The purpose of this study is to investigate how western people in the Korean of the time of enlightenment saw Korean culture of food and how the archetype Korean culture is deducted through others' view.
Western people in the time of enlightenment visited Korea with various purposes, recording their experiences. Their descriptions on Korean food culture may serve as a standard to see the Korean people because those are from direct experience through five senses.
The images of Korean food culture that the western people intensely felt are expressed as abundant size of meals, drinking binge, vegetable diet without meat, and pungent smells.
These views are of orientalism and contain underestimation of Korea, but share views that see Korea with purity from the aspect of interculturalism, a view that resulted not only from direct experience on Korean food but from superficial experience, as well as affection on Korea.
The point of view of these others on Korean culture of food was critically accepted through personal experiences one century after, continuing by being received as a model of well-being food and being modified to be another aspect. This changes is the result not from superficial view on Korean food that had been simply accepted but from the awareness on the archetype called "sik-yak-dong-won," a concept that food and medicine are identical.
(Dankook Univ. Institute of Oriental Studies)