[.ca] Dok Suni's: Recipes From My Mother's Korean Kitchen (ISBN 0312192614)

From Amazon.com:
Dok Suni is an enchanting combination of personal narrative and appealing recipes in which Jenny Kwak shares stories and food from her mother's Korean kitchen. Since few cooks are familiar with Korean food, it is helpful that Kwak's descriptions of each dish tell what results to expect: Spinach and Clam Soup, you discover, "is good boiling hot (yet) there is a cool sensation about the flavor ... from the clams." The 70 recipes in this volume include important classic Korean dishes. There are six versions of Kim Chi, the incendiary pickle made from cabbage or other vegetables, garlic, and mounds of red pepper. Bibimbop, a dish of sautéed chopped vegetables served over rice--often in a heated clay dish--is topped with a raw egg that cooks as you mix it in. Proving how much Koreans love beef, Kwok gives her mother's recipes for Bulgogi and Kalbi. Bulgogi is thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine, then grilled. The short ribs used for Kalbi are similarly marinated before they are barbecued. A caveat is necessary. Though Dok Suni is coauthored by a native English speaker, select recipes contain some questionable or incomplete directions. For the Pumpkin Porridge, the black beans are cooked for only five minutes, and no presoaking is called for, which seems an inadequate cooking time. Where brown rice is called for, there is no indication whether to use short or long grain. This being said, the book is still an inspirational introduction to Korean cooking that's also filled with Korean folklore and charming family narratives. --Dana Jacobi

Home Cooking:
I love this book! It has all of my favorite dishes from growing up as a Korean American. Until this book, I mainly cooked American food and left the Korean food to my mom or eating out. For my first try, I cooked a dinner of Kalbi, boiled dumplings, japchae, cucumber salad, tofu, egg custard and seaweed soup when I first got the book and everything turned out wonderfully. I got rave reviews from my guests. By sprinkling the Kalbi with brown sugar before tenderizing with Kiwi juice(a key ingredient), they turned out perfect. Another reviewer said that the recipe calls for salt or more marinade, but I found it to be the right amount. I agree that some of the preparation details are sometimes similfied and missing information such as boiling time, etc. Also, in the seawood soup recipe, the seawood amount is a bit much and I had to add water and more of the seasonings. However, everything so far has been authentic, fun to make, and delicious. I already bought another book for a friend & for a newly married couple. It helps if you grew up with Korean Food, are familiar with Korean flavorings, but just couldn't get your mother to write down the exact recipes.

A wonderful, wonderful book!:
I love this book! My mother is Korean so I was raised in a Korean and American household. Thus, I love Korean food! Having spent most of my life in the states, I don't get to eat good Korean food often enough though. My mom can cook all of my favorites wonderfully, but I have trouble learning from her because there are no "set" amounts for some of the spices and ingredients. This book makes it all easy. It has my four favorite Korean dishes--kimchee, duk gook, kimbop, and bibimbop (yum!)--in addition to many other traditional dishes. The book itself is beautiful and I love the personal stories and pictures from Jenny Kwak's life. Another nice touch is the Korean text and correct Korean pronounciation for each of the recipe titles. You will enjoy this book. The recipes are easy to follow and deliciously flavorful.

A nice compilation of favourite Korean recipes:
A wonderful book with easy-to-follow recipes! I had attempted about half of the recipes, and they all had been wonderful cooking experiences thus far. A word of caution: if "really" spicy or savoury food is not your cup of tea...tone down the red pepper & coarse salt amounts as indicated in the recipes.

hmmm....so so:
I was trying to follow the Cold Buckwheat Noodle Soup recipe. I couldn't find beef satay in the grocery store to save my life. I even went to a Korean store. Maybe, it's named differently. I looked up the the definition of Beef Satay. I still couldn't figure it out. Maybe my college degree was worthless, or perhaps this book isn't all that friendly to me. I'm trying another Korean Cookbook.

Just Like Mom's!!:
I recieved this book as a Christmas gift. Good Korean cookbooks are hard to come by and I am glad I have this book. Growing up in a Korean/American home, most of the recipies in this book are familiar and tastes like my mom's home cooking. I showed the book to my Korean mom and she recognized every single dish in the book. The only downside is the lack of sweets and desserts. There are a couple of recipies, but that's it. I am glad to have this book because I had trouble learning the recipies from my mom. She doesn't use accurate measurements (A spoonful of this, a dash of that). Plus the personal stories from the author is a refreshing read.