Korean and Japanese foods, the remarkableness of each

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Nuran Sami Hassan Ibrahim

Each East Asian cuisine is distinct from its neighbor's cuisine. However, there's a slight similarity between two countries in two authentic dishes. One is Korea's most popular dish, gimbap rice rolls, which often gets confused with Japan's sushi by people who are still not well-versed in the cultures and culinary aspects of East Asia. Some people incorrectly refer to gimbap as "Korean sushi," but let's break down the differences to learn the uniqueness of each of these dishes.

To start with, gim in gimbap means "roasted or edible seaweed," as there are inedible types, too, such as bottlebrush seaweed. Bap means "cooked rice," or else a full "meal." This means that seaweed is an essential ingredient in gimbap. On the other hand, sushi's commonly mistaken for containing raw fish, when it shouldn't. The varieties of both may vary, but the traditional kind consists of specific ingredients. A standard gimbap rice roll contains seasoned vegetables, pickled radish, beef, fish cake and egg, whereas a traditional sushi roll contains only raw fish as the supplementary ingredient.

Gimbap rice rolls are loved by many people around the world. (The King Sejong Institute)

Both gimbap and sushi use white rice as the base, core ingredient, since it has the most convenient texture for these dishes. It is, however, noteworthy that gimbap rice is cooked with sesame oil, while sushi rice is cooked with vinegar. Some Korean chefs replace white rice with a healthier or more nutritious kind of rice, such as brown rice.

Gimbap is seasoned enough to be enjoyed individually. No dipping sauce is needed. On the contrary, traditional sushi is usually accompanied with soy sauce, wasabi and ginger. Both are wrapped in dry seaweed, but gimbap can be either plain or flavored, while sushi is only enjoyed plain.

There's a wide variety in terms of shape or type of these two dishes. There's chungmu gimbap and nude gimbap, as well as nigiri and maki sushi, to name just a few.

Chungmu or Choongmoo gimbap looks like the Arabic dish grape leaf wraps, except it's prepared only with rice on the inside, while grape leaf wraps are intensely-seasoned with tomato sauce and are usually stuffed with minced onion, dill and parsley. Chungmu gimbap is usually served with radish kimchi or marinated baby octopus. Regarding nude gimbap, it's basically the same as typical gimbap, but in a minimally reversed manner. As traditional gimbap is wrapped with seaweed, nude gimbap, on the contrary, comes with the seaweed on the inside and rice as the external layer, though the filling is the same.

Chungmu gimbap is also one of the most popular kinds of gimbap. (Korea.net DB)

Speaking of sushi's aforementioned types, nigiri sushi is made of delicately sliced, seared or raw fish over pressed rice with an absence of seaweed. On the other hand, maki sushi is wrapped in seaweed. Maki is any sushi wrapped or rolled in seaweed and, accordingly, has several subtypes, like futomaki, which comes in a thick texture, and ramaki which is an inside-out roll.

There are several kinds of Sushi you can enjoy. (Nuran Sami Hassan Ibrahim)

The thing about gimbap is that it's considered to be a street food and the go-to meal for busy people, especially students with crammed schedules. That's why it's pretty affordable, not just in Korea but in Korean restaurants around the world. Its simplicity makes it enjoyable, whether bitten like a sandwich or eaten with chopsticks. In contrast, sushi is perceived to be fancy and costly. Furthermore, it's routinely eaten by hand.

Apparently, Korea and Japan aren't the only two that share a similarity in such rice rolls. There are also Arabic dishes that look like gimbap, with slight differences in ingredients according to each country, weather and beliefs.

As is well known, seaweed, along with the other ingredients in both gimbap and sushi, are of great nutritional value. There are many types of each, and each of them is truly unique in terms of taste and cultural background.

wisdom117@korea.kr

Share this post