Is that MOLD?????????????????

I am pretty daring. I'll try *nearly* anything....

My friend brought me some persimmons a while back. They were dried in the sun and were being sold in the streets and on trucks driving around the neighborhood. I bought some from the passing truck... They were good. No problem. I asked what the 'white stuff' on the outside is to my Korean friends Noone could really give me an answer but I had this nagging doubt that it was mold. For real. (I was actually thinking powdered sugar but it wasnt sweet) You can buy it with little specks or all over the dried persimmon. When I saw another friend (who was more fluent in English) I asked him and he confirmed me fear. Yupper... it is mold. You are probably looking at these pics wondering how in the world I CANNOT KNOW THAT IT ISN'T MOLD? Am I in denial or what??? Actually they are pretty good!

Typical Lunch

The place around the corner delivers food on a scooter. I call them on the phone and tell them the American PW wants Ohm Rice and they deliver it ten minutes later with a knock on the door. Comes with Egg Drop soup, black bean paste and where in the world is the Kimchi???

KimBab

I love Kimbab! There are many variations but the most common ingredients are pickled daikon radish, carrot, egg scrambled and cut into long strips, ham, and a korean green vegetable that I can't remember the name of! The soup is anchovy soup. They boil dried anchovies, making a broth and top it with fresh green onions. It is delicious- especially on a winters day!

They do not call it sushi here. It is specifically called Kimbab. If you call it by the Japanese name you most likely will offend someone. The Japanese ruled Korea for from 1910 to 1945 and feelings run deep.

Chap Ssal Dok

Yummy- Today I bought some Chap Ssal Dok from a street vendor. You can hear him on a loudspeaker as he walks from one end of the busy street to the other selling the rice cakes. They are so delicious. They are very sticky and very gummy. Most Foreigners either love them or hate em- I love them especially when they are fresh and soft. My husband hates them and will not even TRY one! ??? In the center there is a bit of bean paste and they are rolled in confectionary sugar. Mmmmmmm... nice and gooey. Want to try one? =)

Chinese Food in Korea and FALL is here

Last Friday we went to eat Chinese at a new restaurant in Waegwan and it still had that unmistakeable Korean feel to it. =)



Fall is here... the leaves are turning and a definite chill is in the air. See the hummer in the background? This was taken on camp as soon as you walk in the gate.


And right outside the gate. It isn't as picturesque as the spring when the trees are blossoming but still worthy of a pic.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I know- I know! This isn't a recipe blog! But I tried this recently and it was so good that I wanted to share it! This definitely is NOT diet food! =)

Batter
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup cold water

2-3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts or Thighs
salt
Oil for frying

Sweet and Sour Sauce
half a can of canned pineapple drained- save juice- cut in bite size pieces
3/4 cup of pineapple juice from drained pineapple (add water if neccesary)
2 T rice vinegar or ordinary white vinegar
3 T Catsup
2/3 cup white sugar
Vegetables such as carrots, red pepper, green pepper, zucchini, sliced onion all washed and sliced. The more colorful the nicer it looks!

Cut chicken into bite size pieces and sprinkle with salt.

Sauce- Put juice, vinegar, sugar and ketchup in Saucepan and stir till combined. Heat till boiling. Add a bit of cold water to cornstarch until you can stir it and add to saucepan. Stir till thickened. Add vegetables and turn off heat. Your vegetables will cook in the sauce and not be too soggy and wilted. They will be crispy and perfect.

Mix Batter ingredients and dip chicken in batter then deep fry in oil. Fry till golden brown.

Arrange cooked rice on a platter and top with pork. Pour sweet and sour sauce and serve hot immediately.

Yummy!

I have to mention that Thai Rice is the best kind! It really has a great flavor. If you try this let me know how you like it.

Obee Olee???

I know I know! We are supposed to be moving! And we are. There is only so much moving I can do before I can be exhausted! I am off to bed in just a sec...

Tonight, we asked Mr Lee and a few other if they wanted to come over and have some ravioli with us. Mr Lee had asked the other Korean folk if they wanted to come over to (using it as a verb) obee olee.

It was hilarious! When I finally figured it out- what he was saying- I was in a fit of laughter. And so was he! =)

McDonald's in Taegu

Recently we went to the McDonald's in Taegu. ( I love McDonald's fries when they are hot!) It is kind of funny when you see McDonald's in a foreign country. They are prevalent around the world, aren't they??? They have the ordinary Mickey D's fare except they do not serve Quarter Pounders with Cheese! I think because they are too large. and most of the meals are smaller sized. They also have Korean style burgers such as bulgogi burgers. and shrimp burgers.

Korean is very east to read. It is phonetical- each symbol- is a sound. Read from left to right- this phrase says - joon bee dayt na yo, meaning ' Are you ready?'
This is hilarious. Koreans have many English Words that they use and this says literally- Big Tasty. The Korean pronunciation adds some vowel sounds and it sounds like beeg tay ee suh tee. The smaller print on the top (to the right of new) says 'premium burger' pronounced in Korean as puh ree mee ohm buh guh. Below that it is saying that it is 100 percent beef yadda yadda.

All GONE! =) And it was YUMMY too!

Baskin Robbins

Some adverisements in the store...











Friday evening after Galbi, we went to the Baskin Robbins in Waegwan. They have such great ice cream- especially on a hot summer's day! Upon entering the store, I saw two monks- a man and a woman- eating ice cream with a child and her mother presumably. I assume they were family. They were eating from a bowl with balls of ice cream fondue style where you dip the fruit and ice cream in the melted chocolate in the center bowl. Looked good- and I thought how I would like to try that one day. After they left, I looked at the plate/bowl combo they had left on the table- and the unfinished 'dippers'- and I realized that there were tomatoes amidst the bananas! Tomatoes? Yes, tomatoes! Puts tomatoes in a whole new perspective. They, after all, are a fruit! =)

Galbi!

We usually go out to eat on Friday nights and eat Galbi downtown. Yummy! Delicious! I think this is one of the best meals in the entire universe and there is no hint of sarcasm!

The restaurant is a traditional Korean restaurant where you sit on the floor next to a low table that has a grill in the center. After taking your order, they bring a container of hot charcoal and place it in the center of the grill to cook your meat on. On top of this is a metal grate..

The salad (in bowl with chopsticks) is a vinegar/sesame concoction and is the first thing to be served. The rice is served in the small silver bowl- each serving is about a cupful. The meat is in the bowl to the left of the grill and is in a marinade of soy sauce, garlic and possibly vinegar? (not sure and would love to know!) In all of the other bowls there are side dishes such as kimchee, pickled radish, sesame oil, samjang sauce, and soy sauce. The meat is in thin long slices and you place it on the grill to cook. By the way, that is my husband doing the cooking...

They also bring you denjang chigae (in the brown clay bowl) which is soup that is flavored with a fermented paste called denjang. It has green peppers, potato, and cubes of tofu in it. They cook it fresh for you and each serving is cooked in the same clay bowl it is brought to you in . When it comes to the table it is still boiling. They also bring you a huge plate stacked high with lettuce, carrots, korean green peppers, onions,cucumbers and peeled garlic cloves.

We Americans get sidelong glances because we put carrots, onion and cucumber in our meat when we cook it. Normally- and we do both- you would eat the cucumbers by dipping it into the sesame oil or samjang. To cook the food you are given a pair of scissors and a pair of tongs. When the meat is cooked you cut it into bite size pieces.

Now comes the eating part! =) Take some denjang, and put it on the lettuce leaf

Top it with side dishes of your choice, some rice, a piece of meat and roll it up in the lettuce like a mini burrito.

And just like eating tortillas and eggs WITH YOUR HANDS, eating galbi has to be done WITH YOUR HANDS! It just woudn't taste the same with a fork, knive, or any other utensil. =)

Jun!

Yummy- another cooking class this Monday and it was delicious once again! We made jun, which is an appetizer of various kinds -Korean style.

Sesame seed leaves were the wrapper and filled with a meat/garlic/tofu mixture dipped in flour, egg and fried. Stuffed Mushroom, peppers with filling, shrimp and lotus root were also fried. I had never tried lotus root before, and it has a similarity to deep fried sweet potato, except it is much more starchy. We made a dip that was part soy sauce, a bit of vinegar and a bit of sesame oil.

I think my husband is right. He says I should go to the Korean embassy in Taegu and get a Korean citizenship. I think I belong here! =)

Bibimbap and Denjang Chigae

=

Ahhh... Yesterday I went to the the Waegwan Cultural Center for the Monday Korean cooking class. I dont think I will share a recipe this time, as it is far more time consuming then the chicken recipe I previously shared.

Bibimbap is a mound of rice in a bowl topped with various Korean vegetables, (some of which I have never heard of but I have been eating all along...) zuchinni, sliced egg, and topped with a small bit of chopped beef sauteed in garlic and gochujang. To eat it, you stir it all up together and eat it with a spoon, Some variations are topped with an easy over egg. Yummy! The first time I was here in Korea about ten years ago I didn't take a fancy to many Korean foods. I really didnt like Kimchee, bibimbap or many foods. Over the last ten years, I dont know what happened!!! Maybe my taste buds did a 180! I love Kimchi, bibimbap, seaweed, among many other Korean foods! They make my mouth water!

We also made a soup called Denjang Chigae. This is one of my favorite soups in Korea. It is basically soybean paste (Denjang) with dried shrimp, dried anchovy, tofu and usually a smattering of fresh green onion on top of it. Yummy!

The flowers and rice field pic was taken on my way to the class.

Ddak Galbi

Yesterday I went to a cooking class at the Waegwan Cultural Center. We learned how to make Ddak Galbi which is a spicy Korean Chicken and is absolutely delicious!

Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try making it. You might have to buy things at a specialty Korean store.

Korean DDak Galbi

Ingredients:

Chicken- 300 grams boneless with skin on or off your preference
5 green onion stalks
Garlic- 2 cloves
Sweet Potato- ¼ peeled and sliced
About 7 Sesame Leaves

Sauce Ingredients:
Pear- Half of a large Korean pear, peeled
Onion- small one
Ginger- thumb pieced size
3 TBSP soy sauce
1 TBSP corn syrup (called Mul Yot- (long O) in Korean) it is not as sweet as American corn syrup. If you use ordinary corn syrup I would cut down on the sugar called for in this recipe
1 TBSP Gochu Jang (Korean Chili Paste)
1 TBSP Goch Garu (Korean Chili Powder)
1 TBSP 7 up or other soda
½ TBSP sesame oil
½ TBSP ground sesame powder (found in Korean stores but I suppose you could do this yourself)
1 TBSP sesame seeds

Wash Chicken and Veggies. Slice Chicken into bite size pieces. Cut Sweet Potatoe into long pieces. Cut Sesame leaves in half then in thirds.

Sauce directions-
Using a grater and saving the juice, grate, pear, onion and ginger. Save as much of the juice as possible. You might have to press it with your hand.
To the pear juice add the sugar, corn syrup, garlic, gochujang, gochugaru, garlic, green onions, 7 up, sesame oil and sesame seed. Stir well.

Add the sauce to the chicken and place in wok style pot. Add sweet potatoes and sesame leaves. Cook until chicken is done under high heat until some of liquid evaporates and cooks down, making sure sweet potatoes are cooked. Mix in sesame seeds.

Lay mint leaves on plate with edges pointing out and pour chicken on top. Looks lovely.

Serve with Rice, lettuce leaves(not iceberg-) , samjang sauce, kimchi. (Take a piece of lettuce and place some samjang sauce on the leaf, some chicken on top of that some rice and roll up.

MMmmm Delicious.