Definitely the best Korean cookbook I have come across. Lots of explanation, delicious recipes covering a broad spectrum. Photos made me really hungry. Well worth reading.

Taught me five sauces that are worth the price of admission for keeping my gojuchang from languishing in the fridge.

I got this cookbook as a birthday present from my partner. We both love spicy food and Asian cuisine so what could go wrong?

Five months have passed now, I think I could navigate through a korean restaurant menu with confidence hahahaha

Maangchi's recipes were really easy to follow and delicious. Be mindful of the gochugaru if you don't tolerate really hot food.

At the beginning of the book there's a list of your typical Korean ingredients with pictures, really helpful when looking for them in you asian supermarket.

Food is delicious, easy to follow recipes, has a wide variety of recipes and a great cultural context for the foods in the book for people that aren't from the culture.

I don’t know if I’ll ever cook Korean dishes— but if I do Maangchi will be my go-to source. This cookbook has beautiful images and step by step guides and ingredient photos in the front to help out when shopping. It’s almost like walking through an international market, and that is a favorite thing to do visiting big cities!

Some negatives in regards to this cookbook: if Korean cooking IS your goal, a lot of these recipes are labor intensive and take a long time to make. Especially if you’re making kimchi from scratch. Fermentation is no joke!

Additionally, the authentic meal apparently has quite a few side dishes that also need to be prepared to go with the main meal— but it’s left up to the cook to decide. There’s not really a guide for what dishes go well together. You do pick it up while watching Maangchi’s videos on YouTube but going into it cold would probably be a bit confusing.

Anyway naysaying aside this is a fantastic book and I loved reading the recipe descriptions and seeing the photos.

I absolutely ate throu—er, I mean cooked my way through this ^^

What an excellent resource on Korean cooking. Maangchi has really included everything you could think of - vegetarian, meat, seafood, soups, sweets, good lunchbox ideas, even street/fusion food, special occasions food, and Buddhist temple food. This book is THICK.

While she is definitely a Cook in the sense that she would prefer you don't take shortcuts (make your own stock, roast your own seaweed, etc.), they are available if you need them. All in all, I think I bookmarked two dozen or more recipes to try. I recommend this to anyone looking to try some Korean meals.