Eating Korean in America: Gastronomic Ethnography of Authenticity

This book explores the global movement and transformation of Korean food that the author has encountered in various cities in the United States since the late 1990s. In particular, it focuses on four specific examples of such Korean food: cold noodles (naengmyeon), pancakes (jeon), grilled meat, including ribs (galbi), and rice bowls with vegetables and meat (bibimbap). The four main chapters discuss each of these dishes by situating them in broader historical, political, and cultural contexts. In order to bring these case studies together with thematic coherence, Ryang engages with the notion of authenticity in the consumption of these dishes. She follows the transnational trajectories of the cold noodles she ate in Koreatown, Los Angeles; the pancakes she encountered in a huge Korean supermarket located in the Baltimore area; the grilled meat dishes that are selectively present and absent in diverse locations...