Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War

Korea played a disproportionately significant role in world history in relation to the size of its population and territory. This book traces these developments as they are played out in the everyday details of Korea's national cuisine, which savoured the world over for its diversity of ingredients and flavours.

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Throughout the twentieth century Korea played a disproportionately significant role in world history in relation to the size of its population and territory. Forced from the margins to the centre of the world economy, the peninsula has suffered colonial submission, occupation and war, and the rupture into two opposed states which continues today. This book traces these developments as they are played out in the everyday details of Korea's national cuisine, which is savoured the world over for its diversity of ingredients and flavours. By considering twentieth-century Korea via its distinctive food culture, Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War brings us closer to real people and their lives. Katarzyna J. Cwiertka shows that dietary practices widely identified as 'Korean' have often been established or influenced by colonial encounters. She also explains how the military and the Cold War had an impact on dietary change on the peninsula, both north and south of the border. The aspects of Korean cuisine she covers include the manufacture and consumption of rice and soy sauce, the rise of the restaurant, wartime food and famine in the 1990s in North Korea.
Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War will be of interest to anthropologists and food historians as well as to general readers interested in global history and Korean culture and society.