I also learned Kimchi is NOT really a genuine Korean invention/food either, like 죽.

Indeed, I learned this pickled vegetable, 김치 is a common staple of ‘preserved vegetable/food’

for the winter season, throughout entire Central Asia extended all the way to Anatolia- in Turkey,

they call their version as Turshu/Torshi, almost identical to 개성 백김치 and keep them through

the winter season in the earthen jar buried under the ground just like us!-. I still remember the best 백김치

I tasted while I was visiting Osh in the Fergana Valley of Kyrgyzstan in Year 2,000 October,

to watch the celebration of 3,000 year anniversary of the silk road. The taste was just perfect

with the right degree of sourness and also the crispiness better than Jewish pickle, I tell you.

BB Lee

In olden days, haven't we originated from Central Asia, dragging our feet easterly along the Altai Mountains,

passing through the Mongolian desert, and walked through Manchuria before settling in Han Peninsula?

So, naturally, the "kimchee and 죽" must have come together along with us.

Having gotten stuck in the blind sac of a peninsula, Koreans must have perfected the art of making the kimchee.

We got addicted to it and can not live without it.

Then, in the modern days, we crossed the Pacific and still eagerly eating the kimchee in America.

It's not just a coincidence that we are about to spread kimchee culture in the New World.

Doc, you could lead us in pioneering and passing our tradition into America.

Steve, you are right! Koreans share not only the language of Altaic origin but also common food culture with all the central Asian peoples.  Indeed, Korean wonton/만두 is another example sharing same commonality like 죽!

As a matter of fact, I thought the word/pronunciation of 만두/‘Mandu’ is pure Korean term all along since Chinese calls it wonton and Japanese calls it gyoza, in different names. But, I didn’t know it was wrong till I walked in to one Turkish restaurant located in Northern Virginia soon after I got the job up here in Washington DC back in 1978- it is the same restaurant where I had an eye-opening opportunity to learn about Turkish version 김치/turshu – to taste Turkish food for the first time.    

From the owner of the restaurant, Swiss-trained fantastic French cuisine chef, Mr. Nizam Özgür, I learned the term Mandu is being shared throughout Central Asia with minor modification of its pronunciation and they call Turkish 만두 to ‘Manti’. Indeed, this 만두/dumpling is very popular with a variety of the contents and dressing, while keeping very similar name to 만두: ‘manty, mantu or manta’ throughout Central Asia depending upon the geographic location.

And, ‘Manti’ is a type of dumpling popular in most Turkic cuisines, generally serving as an appetizer in the Turkish restaurants here in the U.S., and also ‘mantu’ is outstanding dumpling filled with beef or lamb mixed with minced onions and spices - the best of all different dumplings/mandu in the world!! - , many Afghani restaurants serve.

Indeed, ‘manti’ with yogurt base is one famous Bukharan cuisine of Jewish origin, I learned when I visited to Bukhara/Uzbekistan. I also tasted excellent ‘manty’, Kyrgyz version of  만두, while in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. And I am sure many of you already tasted famous ‘manta’, Uyghur version 만두, almost identical to ‘Kyrgyz  manty’ but serving with chili sauce on the side, while venturing famous Qianmen Food Streets at night, located next Tienanman Square, mile-long stalls, booths after booths, offering various Chinese cuisines and street foods, all the tourists stop over once who come to visit to Beijing together with Tienanman.

So, many say Turkish migration from the region between northern China and Manchuria - North Eastern corner of Manchuria next to Mongolia- all the way to Anatolia has brought this 만두 / dumpling culture throughout Central Asia, although the Mongol Empire stretched all the way to Eastern Europe from Manchuria through Central Asia would have helped to spread this dumpling, leaving similar name, I speculate.

However, in China, Korean 만두- equivalent ‘wonton’, stuffed with meat, is called to ‘baozi / bao’ and actually what they call as ‘mantou’ refers to plain steamed buns with no filling as you might  know. Indeed, the traditional Chinese mantou served as Chinese cuisine is called as Baozi/bao, which is a type of ‘filled bun’/dumpling with various fillings and preparations.

So, I tell you I certainly was able to enjoy all the ethnic foods more when I happened to know about their historical (?) background and such curiosity opened the door to discover another fantastic foods like Polish sausage-based cuisine I enjoyed enormously.

All the best,

BB Lee

P.S. For the colleagues who are not familiar with the linguistic background of Asian ethnic languages, I would like to point out that Korean and Mongolian languages belong to one side of Uralic-Altaic linguistic family while the Hungarians and Finns belong to other/ Finno-Ugric side, opposite side, although they all belong to SOV (Subject, Object, Verb) languages. And, Turkish language is placed into the middle of this diagram - I confess I got this shaky knowledge through one semester I took as the summer class in early ’80 as free, taking advantage on my tenure at Georgetown U before I joined to Hopkins clan-. But I recall some linguists (one Korean linguist?) claims Turkic and Korean language share same sub-branch based on similar phonology and morphology between Turkic and Old Korean language. Indeed, while I visited to Ankara, Turkey, one old professor of Ankara U, who happened to have come to Korea during Korean War as a Turkish soldier, told me that there are many cognates between two languages especially on the words expressing the nature, earth like sky and stars, etc so that these cognates are very helpful to reconstruct the early Turkic language. Further, I learned the second most popular foreign language after English among their graduate school students is Korean language because of same grammar/syntax to let Turkish learn easily within a few days.