Taste & Beauty
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- [Written by Kim Haeng-ran (Manager of Traditional Hansik, Rural Development Administration)]
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Customarily, Koreans cooked and ate seasonal foods, using natural ingredients produced in relevance to the four seasons, such as flowers, fruits or roots, allowing eaters to enjoy the natural taste of the ingredients. In the past, most of the foods had something to do with the stages of farming.
In spring, for example, Koreans enjoyed the seasonal eating food made of wormwood such as wormwood soup, wormwood rice cake and wormwood rice cake with flower patterns imprinted. Where in the world would we find pan fried food made of azalea that shows the nature and season within the food?
Hansik is an excellent health food that is not lacking on any other health food in the world. And this is not the opinion of just patriotic Koreans. Koreans have held the thought that daily meals were tonics. The following proves why hansik is a healthy food. According to nutritionists’ research, hansik dishes maintain figures very close to the recommended ratios between carbohydrates (65%), proteins (15%) and fats (20%), making it an excellent food nutrition-wise.
Western meals containing much meat lead to eating too much fat, which in turn leads to obesity and adult diseases. In contrast, traditional Korean food yields a well-balanced diet between meat and vegetables as well as energy composition. In addition, foods fermented over an extended period of time, and the fact that it is prepared using little fat, make hansik even more healthy. Health, a leading health magazine of the U.S. selected kimchi, Korea;s most famous fermented food, as one of the world’s Top Five health foods. Indeed, hansik, a slow and healthy food, is suitable for modern people.
- As mentioned earlier, hansik is a unique cultural product that can enhance the country’s image. The Government has launched efforts to make hansik a food people around the world enjoy eating within the next decade. To do so, Koreans abroad and in Korea must strive and work hard to achieve this together. And so, the government will provide support for the reinforcement of the groundwork of the hansik industry, training traditional Korean food chefs and developing world-famous Korean restaurants within the country, while making efforts to promote hansik overseas by enhancing the image of traditional Korean food and providing information on Korean cuisine.
- Curriculum vitae [ Kim Haeng-ran ]
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- Official at the Rural Development Administration
