Why temple food and fermentation are gaining popularity

Hallyu, or the Korean wave – from the likes of BTS, Blackpink and Squid Game – has taken the world by storm. Its meteoric rise in the pop culture arena has paved the way for Hansik, or Korean food, through K-pop celebrities chowing down on bulgogi and tteokbokki on television shows or the tempting appearance of ram-don (instant noodles with beef). at the 2019 Oscars. winning film, Parasite.

According to a 2023 survey by the Korean Food Promotion Institute, 60 percent of foreign Korean food consumers in 18 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, said they were aware of Korean food. Of these, 92.5 percent were satisfied with their experiences with the kitchen.

The same survey also found that the most popular Korean food abroad is Korean-style fried chicken, followed by ramyeon (Korean instant noodles), kimchi, which was placed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2013, and bibimbap.

In recent years, a wave of Korean chefs have reinvented local ingredients and culture into contemporary Korean fine-dining restaurants. Among them is Sung Anh of modern Korean restaurant Mosu, who received this year’s peer-voted Chef’s Choice Award at the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony, held in Seoul in March.

While four restaurants from South Korea made the list, none cracked the top 10. Anh says: “We don’t see that as a problem. We see this as an opportunity to improve this food culture so that more people from abroad can come to Korea and discover our cuisine.”

From royal cuisine to an abundance of banchan (side dishes), the diversity of Korean cuisine is underlined by a savory touch of K fermentation and a yin-yang balance of flavors. We look at two aspects of hansik: temple cuisine and fermented foods, which are becoming increasingly popular among foodies.

Cooking with introspection

Korean nun Jeong Kwan beams with a toothy grin as she inhales a tart dollop of doetjang (fermented soybean paste) before stirring it into a batter for doetjang mujeon, or golden brown slices of fried radish with a savory crunch.

Clearly, cooking brings joy to the head nun of Cheonjinam Hermitage at Baekyangsa Temple. During a cooking workshop in Seoul, she says through a translator in Korean: “Cooking is a gift that comes naturally to me – it feels like a role I had to fulfill.” Kwan is best known for putting Korean temple food on the world map with her appearance in Chef’s Table, a Netflix food documentary, in 2017.

Temple cuisine is a range of foods that Buddhist monks are allowed to eat. It revolves around seasonal vegetables, herbs and fruits and uses simple cooking techniques that do not harm any life form. Vegan cuisine, which uses jang (sauces), medicinal herbs and organic herbs, is gaining popularity with the rise of plant-based foods and sustainability. In South Korea, about 150 temples offer accommodations where temple food is served.

Cooking is a way to connect with my ingredients, Kwan says wisely. “Knowing my ingredients is an exercise in discovering who I am. Whatever we eat becomes a part of us, and our personality follows the characteristics of the food we eat.”

Giving a candid example, she says, “Blanching vegetables changes the ‘energy level’ of the plant and helps to calm it down – just like people simmer.”

She also believes that a dish should contain ingredients that have a “good energy balance” and selects them based on their energy levels at different stages of growth.

On finding inspiration for her cooking, Kwan, who did not attend cooking school, says: “Everything is in the moment – ​​I don’t have set recipes or measuring cups. It depends on the ‘energy level’ of the ingredients in season.”

She only uses plants and vegetables because she believes that plants can reproduce energy through the seeds they sow. Kwan presented dishes in the workshop, including steamed lotus leaf rice, shiitake mushrooms glazed in soy sauce, and grain syrup and bugak (fried vegetable chips).

Kwan, who left home at 17 to live in the temple and learned by watching over the shoulders of temple cooks, is hailed as a food icon for her work in slow food, locavorism and fermentation, long before these became fashionable.

I have yet to discover another cuisine that has such detailed balance as Korean cuisine. That’s why people enjoy our food and I like to tell them about it.

Jeong Kwan, head nun of Cheonjinam Hermitage at Baekyangsa Temple

She notes that awareness of temple cuisine skyrocketed after her Netflix appearance. “Before Covid-19, there were about twenty to thirty guests who booked temple stays every week. There are many more now. Nowadays I have also been invited by many organizations to talk about the temple kitchen,” she says.

Kwan believes: “Hansik is closely linked to balance. After traveling the world, I have yet to discover another cuisine that has such detailed balance as Korean cuisine. That’s why people enjoy our food and I like to tell them about it.”

Jang: the essence of Korean cuisine

Similar to butter’s fundamental role in French cuisine, Jang, or Korean sauces made from fermented soybeans, are the foundation of Korean cuisine. They includedoenjang (soybean paste), ganjang (soy sauce), and gochujang (red chili paste).

The literal building blocks of jang are meju, which are made from steamed and soaked soybeans that are pounded and formed into rectangular blocks. These blocks are then hung in straw ropes for eight to ten weeks, where they gradually ferment.

These dried fermented blocks are later placed in earthenware pots and covered with salt, water and hot coals before being left to ferment for another 40 to 60 days. The liquid left in the pot after removing the meju and coals is boiled down to produce ganjang, whiledoenjang is made from the ground meju that has to undergo another round of fermentation in soy sauce and water.

Gochujang is made with glutinous rice paste, meju powder, red pepper powder and sea salt before being fermented in sunlight for two to three months.

Jang is so crucial to the cuisine of modern Korean restaurant Mingles that it prompted chef-owner Kang Mingoo to co-author a cookbook, Jang: the soul of Korean cuisine, launched in March. The cookbook contains more than 60 traditional Korean and innovative Western recipes using gochujang,doenjang and ganjang.

Onjium also continues Korean food traditions, which doubles as a restaurant and research institute that aims to better understand the roots of Korean cultural identity. The menu is based on the royal court and time-honored family recipes from the banga kitchen (noble household).

After reaching the milestone for the 10th year this year, chefs Cho Eun-hee and Park Sung-bae say: “We hope to nurture and guide young chefs to become the next generation of artisans of traditional cuisine .

At Onjium, young chefs start doing food research. Chefs Cho and Park say, “We don’t teach people to become chefs, but we want them to learn Korean culture, so we teach them art and science, philosophy and history. Learning recipes is not as important as discovering subtle flavor differences and developing their taste buds.” Next, Onjium hopes to develop a fermentation center focusing on kimchi, jang and spirits.