Korean Palace Food

            Away from home, one thing I miss the most is home made Korean food. A lot of present day Korean food originally came from the royal court during pre-modern Korea.  Although special foods was only given to the royal court, influence of the royal court customs extended beyond the palace to non-royals during the Choson era. In the Choson era, the government made legal measures that prohibited marriage among those with the same surname and clan seat, which gave the royal family no choice but to marry outside of the royal family and marry those of the yangban status group. As yangban families attended the royal weddings and banquets, they adopted the wedding foods and serving customs from the royal palace. From these yangban families, the food culture was then passed down to other stats groups. What once was exclusive to the royal palace was transferred to other status groups. Some of the following were present in a typical royal meal. 

Yuk hoe, raw, seasoned beef

P'yonyuk, boiled, thinly sliced meat

T'angp'yongch'ae

       It is evident that food was very significant at the royal palace during the Choson and Koryo eras. Besides the official posts charged with overseeing the procedure, preparation, and serving of food, there were hundreds of servants doing the actual tasks of making and serving the food. Groups of usually female servants were put on specific tasks, such as preparation for liquor, tofu, tea, and ttok (rice cakes). This system was even made in the legal codes of Choson. These female workers of the royal palace are rare examples of female government workers in pre-modern Korea. These women were from lowborn families and came into the palace at a very young age and served an apprenticeship under senior women until the time of their coming- of-age ceremony, where they would be given an official rank and position. These women were also not allowed to get married unless granted permission by the king and they usually spent their whole life as a servant to the royal palace. The dedication of hundreds of these women really shows how important food was in pre-modern Korea.  

The following is one of my favorite kind of ttok.

Injolmi, rice cakes made with glutinous rice