Thursday Nom-day: Tteokbokki (spicy rice cake stew)

For Korean food lovers and fanatics like me, tteokbokki is a really familiar dish. I bet if you are, you have eaten this in a Korean restaurant or even tried in in Korea. I learned to cook this based from online recipes as I always do. If I want to eat something (especially Korean food), I try to cook it at home so that I could eat it again whenever (because I already know how to cook it). Tteokbokki is one of them. Once you have all the ingredients needed, it's pretty easy to make.

Tteokbokki.

The tteokbokki I made in the photo above lacks some ingredients needed for a legit tteokbokki. This is the third time I'm making this dish and I think this one's the best in terms of the sauce even though it lacks some essential stuff in it. I don't have a recipe as I'm just following those found around the internet but what I used in this one are the following: cylinder shaped rice cake (used for tteokbokki specifically), gochujang (hot pepper paste), soy sauce, brown sugar. In the photo above, you can see some bits of white and green things. It's the vegetable packet from Shin ramyun because after this photo, I added noodles to make a combination of tteokbokki and "rabokki" (ramyun-bokki, basically).

Tteok+rabokki.

The ingredients that were supposed to be included in a legit tteokbokki are the dried anchovy+dried kelp stock, green onion, hot pepper flakes, and eomuk (fish cake). I whipped this meal because I was desperate for some tteokbokki and fortunately, there is a Korean grocery nearby.

I hope next time I can also provide a short video of the cooking process. Also, next time I want to cook it in the "real" or "legit" way. Expect some other homemade Korean food here (since that's mostly what I cook). 

Bye bye~

K-Mondays: Places To Visit in Seoul

I have been writing and talking and writing about my trip to South Korea last December 2011. I still haven't gotten over it because it was such a dream come true to even just step foot on Incheon International Airport. I can't wait for the time that I'm announcing my second trip to Korea, but I doubt that it's in the near future. I shall patiently wait and save money should that time come. For the mean time, I'm going to list some places to go to in Seoul that I haven't gone to during my previous visit.

1. Restaurants in Hongdae

Haha's Palja Makchang Restaurant in Hongdae (still from Running Man ep 103)

When I went to Seoul last 2011, I didn't get to go around Hongdae and just visited the Coffee Prince cafe. I regret it so much that I promise myself that the next time I go to Korea, I'd go around Hongdae for a whole day. There are many restaurants and cool stuff in Hongdae so I doubt that anyone who wants to visit Seoul doesn't know about it. First example of a restaurant that I would visit is Haha's Palja Makchang. Out of curiousness and my love for Haha and Running Man, I shall visit his restaurant, in hopes of somehow seeing him attending to customers. But that's just hopeful thinking. *sighs*

Tom's Cat Cafe in Hongdae (photo taken from Visit Korea website)

Other than Haha's restaurant, there are many unique restaurants in Hongdae like a Cat Cafe. I would want to visit that cafe and just play around with the kitties! (that's the life) I'm sure that even if I just wander around Hongdae, I would find interesting places to eat at and have fun.

2. Nightclubs in Hongdae

Club NB in Hongdae (photo taken from Visit Korea website)

All day I would roam around Hongdae finding places to shop & eat at but at night, I shall go to a nightclub in Hongdae. Hongdae is the center of Seoul's youthful nightlife, which means that all the cool kids go there to party! Nightclubs are lined-up somewhere in Hongdae and there's so much clubs to choose from so it's definitely a place where everybody goes to just to partaay. One club that I'll definitely visit is Club NB, which is owned by YG. Who knows, I might just run into a YG artist there? Just kidding. (But seriously though.)

3. Jjimjilbang

Jjimjilbang in Running Man ep 143

What is that? Is that some sort of a place? Well, it's a public bathhouse, usually with sauna, hot tubs, and showers. It's one of those places you usually see in K-dramas where they stay over night if they don't have anywhere to sleep. They usually eat hard-boiled eggs there and wear same colored shirts and shorts. I think it's so fun to go there with your friends and just relax, lie around, and share stories with each other while in Korea.

4. Cheongdamdong & Apgujeong

Cheongdamdong (still from Cheongdamdong Alice ep 1)

I actually considered going there when I planned our trip to Seoul back then, but decided not to go since we didn't actually have much money to afford stuff in there. Cheongdamdong and Apgujeong are places in Gangnam, the place PSY was singing about. It's a luxurious place where all over-privileged kids shop at in their spare time. They also hang-out in extravagant restaurants and cafes with probably over-priced food and drinks. Nevertheless, I'd still like to experience and observe those rich kids spend their money, maybe while drinking coffee myself. I'd also love it if I could have enough money to afford even just one little item in those luxury stores..

5. Temples

Bongeunsa Temple in Gangnam (photo taken from Visit Korea website)

I actually want to participate in a Temple Stay, since I'm really interested in Buddhism. It would be a great experience to stay at a temple for most likely two days and one night. It is a place to relax in and be one with myself and my surroundings. From time to time, it is a nice thing to meditate and it would be a complete experience if I do it in a temple, with the guidance of the monks, while away from home.

That's it for my top five places to visit in Seoul on my next trip (hopefully in the future!) to South Korea. I hope you get inspired to visit some of these places to in your trip to Korea. How about you? What are your places to visit in Seoul? 

K-Mondays: Korean Food and Why I Make It

I love Korean food. I might say that it's an acquired taste for me, because I really didn't like much foreign taste on my mouth back when I was a kid. Regardless, I started following Korean recipes from online in making my own Korean food. Since then, two staple Korean ingredients are a must buy for me and stays in the fridge for as long as it can. These two staple ingredients are doenjang (bean paste) and gochujang (hot pepper paste). These two are the first, in fact, ingredients that I bought along with anchovy powder. Now, which Korean food did I decide to make with those ingredients? It's doenjang jjigae! You see, I was a huge Marry Me, Mary fan then, and seeing Jang Geun Seuk eat doenjang jjigae happily makes me want to try it. Before I made it though, I went to a Korean restaurant to taste what it should taste like and then tried to make it on my own. After many (and many more) tries of making doenjang jjigae, I found the taste that I like that may or may not be what it originally should taste like. Nonetheless, My family, friends and I are the only ones suffering from my bad doenjang jjigae cooking (if that's the case). 

This is not my first attempt at doenjang jjigae. I ate it with adobo rice (Filipino food), scrambled eggs (American?) and kimchi.

There have been countless of times when my friends, family, and I eat at a Korean restaurant together. One of the basic dishes that we usually order is bibimbap. It's a dish with mostly rice, various vegetables, egg, and sometimes meat, all topped off with a chili sauce made with gochujang and other stuff. I tried making bibimbap for the first time but since my family then was going easy with rice, we bought quinoa and tried out Erwan Heussaff's recipe of quinoa bibimbap. Of course there was no meat, just an egg, kimchi, shiitake mushrooms, spinach, and carrots. 

Ze healthy quinoa bibimbap

During my birthday, we decided to make japchae, a Korean style pancit. Noodles are served on birthdays because it symbolizes long life, and so why not make it Korean style? My sister and I have been making japchae whenever we have the chance to buy the potato starch noodles in the Korean store. This time, we made it chicken meat instead of beef.

Japchae for long life on my birthday!

When I was alone in our house back in Dubai and I didn't have anything to eat for breakfast, I made my own with the ingredients in sight. I bought gim or laver or nori to add to any rice dishes and my sister had bought her favorite yellow pickled radish just to eat as a side dish. Because of that, I had ingredients in making kimbap! The biggest struggle for me in making this dish was that I didn't have the thing that you roll it in. I just did my best in rolling the stuff and ta-da! Tuna kimbap! There were also left over gim so I made a jumug bap the next day and even bought some gim to my friends house and we made kimbap together.

This one's my kimbap, with the right side set overflowing with tuna.

Lastly, the main reason why I continue on making Korean food and satisfying my cravings is because I usually watch and re-watch episodes of Family Outing and Running Man. Family Outing definitely brought out the hungry Korean inside of me because of their cooking in every episode. Even though I haven't exactly made maeuntang (spicy fish soup), which they usually make in FO, the show always had me thinking of what Korean dish to cook next. On the other hand, Running Man sometimes have food episodes where they eat in a manner which makes the viewers hungry. In fact, I made patbingsoo because of one episode where they went to a market and ate it during summer. 

There is one last Korean dish that is hard for me to make because of the ingredients and that is ttukbeokki. Premade rice cakes are hard to find and if you buy it, you have to eat it right away that's why I've made ttukbeokki just twice. Another ingredient in ttukbeokki, which is eomuk (fish cake), is now a need in our fridge because my mom and sister loved it when I made spicy stir-fried fish cake.

Ttukbeokki with fish cake, eggs, and hotdogs.

My cravings for Korean food still haven't stopped and now that I'm in the Philippines and I found a nearby Korean grocery store, I'm looking forward to making more Korean food based from online recipes. The next dish that I'm attempting to make is budae jjigae (army base soup), mainly because I watched Daesung's episode (in Running Man) again and they made it in that episode. I tried making it last night but there was just a lack of ingredients (no kimchi ;_;) so I thought it wasn't much a budae jjigae as it was a light ttukbeokki without ttuk (rice cake).

Bingsoo ya, Patbingsoo ya.. (My Version of Patbingsoo!)

This song is by Yoon Jong Shin, which is about Patbingsoo. The beat is refreshing like summer right?

Patbingsoo is a popular summer snack in Korea, which is made mainly from sweetened azuki beans, shaved ice, fruits, and small pieces of rice cakes (tteok). Other varieties of Patbingsoo include different types of fruits like banana, strawberry, etc. Ice cream can also be added, depending on taste. "Luxury" kinds of Patbingsoo include lots of fruits, variety of ice cream flavors (green tea please), cereal, and so much more. To complete the delicious snack, sweetened condensed milk is added. 

There definitely is a Filipino counterpart of Patbingsoo, and that is Halo-halo. Halo-halo's name is from the Filipino word "halo" meaning to mix. Halo-halo also by itself means "mixed" or "of different types." Halo-halo, in contrast, has many ingredients (about ten more or less) of different varieties ranging from beans to fruits. It is also sometimes topped with ice cream and completed with evaporated milk. As a Filipino, I explained Patbingsoo as the Korean Halo-halo to my family. Since summer time is slowly approaching in countries that have 4 seasons (like Korea) and it's also getting hotter in Dubai, I decided to make Patbingsoo. I actually didn't have the idea to make it until I went to the grocery and found this wonderful bag of red beans (azuki beans). 

(photo taken from Google)

I don't usually cook, but I always find myself making Korean food at home. However, the timing was right and I have been craving since I re-watched an episode of Running Man where they ate Patbingsoo at a market (deliciously, if I may add). Maangchi (Korean food blogger) has always been my guide when I suddenly crave for Korean food. In fact, here's the recipe I followed in making Patbingsoo. I had to adjust the measurements though, since I decided to cook all of the beans in that 340 g pack.

So here's my own recipe of Patbingsoo.

Ingredients (for sweetened azuki beans)

340g Azuki beans (roughly 1 and 3/4 cup)

6 cups water

1 tbs vanilla

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 ts salt

I followed Maangchi's instructions to boil the beans on low heat and let it simmer for an hour until the beans are crushable. Drain the water then add vanilla, sugar and salt. Mix over low heat for 5 minutes. Let it cool.

This is the leftover sweetened red beans after making 2 servings.

I didn't get to take pictures of the process so I only took photos of what's left in the end. Now to make the Patbingsoo itself..

Since I made this without much planning, I just shaved the ice through a blender. I added the sweetened red beans, banana, and apple on top of the shaved ice and finished it off with skimmed milk. I put skimmed milk to lessen the sugar content and because the Azuki beans are already sweet, it makes up for the flavor.

Here it is, my version of Patbingsoo perfect for summer.

This Patbingsoo is my humble version of the snack, without rice cakes (tteok), which makes it very Korean. I hope someday, when I pass by a Korean mart, I can buy tteok and put it in my Patbingsoo!