With all the talk over the years about the issue of Korean Food Globalization, the new issue seems to be over side dishes or known as banchan. Sides have been drawn and there are those that believe that the side dishes should remain complementary and others that believe they should be charged for - therefore adding value to the meal. Before diving into the issue, I think we should (and I think we always should try to look at it from an outsider's perspective). As a person that works in the food and tourism industry , our company meets hundreds of tourists each month as we introduce them to Korean food. We get many international clients, for example on the last tour we had an American, a German, two New Zealanders, and three Singaporeans. Each of them had different ideas of "service" and "cuisine" but the most interesting perspective was that of "value." Of course, I am not trying to stereotype any of these clients- this is just an observation I h...

Korean Food Globalization Team's Year End Conference My company was invited to the Korean Food Globalization Team's Year-end conference to see all the work that had been completed by different organizations this year. These are companies and universities that had been funded by the Hansik Jedang (Korean Food Globalization Team) to create products or do research on the topic of globalizing Korean food. The standout this year was CJ Food's "Rice & Nice" Microwaveable Rice dishes. The product was extensively researched (I know because I helped find the focus groups) and I feel their initial offerings: Spicy Chicken, Bibimbap, and 5-grain Rice is what the western market will like. The packaging is eye catching as well. I'm not a big fan of the name "Rice & Nice," because it sounds cheesy and Asian cutesy; but that's something that can be worked out by the marketing team. The products taste good and its something I could see taking off. ...

This is from Chef Flor who is starting up the movement to popularize Korean food in Latin America. She makes some very good points on how Korean food and Latin food are well matched. I mean we've already seen the Koreazy Tacos and Koreazy Quesadillas from Kogi Taco- so it makes sense that these flavors would pair well.  You can check out Flor on her website (it's in Spanish) at http://soulofhansik.blogspot.com/   Flor, thank you so much for the letter. Dan   Hi Daniel, How are you hope very well.    I read your article on the globalization of Korean cuisine in Korean Heral d, and I loved it, first I feel obliged to express my opinion, I don´t know if it helps, but I want you to know my point of view from Latin America, I will give you a brief explanation why I am so fascinated with Korean cuisine, the one for me started as a novelty as a chef I like to know of the cuisines of the world and here in my country Venezuela "does not know Korean food," and of cours...