What did I know about Korean food before visiting the country? I must confess: hardly anything. Other Asian cuisines like Chinese, Japanese and even Thai are far more prominent in my country: Belgium.

So, as a way of getting to know more about the country and its culinary culture I decided that I should, as part of my round the world trip  (I am in fact a travel writer), learn to cook some local dishes. Through cooking I hoped to learn more about the people and their culture.

I managed, a bit to my own surprise, to find my way via subway and through the small alleys of the capital, to arrive just in time for Chef Hyejin’s cooking class at O’ngo Culinary School (www.ongofood.com). The young female chef proposed two Korean classics for today’s class: kimchi and bulgogi.

We were told Koreans see rice is the main ingredient of a meal. However, a meal here traditionally consists of several side dishes accompanying that bowl of rice. So, we were going to learn to make the sides to go with the rice: Kimchi and Bulgogi. The kimchi we’d be making today would be the one with cucumber –and it seems to be one of the most popular ones, (according to reactions I got when I told other Koreans later about my experience).

But the cucumber variant is only one of many: ‘We have at least 200 differents sorts of kimchi’, Hyejin tells us. ‘Every household has its own recipe to make this dish. In most Koreans kitchens you will see also two refrigerators: one is used especially for the kimchi. The most common kimchi is made with napa cabbage, but you can make it with any vegetable you want’.

Hyejin demonstrated making the dish for us and, wauw!,  I must say; it not only looked delicious, but the sauce we learned to make to stuff the cucumber tasted gorgeous. The combinations of the sweet and sour flavours with the fresh vegetable was my first discovery that afternoon. But Hyejin also said something else, which I didn’t know: “the freshness and use of seasonal ingredients is something Koreans value highly.” The conclusion is very simple: this kimchi dish will be something I will have to introduce to my family and friends at home.

The same actually is true for the bulgogi, a dish made of fine sliced meat and a number of ingredients often used in this cuisine: sesame oil, garlic, sugar, pepper, spring onions, and soy sauce. And just as the kimchi, it is relatively easy to make. But while preparing the bulgogi I was struck by the fact that we are asked to wear plastic gloves. ‘Koreans don’t like to touch food with their bare hands’, we are told. The result however looked just as exquisite as our kimchi. And colourful. Korean food definitively wants to seduce…

Our Korean chef seemed quite satisfied with the way we prepared the classics. As for the taste, we got a thumbs up, but I was quite curious to judge my own creation. I am again pleasantly surprised by the full flavours: sweet, sour, a little spicy, but it all went together very well together. My chopsticks couldn’t stop picking at the kimchi and the bulgogi nor the soup Hyejin had prepared extra. There is only one word to describe it: delicious!

As a journalist I had to be curious. So I wanted to know how Koreans rate their cuisine compared to the maybe better known (or at least better distributed) Chinese and Japanese cuisines. Hyejin’s answer said it all: ‘Chinese use a lot of oil while cooking. That makes their food rather greasy. We think of Japanese cuisine as sweeter and milder than ours. They use less spices, but this gives the food less character. I find the Korean way of cooking as the real thing’.

Who are we to challenge that?