Other than what they've picked up by watching "M*A*S*H" or from a relative or family friend who served in the protracted Korean War, Americans know very little about the eastern Asian peninsula bordered by the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.

Korea was an independent kingdom for much of the past millennium. Following its victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan occupied Korea; five years later it formally annexed the entire peninsula.

After World War II, a republic was set up in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula while a Communist-style government was installed in the north. During the Korean War (1950-53), U.S. and other United Nations forces intervened to defend South Korea from North Korean attacks supported by the Chinese. An armistice was signed in 1953, splitting the peninsula along a demilitarized zone at about the 38th parallel.

Thereafter, South Korea achieved rapid economic growth with per capita income rising to roughly 14 times the level of North Korea. In 1993, Kim Yo'ng-sam became South Korea's first civilian president following 32 years of military rule. South Korea today is a fully functioning modern democracy. In June 2000, a historic first North-South summit took place between the South's President Kim Tae-chung and the North's leader Kim Jong Il. North Korea has been in the news of late as international leaders attempted to persuade its leaders not to develop nuclear weapons.

What Koreans eat

As the populace came under the rule of imperial dynasties in the distant past, Korean cooking has a distinct national identity that, in its contemporary form, combines dishes and techniques from both peasant diets and royal palace foods.

As South Korea is a peninsula surrounded, for the most part, by water, seafood, along with rice, is a staple of the diet. Markets overflow with fish, shrimp, crabs, clams, oysters, squid and octopus, which are eaten dried, pickled, crushed into paste or sauce, stewed, steamed and grilled.

As in Japan, rice, pickles and fish are dietary basics. Food is flavored with various combinations of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, dried anchovies and one of the many delicious spice pastes that Koreans build from a base of fermented soy beans. Koreans also eat meat -- northerners eat more pork, while southerners prefer beef.

Koreans eat a medium-grain "sticky" rice which is also common in Japan. Unlike the crops grown in Korea's tropical neighbors to the south, these grains and rices are more amenable to the colder weather, longer days, and shorter growing season of Korea. Both grain and rice are often made into noodles, which play a central role in Korean cooking. Soups, which come in great variety, are often noodle-based, and buckwheat noodles are distinctively local.

Korean food in Napa

A considerable amount of Korean cooking is done in a clay stewing pot, notes Peter Pahk, executive chef at Silverado Resort. Raised in Honolulu of Korean parentage, Pahk says that the clay pot stews might combine fish or meat with potatoes, both sweet and white, along with eggplant, seaweed, fiddlehead ferns or tofu. The wok is also common in Korean cookery.

Meals are served family style, Pahk points out. For example, the dinner is built around a mound of plain, steamed rice, which is eaten with thin chopsticks. A grilled or stir-fried main course is supplemented by a soup and perhaps a salad, along with an array of sauces, pickles, and other condiments.

Kimchi is the most famous of these, Pahk said the other evening as he presided over one of his non-traditional Wednesday night dinners in the Grill at Silverado.

Kimchi is the name given to any one of hundreds of spicy pickles. It is a part of nearly every meal, and its production is an ancient and revered art.

"The most famous kind of kimchi is made with napa cabbage, but Koreans make it from whatever you can pickle -- turnips, radishes, cucumber, mustard greens, eggplant, fish, squid, even fruit -- the list is endless," says Pahk. "The vegetables or fish is pickled in a mixture that could include, among other things, coarse salt, chile, ginger, garlic, fish sauce and water. Everything is sealed into an earthenware pot or jar to ferment until ready to eat."

Pahk says Korean food is often extremely spicy, for in the 16th century, Korean cooks were seduced by the chile, which the Portuguese introduced.

"Our dishes go from the sublime -- bean sprouts and spinach or seaweed -- to bold and spicy -- like the kimchi with oysters that I am serving tonight."

Pahk also refers to Korean barbecue and (kalbi) and a marinated steak (pulgogi) that is a favorite in Korean households.

The Silverado chef and his culinary team are presenting specialities of Korean cookery at Wednesday dinner during the month of March.

Diners at the Grill for the next two Wednesdays will be Korean seaweed soup (miyok kuk) steamed and pan-fried Korean dumplings (mandu) served with a chile soy dipping sauce, and then have the option of selecting one of three main courses -- Korean grilled beef (pulgogi) served with fiddlehead ferns and steamed rice, Korean style oxtail soup and Korean noodles topped with assorted meats and vegetables (pi bim kiksu). Assorted vegetables, or namul, and kimchi accompany the meal. Dessert is the uniquely flavored green tea ice cream. Cost of the Korean dinner is $35 per person.

Chef Pahk said the Korean dinner has proven popular with diners and he will feature it again later this year. Japanese cuisine was popular as well on an earlier Wednesday night agenda. Pahk plans to reprise Japanese cookery in April.

Served from 5:30 p.m., dinner reservations can be made by calling the Grill at 257-5400. The Korean dinner is served along with the regular Grill menu.

Pahk is providing Register readers with recipes for the miso soup with miyuk and the pulgogi. Korean ingredients can be found at Kim's Oriental Market in Fairfield (590 Parker Road, 437-3878), including the special seaweed "which is so nutritious that in Korean it is prescribed as part of the diet for pregnant women," says Pahk.