While conducting my research, the Korean Restaurant Guide website (http://www.koreanrestaurantguide.com/recipes/recipe_0.htm) and Maangchi (http://www.maangchi.com/) were two websites that kept coming up again and again. Of course, there are countless other Korean recipe websites, but many of these resemble either the Korean Restaurant Guide website or Maangchi. Consequently, I decided to evaluate these two as my major sources of competition. The Korean Restaurant Guide website provides an extensive list of recipes for many Korean dishes. They are well organized with English translations next to the name of the dish. However, unlike my website, which is multimedia, this website lacks videos or links to videos. It simply states the recipe. The Korean Restaurant Guide website also has short descriptions of various Korean foods. But it doesn't provide direct links to the recipes from the description pages as my website does. This would make it much easier for readers to access the recipe if they were tempted by the dish description. The Korean Restaurant Guide website also has a webpage devoted to descibing kimchi (everything from its history to its ingredients) as well as a discussion of the health benefits of a few Korean foods. Perhaps I could add more to my website concerning the health aspects of Korean cooking. Overall, the Korean Restaurant Guide website fails to give a beginner's guide to Korean cooking: its recipe list is too long, overwhelming the reader. Also, this website is highly impersonal and doesn't provide a way for readers to give their feedback on recipes. My website remedies these problems by featuring a recipe review/ratings system for readers to give their input on recipes and a "Memories of Korean Cooking" section. Maangchi is a multimedia website created by a Korean cook. This website came up quite often as I was conducting my research to create Beyond Kimchi. Emphasizing practical Korean cooking at home, Maangchi features videos and written recipes as my website does. However, some recipes are inconvenient because they list ingredients in grams or use vague amounts (such as "one package"). Also, although Maangchi is interactive in that it is multimedia, it is also confusing to navigate. It lacks a convenient sidebar as my website does, forcing the reader to blindly click through webpages and jump from one recipe to another. In addition, Maangchi does not provide descriptions of the dishes, making the website less attractive to cooks who are completely unfamiliar with Korean cuisine. One thing that I especially liked about Maangchi though is its blog. Hopefully, my rating/reviews section below each recipe will function as a type of blog for readers to share their thoughts, tips, and advice on the recipes. Finally, my website is inherently unique because it features a "Memories of Korean Cooking" page, which gives my website a more personal touch. In taking a broader scope of sources of competition, other ethnic food sites, such as the Indian food website Manjula's Kitchen (http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/), targets a similar group of people as my website does: those who are interested in trying new ethnic food, whether it is Korean or Indian. To attract these adventurous cooks, my website works to convince readers that Korean food is not only delicious but also easy. These two themes (flavor and user-friendliness) is emphasized throughout my website. From providing videos and convenient units to displaying appetizing pictures, Beyond Kimchi tries to entice readers into learning more about Korean food and exploring the various dishes within Korean cuisine. The fact that I emphasize simplicity without losing the inherently unique flavors of Korean food will help my website compete against other ethnic food websites. Back to Assignments or Home. Grace Kim 27 May 2009 |