I am a baby boomer born after the Korean War.
I was born when compressed growth was just beginning, I tasted cider and cola, I memorized the National Education Charter faster than anyone else at school and received bread as a prize, and around 1972, I was even tested at lunchtime to see if my lunchbox had white rice or mixed grain rice.
In the fall of 2016, when I told this story in a graduate school class, the students' eyes widened in wonder.
In the end, the class that day started with 'When I was young' and continued with stories from that time.
When I look back at the students' reactions at that time, my experiences in the 1960s and 1970s were a part of their history.
… … The stories in this book may be like ‘old tales’ to them.
Even though it's a bit long and boring, I ask you to listen at least once.
That's because only then can you know what historical process the food on your table has gone through.

--- p.5~7 From “Publishing a Book”

I believe that most of the food consumed by Koreans today is built around these six keywords.
The five periods of opening of ports, colonization, war, the Cold War, and compressed growth were the process of the Korean Peninsula being incorporated into the global food system.
However, as globalization became widespread in the 1990s, food and beverages produced in Korea began to spread to other countries.
When the film "Parasite" won an award at the 2020 Academy Awards, eating "Chae-kkeut Jjapaguri" became a trend among New Yorkers.
The reason they were able to eat that food was because Korea was already a key player in the global food system.
Among the foods consumed by Koreans today, there are both good and bad foods, depending on the tastes of individuals and communities.
While individual and community food preferences are inherently subjective, they are also, from another perspective, a product of history.
In this book, I will examine the history of Korean food habits over the past 145 years by wearing six different glasses from time to time.
--- p.14~15, from “Prologue: The Formation of the World Food System and the History of the Incorporation of the Korean Peninsula”

American George Clayton Foulk (1856-1893) is a representative foreigner who ate Korean food while traveling around the Korean Peninsula.
… … In the Jeonju Gamyeong’s quarters, Fork slept on a bed made of several blankets.
The next day, Fork woke up at 8 o'clock and ate honey, chestnuts, and persimmons for breakfast, which had already been brought into the room at 9 o'clock.
At ten o'clock, the magistrate sent a meal specially for Fork.
Fork wrote in his diary about the table set with food, “on a table reaching my breast.”
Fork also described the meal he received as excellent and described the table setting in his diary.

--- p.23~26, from Part 1, Chapter 1, “Korean Food Described by American George Polk”

Looking at this menu, one question arises.
Where on earth did the Korean Imperial Family get asparagus, olives, foie gras, truffles, pineapple, ice cream, and chocolate from in 1905 to prepare such a wealth of French cuisine? At the time, French ingredients were being canned and exported to countries around the world.
The Imperial kitchen of the Korean Empire also purchased canned food through Western European trading houses in Seoul.
Chocolate, of course, but also French cognac, wine, and champagne were prepared in the same way.
The kitchen was also equipped with cooking utensils for making cakes and ice cream.
So, it would not have been difficult for Kroebel to prepare French cuisine.
--- p.41~42, from Part 1, Chapter 3, “French Course Meal Prepared by Emma Kroebel in Seoul”

Ajinomoto's advertising, aimed at restaurant owners, was very specific.
The headline of the advertisement on page 6 of the October 22, 1929 edition of the Dong-A Ilbo was “Restaurant.”
“Everyone who chooses a restaurant is looking for a place that makes food delicious.
Restaurants that serve delicious food are places that use Ajinomoto well.
He wrote, “Don’t forget to try Ajinomoto with cold noodles, janggukbap, tteokguk, daegutang, and seolleongtang.”
This is an advertisement that says to always add Ajinomoto to dishes that contain soup.
… … In the middle of summer, it was difficult to prepare dongchimi at a cold noodle restaurant, so it was expensive to make the broth separately, but using Ajinomoto was much more economical.
In the end, the taste of Pyongyang Mul Naengmyeon's broth was dominated by Ajinomoto's monosodium glutamate.

--- p.80~83, from Part 2, Chapter 3, “Ajinomoto, the Japanese seasoning that has permeated the dining table”

Until the 1970s, each farm had one or two pigs, and they were raised mainly on food scraps rather than special feed.
The meat of pigs raised this way had a foul odor.
So, the wealthy class did not prefer pork.
However, as beef prices skyrocketed in the 1960s and 1970s, the government actively encouraged the consumption of pork along with chicken as a substitute to stabilize meat prices.
… … The fact that it was significantly cheaper than beef was a major factor in the popularity of grilled pork belly in the 1980s, but on the other hand, the Japanese portable gas burner and disposable butane gas that were released in Korea in June 1980 also played a big role.
As economic growth brought about more leisure, people began to go on outings with family and friends more frequently.
From this time on, it became popular to grill pork belly outdoors using a portable gas burner.
After all, since the 1990s, grilled pork belly has become one of Koreans' favorite meat dishes.

--- p.205~207, from Part 5, Chapter 1, “The Appearance of LA Galbi and Grilled Pork Belly”

Even in the 1980s, apartment prices in Gangnam skyrocketed, and Gangnam's emerging middle class had more money than ever before.
However, in Gangnam, there was no suitable place for the emerging middle class to spend leisure time with their families.
Since then, large, upscale restaurants such as Samwon Garden in Sinsa-dong, which opened in November 1981, Neulbom and Seorabeol in Nonhyeon-dong, and Chosung Park and Shillajeong in Seocho-dong have become popular holiday family outing destinations.
The large, upscale restaurants that mainly sold ribs and cold noodles were called 'Luxury Galbi Town', 'Countryside Galbi House', and 'Gongwonsik Galbi House'.
As the name suggests, this restaurant, a park-style rib house, is situated on a vast 1,000-pyeong site with high-quality ornamental trees, an artificial waterfall, a cloud bridge, a watermill, a pavilion, a stone pagoda, a fountain, a pond, an aquarium, and other facilities, so much so that it could almost be called a park.

--- p.235, from Part 5, Chapter 5, “Completion of Gangnam Development and the Boom of High-End Restaurant Openings”

Western vegetables that have been widely cultivated since the 2000s include broccoli, lettuce, and bell peppers.
… … But the problem is that the more Western vegetables Koreans eat, the more foreign currency is spent on buying foreign seeds.
… … In this age of globalization, securing property rights to agricultural seeds is food sovereignty and food security itself.
This is why you need to know who the seeds of the lettuce that goes into salads, which are a must-have menu item at mid-priced Korean restaurants, the bell peppers used as an ingredient in japchae, and the broccoli that comes as a side dish for boiled fish come from.
--- p.261~263, from Part 6, Chapter 2, “Increased Consumption of Western Vegetables and Seed Property Rights”

The popularity of K-food overseas is the result of efforts by food and beverage manufacturers and restaurant workers since the mid-1960s to adapt foreign foods to Korean tastes.
Added to this are consumer reactions to new and unfamiliar processed foods.
During the period of compressed growth, most things, from processed foods to street food, took the path of localization, or Koreanization.
Korean processed foods and restaurant menus have been well-received by foreigners visiting Korea in the era of globalization, when Korean society has opened up to the outside world.
The popularity of K-food is also a result of the sociocultural hybridization that Korean society has embraced through compressed growth and globalization.

--- p.292~293, from “Epilogue: Reflections for the Next 100 Years”

Since the mid-1980s, several Western European countries, including the United States, have been strongly requesting the Korean government to import agricultural, livestock and fishery products.
Farmers opposed the opening of the market and demanded that the government take measures to protect agricultural, livestock and fishery products.
The power elite, who prioritized economic growth through the export of manufactured goods, perceived the agricultural sector as an obstacle to greater trade and higher growth.
In the age of globalization, Korea's food sovereignty has fallen to rock bottom.
In these difficult times, the cliché “traditional food is the best” is prevalent across government, academia, the media, and business circles.
'Food nationalism' can be a very effective strategy for recovering the property rights to agricultural, livestock and fishery products lost after the last IMF foreign exchange crisis.
However, 'closed' food nationalism is not the answer to eradicating the dark shadows cast on the Korean diet and food that have breathlessly navigated the past 100 years.

--- p.296, from “Epilogue: Reflections for the Next 100 Years”