"Mudfish in Kimchi Jjigae?"... Government Agency Posted Fake Recipe After Receiving 10 Billion Won

"Kimchi Jjigae Ingredients, Live Mudfish"
Incorrect Information Listed... Corrected Only After Complaint
Netizens Say "Tax Money Is Leaking"

Photo unrelated to the article. Source=Pixabay

A government-affiliated organization promoting Korean cuisine overseas has sparked controversy by introducing kimchi as China's pao cai and presenting incorrect cooking methods.

According to an SBS report on the 1st, the Korea Food Promotion Institute's website provides recipes for various Korean dishes such as sikhye, tangpyeongchae, and japchae. The Korea Food Promotion Institute, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, was established to globalize Korean cuisine and receives over 10 billion won annually from the government budget.

However, the materials they published were full of incorrect information. The kimchi stew recipe listed ingredients such as "live loach," along with outer cabbage leaves and mung bean sprouts, and the Chinese name for kimchi was written as "pao cai." Additionally, the origin of tteokgalbi was explained as Gwangju in Gyeonggi Province instead of Gwangju Metropolitan City, and the materials contained many unsupported claims. Furthermore, during the process of translating Korean menu items into English, mussel soup was mistakenly labeled as skate soup, and sundae (Korean blood sausage) was incorrectly described as boiled beef head meat, leading to the recall and destruction of 80,000 copies of the already published booklet.

The Korea Food Promotion Institute conducts its own surveys annually, but it appears they failed to properly verify these errors. Despite the incorrect information being posted on the website for about 1 year and 4 months, it went unnoticed until most citizens discovered it and filed complaints, prompting corrections. In response, the institute stated, "We will strengthen internal monitoring," and corrected the errors such as those in the kimchi stew recipe.

Netizens who heard the news reacted with comments like "This is a waste of taxpayers' money," "Is it right for a government-affiliated organization to operate like this?" and "What is the purpose of this institution?"