Cooking in Korea

Here's a delicious meal Steve and I prepared in Korea. Korean-style soup, fried rice, salad, and garlic bread.

Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, blackberry vinaigrette, and olive oil. The blackberry vinaigrette was very sweet so we added some apple cider vinegar to give it a kick.


Stir-frying veggies before adding the rice. Onions, garlic, Korean melon (like zucchini), mushrooms, green chili peppers, cherry tomatoes, and danmoji (Korean pickled radish).

Added the rice and a little soy sauce. We don't have a rice cooker so we buy the pre-cooked, microwaveable rice. It's still yummy!

Korean-style soup. Made with all the veggies in the fried rice, plus chung guk jung (fermented soy beans) and spicy sundubu jigae stock (can be bought at any market, comes in a pouch).

We also had garlic bread. We bought bread from a bakery and added olive oil and garlic, then put it in the microwave for about 25 seconds.

I really liked that everything in this dinner could be thrown together and still taste delicious. Yum! And this all couldn't have been as good without the delicious Sriracha Hot Sauce sent from the U.S. by Randy. Thanks!

Wow. I saw this comic today and I laughed out loud. It's so true! Most bathrooms in Korea have no bathtubs. As you can see below, both of our bathrooms, in good Korean fashion, simply have the shower head connected to the sink faucet. Not even a shower curtain! Since Steve and I have moved into our new apartment we have forgotten to switch the water faucet back to "sink mode" several times. So when Steve walks into the bathroom and gives a hearty yell, I giggle and hide my guilty face.

Korean Culinary Creation: Tteokbokki (떡 볶이)

Tteokbokki is a popular street food in Korea. It consists of chewy rice cakes and fish cakes in a spicy sauce. Might sound weird, but give it a try!

Ingredients:
1 bag of rice cakes (tteok)
4 tbls. of red pepper paste (gochujang)
2-3 Fish cakes (odeng)
2 tbls. Soy Sauce
3 cups water
2-3 tbls. sugar
2 handfuls of cabbage* (shredded)
2 handfuls of onion* (coarsely chopped)
2-3 green chili peppers* (chopped)
2-3 cloves of garlic*
*You can use any veggies in this, but I've found that the ones here work and suit my tastes well

Step 1: Soak the rice cakes in water for 20 minutes.
(Note: I have skipped this step in the past and it turned out fine)









Step 2: Put water and soy sauce in a skillet on medium heat.












Step 3: Add the red pepper paste and sugar to the skillet.


















Step 4: Cut the fish cakes into strips (any size you prefer).






























Step 5: Add the fish cake strips to the skillet.









Step 6: Add the veggies!






























Step 7: Add the ramen noodles, if you choose to. (Note: adding the noodles will change the name of this dish to "Rabokki" (라볶이, Ramen + Tteokbokki)









Step 8: Let the ingredients simmer until there is little or no water left.









Step 9: Serve and enjoy!