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Rating: 
Summary: hmmm....
Review: I'm a Korean. Maybe an American sees us like this? Interesting. But I cautiously comment that the two recipes on the sample pages may not make the dish(thou barley tea isn't a dish). Bean sprout soup with rice requires some kind of stock and several other ingrediant, better not to try it. Simply, far-east style rice cooking is not so easy for foriegners...(ask your Japanese/Chinese friends, they will know). And for the barley tea, boil up to 10 minute, or put roasted barley, turn off and wait for 10-15 minute. 2 Ts barley in 5 cups of hot boiling water for 20 min, that makes dark lequid with bitter taste.
For now it seems our real good meals didn't meet Westerners, for what real food that compared with(and defeated by) sandwitch of fastfood restorant is? Koreans are not mere work-worms;) We have restorants and food courts in great number(actually too much) and have many of them disappeared quickly.ps. If you happened to visit Chonju, Korea, take a taxi and say "Cong, na, mul, guk, pap!" and he will drive you to most up-dated place for the right taste.
Rating:
Summary: Have these recipes been tested?
Review: I've only been to a handful of Korean restaurants, but have had some dishes that I thought were incredible and wanted to cook them at home (such as bulgogi and bibimbap). So, I looked for a cookbook that included those dishes and found "The Korean Kitchen." So far, I've cooked 6 recipes from it and they've all been marvelous. My wife and I have a large collection of cookbooks and this one is a classic. The glossary that defines Korean foods and spices is very helpful in preparing to go to a Korean grocery. The only drawback is that there are no pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Not THE choice for those new to Korean food
Review: If you follow the measurements, your dishes won't taste like traditional korean food found in restaurants. Korean cooking is all about the little details, which the author appears to have left out. He appears to be only vaguely familiar with the intricacies of Korean cusine. This is not a book you'll refer to over and over. I would try one of the Korean authors cookbook if you want something real.
Rating: 
Summary: Misses the mark...
Review: If you follow the measurements, your dishes won't taste like traditional korean food found in restaurants. Korean cooking is all about the little details, which the author appears to have left out. He appears to be only vaguely familiar with the intricacies of Korean cusine. This is not a book you'll refer to over and over. I would try one of the Korean authors cookbook if you want something real.
Rating:
Summary: Not THE choice for those new to Korean food
Review: My mother was Korean and I ate her cooking and that of her friends all my life. I've eaten at a number of different Korean restaurants. No one cooks dishes exactly the same, so don't be surprised if you've eaten Korean food & when you make the recipes in this book, they don't taste exactly like what you've had before. There's an exhaustive supply of tasty, easy-to-follow recipes here; however, one thing you won't get in this book is illustration--there is not one picture or photo in it. If you're a person who likes to know what a dish is supposed to look like when it's cooked, and you're NOT familiar with Korean food, get this book as your backup, not your primer. Note--There is a metric conversion chart in back for those who don't use US measurements. Here's a tip: There are number of sites online that have fantastic recipes and pictures. Do a Google search for "Korean recipes." The pictures you find on some of the sites will give you an idea of what your dish should look like and will leave your mouth watering.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the best Korean cookbook written in English so far
Review: Okay, since so many have been so critical. I felt that I had to write. This is the largest and most complete Korean cookbook written in English so far. There are other cookbooks, with pictures in English but they usually only cover a few recipes. This one covers a lot. I was quite surprised. When I looked at some of the recipes, I originally thought that it was too simple or that it was lacking. But as many Native Koreans realize there is a lot of minor variations in the ingredients that people use anyway. I tried many of the recipes in the book and found them to be quite good and pretty authentic. In Korean cooking, you have to taste as you go along. This book has a good underlying taste that it is trying to create. Overall, this is a stable cookbook for those Korean Americans who want to have a ready resource to help one get started on learning to cook. (Without asking your mom =) Remember, if you really want it to turn out right, ask someone Korean and whose cooking you like, what ingredients they used and in what proportion since everyone improvises a little or adds things that make it right for their taste, usually adding more sugar, salt, garlic, and or vinegar. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: This is the best Korean cookbook written in English so far
Review: Okay, since so many have been so critical. I felt that I had to write. This is the largest and most complete Korean cookbook written in English so far. There are other cookbooks, with pictures in English but they usually only cover a few recipes. This one covers a lot. I was quite surprised. When I looked at some of the recipes, I originally thought that it was too simple or that it was lacking. But as many Native Koreans realize there is a lot of minor variations in the ingredients that people use anyway. I tried many of the recipes in the book and found them to be quite good and pretty authentic. In Korean cooking, you have to taste as you go along. This book has a good underlying taste that it is trying to create. Overall, this is a stable cookbook for those Korean Americans who want to have a ready resource to help one get started on learning to cook. (Without asking your mom =) Remember, if you really want it to turn out right, ask someone Korean and whose cooking you like, what ingredients they used and in what proportion since everyone improvises a little or adds things that make it right for their taste, usually adding more sugar, salt, garlic, and or vinegar. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Tasty but questionable authenticity
Review: The recipes are heavily meat-based, unlike most Korean dishes. I suppose if you like meat, that's not a problem, but I find meat in many of the dishes, which takes away from what I would call "authentic" Korean cooking. In general, though, the dishes are pretty tasty, regardless of the reliance on meat. Not a bad cookbook for non-Koreans and a good basic for Korean-Americans.
Rating:
Summary: First time or experienced, this is a great basic!
Review: Unlike the western cooking, most cultural recepies aren't exact. You can't say a teaspoon here or a 1/3 cup there. Great food comes from experience and well, one shoots from the hip. That being said, I must say how much I love this book. I am a Korean myself, ate Korean food most of my life, but never learned how to cook it. Sure, I regret it, but I seem to have a definate flare with western cuisine more than eastern. Or so I told myself. On my mother's birthday, I decided to try my hand on cooking Korean for the first time. You can say fear was in the eyes of my family and could see them biting their tongue. My husband purchased this book for me a while back, and though I've cracked it open, I've never cooked anything from it. This was my chance and I seized the oppourtunity. After sitting on the bookshelf for two years, its moment finally came. I made the bul-go-gie and the chicken casserole (duk-chim). By intuition, I substituted the regular sugar for light brown sugar. (It came out a bit darker but the molasses in the sugar gave it a depth that white sugar would not have given.) Also, a note - it is very important to get the best beef you can from your butcher when making this dish. If you get [poor quality] for beef, you'll essentially get [poor quality] for meal. Anyhow, it came out perfectly and tasty too! The chicken casserole (I cooked it in an oval dutch oven - enamel cast iron from Le Creuset) under low heat and the meat literally fell off the bone and melted in my mouth!! The final test came when my family ate my creations. Their eyes opened wide and everyone was very impressed that I actually cooked this without help from them! I got wonderful compliments and I knew this book was a total reference guide that shouldn't be shoved in the back of the bookshelf! It's important to use the best ingredients possible. Having the right equipment is very important too. But the most important thing is to learn to understand which intensity you'd like to enhance and which to tone down as you flavor the foods. No book can teach you what's EXACTLY right in your mouth. Only you can dicipher the complexities of that. Use this book as a guide and you'll enjoy a very successful time cooking Korean food. p.s. My best friend isn't Korean (though I swear her inner child is) and she's been cooking out of this book from cover to cover and has nothing but praises for it!
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