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I love food. During my time in Korea, I have been collecting recipes and anecdotes about Korean food. I also have been working on survival techniques for westerners living in Korea.

In this journal are recipes for cooking Korean food in Korea or abroad and recipes for recreating western food with Korean ingredients.

But mostly, it's about enjoying life.

SUBJECT KEY
Christmas Chronicles - Trying to celebrate Christmas in Korea
Drink - Imbibe me
Event - Special events involving special Korean foods
FFF (Food for Foreigners) - Recipes for foreigners living in Korea
FP (Food Porn) - Pictures for stimulation
Fusion - A mixture -- or clash -- of cultures
Junk - Junk food
KFC (Korean Food Concept) - A blog entry explaining a type of Korean food
Kimchi - Something about kimchi
KR (Korean Recipe) - A recipe for Korean food, duh!
Miscellaneous - Stuff, stuff, and stuff
News - Korean food in the news
Out There - What others are saying
Rest (Restaurant) - An entry about a restaurant in Korea
Street Food - An entry about a street food concept or adventure
Tip - A survival tip for living or visiting Korea
Video - A summary of a video on the site
WTF - A feature on anything unusual that has to be investigated further

Saturday, November 26, 2005

(KFC #4) Meat, Meat, Meat: The Gogi Buffet

My co-workers Julia and Lars had been raving about some restaurants that are gogi (meat) buffets. I thought, "Oh cool, get some meat and veg out of steam strays under heat lamps. Okay. I'll try it."

One night, we went for it. When we got there, I realized, "Oh yeah, this is Korea. Everything's raw until you cook it."

The meat buffet was like the meat and seafood counters at your supermarket. Except that you get a plate and pile it high from bowls of raw protein of most any kind. There were different cuts of pork, beef, chicken, duck, gizzards, intestines, four kinds of octopus, shellfish, marinated eels, shrimp, and other bits and pieces we just cooked to find out what it tasted like.

Now, the restaurant would lose money if you ate just meat. So they had plenty of side dishes, and good ones, to distract you. One is a new favorite of mine, todok root, which is very expensive because it's pretty labor intensive to prepare it. But the final result is a sweet and sour crunchy root vegetable that is great grilled.

They also had my favorite Korean restaurant side dish, raw marinated crab halves.

So, what do you do with all this raw meat?

You cook it at your table, of course.

Because it's just a 6,000 won all-you-can-eat buffet, it's pretty no frills in atmosphere, like a local steakhouse country buffet back home.

Lars and I went straight for the weirder looking stuff in the case.

In the end, we kept going back to the pork, and we really liked the duck.

Towards the end of the meal, after our seventh plate of meat, Julia informed us that there's a per-dish financial penalty for uneaten food. So it's not only an all-you-can-eat but a take-all-you-want-but-eat-all-you-take buffet.

So we finished every bit of fat, muscle, gristle, and innard. I thought that this would be a regular thing, at first. But we all have noticed that our time

in Korea has cut down our tolerance for fat and grease. I was feeling pretty woozy after the meal, and my throat felt so lubricated with fat that I could easily swallow a box of nails.

But if you have a short time in Korea and want to have a taste of the meat dishes and sides Korea has to offer, the Gogi Buffet is a good quick survey of what's available.

Labels: Korean Food Concept

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Sunday, November 20, 2005

(KFC #3) The Greatest Food Invented: Grilled Shellfish (Jogae Kui)

One mark of Korean cuisine is the thrill of grilling food at your table. There is something primal about a group of people getting around a fire and grilling meat. There's also the added danger.

My old girlfriend introduced me to the ultimate concept, Jogae Kui 조개 귀 on a trip to the beach in April 2004. There were live shellfish in a tank outside, and the staff would just put the live shellfish on the grill, where they would spit and spatter until they gave up and their shells opened slowly.

I had this again with a group of friends on a trip to Seoraksan Mountain and Seocho Beach in November 2004. There are bits of that in the videos.

I had been always bugging my friends to go back and do the shellfish thing. They would joke and say that my catchphrase was, "Do you like shellfish?"

I love shellfish! I grew up on the Gulf coast, and I had my first raw oyster before I had my first Pop Tart(tm).

Recently, Injoo suggested we go to Oido, the closest town on the coast from us, to have jogae kui to celebrate his birthday.

On a Friday evening, Injoo, Lars, and I met two girls, who drove us to Oido. We entered the shellfish restaurant, and we could immediately tell that this was not an ordinary set up. For one thing, the floor was gravel. The tables were plywood boards constructed around old oil drums, which acted as grills. You can make one of these things at your house and entertain family and friends (I would).

We ordered the shellfish, and they came out live. I mean LIVE.

Now, for a period in my life, I was a professional oyster shucker at a redneck bar. I don't remember oysters squirming. But these shellfish, particularly the scallops, were opening and closing their shells like they were talking.

Injoo and I placed a few on the grill. We designated ourselves as the official shuckers of the party. To perform this task, we were given two work gloves, both of which we slipped onto one hand, and a butter knife.

We had also ordered our favorite Korean home brew liquor, dong dong ju, which tastes like a smooth sake and tingles like champagne punch.

Along with the shellfish, the restaurant gave us a big bowl of Haemul Kalguksu 해물칼국수, which is a cloudy noodle soup filled with fruits of the sea.

Even though we had sauces for the shellfish, they tasted best straight out of the shells, with the salty brine burning the tongue. I personally liked the oysters best. Nonetheless, we did give a scallop a sticker for being such a good sport. Oysters in Korea are brinier than any I've had anywhere else, even though they're a tad smaller.

Dealing with these buggers can be dangerous. I was so hungry while shucking these that I easily forgot that I was taking them off of a blazing charcoal fire. A few times the hot juice soaked through my glove and sizzled my finger. It's been a week, and one of my fingertips is still sensitive from the burn.

Injoo got himself burned, and I got it on camera.

To end the meal, Injoo held the bowl of Kalguksu to the sign advertising it as a salute and tribute. We left the restaurant with nothing behind but a small graveyard of shells.

Labels: Korean Food Concept

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

(FFF #8) Welsh Rarebit Mac and Cheese

I found cheddar!!!

Seriously, the cheese section at Korean supermarkets is as large as the kimchi section in American ones. They mostly have just processed cheese and mozzarella. Recently, a few swiss and brie varieties have popped up.

But now, I have finally found cheddar cheese at the E-Mart here in Anyang. Of course, it’s more expensive than in the U.S., but not grotesquely so. I bought a good 12 oz.* block of it.

It sat in the fridge for a while, and one night while walking home, I decided to make something I hadn’t had in a long time, Welsh Rarebit.

I had started getting into a British food freak out before leaving for Korea, and I remembered one pub making it on some great bread with a slice of fried bacon and a slice of ripe tomato.

My pace quickened. Then another brainstorm hit. Since I have cheddar, I can also make macaroni and cheese. I truly missed this essential comfort food.

Oh man, which should I have?

Thought occurred.

No way, really? Hmm… It might just work.

I got home and proceeded to make a roux with a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour over medium high heat. I then poured in a quart of milk and stirred constantly to make a basic white sauce, for about the time it took to drink one beer. I also had some elbow macaroni boiling in salted water.

When the sauce started bubbling, I cubed the cheddar and gradually added it. Each time I added a little, I stirred until it blended with the sauce.

One ingredient I didn’t have on hand for making Welsh Rarebit was dry mustard. I read some recipe on the internet that suggested substituting with prepared mustard. So I added a squirt of yellow mustard, a cup of beer, and a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, along with some salt and black pepper, tasting it until it tasted just right.

Next, I added the drained macaroni, stirred, and when it started bubbling again, I took it off the heat and served it with diced tomatoes as garnish.

Turned out pretty good. I had made a lot, and I ended up eating it for meals and snacks for a week, and I didn’t get tired of it.

* I guess 12 oz. because everything's metric here. I honestly didn't check the weight on the package, but it was around the size I remember 12 oz. blocks of cheese were.

Labels: Food for Foreigners

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005

(KFC #2) Gobchang Kui - The Beauty of Grilled Intestines

I grew up in the South. Part of Southern soul food culture is chitterlings, more commonly known as chitlins. I honestly had never tried this delicacy before coming to Korea. Then again, I hadn’t even heard of fried green tomatoes until the movie came out.

In the summer of 2004, Brant and I were sitting outside at a samgyeopsal place. We observed this restaurant next to us, which would flame something in a pan with soju. We decided to check this out.

Back then, my Korean was even worse than it is now. We had no idea what we were ordering on the menu. The waiter made sure that what we ordered was what we wanted. He then came out with this pan of vegetables and what looked like elbow macaroni. He proceeded to heat up the pan and flambéed it with soju.

I took one of the macaroni pieces and examined it.

“Brant, um, I think these are intestines.”

“Really? Try it. How is it?”

“Mmm. Pretty damn good.”

It was then that we were hooked. Grilled intestines, to us, taste like good old fashioned breakfast bacon. The restaurant mixed it with liver and onions and stuff. Made it the ultimate man food.

Six months later, I moved to the Sillim neighborhood in southern Seoul. Sillim is a pretty rundown area and is famous for one thing: sundae gobchang bokkum. This is blood sausage and intestine stir fry. The first time I went to one of these places, I had to beg my girlfriend Eun Jeong to come along. Even though she had already eaten dinner before meeting me, she ate a lot of the SGB in our sitting at the famous pink restaurant. I later introduced Brant to it, and Brant introduced everyone else to it. I have a video of one night there.

When I moved to Anyang, we found a branch of the famous pink restaurant there. We also found a basic gobchang restaurant in the area, which was fairly expensive.

Recently, we went back to the original place in Ansan, where I first tried this delicacy. It is still the best place I have had gobchang. Lars had instantly become a fan of it early in his stay in Korea, thanks to Injoo and me. He agrees with us that this place in Ansan is the best place for gobchang.

While we were waiting for our order, the waitress asked if we wanted any “gan.” I knew gan meant liver. I said, “Sure.”

She came out with a bowl of cubed RAW liver. We tried it, and despite the gelatinous texture, we liked it. Especially when it w

as dipped in one of the sauces.

The pan of gobchang came out, and the waitress flamed it with soju. We had to order extra, it was so good. Crispy on the outside, salty, bacony goodness.

As with any good grilled dinner, we had the option of taking the leftovers in the pan and making a fried rice with them. Rice was added with more vegetables and dried seaweed to make a heavenly send off to a great meal.

Forget sashimi. This is our new special treat for a night out.

Labels: Korean Food Concept

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Sunday, November 13, 2005

(Event #1) Pepero Day

Children get all excited about this day, Pepero Day. Okay, the Korean spelling is 빼빼로, making i

ts literal Romanization "Bbebbero."

How about Bpebpero?

Actually, if you say it using that spelling, more Koreans will understand you.

Bpebpero comes from the Korean root meaning "skinny." These are skinny cookie sticks dipped in chocolate. Bpebpero Day occurs on November 11th, or 11/11.

Get it?

It's an obvious commercial ploy by the Korean conglomerates, more than likely Lotte, to obligate children to buy candies on a specified day. It's really no different from Hallmark inventing Valentine's Day to sell more greeting cards.

When I talk about Bpebpero Day with Korean adults, they almost all ask, "What d

o you think about that?"

The adults are acutely aware of the commercial propaganda of this day. Being a teacher and a parent, I have learned that one person alone is powerless against a multi-million dollar marketing campaign.

So I bought a few 500 won packs of Bpebpero to hand out to my students.

On Bpebpero Day, we teachers also receive Bpebpero from students. This was only my second Bpebpero Day, but in one year's time, it seems like the flavor has improved a lot. Last year, I could barely eat the things because they tasted so laden with chemicals.

This year they tasted more natural, like a delicate Swiss cookie. And they had larger, more creative varieties. My favorite was essentially a waffle cone rolled into a long tube and dipped in chocolate. It was a foot long.

And also, they can be pretty useful. Their pencil-like shapes come in handy when you run out of ink.

Labels: Event

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Friday, November 11, 2005

(KFC #1) Kalbi - Korea's BBQ

Kalbi 갈비 literally means "ribs." When it's described in books, it's "short ribs," which gives someone an inaccurate impression. Yes, technically, it's true. They're short ribs. But they're not done like Johnny's Rib Shack. They're long strips of meat attached to a small bone at the end, marinated in a sweet thin sauce.

Injoo is obsessed with finding the cheapest kalbi and samgyapsal deals. "Oh man, there's this new 3,000 won samgyapsal restaurant. We gotta do that."

It's a bit of a Friday tradition to go out for kalbi after work. After the Halloween carnival we had on a Friday night, we were all very tired and felt like we deserved a good kalbi dinner. Injoo suggested a new 5,000 won kalbi place. I was skeptical, saying that it was Friday night. "I would take good kalbi over cheap kalbi."

Surprise, surprise! This was also a good kalbi place. It started off the same way most kalbi places do. There's a guy I call the "fire chief." It's his job to maintain a BBQ pit full of glowing charcoals. These charcoals are manufactured to be large single cylinders with holes patterned in a circle through the top and bottom of the cylinders. These holes help air heat the charcoals. The fire chief also uses these holes to pick up the charcoals with a long iron rod.

This is the most dangerous part of the meal. The fire chief retrieves a large charcoal cylinder and runs through the restaurant. Reaching over the shoulders of the diners, he puts the cylinder in a hole in the table and covers it with a grill. He then turns on this sci-fi aluminum vacuum hose to suck up the smoke.

The waitress arrives with a plate full of marinated meat and puts it on the grill. The charcoal is so hot that the meat almost instantly sizzles. The meat we always get is pork because it's cheaper, and I feel that pork absorbs a better BBQ taste than beef. I'm expecting a lot of hate mail from BBQers west of the Mississippi for that one.

After they cook for a while, the waitress returns and cuts the meat into bite size pieces with kitchen shears. Then they're ready to eat.

With kalbi, as with most Korean food, we get lots of condiments. The challenge is to find room on the table for everything. What side dishes we get is different all the time, but we can always count on a plate of different kinds of lettuce and other leaves (sesame leaves are my favorite), whole korean peppers, sliced raw garlic, and gochujang (red pepper paste).

I read in one food blog that an uppity waitress at a Korean restaurant in New York sneered at patrons who didn't follow simple rules about eating kalbi. Don't eat the garlic raw. Don't use more than one leaf of lettuce at a time.

That's pure bull.

I have observed Koreans and have asked Koreans questions about kalbi etiquette. Anything goes. You can wrap them in leaves, eat them straight off the grill. You can cook the garlic and peppers or eat them raw after dipping them in gochujang. You can put anything you want in your lettuce wraps, as long as they fit.

The only rule I have heard is that if everyone is eating from a communal bowl of soup, it is rude to fill your spoon with rice and dip it in the soup.

That Friday night, we also ordered a bowl of kimchi chigae, which they placed on the grill to keep it hot and boiling. It was very good, though not as good as my homemade chigae :-P.

As an aside, there are two main kinds of kalbi, regular kalbi and LA kalbi. The LA version comes from some city in California which I can't remember the name. The difference is that the meat is cut at a different angle, which affects the taste and the price. I have had it once, and it's pretty good. Yet it's not good enough to justify the price hike.

Labels: Korean Food Concept

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