Our October country for our “Around the World in 12 Dishes” series is Korea! First we’ll learn about South Korea and then we’ll make bibimbop.
Do you know how to find Korea on a map? Which continent is Korea on? What language do they speak? What is the capital? Look at the map above: the Korean peninsula is surrounded by water (by the Yellow Sea to the west, the East China Sea and Korea Strait to the south, and the Sea of Japan to the east). North Korea is separated from China and Russia to the North by rivers.
After World War 2, the peninsula is divided into 2 parts: North Korea and South Korea. North Korea has limited resources, yet a large military presence, and is led by communist dictator Kim Jong-un. South Korea is a center of education, culture, and the arts, and its largest city Seoul is one of the largest cities in the world.
You can learn more about Korea at TIME for Kids! I love this site because kids can explore Korea through their Sightseeing Guide, History Timeline, learn some Korean phrases in Native Lingo, check out a Day in the Life of a 12 year old girl who lives in Seoul. Finally, take a quiz to see how much you learned!
Another excellent site is National Geographic Kids. The videos and photos have tons of facts for kids, and you can even send someone and e-card!
Korean food mainly consist of rice, meat, and vegetables. Some popular dishes are Kimchi (the national dish of Korea, fermented, spicy cabbage), Soondubu jiggae (Korean stew), Dakjuk (Chicken Porridge), Hoeddeok (Sweet Cinnamon Pancakes), Japchae (Sweet Potato Noodle dish), Bulgogi (Marinated Beef- my old Korean roommate would marinate it in Coca-cola, but traditional it is pear juice!), and the dish that we chose: Bibimbop.
In Korean, bibim means “mixed” and bap means rice. Basically the dish has different veggies, meat, and rice prepared and cooked, and then an egg is cracked on top and you quickly mix up everything so the hot food cooks the egg (our dish wasn’t hot enough to cook the egg as they do in the restaurants, so we had to microwave it!:) But you could just put a sunny-side up egg on top.
We followed this recipe from Maangchi. Here is her video about making bibimbop:
This is the 8th month in the new season of “Around the World in 12 Dishes.” This year we have chosen the following countries:
March – Ireland
April – France
May – Finland
June – Spain
July – Kenya
August – Egypt
September – New Zealand
October – Korea
November – Thailand
December – Jamaica
January – Peru
February – Canada
We are inviting our readers to participate in our culinary adventure!
On our Facebook page and our Google+ community page we have a coloring placemat and a 4 page passport with lots of fun information for each country, plus questions, a spot for a photo of you and your dish, and space to put your own recipe! Each country will also have its own linky, where you can link up your own related posts- we would love to see your posts!
Participating blogs:
Adventures In Mommydom, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Creative Family Fun, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It, The Hands-On Homeschooler, and Afterschool for Smarty Pants.
Visit the following links to see how other families are learning about Korea, and please share your adventures learning about Korea here:
I was thinking about making it, but knew that the egg on top of everything else is not going to fly here – my daughter is in “everything should be separate” phase 🙂 Sounds like you had fun!
This recipe looks so good and easy for kids to help!
We love Bibimbop! My kids like it too though I don’t make it at home very often. It’s considered a “leftover” dish but we never have the stuff left over so when I make it, I have to cook it all from scratch.