Graham Holliday

A travel and food memoir from Holliday who spent two years living and working in Korea in the mid-90s and who returns to get a sense of what the food in Korea is like now. The writing is strongly evocative here, although some of the metaphors used to describe the food seem over the top, and Holliday gives a strong sense of place and the unique qualities of Korea's different regional specialties. But when Holliday strays into discussing Korean culture in a broader sense, things get... awkward. Several chunks of the book early on come off as a middle-aged white man complaining about how dare a country change at all from the way he knew it 20 years ago. His description of several aspects of Korean culture come off as judgmental and, occasionally, colonialist and paternalistic. Skim those sections though and you have an excellent food-focused travelogue. However, I must admit that after reading this book I don't really have a hankering to try Korean food. But if pork and all things that come out of the sea are your jam, you might find it enticing.… (plus d'informations)

It was ok.

A nice vignette of the author's trip to South Korea nearly two decades after his initial time there, though the real takeaway is impermanence of identity.

What exactly is real Korean food, he queries?

Is it dishes that existed prior to Japanese occupation?
Is it post-war food mishmashes that happen to coincide with the author's nostalgia tingles?
Is it looking to the future, reviving old recipes and innovating new things?

An okay travelogue, though it felt very much like a snapshot.… (plus d'informations)