new life at Seoul. :)

Things I love about my new life

1. I have a job. (well, thank god times like this)
2. I like what I do at work. (so far, so good!)
3. I like almost all people I work with (there is always exceptions. :( )
4. I LOVE my mom’s food which now I have full access to it!!! (very important!)

Things I do not love about my new life
1. No time for kitchen!
2. No time for kitchen!!
3. No time for kitchen!!!
4. Still, no cat. (Sigh----!)

I am buying cookbooks instead, dreaming about trying them one day. Hopefully the day will come soon enough so I can maintain my sanity.

Find my way back to kitchen

Now days, I moved back to Seoul, meaning I am living with the best cook in ther world: my mom. She is a goddess, and I, her humble follower is not allowed to mass with her sacred place: the kitchen.
Sometimes it almost seem like a dream what I have done in Boston.
One thing I misses most, surprise surprise, not the kitchen but the planters I had. The weather is so perfect for the gardening but I am stuck in the office (for saving the world!) and have no space even for a planter.
As I always complained snobbishly, I work to live but work doesn't work for life: it tends to leave very small room for life. :(

So it happened: my lovely blog is abandoned. But I was surprised today, pleasantly, someone in Japan was also reading my blog. :) How are you there??

A day.

I am currently back in Seoul, enjoying and appreciating all the things I no longer take granted: Mother, Brother, lovely meals, and peaceful life.

It was so fine and beautiful in Seoul. I enjoyed the weather and my friend's company, attended service at church and now wrapping up the weekend. This, the peace I feel, seems almost cruel, considering the distance between Seoul and the places which the earthquake and tsunami had destroyed.

There are lots of trees are falling not so silently these days. we can see and feel the things half way around the globe. I don't know if it is a good thing or bad thing. most of us know by now, the terror of earthquake is still lingering. I can not believe my eyes whenever the news flashes the scenes. No word can do justice to this. Anything would be almost arrogant. But I do wish to say, with all my heart, all those affected are find strength to back up and to continue to appreciate life.

Keeping my day job: Writing about mortality in café: a short though on excess

Many of us have day job. Some feel fortunate enough to have it, the others may say they do it because it pays.

My day job is research. I am nutritionist working on the issues around world hunger, particularly on the issues around child survival. Though the numbers are looking better everyday, I always feel that I am not doing very good job on saving them whenever I look into the figures and statistics on under five mortality.

Here is little venting I did while I was writing small report on diarrhea and zinc.

Writing about mortality in café: a short though on excess

It is mid June, one of the slow weekend. Though drizzled with rain, the air is in full of life. People talking, laughing, tending small children, good food, good coffee. Everything seems peaceful and happy.



And here I am, like a dark spot on the perfectly white wall, a blue corner in this cheerful café. Not because I am bitter and lousy person. Just because what I do for living is not so happy one: I write about mortality and morbidity of the immature ones. Children should be sparkling with life. They are never meant to be lifeless or dieing. But I do write about their death and dieing. I try to think about their survival and small victory along the battle of survival but never the war. But even with all of my optimism, it is quite difficult to stay positive.



Human body is resilient. It can endure unbelievable degree of insult. Fetus will survive and be born from the mother whose BMI (an index that measures how well nourished you are) is way below that anyone can imagine. And against all odds, AKA high infant and child mortality rate, many survive to see the days as adults. But with what cost?



When a child experience nutritional distress, it gears itself into survival mode: every luxury such as intelligence is placed in second. It does not seem to concern about the long term consequences, either. Being alive now is more important than what may happen in ten years later. And quite frankly, I do not see what is the point of being tall or witty or anything later if you don’t survive today. But don’t get me wrong here. The child pays a big price. There are empirical evidences show permanent physiologic changes their small and fragile body goes through. The damage appeared as having very small stature. However, that is telltale sign of many things that went wrong and keep going wrong. The stunted child has higher probability to develop obesity and many other chronic disease. And it does not end their. The curse of childhood undernutrition continues into the second generation and the next and the next. The stunted mother will produce smaller, low birth weight babies who is more likely to die or suffer from chronic disease. If the child is lucky enough to be born in the country with good health care. Most of them do recover and catch up the growth or at least they will not suffer from the chronic condition or permanent damage as many of the infants in developing country do. Imagine a child who will never know what would like to be fully grow. Though they survive, and I cheer their triumphant, still the lingering darkness shadow over them. They may wear it as banner of their victory. They beat the odds. They are still here. But with what cost? My emotions and feelings whenever I calculate excessive death caused by anemia or vitamin A deficiency, being just ‘sad’ seems to almost arrogant.



You may noticed the term ‘excessive’ I used. It is epidemiological term to describe how much risk of mortality one society suffer from the exposure to certain risk factors such as under nutrition. Well, the common sense in English works here. It is excess. It is unnecessary. It is all preventable.



The baby, across from my table, surrounded by her family and their friends, bursts into laughter. Her chicks are rosy and her eyes spark with curiosity and her smile is full of energy: she is everything how a baby should be. Is wanting that for every one outside of this land of excess too much to ask?



In my quite lonely corner, sitting among the papers with lots of gruesome numbers of mortality, I try to imagine hope. Hope for those, who deserve much more than my arrogant sympathy.

Let's learn Korean, shall we?

This is one of favourite treat: dried persimmon. This one is little more special. It is half dried and friezed. During the fall and winter, the season of dried persimmon, my Grandmother set the best looking ones aside for the ancestral ceremony. The last of it is mine.



I have it with tea from its leaves. The fruit, the leaf, and even the flower is edible and much appreciated, though most commonly people would eat fruit.

The fruit, when it is fresh, is called gam. When it is dried, it is called gotgam

Few days ago I found persimmon labeled as 'kaki' in the market. The English word persimmon was not there. Was it special type of persimmon from Japan? NO. If so, it should be labeled as its type, not 'kaki' since the word just mean persimmon. It was ordinary looking and common type of persimmon I used to see every day. All of a sudden it is named as gaki. Not persimmon or Gam.

I often found it puzzling: why are all the names Korea and Japan share almost always known in Japanese?

One of the reason may be that it is much easier to say it in Japanese than in Korean. Korean language has coda (the end sound) in many cases and it is much harder to pronounce if you are not born in the language uses similar sound. For instance, Undaria pinnatifida, the common seaweed often used soup and salad in Japan and Korea is known as wakame, not 'miyeok' . Miyeok is not so hard to say it, I think, but harder than wakame.

But this is not always true. Nori, another seaweed that you found, is known as nori, not gim which equally easy to pronounce. Though Korea is quite famous with gim, and you will find a lot of Japanese tourist buying gim in Korea.

I have to confess it made me little jealous and anxious. Korea has much shorter interaction in modern history with western world compared to Japan. But it also meant that Korean food is not well known along with her culture, which made me sad. Even the Gourmat depicted Korean food with so much Chinese theme, made my blood boil with anger for this blunt ignorance and disrespect. My fear, I must say, is from realizing how small my country is. We have China and Japan, the two big neighbours become more and more bigger and stronger while my country struggles -in some sense- for its existance, which we have always done generations after generations.

So, here are few words. My contribution to my own culture which I cherish and proud of.

감 Gam -persimmon
김 Gim -Laver
김치 Kimchi (NEVER EVER kimuchi. that is an insult since the term kimuchi is the result of spelling Korean word kimchi. Due to the histroy, Koreans are a bit sensitive.)
미역 miyeok - Undaria pinnatifida
배 bea - Nashi, Asian pear
다시마 dasima - edible kelp
청콩 chungkong - edamame, green soybean

And to be continued with my other postings...

The inseparables - Boiled egg in Tteokbokki 떡볶이랑 삶은 달걀

There is pair of things that one does not fully exist without the other. They are so entwined with each other, the one doesn't make any sense without the other. There are food pairs just like that: one of which I may say tteokbokki and boiled egg.

The first form of tteokbokki was mild, high-end food using beef strips and soy sauce. During the modern times, it becomes favorite snack food using spicy chili paste and fish cake.
When I was young, I was not allowed to have this snack with other friends. I had such fragile stomach which produce too much acid whenever I was stressed out. Can you imagine a 10 year old with Gastritis!? It was me. So, any thing too spicy or too salty -which tteokbokki was both - was out of question. I was watching my friend eating it with envy.


I had this popular snack when I was 15 years. It was an adventure. For the first time, against all the better judgement, I went with my best friend to have this almost national dish of Korea. By then my mother's ban was off. But our principle didn't like the idea of having small benders in front of our school, so he had banned all student from dropping by. If caught, me and my friend would have been in little bit of trouble. But you know how the forbidden fruit taste: it was gooooooooood!



My best buddy knew I could not eat too spicy food. So, she asked for extra boiled egg for me. Mixed with spicy burning seasoning, the egg was so tasty! After that, boiled egg and tteokbokki were inseperable, at least as far as I concerned.

Ttokbokki with hard boiled egg

For two:

1/2 lb ttokbokki ttok, two boiled egg, 1 lb cabbage, 1 medium size onion, 2 sheets of flat omuk (about 10cm by 10 cm per sheet Korean fish cake, optional), 2 T Gochujang (고추장 Korean chili paste), 1/2 T soy sauce, 1 c water

1. Cut cabbage into thin strips and slice onion. Cut omuk into desired size.

2. wash ttokbokki ttok and drain them well.

3. Mix gochujang, soy sauce, and water in large deep skillet with lid. Add cabbage, onion, and omuk. Place skillet on the heat with lid on, cook till the cabbage is half cooked.

4. Add ttokbokki ttok, stir gently and cook till the ttok becomes desirable texture.

5. Serve it with boiled egg.

** I made it little bit fancier by rolling the omuk and skewed it with egg. For this, cut omuk into strip and cook along the side of ttok. Take it out when the ttok is fully cooked and skewer it with egg.

** Ttock doesn't do well with time. So make this dish right before serving.

Shameless Midnight Indulgence- Yaki Brown Shirataki

I often question: is it possible to indulge without guilt? Is it truly necessary always to feel remorseful after the midnight meal? Does this guilt increase pleasure or eat away it?

At least, I found one solution to tame the shameless midnight hunger without shame or remorse. The answer is called "shirataki". Shirataki is Japanese type noodle which has only about 12.5 kcal for 7 oz serving. The noodle is made from konjaku plant. Don't worry. This is not something a crazy scientist invented in a lab. The plant has high fiber, which forms jelly like curd. So unlike other noodles, this noodle is almost all fiber. It has great texture but not so much flavor. So I use brown version flavored with sea weed.

'Yaki' means stir-fried or grilled in Japanese. I found instead using other noodles, shirataki works great in yaki soba recipe. So, here it is. In the middle of night, wake up by the stomach screaming hunger, tame it with plateful of goodies with way less calorie (about 300kcal) and guilt.

Yaki Shirataki

7 oz shirataki, 7 oz bean sprouts (I used soy bean sprout, but any bean sprout would work), 2 slice of aburaage (deep fried tofu), 2Tb chopped green onion, 1/2 Tb sesame oil, 1 Tb soy sauce, pinch of pepper

1. Soak aburaage in hot water (watch out your fingers!) for a min, take out and squeeze them dry. Cut it into thin strips.

2. place shirataki and bean sprouts in the colander and wash them under the running water. Drain them well.

3. Heat sesame oil (be careful not to burn it) in the sautee pan and put shirataki and bean sprouts. Stir it well while cook gently.

4. Add aburaage, soy sauce, pepper and choped green onion. Stir well.

Serve hot. Adding sugar snap pea and strip shaped nori is also nice.

ps. You may wonder why I suddenly sound like a nutritionist. It is because I AM a nutritionist. You are hearing a confession of nutritionist. Yes, we do have midnight cravings, too. No, even though this dish was one without shame (therefore I can share), this is not always the case.

A story of comfort food: 비빔밥 Bibimbop

It is typical Korean soap opera scene: a girl in distress crying over the love which ended. She cries her eyes out, collapsing on the table, massing her hair up, as if the world has ended. Suddenly, she gets up and rushes into the kitchen (if she wasn't there already), opens rice cooker, takes out entire load of cooked rice into huge bowl. Then she runs to her refrigerator empties all Banchan (반찬, side-dishes) including kimchi into the bowl, puts generous spoonful of Korean chili paste and sesame oil, mixes with anger as if her looser boyfriend is in that bowl, and eats it like hungry wolf. No matter how dainty little lady she may look like, she is now she-wolf gulping down her enemy. After that she will go her favorite hair salon and get new hairdo.

This scene always puzzles me: how a single busy working women has so much banchan in her refrigerator!? What if she is like me, living alone in strange place, and found nothing (some times even no Kimchi) in the refrigerator!?!? It turned out, it wasn't only me who was baffled by it. I found one of famous blogger in Korea blogged about it and many agree that the full refrigerator is some sort of TV fantasy.

Bibmbop is quite handy food to make. Whenever I need to empty refrigerator or have nothing to cook (or have no intention of cooking), it is great food to make. As long as there is a bowl of steamed rice, an egg, Korean chili paste, and sesame oil I can make it.

Here is one example: Rice with dried Korean radish seasoned with say sauce and chili flake.

And just with steamed zucchini and egg plant.

And even simpler, with salad greens.

The possibilities, yes, are endless. However, I think these all shares miraculous power: give energy to go on.

Some time between the mixing and eating, I find new energy. As it fills my stomach I get stronger. Fiery chili paste burns but yet has sweet after taste to it, a gentle reminder of good world even though at first it seems hopeless and ruthless place. This 'tough love' gives enough 'guts' to face the hard world out there and comforts the troubled mind.

Spring has come!

It seems to late to say, but I truly feel it. Now I can finally say, spring has come.

During the Winter, everything freezes, including mind. When the Spring comes, everything relaxes, and this make people little bit nostalgic and lethargic. It sounds very counter intuitive, while the frogs are jumping out of their slumber and the sprouts are sprung, people rather look like the sleepy cat. But that is how we describe the sign of Spring in Korea. To wake up from the spring slumber, we use bitter spring greens. Dureup (Fatsia), Neangee, Chwi, Mindulea(Dandelion green), and countless other bitter greens will be in the market. People also go and gather wild greens. It is tradition born out of necessity since spring was lean season in Korea.

Now, I found myself hungry. Hungry for the spring greens in Korea. When I was back home this year, it was still too early for the greens I craved for. Well, I can not get them here in Boston, MA, U.S.A. I may get it with big money but it wouldn't be the same: the fresh and bright bitterness wouldn't be there. Yes, my head understand all of it, but my hunger went on for a while. So, when I found fresh chicory I have to grab it. Even though it is not the perfect thing.



I made my comfort food: kimchi bibimbop. First I made chicory kimchi and add it on the freshly made steamed rice, adorned with fried egg, sesame oil and Korean chili paste. The taste was as bright as the spring sun.

Chicory Kimchi

chicory 2 lb, soy sauce 1/4 cup, Korean chili flake 1/4 cup (or up to taste), garlic, grated 1 T,
1/2 small Asian pear grounded (or 1t sugar with 1/4 cup water)

1. wash chicory well and drain it well.
2. mix soy sauce, pear, chili flake, garlic well.
3. add seasonings to chicory, mix well (but be gentle!!!) and let it sit for a day in room temperature.

It can be eaten as it is, but adding sesame oil or toasted sesame seeds right before eating is good option. (Do NOT mix sesame oil when you make kimchi if you intent to store it. sesame oil goes rancid faster than you can say rancid. :) )

Hot, hotter, hottest! - Meaoontang 매운탕

Speaking of winter delight, (or delight of any season, that is) Meaoontang, Korean hot fish stew is one that I can not miss.
I said not all Korean dish is spicy but didn't say all Korean dish is not spicy.
Be aware! Clear the way! This is piping hot (both temperature and taste), burning your tongue hot dish.

One thing I noticed about many people around me in Boston, they are afraid of fish head. For me, fish head is the best part. It makes nice broth. If it is big fish, the chicks are delicious treat.

This particular Meaoontang has little story. I went down to the fish place run by Koreans. I asked Ajooma (The lady of the house) if she had anything for Meaoontang. She looked for any good fish for it, but she had none. She told me to wait for a min. Then, she went into the back room. Lucky me!!!!!!!! There was a customer (whom I deeply feel sorry for his/her misfortune for missing the best part of fish) who took Kwanguh 광어 (Flounder) only the flesh of it, left me good fish bone with all the good parts left! Ajooma was also happy to found it, and more than happy to clean it for me and packed it for free.

I rushed back and made soup, but thought it might not enough. As a host of dinner, I could not make food not enough (both quantity and quality)!! So, I rushed back to other fish place (since the one I got Flounder was closed), got little more fish.

...It turned out it was totally unnecessary. The bones and inners of Big flounder made more than enough dinner for two. So, this one left untouched for the next day.

The next day, I found my two left over Meaoontangs doing all well-made-fish-stews do.

All the gelatin from fish coagulates ensuring I treated my guest with dish made right. :)


Deagu Meaoontang (Pollock Meaoontang)

Small Pollock (2lb), Daikon radish 1 lb, 1/2 package of Soybean sprout, 1/2 package of Tofu , Korean watercress 1/2 lb, Ssukat (type of Korean Herb, if you can't get it, you can increase the amount of watercress) 1/4 lb, 1 Onion, 4C cold water

Seasoning: 1T dry white wine or rice wine, Korean chilli powder 2T (or up to taste), Soy sauce 1T, minced garlic 1/2 T, minced fresh ginger 1/3 T

1. Clean the fish (ask your fishmonger to do the honor. cut it into the four parts including the head!) and soak in cold water. Cut tofu into desired thickness.
2. Cut daikon radish into quarter circle shape, by first slicing it into 0.4 of inch thick disk shape and quartering it. Slice onion into same shape.
3. Pour 4 cups of cold water in the soup pot, add head of Pollock, radish, onion, and all the seasonings. Bring it to boil and cook it till the radish is half cooked.
4. Add Soybean sprout and the rest of fish. Bring it to boil and cook. skim off any foam that may form. When fish is almost cooked add tofu.
5. Take the pot off the heat, add Korean water cress and Ssukat. Close the rid, and wait for 5 min. Serve with hot steamed rice.

Winter serenity

I love poems. One of them is Chinese poet, Li Bai 李白. He loved two things: the moon and good rice wine. He chased those two thing till his death. The legend has it, he had one too many, and tried to hug the moon (actually the reflection of the moon), drowned in the most beautiful lake in China.

Before my trip to home, it snowed a lot, as we all know in the East coast of USA. The night was ripening, snow was falling till all the night was covered white. I could not see the moon. So I decide to drink it, as Li Bai did.

I had nice rice wine and good Oden soup I made for snowy night. And winder gave me good snow.

Snow chilled rice wine and steaming hot Oden.

I found this the best luxury only winder can provide. It is almost over (hopefully). Saying good bye to each passing season is always makes me think of things that only that season can give.

Carrot Kimchi

Someone asked me to translate it into English. I haven't tried it yet, but the recipe seems reasonable.

Carrot 3kg, daikon radish 0.5 kg (cut into same shape and length with green onions), green onion (cut in 4-5cm length both white and green parts) 2C, rice porridge 1 C (=1Tb rice flour + 1 C water boiled while stirred then cool down), sea salt (or cores grain kosher salt) 2-3Tb + 1/2C, fresh crushed garlic 2/3C, grated fresh ginger 1C, Korean Chili powder 1/2C + up to the taste)

1. Clean the carrot, cut it into 5-7 cm length and mix it well with ½ C salt and let it sit for two to three hours. (If it is thin carrot, reduce the time. Let it cure till it bends little bit without breaking)
2. Mix rice porridge, salt (2-3 Tbsp) , garlic, ginger, and remaining chili powder in big bowl. (where protective glove if you have sensitive skin)
3. Wash carrots and drain very well (dry with paper towel if necessary). Mix it seasonings well.
4. Put kimchi in glass or stainless still container and seal tightly (remember, garlic stinks!!!). Place container or deep plate underneath the kimchi container (just in case the broth spill over) and let it sit for a day in room temperature. After a day, keep it in around 40 degree (meaning in your refrigerator!)

Bringing the Far East

After a tiring day in office in the mid-Summer of Bangladesh, I returned my humble room. The guard of my dormitory, whose wife worked as my chief, was unusually excited to present dinner. He burst into my room with the tray of goodies and proudly presented the meal that his wife labored over during the unbearably hot day in Dhaka.
He said,
“Chinese!!”
and pointed one plate.
And there it was: a shredded potato, carrot, and onion, stir-fired and seasoned with turmeric. TURMERIC!!!!!
I was polite enough not to laugh at his face. I thanked him and managed to show my deep appreciation and pleasant surprise. After all, shredding vegetable with the tools his wife had was by all means NOT an easy task. But I have to confess, that day, I laughed till my stomach hurt.

I often wonder what makes dish Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. What is the difference between French cuisine and Italian dish? What is authentic German? What? What? What?

I have read few anthropology books regarding food, Revy-strauss and few others. But I am still looking for an answer. Some people ponder upon more grandeur things, but mine is food. But, let’s leave those for another time.

Here what I want to say is how to bring Far East without breaking ever so thin bankbook.

The base of the Far East cuisine is, as you guessed, soy sauce. Yes, I am over simplifying and also stereotyping which I have all things to say against it. But, I also can not deny that it gives certain characteristic we (the Far East Asia) share.

Thanks to Chinese and influence of Buddhism, fermented soy bean became essential thing in the Far East cooking. With expansion of Buddhism, which anything that involves life of animal was banned, the people got into thinking what could be the alternative of traditional fish sauce. And thank you again, you brilliant Chinese, we have been blessed with fermented soy bean! Even there are some historic record of bringing fermented soy bean sauce and pates as dowry of a Princess.

So, go out and grab a good bottle of soy sauce. It will add every food an Asian flare.
Buying good soy sauce takes little bit of effort, though. You MUST read ingredient list. If you found less than four ingredient (soy bean, salt, water, and unfortunate but somehow essential, some benzoate thingy used as preservative), chances are, it is good one. If it is naturally brewed, meaning fermented in traditional, time consuming manner, it is even batter. The reason why I insist on reading the ingredient list is that soy sauce often contains MSG. If you are not allergic to it, as I am, it wouldn’t be that much of problem. But MSG makes taste little too heavy and dull. So, if you can avoid it, please do. You can flavor soy sauce to your own liking. For instance, I often mix soy sauce with half amount of water, add little bit of sugar, bring it to boil and infuse whatever flavor that I wish to have in. I use shiitake mushroom, ginger, garlic, spicy green chili, cinnamon, Dasima (AKA Konbu), dried anchovy, cinnamon or wonderfully fragrant Sichuan pepper corns. Brew them in the soy sauce and take solids out, pour the liquid in a glass bottle and refrigerate. It makes excellent dressing, base, and seasoning.

For instance, I made zaru soba (the picture above). The deeping sauce is made with soy sauce seasoned with cinnamon. Traditionally it is seasoned with dashi (broath that made from mixture of sea weed and dried and smocked tuna). This is my quick fix when I have no time to make dashi.


There is striking difference in soy sauce depending on the country. Chinese and south east Asian countries like their soy sauce thick but mild in salt. Korean soy sauce is sharp and salty. Japanese one is little sweet and delicate. So choose soy sauce depending on the dish you going to make. However, if you want to have only one, I recommend Japanese one. One, because it is very easy to find and two, you can always add flavor such as mushroom, tamarind, and even salt to it, mimicking the soy sauce from other cuisine.

Sesame oil is another essential in Far East cooking. Look for a toasted one. It usually comes in brown colored glass bottle. Untoasted sesame is also good ingredient. Sesame is high in unsaturated fat- meaning it can and will go stale very fast. So keep them in the refrigerator. In case of sesame seed, freezer is better option.

Shiitake mushroom and Konbu are also good thing to keep, especially for Korean and Japanese cooking. Dried shiitake can be kept several years in freezer and same goes for Konbu. So if you buy them, it would be good investment even if you cook Asian food once in a blue moon. Just put them in air tight container preventing smelling. They can take freezer smell but they also can spread their smell into other food in your refrigerator.

Ginger is quite essential. Again, freezer is your money saver. Though it does not stay as long as the dried shiitake, you can keep them without loosing any flavor up to three to four month. I don’t know what happens after since ginger doesn’t last that long in my kitchen.
Garlic, spicy green chili and green onion are also another thing that can be kept in the freezer. But you can also avoid using them. They are rather optional, in my opinion.

So here they are. I hope this helps you when you try to cook what the other side of globe cooks. Don't be afraid. If you are not sure where to begin, begin with stir fried onion and bell pepper. Add ginger and little bit of soy sauce. And next time add shrimp or firm tofu. And the next next time add Thai basil or Chinese five spice. You will find, bit by bit, a whole new world.

The American Beauty - sweet corn and red quinoa soup

Corn, quinoa, and potato all things from in calm broth, truly beautiful, truly sweet, and truly American, I think.

I was blessed with few ears of beautiful sweet corn. I know in English writing, same word should not be used too often. But what can I say? They are glorious, gorgeous, and beautiful.

I felt always guilty whenever I threw away sweet corncobs. They are still sweet but does not make good compost. So, it went to waist bin. One day, I came up with an idea. It looked like bone of corn, so why didn't I treat them as chicken or any other bone?

So, I cut off all the lovely sweet yellow corn, and drop the corncobs into the sauce pan. Add cold water, and brew it for a while with bruised garlic. Water turned into broth with sweet and lovely milky hue. Took them out and threw them away, feeling less guilty but still apologizing that I couldn't give proper burial.

Added potato and corn and quinoa, and drop of good Spanish extra virgin olive oil on top. Mixed in little bit of dried chili and ground cumin seed. Green onion for its sharp but not over powering onionness. Lime and cilantro were dearly missed.

That day, I discovered all things America. (Not United states, but the continent of America)

recipe:

1/2 cup of red quinoa, 3 medium size potato, 2 ears of sweet corn, 3 green onions, 1 garlic clove, fresh cilantro (up to your liking), 4 cups of water, dried oregano 1/2 t, crushed red chili, salt and pepper up to taste, zest and juice of half lime, good extra virgin Olive oil,

1. Cut off corn from the corncob, set a side corn. Do not milk the corncob.

2. Peel and dice potato into bite size pieces. Submerge them in cold water.

2. pour 4 cups of cold water in to good size sauce pan. drop corncob alone with tough part of cilantro, bruised garlic (whole) and put it on low heat. Brew about 30 min.

3. Take out corncob, garlic, and cilantro stems. Add potato, salt, chili, pepper, ground cumin, dried oregano and cook till potato is almost cooked.

4. Add lime zest, quinoa and sweet corn. cook till quinoa is fully cooked.

5. Take off from heat. Add lime juice, half of chopped cilantro and all of green onion. Put the lid back and let it sit for 5 min.

6. Serve with lime wage, olive oil and remaining chopped fresh cilantro.

This soup is good either cold, warm, or room temperature.

Adding chopped tomato is also a good option.

And of course, you can just grill sweet corn.

If you have good sweet corn in its beautiful husk, here is a suggestion.

Remove thread, and sock the corn in cold water for thirty miniut. tare off little bit of the corn husk and tie the end with it. Grill it as it is on the grill about 30-35 min, turning them once around 15 min point or so.

grilling corn in its husk enhances the corn taste, and of course, the corns are beautiful to look at.

Aren't they? :)

Garlic chive and cucumber, Hot and cool, rescue for the summer night

We have not been blessed with such delight, but it is often too hot to do anything in summer. So, here is one quick dish doesn't require any heating.



Few days ago, I got garlic chives and cool cucumber. Cucumber is so fresh, it is almost sweet. Chive is pungent, it has too precious to be heated. So, here it is.





This is quick form of kimchi called "Gutjulee". The word Gutjulee means salting before other seasonings as a part of preparation. It also means kimchi intended to be eaten fresh, like very spicy salad.



Garlic chive gutjulee is often served with meat dish such as Korean BBQ. Meat dish in Korea is rarely eaten by itself. It always have greens served with, often spicy, to cut the heavy taste of meat.



But I found this serves very well with many other things including tofu. Tofu has subtle taste so goes with anything that it gets. Heat up tofu in microwave for a min and eat it with Kimchi or Gutjuless to go with. Very fast, very good, not to mention, guilt free.



Recipe



serves 4 as main dish



Two package of firm tofu,

one cup of garlic chive, chopped in two inch length

one cucumber, skinned and cut into strips

1T toasted sesame seed

1 1/2 T soy sauce

1t or up to taste, Korean chili pepper flak**

1/2 t sugar (optional)



1. Mix soy sauce, chili pepper flake, sesame seed and sugar. Let it sit for at least five minutes.

2. Mix cucumber and garlic chive. Let it sit in the refrigerator for thirty minutes. It would first look have too little moisture but cucumber will soon let its water out, making dish just enough.

3. Slice tofu block in half length wise and cut each halve into five to six pieces. Heat it for one minutes.

4. Serve together.





** if not available, use chipotle or cayenne pepper. Wasabi (Japanese horseradish) also works well. use about 1/4 t or add up to your liking. If you have none of these, add arugula. The point here is sharp spicy flavor.

Stereotyping ourselves? on garlic and chili peppers

candied lotus root and carrot, Korean tea food

It was pleasure to see someone with Korean Background competing for the spot in major TV: Debbie in the next food network star season 5. However, I can not help cringing whenever she says "because I am Korean" in the same sentence with chili peppers and garlic.

lotus root stewed in soy sauce

That is not always true. chili peppers and garlic do not represent entire Korean cuisine as they do not for the Mexican culinary culture. Yes, it has big influence and seemingly ubiquitous but it is just part of Story. Korean style BBQ and Kimchi was most popular. But that is not the whole story.

Korean food can be and it IS quite subtle. For the many spring greens, the seasoning kept minimum, in order to the taste of spring greens to shine. It is true for the root vegetables, too. There are countless food that does not involve either garlic or chili peppers or even heavy seasonings. Best example is found in various Buddhist temples in Korea.

chilled noodle in soybean broth

I wish, only wish, it is known to outside of Korea as much as BBQs and kimchi.

And my fellow Koreans, let's think about stereotype that we hold about ourselves. This is not the first time I encountered stereotyping of ourselves. Self-image is important. It is part of identity. However, the self-image should grow with the discovery of new side of 'self', both as a person or as an ethnic group. Let's don't judge ourselves too quick. It does not leave room for the new realization of culture that we built and adored for several thousands years.

A culinary case of mystery greens – greens with tofu & shiitake mushroom en papillote

Often we encounter mysterious looking greens unexpectedly. It is sweet but challenging surprise. Last summer, I encountered one of mystery greens that I haven't figure out what it is till now.




My dear friend got this green on her hand but had no time to cook.

So, she generously offered it to me. I accepted the greens along with lots of other goodies but exactly don’t know what to do with it. I bited into it. It has certainly taste of leafy green and quite tender: a good mixture of little bit of bitterness and hint of indescribable tastes.
It was too tough and grassy to eat as salad. So, it should be cooked.
Instinctively I went back to what I know best; sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger. I haven found any green that didn’t work in this mixture.
Next, I needed to decide what is best cooking method: steamed, blenched, or sautéed.
Since the leaf was tender, I didn’t want to cook it too much. Also it was too hot to boil water or tend sauté pan. I needed something that let me stay out of kitchen while it cooked. So, I steamed it in the parchment paper pouch: en papillote.

Ingredient (for two people): half package of tofu, one cup of sweet potato greens or others cut into two inch length, 3-4 dried shiitake mushroom, 1 green onion cut into two inch length, sesame oil 1/2 tea spoon, soy sauce 1 Table spoon, white wine 1/2 Table spoon, grated fresh ginger 1/2 Table spoon, pinch of freshly cracked pepper, parchment paper 2 feet in length

1. Preheat oven for 380 F.
2. Wash lightly dried shiitake mushroom and soak them in cold water for 30 min or till the stem part become tender. Cut off the stems and squeeze gently out the excess water.
3. Cut tofu into 6 pieces.
4. Fold parchment paper into 3.



5. Arrange hard part of greens (stems) and white part of green onion in the center. On top of it, arrange tofu and shiitake mushroom. Cover it with remaining greens and green part of green onion.
6. Fold the edge of parchment paper tightly in length first and fold one of wide end, forming an envelop (or pouch) with one-end opened.
7. Add mixture of ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, and white wine through one open end and crest it tightly. 8. Place it on top of cookie pan and bake it for at 380F for about 20 min.

9. Wear oven mitts and open it with kitchen scissors right before serving (watch out for hot steam!!!)

10. Serve it with steamed rice.



So far I found this methods works for most of tender greens including spinach, yu choi (edible rape), dandelion greens, and sweet potato greens. Adding bean sprouts and sugar snap peas is also good variation. En papillote is also good method to impress your guest with minimum effort. Not to mention, it makes excellent vegan main dish.

garden fever - growing kkaennip 깻잎

Last year, I found one of my friends had kkaennip plant. The discovery brought me back to my childhood. Some food probably took some degree of convincing (or desperation) for those had attempted to eat it for the first time in human history. Kkaennip, on the other hand, I don't think it was that hard. The smell of it is quite alluring. For me it is fragrance of summer!


I am from Seoul. I was born in south part of Korea, but raised in Seoul. It is a big city; a city with population of 24 million; one of the most crowded city in the world; city with skyscrapers and high technology. Most of people from Seoul would not remember any greenery or patch of garden outside of national parks located here and there. BUT I was lucky few who have lived in the area of Seoul without crowd and with lots green fields. I was running around fishing and foraging wild fruits with my friends. My neighborhood was about to be 'developed', so there was lots of empty fields and hills and ponds.

One day, I decided to be lady. Don't ask why. At the age of nine, I just decided that it would be cool to learn playing piano, drawing, and traditional calligraphy. Looking back, I still don't understand what inspired me.

During that summer, I was going back and forth between activities of my liking. It was short walk from my house to the piano and art class. My mother, as any other parents in Korea did, let me walk by myself. Around my neighborhood, every one knew everyone back then. So it was quite natural for us (me and my friends) to run around by ourselves.
I dropped by one house to greet the little puppy liked me and always was excited to see me. I wondered around little bit chasing white little butterflies in the open garden. Among this, I liked one patch of land most.
It was big (for my eyes, at least) fragrant green sea. Endless rows of kkaennip with their gorgeous thick fragrance and yellow Korean pumpkin blossoms picking out around the edge of garden.
With sweltering summer heat, the air was thicken with the smell of refreshing kkaennip. It was like opening hot pot of stew, which fresh kkaennip was just added. It was clean and refreshing smell. There was always an old lady, sitting under the parasol, chatting with her friends where the edge of the garden met the pedestrian side of street, . Occasionally a customer would show up asking her to get some of kkaennip or other vegetable she grew. She did not have anything on display. Whenever asked, the old lady with cheerful smile would get up, walked into her garden, harvested whatever the customer asked and some more, and sold them with a exchange of small money. I was fascinated the smell of it. After all, it was my favorite vegetable. The kkaennip and other small vegetable gardens and the ponds were there till my senior high school years. One day, coming back from school, I discovered to my horror all were gone replaced by big construction site. Irony is, my home in Korea is now one of the big condominium complex built during that time, facing directly where my favorite garden was.

After I came US for study, there were so many greens I miss including kkaennip. It is not so hard to get but too expensive for poor graduate student budget. I couldn't believe the price tag!!! So discovery of my friend with kkaennip garden was like ten Christmas combined all together! She was more than happy to let me have some of plants, for seed. And this year I am having garden fever. Like all other proud parent (of child, pat, and plants), I photograph them every day.
Here, they were just peeking out in cold April Boston morning!


Look! Now they are looking like kkaetnnip!

Every day, I picture various things I can do later with the harvest! I become the owner of perillar garden, like the old lady in my memory (though I am way younger then she was). I can not wait to make kimchi with it. Or simply roll steamed rice mixed with other grains, specially barley with Korean bean paste!!!

Fresh kkaennip has after taste of mint. well, after all, kkaennip is a member of Perilla frutescens which belongs mint family.
Almost all northeast and southeast Asian country have their own perilla. Japan has Shiso which used widely from in soups to coloring umeboshi, pickled plum dish. In China, it is 紫蘇 which used as medicine and in Vietnam tía tô used in various dish. Each has very different taste, even though they are in same family.

Like Italian parsley, kkaennip is used here and there to add fresh taste in otherwise heavy tasting dish. The seed is used as condiment or for oil. The cake after extracting oil made excellent animal feed and compost.

Some Korean cookbooks and recipes (including mine) refer kkaennip as sesame leaf, despite it has nothing to do with sesame plant. The reason, I guess, is that the seed of perilla is called deulkkae which literal translation would be 'wild sesame' even though botanically sesame and perilla is not related.


Speaking of garden fever, I was so inspired by kkaennip, I decided to let them have some company. So here it (or they) goes!


I now grow snowpea, basil, mint, mustard green, lettuce, Korean cucumber, kkwari chili pepper and still debating, yes you guessed, growing tomatos.

Beachu Kimchi - Korean Buddhist temple style

Korean Buddhist temple food is recent discovery even for many Koreans. The food from Buddhist temple has distinctively clean taste without punch of garlic.

Here is one of recipe I used to make Temple style kimchi for my vegan friend.

2 Napa cabbage(about 5-6 lb), Daikan radish 2lb, 3 dried shiitake mushroom, 1 piece of konbu 2 inch by 2 inch, 1/4 apple, 1 small Korean pear, 2 inch piece fresh ginger, 1 cup of cold water, 1 Tb of sweet rice powder, 1/2 C Kosher salt + 2T salt, 5-6 Green onion, 1/4 C Korean chili flake

1. Wash and quarter in length the Napa cabbage
2. Pickle Napa cabbage by sprinkling 1/2 cup of salt; make it sure that the salt is sprinkled in between layers of leaves. Let it sit for at least 6 hours.
3. Wash off excess salt and squeeze the cabbage well
4. Pour 1 cup of water in sauce pan with Konbu and lightly washed shiitake mushrooms. Let it sit for 30 min-1 hour. Take out mushroom and squeeze and slice it very thin. Discard the konbu (or dry and reuse it for other dish). Add sweet rice powder and mix well. Put it on medium heat and keep stirring until it thickens and slightly transparent. Remove from heat and let it cool down.
5. Skin ginger; chop them by pulse it in food processor. Same goes for apple and Korean pear.
6. Add apple, pear and ginger in rice porridge (from 3) along with chili flake and 1-2 Table spoon of Salt; set it aside
7. Cut white radish in thin strips (about 2mm thick and 5mm wide); cut green onion in same length (halve the white part if it is thicker than quarter inch)
8. Wear gloves and mix chilli, apple, pear and ginger paste (from 6), green onion, mushroom and white radish in big mixing bowl
9. Take one quarter of Napa cabbage and rub the seasonings around it. Take small amount of mixture, rub and put in between every leaves. At the end, gently band the cabbage into half. Repeat till all the cabbages are seasoned
10. Put little bit of seasoning on the bottom, tightly fit the cabbage quarters and seal the container tight. When you put cabbage in, make it sure the container had at least 1-1.5 inch room between the top ob cabbage and the container cover since remaining water from napa cabbage will come out as kimchi sits.
11. Let it sit on counter top for a day and put it in the refrigerator.
12. Give it at least week to develop the flavor.


** The container you use, now on, must be Kimchi container. Even though garlic is not added, still the container can hold on to the smell. So, choose your container accordingly.
** I found the napa cabbage in US has more watter than Korean one. So put a tray under the container for 3-4 days just in case water developes and ...you know, leak out. :)

Hobak Kimchi GhukBahp - pumpkin kimchi broth with rice

Ghukbahp is quite uniquely Korean: it is not exactly soup or steamed rice. This is dish usually have very deep and intensely flavored broth and is served piping hot. I suspect the reason why we have it is due to our winter. It is chill-to-the-bone cold. Sub zero gust runs down from Siberia, freezing everything in its path.
Since it has such a impact on mind, it is not so surprising that in Korea many people have special memory around this dish.

Kimchi ghukbahp is usually made with napa cabbage kimchi. The broth is made out of dried anchovy, sea weed, and head of dried Pollock. This was one of my late father's favorites. He did not have perfect table manner, but did have ability to make everyone to want to eat what he was eating. Even just simple one scoop of steamed rice seems the best dish in the world when he was the one eating it. He really enjoyed eating.




That day, my father drove us around and around Seoul that night. My brother and I was too young to have patience to wait for the good things to come. It was way pass our usual bed time and we were tired and hungry. My father and mother seemed to be very excited about the food we were going to eat. It was food from their home town. Something they ate when they secretly become boy friend and girl friend. It was one of the food that my father ordered to hush-off my mother's younger sister, so she would not tell my Grandma about the boy next door holding hands with the eldest daughter of the house.




Finally we arrived at small crowded restaurant, where the only menu was Kimchighukbahp. I didn't enjoyed the food at all. It was too fishy and too hot. But probably my parents fully enjoyed it. They said ghukbahp was very good. Exactly what they wanted. Since in my family who proud of our hometown, my parents rarely complimented food in Seoul. In our opinion, restaurant food in Seoul was too sweet or too salty, too much or lack of this and that, etc, etc.


This is not the exactly same recipe. I used Hobakkimchi instead of Beachukimchi. I did not use fermented shrimp sauce (which I missed dearly!!) because I don't like the things they sell in US. (Yes, you can see I am my parents' daughter) I am spoiled with my Grandma's specially ordered shrimp sauce. All the things I don't have was not matter. I enjoyed it after all this years. I enjoyed the memory of it, as my parents did some years ago.

Hobak Kimchi GhukBahp

Hobak kimchi (or beachu kimchi) about 1 cup + 1/4 cup of water from kimchi, 1/2 cup of soybean sprout, 1/3 dried pollack flake, 1T soy sauce, pinch of black pepper, green onion, 1 cup of steamed rice, 1/4 cup of Bracken namool (for recipe, see here )

broth: 3 cup water, 3 dried anchovy, 2 inch by 2 inch piece of dried konbu, I want to add one more thing to the posting below.

1. Place konbu in the cold water and let it sit for 30 min. Take Konbu out and put dried anchovy. Boil the water on medium heat for 30 hour. Take anchovy out.

2. Add dried pollack, soy sauce, pepper, water from kimchi and boil till pollack is tender.

3. Add hobak kimchi and bean sprout and cover. Boil for 15 min.

4. Place hot steamed rice and arrange kimchi, pollack, Bracken namool on top. Pour broth over carefully. add greeb onion on top.

When kimchi ferments, it develops unique texture and flavor. It is also a proof of good kimchi. Any minor mistake in selecting and handling the ingredient, cooking, and fermenting will make Kimchi something not so pleasant after few month. Well made kimchi is like good cheese: it can go up to three years (which is often the case in my family) and used in various cooking. That is also reason why you SHOULD NEVER EVER HURRY the fermentation. Kimchi needs its time to mature.