Eating Korean in America

Sonia Ryang

Sonia Ryang

Eating Korean in America

Gastronomic Ethnography of Authenticity

In: Food in Asia and the Pacific

Edited by: Christine R. Yano and Robert Ji-Song Ku

University of Hawaii Press | 2015

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824854911

Overview
Contents

About this book

Can food be both national and global at the same time? What happens when a food with a national identity travels beyond the boundaries of a nation? What makes a food authentically national and yet American or broader global?

With these questions in mind, Sonia Ryang explores the world of Korean food in four American locations, Iowa City, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Hawaii (Kona and Honolulu). Ryang visits restaurants and grocery stores in each location and observes Korean food as it is prepared and served to customers. She analyzes the history and evolution of each dish, how it arrived and what it became, but above all, she tastes and experiences her food—four items to be specific—naengmyeon cold noodle soup; jeon pancakes; galbi barbecued beef; and bibimbap, rice with mixed vegetable.

In her ethnographic journey, Ryang discovers how the chewy noodles from Pyongyang continue to retain their texture and yet are served differently in different locales. Jeon pancakes become completely decontextualized in the United States and metamorphosed into a portable and packable carry-out food. American consumers are unaware of the pancake's sacred origin. In Hawaii, Ryang finds that it is the Vietnamese restaurant that serves unexpectedly delicious galbi barbecued meat. Intertwined in the complex colonial and postcolonial contexts, Korean galbi and Japanese yakiniku can be found side by side on the streets of Honolulu frequented by both the locals and tourists.

In writing Eating Korean in America: Gastronomic Ethnography of Authenticity, Sonia Ryang is as much an eater as a researcher. Her accounts of the cities and their distinctive take on Korean food are at once entertaining and insightful, yet deeply moving. Ryang challenges the reader to stop and think about the food we eat every day in close connection to colonial histories, ethnic displacements, and global capitalism.

Author information

RyangSonia:

Sonia Ryang is professor at and director of T.T. and W.F. Chao Center for Asian Studies Rice University.YanoChristine R.:

Christine R. Yano is professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.KuRobert Ji-Song:

Robert Ji-Song Ku is associate professor of Asian American studies at Binghamton University, The State University of New York. He is co-editor of Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Free access PDF PDF	ix
Introduction Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
1. A Global Slurp Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	21
2. Food for the Ancestors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	39
3. Two Colonizations and Three Migrations Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	56
4. A Taste of Diversity Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	84
Conclusion Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	105
References Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	121
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	133
About the Author Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	139

Eating Korean in America

Gastronomic Ethnography of Authenticity

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