Every November my grandmother filled a hundred ceramic jars with kimchi, and the whole house smelled of garlic and gochugaru for a week. I learned Korean food the way it is actually built: as a system. Rice, a stew, several small dishes; nothing in isolation. A week of dinners cooked from a fridge drawer of banchan.

Here I teach the foundations first (kimchi, doenjang, gochujang, ganjang) because they touch every other dish. I'll give you the dish in Korean and English, place it on the table where it belongs, and tell you what to eat it with tomorrow.