Greetings from Korea!

We are safe and sound in Korea. All the family here has been intent on feeding us until we pop. But all we've been craving is street food. =P

It feels good to be home.

We're back from Korea!

It feels SO good to be home.

I ate and tasted so many new foods. There are many things I want to try and copy! =P Stay tuned for some new recipes.

I'm going to attempt to replicate some of the great dishes we ate while in the motherland.



I think I'll start by trying to make THIS.

Momeel gooksoo + dongchimi gookmool = heaven on a chopstick!

Mook

I suppose it's another one of those late nights...

While in Korea, we enjoyed mook everywhere we went. Eating mook at various restaurants in various forms totally made me reminisce my childhood.

My parents were always hard workers, so my lil bro and I were often left in the care of a "halmoni". One of the halmonis I remember the most was the one who would pick up acorns on the street. She, my brother and I would make a game of collecting the tiny acorns on the sidewalk leading up to my lil bro's preschool. Halmoni would bring a plastic bag with her on the walk and would encourage us to collect as many as we could.

She would then bring home those acorns, painstakingly take them out of their tough exterior and then grind them down into a fine powder. Somehow she would take that fine powder and make mook out of it.

I used to call it Korean jello.

I don't know how she did it, for I never bothered paying much attention at the age of ten...but it's one thing I'm dying to figure out in the next few weeks.



I shall keep you updated! This WILL be my next conquest in the kitchen. =P And NO, I will not be grinding my own acorns. I hear they sell powdered acorn...

Momil Gooksoo in Soba Sauce

HELLOOOO! Is anyone still out there? I know I've been a really bad blogger and haven't had an update of substance in a long time. In fact, I feel kinda guilty coming back today since this post will also be a *non-recipe* of sorts. Anything not made from scratch, doesn't constitute as a *real* recipe to me.

But I digress...

I'm not sure if you've noticed yet, but I really like NOODLES. I actually *LOVE* ramyun, but after being sick I try not to eat it often. Anyhow, whenever I get a late afternoon noodle kick and I'm at home - instead of making ramyun, I try and make this instead. It's a bit healthier and it satisfies my noodle fixation pretty well.



Buckwheat soba noodles. =P



Boil them according to the instructions - probably about 10-12 minutes or so.



Meanwhile, go and grab this! It's in the sauce section of almost every Korean market (or Japanese market). I love this particular brand.



Rinse your noodles and if you have some ice in your freezer (I didn't!) then throw them in there to get the noodles nice a cold.



Grab a grater and start grating some moo (or horseradish as it's called in English). Grate as much as you want! I pretty much used up that whole piece right there.



Then get some wasabi paste and squeeze in as much as you can handle.

Side note: one my my greatest fears going through radiation was being told that I may not be able to eat spicy foods anymore. YIKES. I *LOVE* spicy foods (I'm talking Thai spicy!) and while undergoing radiation, even some of the mildest spices bore a hole in my mouth. Well, I'm happy to say that one year after radiation my tolerance for spicy foods is exactly where it used to be. =) Although I do try and refrain from extra spicyness for my health, I *can* tolerate it and just knowing I can if I wanted to is satisfying.



Throw in some green onions and you have this pretty little concoction!



Pour some of the soba sauce straight in and you're almost done.



Sprinkle some crushed seaweed (or Furakaike if you're lazy like me) on top of the noodles.



And then dip some of the noodles in the sauce (after making sure to thoroughly mix it up! you do NOT want to accidentally eat a lump of wasabi like I did earlier today. =P) and start slurping!



A nice alternative to eating ramyun on a lazy day like today! Hope you enjoy. I promise to be back with a semi-real recipe sooner or later. Would you believe I've become incredibly lazy!?

What can you make with the leftover momil gooksoo?

Ojinguh Bokeum Version 2.0 - Squid Stir Fry - (오징어 볶음)

Both the MR and Munchkin *LOVE* squid. When we go to a Chinese restaurant, Munchin is not like other kids. He doesn't ask for jja-jang-myun at all and will instead ask for jjam-bbong AKA the noodles with ojinguh. =P

We took advantage of the long weekend and headed out to Santa Monica Beach yesterday. We acted like total tourists and rented bicycles and zipped up and down the beach. If you haven't done this with your child yet, you must!

Munchkin had a blast! Next time, we will take his bike with us though since the rental was kinda old and rickety. I kept thinking that the training wheels were going to fall off any second. hehe.

Anyhow, after our day at the beach we headed to K-town to stock up on groceries.



They had *gook-san* squid so I bought 3! Two for the ojinguh bokeum and one for the ojinguh gook.



Start off by gutting your squids and on the stove bring a large pot of water to a boil.



While the water is boiling, get your veggies ready. I used 1/2 onion, 1/2 carrot, 1/2 squash, 5 mushrooms, 1 red pepper, and 1 green pepper.



Once the water is boiling, throw in all the ojinguhs in there and just sift it around flipping it over and making sure it's almost all done.



Rinse all the squid under cool water and then start cleaning it.



I like to take off all the skin and I will also cut off all the ends of the tentacles and take off all the suction thingies. Grossed out yet? ;)



After it's all cleaned, cut it up into pieces using a knife and cutting board.



In a little bowl mix together the following: 3TB of red pepper paste, 2TB red pepper powder, 1TB minced garlic, 1TB corn syrup, 1 TB cooking wine, 1TB honey powder, 3TB sugar, 2TB gook ganjang, 1TB soy sauce, 1 TB sesame seeds, 1 TB sesame oil and a dash of pepper.

Whew! That seems like a lot of stuff, huh?



I defrosted some dduk as well!



Get your skillet ready. Splash some oil and add a tablespoon of minced garlic.

Saute all the veggies except the mushrooms first.



Throw in about half the sauce and keep mixing!



After the veggies look about half done...



Throw in the squid (I used roughly 2 squids), the dduk, and mushrooms.



Add in the remaining sauce and keep mixing!



Throw in some green onions...



Get everything thoroughly mixed and cook it together for about 5-10 minutes.



And you're ready to serve!



Munchkin can normally eat this as is, but the new gochujang is a bit spicy so he takes a bowl of water and washes it off himself as he eats. Yes, there is no denying that my kid is Korean. =)

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! Don't forget to take a moment and give tribute to all the soldiers who gave up their lives for us.

Rolled Egg – (계란 말이)

I’m currently in the midst of using new publishing software to make posting on this blog a bit easier. I’m a bit comp-illiterate so trying to figure out how to use a new platform is quite time consuming. You might see a lot of posts coming up and down over the next few weeks while I try and get everything sorted out. =P Please bear with me.

Anyhow, over the weekend we dropped by K-Town to stock up on some groceries.

We usually head out to either Galleria Market or Assi Market but this time we went to HK Market & Gaju Market because the line heading into the Galleria was insane! Both HK and Gaju were subpar IMO compared to the former two. The reason I went to two different markets was because the quality of meats was so bad at Gaju Market that I couldn’t get myself to buy it. Yes, I’m a bit picky when it comes to meat.

When we got home, I went through the fridge and discovered that I had some eggs that were set to expire, so I decided to use them all up!

Ingredients Needed:

• 3 Eggs
• 1/4 CUP milk
• 1/4 CUP onions, 1/4 CUP green onions, 1/4 CUP mushrooms, 1/4 ham
• dash of salt and pepper and some cooking spray

First, go and crack 3 eggs into a large bowl.

Then chop up about 1/4 cup each of mushrooms and onions.

Add those along with some green onions into the bowl of eggs…

I bought some Korean sausage/ham at the K-market and chopped up about 1/2 CUP of that up as well.

Add the sausage to the mixture and splash a little milk into it. Mix everything up very well!

Take some PAM and grease your pan with it.

Pour about HALF the mixture into the pan. I made two rolls with this! Once again, the *key* is MEDIUM-LOW heat. You want the egg to gradually cook without burning. Let some time pass, about 6-7 minutes…

When the egg is nice and firm, it’s much easier to flip it over like this.

Keep going and flip once more. If you mess up, just pour a little egg mixture into the pan and keep going.

Flip it over all the way and let it cook a little so the insides can get done.

Voila! All flipped and ready to be cut. Let it cool for a few minutes before attempting to cut it.

Cut it up into pieces and squeeze some ketchup on top. Obviously I forgot to take a picture with the ketchup on top. =P They also sell a pan at Korean stores made specifically for egg flipping. I plan on picking one up sometime soon. I will share the results~

You are now ready to enjoy! Both the MR and Munchkin gobbled this all up and I ended up making this again the next day!