Korean Cooking!

I have bought several Korean cook books recently. I have been stocking up on the base ingredients and buying cooking equipment.

I personally love to cook. However, even for someone who thoroughly enjoys cooking, cooking new foods can be daunting. Even though I am Korean, Korean food is somewhat "foreign". By this I mean, I grew up learning how to cook American food. My parents were good about teaching me how to cook. I'm not ashamed to be a single guy who knows how to cook and bake, I'll never go hungry! However cooking American food is much different from cooking Korean food, or any other ethnic food. This may not seem like a big deal, but it does make a big difference.

The difference comes to creativity and time preparation. When you learn how to cook one ethnic type of food, you know what type of flavors, spices, and tastes mix well or work well together. You also learn valuable time savings methods in preparation. So trying to learn a new type of cooking takes a lot of time and effort. It also takes a lot of trial and error, but if your willing to put in the time, the end rewards is great!

Here is one of the recipe books that I purchased:
Discovering Korean Cuisine: Recipes from the Best Korean Restaurants in LA


I was really concerned when I was thinking about purchasing this book. In my past experience most cookbooks from restaurants were usually sub-par. The reason being is the recipes are often extremely complex and difficult, requires equipment the average person doesnt have, and never seems to taste right (like the restaurant is really going to give away their secret sauce!)

This cookbook does not fit this mold. It is actually very good. The recipes are fairly simple (much more than I expected) and they taste great! Although I am still skeptical that the restaurants give out their exact recipes, however, they still taste very good. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to start learning how to cook Korean. Fairly simple recipes, great tastes!

Here are some of the items I've cooked so far:
Dwaeji Bulgogi:


It was so good! It was so good that I made it again a week later!:


The recipe doesnt call for vegetables, but I hate making dishes with just meat, plus I love onions, green peppers, and green onions with these types of dishes! I think I am starting to overcome my "fear" of Korean cooking because I am starting to modify the dishes to my taste!

I have also made kimchi jeon:

I love kimchi jeon, but I never made it before because I thought it might be a little tough to make. Boy was I wrong! Flour, water, kimchi, salt! Thats it!!! And it tastes great!

The third dish I have made from this book was an egg casserole:

It looked really good! Unfortunately, it didnt taste as good as it looked. I think I know what went wrong, so the next time I make it I think I will know how to improve it. I really like this dish so I will try again!

Like I said this cookbook is really good. The recipes taste great, and the recipes are fairly simple and do not require a lot of ingredients (with a few exceptions).

I mentioned that I bought some new equipment...here was a gift to myself. I figured it would motivate me in my quest to learn Korean cooking, its worked so far!


Jealous? You should be, these are awesome tools! I had to think a long time about buying these. A really good knife set is really expensive. Was it worth the cost? Definitely, I am asking myself why I waited so long to buy a nice set. The efficiency of the way the knives cut is hard to describe. They are very solid knives, with some weight to them (personally like a heavier knife, it makes me feel like there is something there). Of course you can get a really good knife that is light weight. Actually the way the knife fits your hand and the weight are the biggest determining factors when buying a high end knife. So if your debating on getting a really good knife or set, I would highly recommend it. If you don't want to fork over all that money for a full set, I would highly recommend buying a good 8" chef knife, and a 3" or 4" paring knife, these two knives are the most used/common and probably the most cost efficient.

"Living and Surviving in South Korea"

Like I mentioned before, I have totally immersed myself into the whole Korean adoption thing. I bought several books on Amazon.com to read on the topics of adoption, with a focus on foreign/Korean adoptions. As I read these I will post my comments about them.

This was the first book I got in the mail. Here is a quick synopsis:

First off, Let me start off by saying, I highly recommend this book to any Korean who will be visiting Korea for the first time. This book touches on several key "issues" that you will not think about or read about anywhere else. There is also information that might be helpful to non-Koreans, but the target audience is for ethnic Koreans.

This is a broad overview guide of living in Korea from a Korean-American's perspective. The subtitle of this book is "What you won't learn in this Lonely Planet for Ethnic Koreans".

In case you don't know "Lonely Planet" is guide book for pretty much any country in the world. It is an excellent tool for traveling. However, Lonely Planet does not prepare Koreans returning to their motherland for the first time.

This book covers some basics such as public transportation, renting, and food. Actually I found that this book is much better at teaching the customs then "Lonely Planet". "Lonely Planet" is definitely a better guidebook with recommendations of where to go and what to see. "Living and Surviving in South Korea" is more of what to expect, in particular what to expect as a Korean visiting Korea for the first time.

I found this book extremely entertaining, and truthfully I wish I had read this book before my visits to Korea, however now that I read it, I find it very entertaining because I can laugh and say I experienced exactly what the author is writing about. The biggest thing for me was the language barrier. For the first time in my life I "fit in" and blended in with the crowd. That is until I opened my mouth! This is just one of several "issues/items" this books talks about that ethnic Koreans will face in their travels.

This book also talks gives a lot of history on the author and his personal experience. Which I always find interesting! I love reading or hearing about other Korean-Americans/Adoptees experiences.

Lastly the Author also discusses the "drive" to return to the motherland. The author discusses becoming an ESL teacher, gives hints on how do go about doing it, and other methods or ways to consider working in Korea. As I'm sure many ethnic Koreans have, the auther also weighs the pros and cons of living in Korea. The author is a definite supporter of Koreans wanting to return to the motherland.

I would highly recommend this book! I loved it from the moment I picked it up. I did "skim" through the hints section where he gives helpful hints to people on their first visit to Seoul (such as how to use the subway) because I already learned and experienced these hints.

Not only was the information excellent, but a look into the authors personal life was fascinating. Lastly, his arguments for living in Korea and his discussions about how to make it feasible was fascinating! The author almost had me packing my bags! While being an ESL teacher is perhaps the easiest way, the author does recognize people in situations such as myself where our careers are not exactly tailored to taking 2 years off to teach ESL (I'm a chemical engineer in the oil industry, so this would be a career killer), however the author recognizes this and gives other viable alternatives!

"The Calling"

I was talking to a friend of mine last week. We were walking around a park, just talking about life in general. I think everyone needs a friend who they can just talk with, because it is totally refreshing and therapeutic. Anyway I digress...back on topic.

As were walking my friend said something to this effect: "Why do all Koreans either have gone back to Korea or really want to go back to Korea..usually as an English teacher or anyway they can. Its weird, because no other ethnicity has such a strong urge to go back to their country as Koreans that I know." (BTW, this friend is not Korean) I laughed, because it seems so true. It seems that most Koreans that I have either lived in the motherland for an extended period of time or really want to visit/live in the motherland sometime in the future.

If your Korean you may know what I am talking about...then again maybe you don't (or maybe you just have not experienced "The Calling" yet).

"The Calling" is what I am terming the urge for a Korean to return to the Motherland.

No matter if your adopted, gyopo, or FOB, I think a large percentage of Koreans seem to get "The Calling" at some point of their lives. Some Koreans get it early, and for some people it doesn't occur until later in their lives. Apparently I was sort of a late bloomer. I didn't really get "The Calling" until after my first visit to the motherland. This may sound weird, but even leading up to my first visit to the motherland, I didn't really feel that excited. I felt like I was paying my respects, not much different from traveling to any other foreign country. But after my first visit, I had it bad! I still do, which is probably why I blog about stuff about the motherland or my crazy thoughts.

While people from other ethnicities may have something similar, it seems like Koreans in particular have a very high rate of "The Calling" amongst its people.

I wonder what percentage of Koreans have been to Korea at least once in their life, and how that compares to any other country?

Share your thoughts? If your Korean, do you have "The Calling" in you?

Adopted Koreans

Recently, I had an article published in the Korean Herald talking about my adoption and my recent travels to Korea. I have been contacted by a few readers who have had similar experiences as myself or unique ones to share.

One of hte readers, Mari Cochran, made a comment to my original post. I would like to pull and excerpt from her comment to discuss further. I hope she doesnt mind, but I think since it was posted as a comment that it is "public domain"? If not, then please let me know and I will change the post.

Mari recently wrote:
"The "us" - American-Koreans who have gone through the same thing - living in America, looking Korean, a mixed hybrid of both cultures - never truely fitting in to either culture. I have met many of "us" out there and we share a few things in common other than our experiences - we love to travel - I think it is because we can't quite identify completely with a particular culture so that we constantly float around, looking for it. Even after returning to Korea (as he did and I did), you still don't fit in because you can't talk the language - even the way we walk, dress, handle ourselves in a crowd is different from a native Korean. We don't get hung up about adoption and not knowing all the facts as other kinds of adoptees seem to - we have the same attitude as many koreans - it happened, it's in the past, get over it and move on. I think Koreans are as a culture pragmatists - we've been pushed and pulled by our neighbors so long that we have developed a thick skin and in a way, developed our own unique independent attitude that has passed down through the bloodlines."

After reading her comment, I was wondering if she was talking about only Korean adoptees or also American born Koreans? At the beginning of the comment it appeared to be both, but at the end of the comment its definitely geared towards Korean adoptees. Which lead me to question, do Korean adoptees feel/experience differently from American born Koreans?

I think yes and no. In the aspect of "wanting to return to Korea for the experience" and then also the "not fitting in when they arrive to Korea" they experience fairly closely what adopted Koreans experience. However, the general experiences from these two groups may overlap they are definitely different.

More often than not, the American born Koreans (just for clarification, kids who were born in the US to Korean parents, or maybe moved to the US when they were very young, where they don't remember Korea) usually speak Korean. Which gives them a huge "step up" over adopted Koreans who I think typically may not speak Korean. If they do speak Korean it is because they had to learn through formal training versus speaking it at home.

Language is one of the biggest factors which separates cultures, which is why I think there is a big difference between these two groups. I wonder if the "drive" to learn about Korea, Korean food, language, and culture is more so in adopted Koreans than American born Koreans because they are further removed from it? I know this "drive" to learn about Korea is really strong in me right now. I wonder if it is as powerful as it is because I grew up so far removed from it, that now its like a counter-balance for all of those years where I didn't experience Korean culture? Compared to an American born Korean, who may have the same "drive" but not as strong because they have had a little more exposure to it than I have?

Maybe Im crazy, and I don't know how you would be able to measure someone's "drive" or motivation towards something. Or maybe its just person to person. I wonder if all Korean adoptees experience what Im feeling right now(a strong urge/drive/motivation to learn and experience as much Korean stuff as I can) at some point in their lives? I know if you had asked me this 10 years ago, I would have laughed. 10 years ago, I had no interest in Korean culture.

I especially like the last part of Mari's comments, how Korean adoptees are also different from other adoptees. Also how we seem to have this "thicker skin" that has been passed down our bloodlines. I wonder if there are any studies on adopted Koreans. I see a lot of similarities in what Mari has written and what Ive read from the few other adopted Koreans I have met. I wonder if adopted Koreans have somehow developed a "culture" of our own. We don't have our own language, or our own food, but we all share a common life experience that only we know about. We share this drive to identify with a culture, and to learn about Korea, and to someday return to the motherland.

Something unique about this "culture" that adopted Koreans might have, is that it was not formed as a group. With the exception of Minnesota, which oddly has a large population of adopted Koreans, our "culture" originated individually amongst each one of us, on our own. This is kind of reverse of how "culture" is traditionally definited. Usually its a common thing amongst a group of people. However for adopted Koreans it has had to develop in each of us individually and when you look at our group as whole you find this "culture". I guess it is very fitting that this "culture" of adopted Koreans is untraditional and has had to adapt because of our unique situation, similarly to how untraditional our experiences have been and how we have had to adapt to our surroundings.

Sunduboo II

It was a cold and blusterous rainy night in St. Louis. Perfect weather for sunduboo!!!

This is my second attempt at making sunduboo. Thanks to Maangchi for the recipe I followed.

I even debuted my new stone pot for this recipe!! I made a little change to the recipe. I used pork instead of beef. I think pork suits sunduboo better than beef.



The stone bowl worked great! It kept the sunduboo hot to the last bite! I think I even burned my tongue on my last bite!

It wasn't perfect...for some reason the egg didn't "bind" everything together and so it was a little watery.I think it was due to the way I mixed it in. You know what they say "third times a charm"!! I'll just have to be sure to make it soon!

Korea Garden Grille

The third night in my quest for a really good Korean restauarant continues... This was my third night in Houston. My third night driving over an hour for a measly 5-10 miles to get dinner! Of course your probalby thinking.. "who the heck drives that much for food??" Please remember two things:
1. Houston traffic is notoriously horrible.
2. Im addicted to Korean food

I think my quest is going to make me gain a lot of weight this week.....the things I do in the search of the best Korean Restaurant in Houston.

Korea Garden Grille was almost perfect restaurant. I want to give you the visuals..so close your eyes and take a few deep breathes and clear your mind....

Ok..think Korea BBQ; think bulgogi, korean ribeye, spicy pork, spicy chicken, spicy squid, shrimp, and octopus...Now visualize all of those uncooked on a big buffet....all you can eat...with all you can eat ban chan.....perfection???

I thought I was in heaven when I first arrived to this restuarant. Yes it is a buffet all you can eat korean BBQ restauarant. Definitely unique and definitely the first I have ever seen or even heard of.

I wasnt expecting much from the ban chan...however, it was extremely good. After thinking about it, the restauarant has an incentive to make really good banchan. Its probably way cheaper than all you can eat meat...lol. Also the kimchee was the best Ive had in Houston to date. By far. I could have filled up on rice and kimchee except I wanted to make sure I got my money's worth...lol.

Onto the important stuff...the meat... The meat was really good quality. I was real rib and ribeye beef. The chicken was good as as the pork. No gristle and not the cheap fatty stuff. I was really shocked! There were only a few disappointments. The marinade for the beef dishes could have been better. I dont think this was a way the restaurant was trying to save money because marinade is probably one of the cheaper items they buy or make. So I dont know how to explain why the marindade was very good. Its a shame because its the only think keeping this restaurant from being near perfect. The chicken, pork, salmon, and squid were really good. I didnt try the octopus and shrimp.

Don't get me wrong, the beef wasnt bad...it just wasnt what I was expecting. It tasted like plain beef and not like bulgogi or kalbi. But being that it was good beef it still tasted good.

Im sorry I was unable to get photos because...I left the camera in the car!!! and I was too lazy to go out and get it. However, I am in Houston next week and so far this restaurant has the honor of being the best Korean restaurant Ive tried in Houston. So I will probably go back..and next time I plan on getting a movie of the buffet. No matter how embarassing it might be getting a video of the buffet...lol

Sam Bo Jung Restauarant - Houston

Continuing on my quest to try all the Korean Restaurants in Houston, I wandered to Sam Bo Jung Restaurant.

Houston has begun recovering from Hurricane IKE. Unfortunately the traffic lights have not recovered. There is an estimated 2500 lights out in downtown Houston area. If you do not know any better, Houston has a horrible traffic problem. This combined with the Hurricane damage equals a horrible traffic jam. This restauarant was 6 miles from my office, and it took me over an hour to drive there!!! THe things I go through for Korean food!

Sam Bo Jung was a dark restaurant, and was pretty empty.

Lucky for me my meals have been covered by my company since I am in Houston on business. Its a good thing because my meals are averaging from $20-$30 a night! ouch...lol

I started off with mul mandoo:


Followed that up with haemul juk:



The mandoo was pretty good. Nothing that really stands out. pretty much your average mandoo. The haemul juk was kind of disappointing. It was really watery. I mean I know its soup and its mostly water, but I expect the soup base to have decent flavor. The broth of this soup did not have much flavor, it was more water than flavor of anything. Other Haemul juk Ive had usually consisted of a thicker broth. Sort of like Sunduboo, a thick red pepper paste based broth. I guess that was what I was expecting.

Overall I'd give this meal a 5 of 10. Onward with my quest for the restauarant in Houston that gets my visit twice!

Houston: Arirang Restaurant

Im in Houston for a week for a business trip. The upside of it is, apparently Houston has a few Korean Restaurants. Ive decided to try a new one each night of the week. Arirang Restaurant was the first restaurant I tried out.
I finally got some decent Kimchee Jeon:


I still craved fish, even after my fish dinner Friday night. So I ordered the grilled mackeral again:


The mackeral was excellent. Perfectly cooked and crispy. The Jeon was fairly good, Ive had better though. The biggest disappointment was the kimchee. It tasted watery and not spicy at all. The fish was excellent but the weak kimchee really altered the overall meal. Its too bad because the restaurant was very nice and a huge selection of dishes. But to me, kimchee is a basic and a fundamental.

Overall I'd give Arirang a 7.5/10 based on this meal. I would like to tray the other dishes but Ive got so many restuarants to try in so little time. Don't worry though because I am supposed to be spending a lot of time in Houston in the next year. So I should eventually have time to go back someday and try more dishes

First Meal!!

So I finally cooked my first meal in my new house. I also have a new addition to my "family"

It is an authentic Korean Cuckoo Pressure Rice Cooker!! It even has the Korean female voice that tells you that the rice is done in KOREAN!!

The family I stayed with in Seoul kept telling me that I needed to get a real Korean rice cooker. I finally did. I had to go to Chicago last week and I found a store called H-Mart...inside they had this rice cooker! So I bought it.

I made dinner..I'll have to say the rice was perfectly cooked. It was quit a bit better than the rice cooker I got from Walmart. However the one from walmart was a lot cheaper.

My first cooked meal in my new house:

I kind of cheated. I cooked mackeral that was prepared by the Korean store in Detroit. Anyways, it was really good. However, I didnt have the oil hot enough when I started cooking so it wasn't as crispy as it should have been? Better try next time.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention, I almost forgot to take a picture of it, so I had already eaten half of the fish...hehehhe

Self Imposed Ban!

I noticed that my last 4 posts have been on heavy sociological issues, and I dont like that! My blog is supposed to be up beat and show to the world what Korea has to offer. Along with tidbits of stuff or things going on in my life! Call me selfish, but it is my blog!

So I am banning myself from posting any more "heavy" posts...I declare my posts will pertain to food, music, food, movies, food, or "tidbits" from my life, and of course food.

Unfortunately, Im in Africa for 2 more weeks, so I won't have much in the ways of food to post.

You know what always lightens my mood? Pictures of Korean kids in hanboks...I dont think there is anything cuter then Korean kids in Hanboks.













For some reason I just dont come out as "cute" as the kids do :(


I objected to putting it on, but as you can see from the photo...I lost.

Funny Story

I was reading someone's blog about a long ride on the subway and I thought I would write about my long ride in Seoul:

I decided this year to go back to school to get my MBA. You can see more about this decision and stuff in my other posting below. Anyways, with my love affair with Korea, I decided maybe I should apply to a couple schools in Korea. That way I can learn Korean and go to school!

Well I applied to Sungkyungkwan University (SKK) and Seoul National University (SNU), because I thought they had the best programs. Besides submitting the applications on the internet you had to sumbit some documents by mail or in person. Since I was in Africa I decided I would submit them in person on my next trip to Korea. The documents were due on May 2nd and I arrived in Korea on May 1st. So needless to say I was cutting it a little short.

Well, Mr. Hong (the family I was staying with in Seoul, Thanks Mr. Hong!) asked me if I needed any help getting around. I told him no. This was my 3rd trip to Korea, my first two trips were 4 weeks long each. So I was comfortable with the subway system, plus Im 27! Im a big boy now! I can do it on my own! Boy was I wrong!

First, I decide to go to SNU first because it was closest to Jamsil (where I was staying). I made a basic mistake, but got off at "Seoul National University of Education" stop. Went to the building and tried to turn in my application. After about 30 minutes of trying to find someone who could speak English, I was told you need to go to the University: "Seoul National University" exit, now "Seoul National University of Education"! So I get on the subway and get off at the right exit. I decide I can walk it, it shouldnt be too far. Again, another mistake! The subway exit is like 2 miles uphill away from the subway exit! So what should have taken maybe 30 minutes turned out to be aboue 2 hours!

Next onto SKK. Well I look at the subway map and find SKK right on it! So I take the subway there, boy is it a long ride! about 45 minutes and its way out of Seoul, I think 1 exit from Suwon. I get there and try to turn in my application at the school there. After about an 1.5 hours, I finally reach someone who has a clue and tells me that there is no Business School there, and what Im looking for is SKK in Seoul! The exit I need to take is Hyehwa which is on the far otherside of Seoul. The map I have attached doesnt even nearly show how far this is! Suwon is clear south of Seoul and Hyehwa is far northern reagion of Seoul!

Luckily I barely had enough time to turn all of my documents in. What should have been about a 2 hour activity turned into an entire day tour of all of Seoul!

If you look at the map, the Red is where I went, and the Purple is where I needed to go!

Ma-ee-chu

I shouldnt be taking the time to blog right now. I am pretty busy at work. Today is the start of commissioning of the $5,000,000 waste water treatment plant that I am responsible for. I helped design this plant. I also helped purchase all of the equipment, and now Im in charge of starting it up so that we can hand it over to operations.

I dont have any pictures because its been raining almost non-stop since I got to Africa. (I bet you never thought of this much rain when you ever talk about Africa!). Anyways, as soon as it clears up, I'll take some pictures and post them...ok back to the main purpose of this blog.

Anyways, I needed a "Pick me Up". Nothing is better then some Ma-ee-chu (I dont have a Korean keyboard so its impossible for me to type it in Hangul). I tried looking it up on Google, but as some of you may know that is futile.

This candy is the sweet nectar from God. It is perhaps my favorite candy. Think strawberry chew that is inbetween a Starburst and Now-In-Later in terms of hardness/chewability. In other words, PERFECT!!! I think Starbursts are too soft and Now-In-Laters will pull teeth. Ma-ee-chu is just right. Plus the strawberry taste is more of a strawberry/yogurt taste is very refreshing. I bought 2 packges of 3 sticks. I have finished my first package today which is perfect because I am half way through my 4 weeks in Africa.

This brings up a very good point: Even when your insanely busy..Dont forget to stop and smell the roses! Or in this case have a few maichu candies :)