BY WENDELL BROCK

Read this cookbook: "Cook Korean! A Comic Book With Recipes." By Robin Ha. (Ten Speed Press, $19.99).

  Robin Ha has done a huge favor for anyone intimidated by the exotic ingredients and techniques of Korean cuisine. She's created a comic book that lays out the fundamentals of kimchi, bibimbap and Korean barbecue in the form of recipe-cartoons.

One of the most delightful cookbooks I’ve seen all year, “Cook Korean!” makes me want to drive to Buford Highway and fill a buggy with soybean paste, dried anchovies, green onions and tofu.

Heck, I might even use it as a crib sheet the next time I visit a Korean restaurant. Dengki — Ha's cartoon alter ego and recipe narrator, a pert young woman in a traditional dress called a hanbok — is likely to have the answers to my every Korean conundrum. I can tell you now she's much handier than Siri.

Don’t let the happy-faced daikon radishes and dancing shrimp fool you: “Cook Korean!” is as useful as it is cute.

How come I’ve never pan-fried tofu or fermented green-onion kimchi? The seafood and green onion pancake calls for just six ingredients, most of which I have on hand.

The expression on Dengki’s face alone (marvelous!) is enough to make me want to mix up a batch of Watermelon Soju next time I have a party. A frothy chilled cocktail of watermelon, soju (Korean rice liquor) and Sprite, served in a punch bowl made from half a watermelon rind, it’s a brilliant summer thirst-buster.

Quick! How do you say “cheers” in Korean?

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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