KOREASCHOLAR

The study presented attempts to analyze and categorize Chosun’s food ingredients and culture through a Western perspective based on 32 representative Western documents pertaining to old Korea. Before modernization, Westerners visited Chosun during their visits to old China or Japan. Westerners were most active in Chosun from the open port period to the annexation of Korea to Japan occupation. They were teachers, missionaries, diplomats, and doctors visiting Chosun with personal goals. In 31 book traveler’s journal, it records Chosen’s mainly produced ingredients, such as grains, spices, fruits, cabbage, chicken, and chestnuts; foods from Chosen include kimchi, soup, and tofu. Foreigners especially liked foods made of eggs and chicken, but they did not enjoy Chosun’s lack of sugar and dairy. Thirty-one book foreigners’ records describe Chosun’s Ondol, kitchen, crock, fermented foods, low dining tables, and chopsticks. Chosun people liked dog meat, unrestrained drinking culture, sungnyung, and tea culture. Foreign documentation on Chosun’s food culture allows modern scholars to learn about Chosun people’s lifestyles, as if their lives were a vivid picture

• 김미혜(호서대학교 생명보건과학대학 식품영양학과 및 기초과학연구소) | Mi-Hye Kim Corresponding author