dishes featuring vegetables, fish and meats.

Fermented foods, such as soy-based sauces or chang, and red pepper, made from processed beans were important sources of protein in early times and remain Korean favorites. In addition kimchi, fermented vegetables, has been part of the Korean diet for centuries and is prepared in as many as 300 variations, depending on region, season and personal preference. Koreans also enjoy varied holiday fare. Rice cakes soup, Rice cakes and red bean porridge are found on most holiday tables.

Each holiday and rite had its own foods and customs. Rice cake soup and bowls of ttokkuk were served on New Year's Day. The Tano Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar months features cakes made of rice flour and mugwort paste. Chusok, the Harvest Moon Festival on the 15th of the eighth lunar month, is a time for thanking the spirits for a bountiful harvest and honoring one's ancestors. Crescent-shaped stuffed rice cakes are served at this time. The significance of these traditions is brought to life and its function emphsized by special food.

Table Settings
Traditional Korean table settings can be divided into two general categories by main dish. The table setting varies acdcording to the numberof side dishes, starting with three, and going up to five, seven, nine and 12 side dishes. The 12 dish setting was reserved for kings.

Rice, the principal staple of the traditional Korean diet, is always served with a variety of side dishes, soups and stews.

Kimchi & Bulgogi
Main foods that people have come to identify with Korea are kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish, and pulgogi, a marinated meat dish. Whereas kimchi is a staple dish that is eaten at every meal, pulgogi is more like a party food in that it is generally eaten on special occasions and when dining out or entertaining guests. Koreans tend to favor beef when entertaining or eating out, and pulgogi is one of the most popular beef dishes and one that even non-Koreans find very tasty.

The word pulgogi is commonly translated as Korean barbecue, though it literally means "fire meat" as pul is "fire" or gogi is "meat". Beef is most often identified with pulgogi, but even pork, chicken, lamb, squid and octopus, for example, can be cooked pulgogi style as pulgogi, like barbecue, is a method of cooking. For the most common beef pulgogi, thin slices of meat, usually tenderloin, are marinated in a sauce made of soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, sesame seeds and other seasonings, and then cooked over a charcoal grill, usually at the table. The grilled beef slices can be eaten as are or wrapped in a lettuce leaf along with slices of fresh garlic and green pepper and a dab of soybean paste, red pepper paste, or a mixture of the two, all of which are rich in vitamins, minerals and cancer-ighting substances. For pork and other types of pulgogi, a little red pepper paste is usually added to the marinade. This gives the pulgogi a spicy taste and aroma.

Kimchi is a pungent, fermented dish generally consisting of cabbage or turnip seasoned with salt, garlic, green onions, ginger, red pepper and shellfish. It is low in calories and cholesterol and very high in fiber. It is also very nutritious. In fact, it is richer in vitamins than apples. Kimchi also contains a number of organic acids, produced during the fermentation process, that help sterilize the digestive tract and aid in digestion. Kimchi also contains high levels of protein, calcium and iron that are derived mainly from the seafood such as oysters, squid, shrimp and anchovies that are used for flavoring. Kimchi is a good source of fiber and, depending on the ingredients, may contain many of the nutrients and naturally occurring chemicals that can help combat cancers of the mouth, throat, lungs, stomach, bladder, colon and cervix.

One of the earliest, if not the earliest, descriptions of kimchi making is in a work by Yi Kyu-bo (1168-1241), a noted literary figure during the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392), in which he describes the preparation of turnips for storing for food for winter. A more detailed description of kimchi appears in a recipe book written in the late 1600s but the first mention of kimchi seasoned with red pepper is in a cookbook printed in 1765. Recipes closely resembling today's kimchi appear in two cookbooks published in the early 1800s. Regardless of when red pepper was added to kimchi, it was an epochal event. The addition of red peppers not only enhanced the taste of the otherwise salty vegetables and kept them crunchy like fresh ones but also turned kimchi into a healthful, vitamin-packed food that can play a vital role in preventing disease. Of course, over the years kimchi has become even more nutritional with the addition of more and more ingredients such as carrots, pears, chestnuts, pine nuts, abalone, seaweed and the ones previously mentioned.

There are basically two kinds of kimchi, seasonal and winter, with numerous varieties of each. The seasonal varieties are made with whatever vegetables are available and are for short-term storage. The winter varieties, made with mostly cabbages and turnips, are for long-term storage to provide vegetables during the cold winter months.

Paech'u kimchi is the most prevalent type. To make it, Chinese cabbages (paech'u) are first trimmed, split down the middle and put in brine to soak. When they are soft, they are rinsed in cold water and drained. Meanwhile, julienne cut radish strips are mixed with a red pepper paste made of red pepper powder and water. To this are added crushed garlic, salt, thinly sliced green onions, and a variety of other seasonings, depending on the region and the cook's budget, to make a stuffing. The stuffing is packed between the layers of cabbage leaves and each cabbage is wrapped with a few leaves. Finally, the cabbages are stacked in a crock, jar or other appropriate container, covered with salted cabbage leaves, pressed down firmly and covered. The storage temperature of the kimjang kimchi, as winter kimchi is called, should be well controlled throughout the winter to prevent over fermentation and thus souring. The traditional way of doing this is to bury the crocks of kimchi in the ground but, because this is not always possible for urbanites, specially designed containers have come into use in recent years. Winter kimchi is usually made in late November and early December when the weather is quite nippy.

To most Koreans, a meal without kimchi, no matter how lavish, is incomplete or even unthinkable. It spikes the rice, titillates the taste buds, and, perhaps, keeps the doctor away. It is an ideal health food as well as diet food and with its increasing inclusion on supermarket shelves around the world and its designation as an official food at events such as the 1998 World Cup in France, it is fast becoming an international food to be enjoyed around the world.