London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides

Banchan, the shared side dishes that accompany a Korean meal, are often the real stars of the table, and it’s time we celebrate them. This first-of-its-kind cookbook showcases the wide world of banchan, from traditional staples to modern Korean American renditions, with 60 recipes from the kitchen of chef Caroline Choe. Highlighting this underrepresented aspect … [Read More]

Bojagi: The Art of Korean Textiles with Techniques and Projects

A creative guide to a unique and beautiful form of Korean art, steeped in ancient tradition. Bojagi (wrapping cloths) are textiles pieced together from small scraps of fabric – they are a unique form of Korean textile art. The careful arrangement of shapes and colours shows an abstract composition which has made bojagi popular with … [Read More]

How K-Dramas Can Transform Your Life: Powerful Lessons on Belongingness, Healing, and Mental Health

Discover the power of how K-Dramas can benefit your mental health and provide a sense of belonging In How K-Dramas Can Transform Your Life, celebrated licensed mental health professional Jeanie Y. Chang explores the powerful interrelationship between Korean dramas, mental health, and belongingness. In the book, you’ll explore what K-Dramas have to teach us about our own … [Read More]

Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking

In the first book on the subject in English, South Korea’s best chef shows readers how to cook with jangs—the sauces that are the essential building blocks of all Korean cuisine. In the 60 home-cook-friendly dishes, he demystifies jangs while showing how they can be used to make both Korean and Western dishes more delicious. * … [Read More]

My Life as An Architect in Seoul

The second book in the ‘My Life as an Architect’ series, looking at the Seoul buildings that have shaped the practice and outlook of the celebrated Korean architect Byoung Cho. Since founding his practice BCHO Architects Associates in Seoul in 1994, Byoung Cho has built a reputation as the key architect driving the expansion of … [Read More]

I Need Art: Reality Isn’t Enough

A memoir in images from the iconic South Korean Sally Rooney illustrator Everything I feel from reading and listening to music I commit to paper in black pen And gradually, blot by blot, stroke by stroke, A new mode of expression emerges. At this point, it’s just scribbles in a diary Not yet reborn as … [Read More]

The Korean Cookbook

350 authentic and delicious Korean recipes for the home cook, written by the perfect guides to this extraordinary cuisine – an acclaimed Korean chef and a Korean culinary expert The Korean Cookbook celebrates traditional regional dishes and everyday food found in home kitchens from Seoul to Jeju Island. This stunning collection features more than 350 recipes organized … [Read More]

Sohn-mat: Recipes and Flavors of Korean Home Cooking

Sohn-mat is a master class in how to make this exceptional tofu soup at home, as well recipes for all of the other dishes you need to complete the meal, from banchan, to kimchi, to large-format dishes like bibimbap. Beyond its loyal customers, Beverly Soon Tofu was highly acclaimed. The restaurant was written about by Jonathan Gold and Ruth … [Read More]

Introducing Korean Popular Culture

This new textbook is a timely and interdisciplinary resource for students looking for an introduction to Korean popular culture, exploring the multifaceted meaning of Korean popular culture at micro and macro levels and the process of cultural production, representation, circulation and consumption in a global context. Drawing on perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, … [Read More]

Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital

A cutting-edge journalistic exposé of self-care consumerism, using the extreme case South Korea to both celebrate the astounding growth of K-Beauty and South Korean pop culture as a global export and examine the dark implications for women in a looks-obsessed patriarchy, in a debut that asks the question: What is the future of beauty? From … [Read More]

Forces of Nature: New Perspectives on Korean Environments

Bringing together a multidisciplinary conversation about the entanglement of nature and society in the Korean peninsula, Forces of Nature aims to define and develop the field of the Korean environmental humanities. At its core, the volume works to foreground non-human agents that have long been marginalized in Korean studies, placing flora, fauna, mineral deposits, and climatic conditions that … [Read More]

City of Sediments: A History of Seoul in the Age of Colonialism

Once the capital of the five-hundred-year Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1897) and the Taehan Empire (1897–1910), the city of Seoul posed unique challenges to urban reform and modernization under Japanese colonial rule in the early twentieth century, constrained by the labyrinthian built environment of the old Korean capital. Colonial authorities attempted to employ a strategy of “erasure”—monumental … [Read More]

Rice Table: Korean Recipes and Stories to Feed the Soul

Rice Table | bap sang is a collection of 80 recipes showcasing modern, Korean home cooking. A Korean living in the UK, Su Scott was thrown into a crisis of identity when motherhood dawned, one which she only found her way out of by cooking the dishes of her Korean childhood, seeking out the flavours … [Read More]

A Global History of Ginseng: Imperialism, Modernity and Orientalism

Sul’s history of the international ginseng trade reveals the cultural aspects of international capitalism and the impact of this single commodity on relations between East and West. Ginseng emerged as a major international commodity in the seventeenth century, when the East India Company began trading it westward. Europeans were drawn to the plant’s efficacy as … [Read More]

The Borders of Chinese Architecture

An internationally acclaimed expert explains why Chinese-style architecture has remained so consistent for two thousand years, no matter where it is built. For the last two millennia, an overwhelming number of Chinese buildings have been elevated on platforms, supported by pillars, and covered by ceramic-tile roofs. Less obvious features, like the brackets connecting the pillars … [Read More]