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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

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

(Drink #1) Did I Hear 'Yogurt Soju?'

Soju. The national drink of Korea.

I think it's one of the biggest selling spirits in the world. The Thirsty Traveler said something akin to that.

I had mentioned before that I had discovered some great soju cocktails at Indio. Since then, I have successfully attempted to recreate them at home, particularly the yogurt soju cocktail.

It is built like a highball, meaning that the ingredients are poured directly into the glass in a certain order with no stirring or shaking.

1 shot of Soju
Fill glass 2/3 full with Drinkable Plain Yogurt
Top with Lemon Lime Soda (Sprite, Chilsung Cider, 7-Up)

I have always had it without ice, but I'm sure ice is a welcome option on a hot day. It's a very refreshing drink and not as high in alcohol as other highballs. This means you can drink a lot of these and not get dehydrated while having your summer BBQs.

Labels: Drink

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Friday, May 19, 2006

(Junk #3) The Freaky Frico - Lotteria's Frico Cheeseburger

When you take a food that comes from one culture and develop it in another, you can get some crazy concoctions that are either divine or downright pukeworthy. Sushi came to America and the California Roll was born. Mayonnaise came to Japan and created some ungodly creations.

Mr. Pizza in Korea throws a lot of experiments down people's throats without seemingly being taste tested first. One particular disaster that comes to mind is a nasty pizza that was topped with coconut.

Lotteria recently revealed a new invention that was a bit unconventional -- the Frico Cheeseburger. At first I got it confused with Hardee's old Sourdough Frisco Burger. The picture of the Frico looked so crazy-go-nuts that I had to try it just to see what the freak was inside of it.

Here it is in the golden wrapper. I wonder if Willy Wonka redeems these.

The burger only vaguely resembles its advertised counterpart. But what burgers do look like the pictures?

The top layer is pickles, onions, lettuce, cheese sauce, and tomato on top of a meat patty.

Under the patty is the "Frico" in the "Frico Cheeseburger. It's a breaded and fried patty of Dutch Maasdam cheese.

Let me repeat that. It's a breaded and fried patty of Dutch Maasdam cheese. That is just pure evil putting that in a burger.

Ooh, and what's this surprise at the bottom? A ring of yellow pepper with a smattering of black olives. Whodathunk?

It is one of the best fast food hamburgers I have ever tried. I'm serious. Who in America would think of putting yellow peppers and black olives on a mass market hamburger? It takes someone from a different culture to go outside the conventional rules and think of something like that.

Oh, and what's this?

Just like me to break the rules. I didn't know that there was a special place on the tray designated for ketchup.

Labels: Junk

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Sunday, May 14, 2006

(Rest #4) Indio: How to Begin a Friday Night

Our friend Injoo is great at finding deals. One night he said, "Let's go to Indio. Three dishes for just 11,000 won."

I was suspicious, but it turned out to be great. Since then, I've been introducing more and more people to this place. It's the perfect place to kick off a Friday night.

First of all the menu is extensive. Pick three things from the menu. It's all in Korean, but if you can read just a little hangeul, it's not hard. I haven't checked, but they may have an English menu available. Really, you could just blindly pick three things and chances are that it'll all be good.

The food isn't fancy. It's good grubby bar food. And it comes in big enough proportions to feed three people easily. We've made it a goal to go down the menu to try as much as we can -- something different each trip.

Bacon vegetable stir-fry.

Potato gratin, which is different types of fries and tater tots with cheese sauce and ketchup. Dang good.

Some spicy crap I can't remember.

Deokbokki (chewy rice cakes) with beef -- lots of black pepper.

More greasy spicy food.

The beer is pretty cheap at Indio. 2,000 won for 500cc draft beer. That's another bonus.

The other interesting deal for drinks is their list of soju cocktails, which include lemon, peach, apple, grape, and -- yogurt.

I saw that on the menu and HAD to try it. It's soju mixed with drinking yogurt and lemon lime soda.

And I found a new favorite drink.

We're gradually going down the list of soju cocktails.

We did the apple. Pretty nice.

And the peach. Reminded me of being back in Atlanta.

This is also the home of the best "shake-em-up" dosirak box I've tried.

Indio also seems to be the hot spot for the younger crowd. It's a lively boisterous atmosphere that's different from other Korean restaurants and bars. It's more my type of place. It's not super brightly lit like a lot of restaurants are. It's not one of the pretentiously fake blacklit whiskey bars. It's relaxed.

And there are frequent appearances of Soju Man.

Labels: Restaurant

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