Maangchi's Big Book of Korean Cooking

Starred review from July 1, 2019
Maangchi’s magnificent latest (after Maangchi’s Real Korean) makes it clear why she’s attracted nearly four million subscribers to her YouTube channel: she has an easy style that makes even challenging recipes seem doable. Her popular Korean fried chicken comes with precise instructions, including a method for testing oil temperature without a thermometer. Korean food has become better known in the U.S. recently—the author points out that hardly anyone asks what kimchi is anymore, and expands the classic repertoire with four types of bibimbap and seven kinds of kimchi, including a crisp version with pear, cucumber, and radish. She also brings in family stories—a spicy sesame spinach side dish hails from her father’s hometown; her grandmother made chicken and soy sauce with margarine for her to take on a blind-date picnic. Thematic chapters focus on street food, soups and stews, and vegan Buddhist temple cuisine (including oyster and enoki mushrooms tied with blanched cilantro stems). Desserts tend to the simple: rice cakes for the harvest moon festival steamed on a bed of pine needles. A photographic guide to equipment and ingredients is a thoughtful touch in this openhearted volume. This will be a go-to Korean cookbook.

October 1, 2019

Maangchi wants readers to know that there is more to Korean food than Korean BBQ, as good as that is. For more than ten years, the New York-based author has been creating YouTube videos on Korean home cooking, along with her Maangchi blog and previous book, Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking. This larger volume takes readers through 150 traditional Korean dishes, each with step-by-step illustrations. The staples are all here, including a variety of soups, stews, bibimbaps, and banchan. There are also chapters on Buddhist vegan cooking, Korean street foods, and lunch box meals. While Maangchi has been called the Korean Julia Child, her approach is more Betty Crocker. Throughout this book, she is a friendly presence, encouraging readers to get in the kitchen and cook, including a useful, illustrated guide to obtaining Korean ingredients and equipment. While the recipes are eminently doable for the home cook, some specialized shopping will be necessary. VERDICT Anyone with an interest in Korean cooking will enjoy this attractive volume, whether they want a quick meal or something more ambitious.--Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2019
Known for her YouTube videos offering step-by-step recipes, Maangchi (Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking, 2015) specializes in making authentic Korean cuisine accessible to home cooks. A photo guide to ingredients and kitchen tools used throughout sets the stage for the 150 recipes for grain bowls, soups, kimchi, sauces, meat dishes, seafood, vegetables, banchan (side dishes), dosirak (portable lunchbox meals), drinks, Korean Buddhist-temple cuisine, sweets, street food, and modern dishes. Each recipe includes a vignette about the author's experience with the dish as well as a collage of photos illustrating the dish at various points in the process of preparation. A final chapter provides specific instructions for an array of cooking techniques, each of which also includes photos of the steps in the process. The contents are all in English, with each recipe name listed in English, Hangul (Korean alphabet), and an anglicized version designed to convey the pronunciation of the Korean to readers of English. With this collection, Maangchi is successful in conveying the way these recipes together form the rich culture of Korean cuisine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)