Cheese Ravioli with Soju Sauce (using homemade cheese)

One of the original reasons I started this blog years ago was to share tips on how to survive on the Korean economy–one where cheese is scarce, coffee is expensive, and ovens are luxuries. I’ve made it my mission to find ways to bring home a little closer to my adopted home because we all know that one cannot live on kimchi alone–well, okay, Korea’s citizens can pull it off, but that takes early childhood programming. I’m not quite wired that way.

That’s why we have Food for Foreigners.

It’s a category for tips and recipes for those foods you miss from home using the following guidelines:

• No ovens. Most expats in Korea don’t have them. So it’s a waste to give recipes using devices that people don’t have. I’ll admit that there are a couple of oven recipes in the batch, but I state upfront that they are oven recipes. Some of them you can get away with performing by using a toaster oven. And toaster ovens you can find cheap and secondhand online. I did.
• No Costco. Not everyone has access to Costco, especially on a consistent basis. I try to stick to ingredients people can find at their local ajosshi marts and big box supermarkets. Occasionally I head down to the international markets like the ones in Itaewon and Ansan. There were a couple little Chinese shops near me when I lived in Sillim-dong where I scored cilantro and ground corn (for polenta and mock grits).
• Keep it affordable. A trap expats run into is paying way too much for home comforts. With a little flexibility, you can make decent substitutions and not only create an old favorite but discover a new favorite. Insisting on a narrow set of ingredients is stubborn and shows no imagination. You’re just not going to get veal demi glace in Korea. Get over it.

Some of the most popular posts highlight making your own ingredients, like Mock Ricotta Cheese and Corned Beef. Shinshine has even shown how to make a Cake using a Rice Cooker, and I used a tip I found from a book on food science to make Cappuccino in a Microwave and have made real unsweetened Yogurt in a Thermos. A good example of using local ingredients as substitutions is the Cheese Ravioli in Soju Sauce, which is really a vodka sauce with soju instead. In the near future, I’ll post how I took the Mock Ricotta Cheese one step further to make my own goat cheese.

Yes, I can show you how to make goat cheese for under W5,000. And it’s pretty dang good. So remember to subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss out on the fun, and share with your friends (using one of the links below).

Tags: expats, Food For Foreigners, hack, kitchen, Korea, lifehacking

Posted by Steve Ward

Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.

Tags: foods, Korea, mexican, seoul

Here’s a little blast from the past.  EJ and I visit the Namsan Folk Village for Lunar New Year, where we ended up having our wedding in 2009.  It was amazingly frigid that day.

Tags: chinese new year, Korea, lunar new year, new year, seollal

They're really crowding the sidewalk and are disorderly, huh...

The Korea Times reports that the Jongno District Office has ordered that Filipinos stop holding their Sunday market in Hyewha-dong, based on the concerns of racists concerned citizens.

The marketplace, dubbed “Little Manila,” first emerged in 1997, and takes place every Sunday for Filipinos after attending a mass at the Hyehwa Catholic Church. About 1,200 to 2,000 Filipinos gather at the marketplace, which some consider as a fine example of Korea’s racial harmony.

Father Alvin Parantar, who found out about this first hand, was told why.

“The reasons they gave up us was one, they received complaints from neighbors and pedestrians in the area; two, there were concerns about cleanliness and order; three, they want to redevelop the sidewalk and include a waterfall wall in the area; and four, they want to transfer the market to a new multicultural market,” the priest told The Korea Times over the phone.

Complaints from neighbors and pedestrians? The Hyewha-dong market, the last time I went, looked like any other streetside market–no different than a line of pojang machas in Jongno.

Oh yeah, they’ve been kicking out most all the street food vendors in Jongno.

As far as cleanliness, it looked just as clean, if not cleaner, than any open air Korean market, including Namdaemun Market.  The waterfall makes the Jongno District Office look like clown shoes.  “Hey, let’s get rid of our cultural richness so we can sanitize and Disney-fy the place.  People love artificial waterfalls.”

Keep in mind, that this is what’s considered sidewalk development in the Hyewha-Daehangno area.

From KimGrantMosaics.com

And the fourth one about moving to a new multicultural market–really?  Are we being this blatant about our aversion to the “dirty Asians?” We have to move them to a ghetto special area removed from the general society?  The market is there because it’s next to the church.

Even if I’m being harsh and totally out of line with the bigotry argument, and inspired by bigotry or not, that’s going to be the perception, this is another example of how the government still — doesn’t– get — it.  The Hyewha Filipino Market is one of Seoul’s culinary tourist attractions.  It’s part of the character that is making Seoul more popular. Redeveloped sidewalks are fine but are only useful if you can keep reckless teen-driven delivery scooters off of them.  They’re more of a danger than a tent selling longanisa sausages (Mmm…).  Artificial waterfalls reduce character and makes a neighborhood look like it’s amateurishly striving for some attention.

And this obsession with killing off street food that seems to have some roots in the 2002 World Cup is highly irritating.  Officials complain that they are embarrassments.  I think this stems from one of the core problems the government has in wrapping its mind around how to promote Korean food–an obsession with class status.  It ties into why the promoters are so bloody minded in pushing royal court cuisine and pretentious overpriced restaurants onto a world suffering from economic crisis.  I bet you in their minds, promoting Korean food isn’t about spreading Korea’s traditions.  It’s a method to gain higher class status in the eyes of the world’s yangban elite.

And it looks like the Hyewha Filipino Market is an easy sacrifice for that climb on the imaginary status ladder, only to be replaced by sculptures of poop.

[HT to Extra! Korea]

ZenKimchi article on the Hyewha Filipino Market

A Filipino blogger’s thoughts on the subject

UPDATE: It looks like the Filipino ambassador is getting involved in trying to preserve the market.

Tags: filipino market, Korea, tourism

Posted by Steve Ward

I finally started the end-all-be-all of projects to find the best places to get coffee in Seoul. I’ve been wanting to create an interactive map of some kind for quite some time and have finally figured out how to do it.

Here’s the thing: I need help with this. I need people to add their own favorite places to the map so that we can all help each other. As such, I want to give contributors their due, and since I already have it set up on my own private blog, rather than re-embedding the map here, I’ll have to ask you to go over there to play around with and contribute to the project. This is not to try and bum traffic off of ZenKimchi. This is just so that I’ll be able to easily update the site with contributors in one place as needed.

Anyway, I hope people can get some use/entertainment out of it.

Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.

Tags: coffee, Korea, map

PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity & Respect) and Green Drinks Korea are organizing an event in Hongdae to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.  On February 12th there will be live music at three venues, Jane’s Groove, FF and DGBD.  The cover charge is W10,ooo, and all cover charges go to the Save the Children’s fund for Haiti relief.  The three venues have also offered to donate a portion of drinks sold.

This is Seollal weekend, so unless you have family obligations outside of Seoul, you don’t have an excuse.  Sounds like a lot of fun.  More information is at their Facebook group.

Tags: fundraiser, haiti, Korea

Posted by Tammy

I’ll be posting 12 tteokbokki recipes over the next 12 days leading up to the Korean Lunar New Year (Eum-nyeok Seollal, 음 력 설날) in response to the South Korean government’s campaign to make the rice cake dish the linchpin in their international marketing strategy for Korean cuisine.

The government wants Korean cuisine and culture to be more greatly appreciated all over the world and chose tteokbokki as key to the public relations push. [See "Tteokbokki, topokki: Whatever you call it, it's good!"]

I wonder whether the governmental champions of Korean cuisine think that by making tteokbokki an international cuisine it will boost other Korean delicacies, such as Chosun royal cuisine, to international recognition.

Many in the Korean ex-pat blogosphere wonder why the Korean government would be pushing tteokbokki (or any other rice product) when current domestic production doesn’t meet current demand.

Tteok commonly found in most Korean grocery stores on this side of the Pacific (San Francisco Bay Area) is made in the U.S. with American rice. In other words, increasing domestic rice production is only part of the issue. Imagine tteokbokki as a tool of public relations and international diplomacy.

There’s a small snag though. Tteokbokki traditionally is a very, very spicy dish. Even some Koreans won’t eat it because it’s so spicy. That’s why the Korean government created an official government agency to create Korean-fusion tteokbokki recipes.

If the Korean government wants to send me a donation for inspiration kindled during my forthcoming 12 Days of Tteok, I wouldn’t mind. However, I’m doing this because of my love of Korean cuisine and the challenge of making 12 dishes in a row with the same ingredient.

When I pitched this project to Joe McPherson, my “boss” he asked, “You think you could pull them off?”

Peer into my refrigerator (right) and see that I’ve got the tteok stocked. I’ll blog; you decide.

The first thing I will do to help the South Korean government promote this dish is to not use their dumbed-down pronunciation of it. Some ex-pats and tourists in Korea consider it a little insulting that the Korean government thinks we’re too babo (바보, or dumb) to pick up the correct pronunciation.

Here’s a hint: Tteok is pronounced somewhere between dock and tock. The double-T of the transliteration is more like a held-D when spoken. The bogi part of the dish name is pronounced like bogey. So, tteokbogi is pronounced like dock bogey. See, that wasn’t so difficult.

Twelve different versions of tteokbokki (using sauces from different parts of Asia, Europe and North America) in 12 days can wreak havoc on anyone’s diet, so dine in moderation. Feasting with your eyes is calorie free.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in San Francisco.  Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for my Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking two years ago (had to put her college degree to use somehow).  Her recipes (mostly in video form) have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Tags: All Korean Food, Food, Korea, korean, Korean Recipes, recipe, tteokbokki

Korean baking soda

Here’s a question from Lori:

Hi guys! Love your blog. Wondering if you could answer me a question about baking soda and baking powder here in Korea? I heard that these are switched here in Korea and you should use BS if a recipe calls for BP and vice versa. I’ve been making some pretty flat pancakes lately, but haven’t yet tried the switch. This thought just came to me while at work. Thanks! Lori

Hi Lori,

My experience hasn’t been too bad with baking powder and soda.  They aren’t mislabeled.  I’ve tasted each, and they’re what they say they are.  The baking powder is a little more bitter than I remember it in America.  I’ve stopped using it in my pancakes and waffles because it gives them a metallic taste.

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate.  Baking powder has sodium bicarbonate with an acidifying agent (cream of tartar) and drying agent (starch).

I do have a little trouble with cooking times and rising from what I believe are the high altitudes.  The substance you’re using may also be a bit old and has neutralized.  Also, with leavening agents, don’t let them sit around too long in a liquid mixture or they’ll lose their punch.  I’m pretty sure the baking powder in Korea is single acting baking powder, meaning that it needs to be used right away.  If you’re still having trouble, a possible solution could be to use baking soda and put in a little something acidic, like lemon.

Readers, have any of you been having this issue?

Tags: baking, Korea, pancakes

Posted by Steve Ward

Not all E-Marts have the roasters, but it seems like the big ones do and it’s usually by the wine, not the other coffee.

Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.

Tags: coffee, Korea