Jeok (food)

Jeok(in Hangul:적, in Hanja:炙) is a kind of Korean grilled meat like kebab served with skewers.[1] Koreans have created this dish since long ago. The first mention of jeok was listed on the ancient Chinese text. It was said that on the special occasions, Koreans will serve the Chinese nobility with jeok. Therefore, jeok developed into court cuisine dishes such as neobiani.[2] Ordinary people also enjoyed it and create other grilled dishes without skewers such as bulgogi and galbi. Today, jeok is arranged on skewers with the variety of meats, vegetables, and mushrooms and usually served in the special occasions such as 60th birthday (hwangap) and wedding ceremonies. The varieties of jeok include sanjeok and nureumjijeok.

Origin

In the old book ≪搜神記≫ written during Qin dynasty of China, there are dishes called Gangja and Maekjeok(貊炙). In this context, the letter Maek(貊) refers to people of the Buyeo Kingdom or related kingdoms where early Korean history started. At that moment, the book says, when it comes to the dish jeok, meats are marinated in advance, and then go by skewers. Jeok, what we called today, started from that moment.

Following another records of ≪釋名≫, Maekjeok indicate huge barbecue of swine, cutting pieces of meat on one's own. It means that the prototype was quite huge, then starting to be chopped or cut into small pieces.

As early Koreans went out for hunts or were nomads, going for largely meat-consisting dish, it became difficult upon settling down for agriculture. A huge barbecue dish, then, started to transform into small pieces using skewers with other ingredients, notably diverse vegetables.

Variety

Depending on ingredients, the exact names become Sanjeok(in Hangul:산적), Nureumjeok(누름적), etc. Mainly they can be divided into meat, vegetable or fish.

For vegetables, those can be spring onions, carrots, broad bellflowers, widely possible to gain at local area, or especially mushrooms.[3] As jeok consists of several ingredients from vegetables to meat, the dish shares high nutritional balance.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ An Illustrated Guide to Korean Culture - 233 traditional key words. Seoul: Hakgojae Publishing Co. 2002. p. 59. ISBN 9788985846981.
  2. ↑ (English) Bulgogi or Neobiani (broiled beef), triptokorea. Accessdate: June 8, 2010.
  3. ↑ Making Sanjeok