Eating Korea Reports on a culinary renaissance

Holliday's book is a food lover's nostalgic travelogue through a rapidly modernizing South Korea. After teaching there briefly in the mid-1990s, the author returns to indulge in the traditional foods he romanticized in his absence but instead finds a much-changed country with many old ways dying out and a youthful population enamored with K-pop, K-beauty, and more Westernized cuisine. Touring through cities large and small, however, Holliday uncovers pockets of the typical Korean food he remembers spicy with the fiery kick of gochujang (the country's ubiquitous red-pepper paste), stinky with the fermented funk of kimchi (soured cabbage), and all washed down with too much soju (potato liquor). Descriptions of specific dishes and flavors are vivid and entertaining. (I would gladly let Korea's jackboot to the taste buds stamp on me until my skull split open.) Less successful are the attempts to weave neo-Korean food and attitudes into a larger argument about the country's cultural shifts. Interviews with locals and restaurant owners are largely thin on information and stilted. Nonetheless, this is an accessible resource for learning about this inventive cuisine and how it may next evolve.--Neumer Lara, Alison Copyright 2017 Booklist

After two decades of teaching English in South Korea, journalist Holliday returned on a mission to reeducate himself about the country's rapidly evolving cuisine. This lovingly written food pilgrimage starts by asking, "What is Korean food?" Holliday leads his reader on an obsessive quest to find "the honest guts of Korean food, of the country," in dishes such as kimchi, bibimbap, blackened goat, and hagfish (somewhat like eel). Holliday effectively conjures the family-run restaurants of remote South Korean towns, and the vendors and markets that support them. He celebrates "a way of eating that is very Korean" even as it disappears due to less home cooking and the rapid disintegration of the traditional family unit. When discussing mok-bang (Koreans who broadcast themselves while eating, for others to watch), one of Holliday's dining companions has this insight into her society: "We developed so fast, in such a short period, we don't actually enjoy ourselves apart from drinking and eating." Holliday captures these uniquely Korean sights, smells and flavors with appetizing detail, and along the way finds his true prize: a hard-won understanding of the nation's changing culture. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In the 1990s, Holliday (Eating Viet Nam) moved to South Korea to teach English, falling in love with the country and its food. He then traveled throughout the world, returning to the country 20 years later to write about the dishes he enjoyed years earlier. However, the landscape he once knew has drastically changed. Traditional buildings have been bulldozed to make way for modern ones. Meanwhile, many traditional delicacies are disappearing as the younger generation of Koreans seeks fusion with Western flavors, causing conventional foods to be adapted with new ingredients and techniques. Journeying throughout South Korea, Holliday seeks out these entrées while also describing how culinary tastes have evolved. Many of the dishes described will be new to most readers, but Holliday's vivid descriptions make even the most uncommon recipes accessible. VERDICT Holliday has a flair for bringing unique locations and provisions to life, taking readers with him into crowded restaurants and markets, creating an exciting work for food lovers interested in a combination of culinary history, cultural analysis, and travel.-Melissa Stoeger, Deerfield P.L., IL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.