nanoomi

Fusion foods are nothing new, but when I saw a large banner in my town for a Japanese/Korean fusion dish, I knew I had to give it a try! This is a blend of the Japanese hot pot shabu-shabu and the Korean knife-cut noodles. Is it a match made in heaven? Find out!

Learn more here: http://wp.me/p1hnjj-1t0

-= WEB SITES =-
The Travel Channel: http://youtube.com/qiranger
The Vlog Channel: http://youtube.com/theqirangervlog
Podcast: http://tinyurl.com/tqrap

I was out and about on my day in Seoul and I found this:

Coffee Gum? Really? Watch the video to see what I think about it!

-= WEB SITES =-
The Travel Channel: http://youtube.com/qiranger
The Vlog Channel: http://youtube.com/theqirangervlog
Podcast: http://tinyurl.com/tqrap

By far the most popular picnic menu item in Korea is kimbap, rice seasoned with nutty sesame oil then wrapped in laver (김 – gim/kim) with assorted ingredients that usually include danmuji (단무지 – Sweet Radish Pickle), carrots, and egg, but in the end, only limited by your imagination.

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Of all my blog posts, the one that gets a consistent flow of visits regardless of time and day is my rice cooker carrot cake from early 2010, soon after I started this blog.  I’m happy to learn that other people are also interested in making carrot cake in a rice cooker, but it also made me wonder if it’s time to revisit the recipe. Surely, there is always a better way, or at least a different way, of doing things.

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I think this little machine is amazing, so I whipped out my iPhone (that’s what she said) and captured the contraption making my lunch. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen in the kitchen?

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A couple weeks ago, our friends at Nanoomi tweeted a curious poster announcing an In-N-Out special event at a local wine bar (Cork for Turtle, upstairs from its daytime counterpart, Mug for Rabbit).

In-N-Out Burger will be opening a “pop-up store” in Seoul today at Cork for Turtle on Garosu-gil from 11am to 3pm. bit.ly/GBBCJe

— nanoomi (@nanoomi) March 21, 2012

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Rice hogs the spotlight as Asia’s premier starchy grain. Most people have no idea millet is an ancient ingredient in Korean cuisine. For thousands of years, Koreans who lived in areas of the peninsula unsuited for rice cultivation were able to sustain themselves and their families with millet.

It wasn’t that long ago when plain white rice was a rich man’s food. The poor could only afford to eat it on special occasions such as Chuseok, New Year’s or ancestral days. During the rest of the year, millet fortified the poor, giving them the quick carbs to perform a hard day’s work out in the fields.

In America, millet is bird food, literally. Although many people assume millet is a grain, it’s actually a seed and as such is gluten-free and full of vitamins and minerals that are unlocked after a good soak.

This month’s Secret Recipe Club recipe comes from the blog Loving Life. After an hour or so of indecision on the perfect recipe to replicate for my blog, I finally settled on this recipe for several reasons (in no particular order):

• Millet aka 메조 meju. This recipe an opportunity to introduce one of Korea’s “alternative grains.” I call millet that only because many people just learning about Korean cuisine have no idea of how fundamental millet was to its foundations. Millet also is an easy swap in recipes that call for a grain product such as couscous or rice.In Korea, there are two types of millet, 메조 meju, or basic millet, and 차조 chajo, or “glutinous millet.” I’m using 메조 in this recipe.
  

  

• Cast iron. I love my cast iron skillet and any excuse to whip it out for a recipe, especially in cooking for a crowd.
• Thyme. I planted some thyme last year, and it’s still growing very well in my front yard. I harvested a good portion of it last fall, dried it out and stored it indoors. But there’s still fresh stuff holding up to our cold Northern California winter.

Didn’t even know they had a Taco Bell in Jamsil…

After missing the whole In-N-Out fiasco, I’ve had burgers on my mind non-stop.  Being from the East Coast, I’ve never had In-N-Out before and I was in the mood to try something new.  I decided to try out MOS Burger, which has semi-recently opened up at Jamsil with a Gangnam Station location also on the way.  MOS Burger (acronym for Mountain Ocean Sun) is Japan’s biggest burger chain and is the second largest fast food franchise in Japan after McDs.  Kinda like how Lotteria is in Korea. Continue Reading

Some popular Korean dishes today have the aura of age due to their rustic, simple appearance but are actually quite new and innovative, compared with Korea’s long history. Humans have occupied the peninsula for more than 5,000 years, according to archaeological and historical research. But Korea’s earliest culinary roots have been established more by archaeology than history.

Written records of Korea’s culinary history are few and far between. Two of Korea’s earliest history books are the 삼국 사기 Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), completed in A.D. 1145 and the 삼국 유사 Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), complied circa A.D. 1280.

Neither book is solely on Korean food, but they do offer small glimpses of culinary culture in their narratives on Korean history and myth from the 고조선 Gojoseon period (about 2333–108 B.C.) to the middle of the 고려국 Goryeodynasty (A.D. 918–1392).

Over such a long period of time, culinary trends are bound to come and go, influenced by periods of tumult and war as well as periods of peaceful co-existence and free trade with neighbors. Korea’s earliest cookbook found to date is 산가 요록Sanga Yorok, written in A.D. 1459 during the 조선국 Joseondynasty (A.D. 1382–1910). From that time forward, Koreans seemed to have been more dedicated to recording and preserving their culinary heritage.

It’s a good thing that modern food experts have traced the origins of the following five popular dishes, because they’re younger than they seem.

Kimchi jjigae with tuna, one of my happiest culinary memories from Chuncheon.  (TQ photo)

김치찌개 Kimchi jjigae

Kimchi stew, usually made with either pork or tuna mixed with 두부 dubu (tofu) appears so rustic and filling that it should be a very old recipe, but it likely was crafted four decades ago. Kim Su-jin, Director of Association for Research on Taste of Korea, told KBS World:

Since records about the dish are not found in ancient documents, it’s speculated that the stew originated from regular households in the 1970s, when housewives started making kimchi at home thanks to cheaper napa cabbage prices.

낙지볶음 Nakji-bokkeum

The hot and spicy stir-fried small octopus dish is probably the spiciest dish in Korea’s culinary repertoire. It has been traced back to the Mugyo-dong district of Seoul, when a restaurant served the new dish to customers in 1961.

닭볶음탕 Dakbokkeumtang aka dakdoritang

As tastes shifted from pheasant to chicken in the early 20th century, Koreans invented dishes putting chicken front and center. Because Korea was under Japanese occupation at the time, the term dakdoritang (dori is the Japanese word for chicken) became the standard name of the spicy braised chicken dish.

Gungjung tteokbokki, Korean royal cuisine at its finest (TQ photo)

떡볶이 Tteokbokki

This steamy, spicy hot dish is a stripped down, spiced up verson of 궁중떡볶이 gungjung tteokbokki was born in the aftermath of the Korean war and is now one of Korea’s most popular street foods.

Chuncheon dakkalbi, one of modern Korea’s most popular pub grub dishes (TQ photo)

춘천 닭갈비 Chuncheon dakgalbi

This local adaptation of a spicy marinaded chicken dish was developed in the 1970s as an inexpensive way to serve one of Chuncheon’s signature food products — chicken — to the lakeside mountain city’s large population of college students and military personnel. Chuncheon has three colleges — Kangwon National University, Hallym University and Chuncheon National University of Education — and had U.S. Army Camp Page until it closed in 2005.