I took a chance; I ended up kind of feeling like a book from a few years ago looked better than it was for me, but when I saw the sequel, I decided to try it out again. The Korean Vegan: Homemade is a little more personal story oriented than the first one, which is kind of a cookbook trend the past few years, but that’s not the main thing; that would be the recipes. One the one hand, they look more do-able, especially with some of the ingredient breakdowns in the intro. The ingredient introductions in the beginning were actually useful this time; the discussion on the various types and uses of soy sauce for example was actually pretty instructive and I’m ready to try a few of them out. Likewise, there’s a reasonably diy kimchee that I’m also interested to try, and I’m also hoping that the vegan fish sauce recipe works out, and ditto for the ramen soup seasoning blend. Fingers crossed.
While there’s a lot of Korean tradition in the recipes and stories (duh), there’s also the recognition that “authentic” can mean a lot of things. Sometimes it might be “Koreanizing” another dish, and sometimes, it might be Americanizing something Korean. And it’s ok either way, so long as the result is tasty. Think nachos but with kimchi queso, or kimbap with (vegan) saugage and onion filling.
Things I’m interested in starting with: the homemade soymilk recipe actually looks like something I want to try. It doesn’t involve fancy equipment (like a milk bag), and it’s also not going to end up with an enormous quantity if I don’t turn out to like it. I’m also interested in trying the banana coffee, especially since 7-Brew’s banana bread mocha showed me that coffee and banana might actually play nice together. And ok, the katsu sando. Katsu is probably one of my favorites, so once I get my hands on soy sauce powder, we’ll be good to go.
