It was one fine autumn day in late September. Foreign tourists and locals gathered at Unhyeongung Palace in Seoul’s Jongno-gu. The Institute of Traditional Korean Food, directed by Yoon Sook-ja, and Jongno-gu held a food event titled "Royal Court and Aristocratic Family Food Festival 2011" on September 27 and 28.
The nation’s top agricultural bureaucrat, Suh Kyu-yong, the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Food, expects that the next big thing in the Korean wave, or Hallyu, could be Korean food, or “K-food,” which he says will follow K-pop in global popularity. In that sense, this event where visitors can see, touch, and taste traditional Korean food will boost awareness of Korean cuisine among foreigners.
The Institute of Traditional Korean Food is a professional research organization established for and devoted to the popularization and globalization of traditional Korean food domestically and globally, because Korean food, or Hansik, is the accumulation of Korean ancestors’ practical and living experience and wisdom.
 <="" font="">Visitors enter Unhyeongung Palace to enjoy the "Royal Court and Aristocratic Family Food Festival 2011."
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 Foreign visitors listen to the presentation on traditional Korean food. |
The event particularly touches on the 600-year history of Jongno-gu’s distinctive food culture as well as Korea’s traditional meal tables as consumed by royal families during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Exhibited dishes also demonstrate Korean ancestors’ wisdom and lifestyles.
Due to growing interest in healthy diets, royal health food is displayed to show several ways of preventing and curing disease with common daily dishes. In the old days, not to mention today as well, people say food is medicine. Visitors also enjoyed the birthday meal tables of Korea’s past kings, including King Yeongjo, and a royal food table prepared with products from all eight provinces of Korea.
 <="" font="">King Yeongjo's birthday table
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 Traditional wedding ceremony food and Korean sweets (tteok and cookies) for aristocrats |
There were exhibitions, hands-on activities and refreshment-tasting areas with other cultural events including concerts and lectures. Visitors took photos with mock-kings and queens and enjoyed playing Korean traditional folk games.
 Foreign visitors try to make tteok. |
 Kids pound rice with a large wooden hammer. |
Books are used to help demonstrate the meals, including Dongui Bogam, a book authored by Heo Jun (1539-1615) considered to be the most outstanding and comprehensive material on Korean traditional medicine, and Shikryochanyo, the first dietary book written by royal physician Jeon Sun-ui in 1460.
 The morning (left) and evening (right) refreshment tables with tea and snacks |
Meal tables show that former kings like Sejong, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, liked meat, and Gojong, the 26th king, enjoyed mild foods, preferring vegetables over meat. Moreover, there were tables for pregnant queens, nutritious meals for princes, and other healthy royal foods.
 The meal of King Sejong, the fourth King of the Joseon Dynasty: King Sejong enjoyed beef and pork very much. He became obese and eventually suffered from diabetes at the age of 35. His doctors advised him to have chicken, pheasant, and sheep instead. |
 Food for pregnant queens: pregnancy education means educating a newborn child. An old saying goes that if you want to have a handsome child, eat carp, and if you want to deliver a wise child, have abalone and before delivery, have shrimp and kelp. |
 Royal food table prepared with products from all eight provinces of Korea |
The event showed Korea’s food culture and diverse ingredients and recipes for traditional royal meals. Eugenia Bellova, the wife of the Slovakian ambassador to Korea, said “It was a great opportunity to promote Korean food as well as Korean people’s philosophy in food.”
By Cindy Ji-Eon Kim
Korea.net Staff Writer
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