A lot of people I've met in Korea usually all have the same question for me: What is the biggest difference between here and the U.S? There are many answers to this question but usually my response includes something about food. I have yet to try a Korean dish that is just like a dish I've already tried before. Here are some examples of the food we've had here (including some from our trip to Japan)
Bokgumbap
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| Red Pepper Paste |
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| Rice cooking and veggies frying! |
This is a dish that some of our friends may be familiar with because Trevor made it several times while we were in Cedar City. This dish is really simple, quite satisfying, and not terribly different flavor wise from what I'm used to. It is made by frying up various vegetables (we usually use potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, and minced garlic) along with your choice of meat (we've been using ham as it is the least expensive meat here) and if you'd like you can add an egg or two (which we usually do). Meanwhile, you start with about 2 cups of uncooked rice (we us sticky rice for this recipe) and get it going while you are frying your veggies. Once the rice and veggies are both done, you combine them and then add some red pepper paste. This stuff smells kind of weird and has a really weird texture but when mixed in a dish, it creates a decent spicy flavor. Once the red pepper paste is incorporated, you're ready to eat!
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| Finished! |
Curry over Rice and Kimchi Mondu (Dumplings)
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| Curry over Rice and Kimchi Mondu |
This dish is also very simple. Prepare some rice, boil a packet or two of pre-made curry sauce, and fry up some pre-packaged dumplings (the ones Trevor decided to use were Kimchi dumplings...). Once the rice is cooked, and the curry is heated, just dump the curry over the rice and mix! The fried dumplings act as a side dish. For me, the curry was ok, just different than what I'm used to and the dumplings kind of reminded me of opening a tupperware of mystery leftovers and being hit in the face with month-old rot. Sorry Trev, not my favorite! We will have to try a different filling for the next dumplings we get!
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| Donggassu (the good kind) |
Donggassu
There are many variations of preparing donggassu (fried pork cutlet) but this particular one was served with egg over rice, some kimchi, and served with special donggassu sauce for dipping (the closest resemblance I could think of was like bbq sauce. This form of donggassu was really good. I actually really enjoyed the sauce (a lot of sauces here have been quite strange for me), and how could you go wrong with some fried pork cutlet? Well actually ended up having some in Japan and I couldn't finish all of mine. We were pretty sure it was just smothered in soy sauce which really took away from the pork flavor as well as the usual crispy texture of the donggassu we had in Korea. I didn't take a picture of the donggassu in Japan so sorry there is no compare and contrast visual. You'll just have to take my word on it ;)
Jajangmyun
Supposedly this is a Chinese dish that a Korean brought over but this dish is not normally eaten in China. All I know for sure is that it is very common here and is fairly cheap. I've had it 3 times now I think and it's pretty much the same every time. As far as Trevor or I know, it's simply noodles with a black sauce which is like a sweetened soy sauce that is generally cooked with some onions and maybe a little bit of meat. The noodles are fairly thick they are a different feeling than other noodles I've had and the black sauce is kind of gooey feeling so sometimes it feels weird to eat. I always feel like I'm getting black goo all over my face when I slurp up the noodles but I guess not since nothing really comes off on the napkin when I wipe my face. Jajangmyun is strange to me for all these reasons. I don't mind eating it but it's not necessarily something I would pick right away off a menu. It is also usually served with these yellow radishes that are prepared in some way that seems kind of like pickling. Trevor and I both hate them.
Shish-ka-bobs (don't know what they are called)
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| Side dishes |
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| some of the chicken ones |
These shish-ka-bobs come from our trip to Japan. They are exactly what they look like. Grilled pieces of meat with onion between each piece. We tried the chicken ones and the beef ones and they were both pretty delicious. They were juicy and grilled really well with great flavor. They were served with some sort of side dish that looked like maybe some kind of mushroom but had a fishy smell/taste. There was also some potato salad and some cabbage with dressing. The potato salad was good but not special in any way. The strange tan substances were not too tasty, and well, cabbage is cabbage... The meat was great but ended up costing quite a bit more than expected due to our inability to understand Japanese. The shish-ka-bobs were pretty small and we still left slightly hungry even though we had just payed for the amount of two hearty meals. Trevor was pretty sad because he loves food and he loved the shish-ka-bobs but they were so pricey!
Darkbokgumtang
This is best described as a type of chicken soup. It contained big pieces of chicken (often with the bone included that had to be picked out), several different types of mushrooms, and a few assorted veggies. The flavor is pretty good but can get annoying after having for leftovers 5 times (we received a large portion of this from the sister missionaries). The soup is also served with flat glass noodles just for added substance and texture.
Shabu Shabu
I'll try to explain this one without scrambling your brains. A couple of kind sisters in the ward here invited me to lunch with them and the sister missionaries. We went to this restaurant that looks normal until you enter one of the special rooms with all the shabu shabu "stuff" all set up. The seats were on the ground and I had the pleasure of my first cross legged meal with my shoes off. The best way to describe shabu shabu is kind of like a Korean version of a taco. The waitress brings in this orange liquid which is poured into one of the cooking bowls in the middle of the table. There is another bowl that is heating up water. There are vegetables and leaves and meat and a whole assortment of things that I still don't quite know what they are spread all over the table. Once the orange liquid gets hot enough, you start putting things into the bowl for them to start boiling. There are thin rolls of what I assumed was beef that you put in the boiling orange liquid that come out as cooked pieces of deliciousness. Now comes the cool part. You get these little round translucent circles that I thought were napkins (oops!) which are actually rice sheets. You dip them in the heated water and they become kind of soft and pliable. You then take out whatever ingredients from the boiling orange pot and put it in your little rice shell thing. You wrap it all up in this slightly sticky rice cocoon and then have 3 options of sauce to dip it in. It was fun playing with all the different flavors and options and sometimes I had a really good "taco" and sometimes I had a really weird "taco". Meanwhile there are other side dishes around the table that everyone shares that you just grab a piece here and there with your chopsticks whenever you feel like it. This is a very social meal as you are reaching across the table, and putting together your shabu shabu along with the others at the table. I wish I would have taken more pictures but I got really involved with trying to communicate to the relief society sisters who had invited me to lunch. They were so chatty and really nice and wanted to know EVERYTHING about me! Hopefully you can see from the picture what I mean by everything described above.
Japchae
I've also found many variations of this dish. The one I made consisted of fried vegetables (carrots, onions (yellow and scallions), and red peppers. These are combined with glass noodles and a soy sauce based sauce with sesame seed oil, sugar, and sesame seeds. I chose to garnish the dish with a fried egg. Everything is simply mixed all together and eaten with chopsticks (by now I should be a pro but I'm not :( ). Pretty simple and tastes fine but isn't the best meal I've ever made.
Tangsuyuk
This dish surprised me with it's great flavor and texture. It's often served along with the Jajangmyun. It is definitely a preference of mine over Jajangmyun. It's pretty much just sweet and sour pork. The pork was sort of crunchy on the outside and the sauce was kind of gooey and the two together made a pretty satisfying texture. A lot of Korean dishes don't have a huge abundance of flavor but this dish was refreshingly satisfying in terms of flavor. I'll have to learn how to make it!
Cake!
This past Saturday, Trevor and I spent the evening with our friends Janelle and Ryan who are living in Pohang about an hour north of us. We found a cute little cake factory that has all sorts of decorations so you can decorate your own cake to your hearts desire. They make the cake for you and frost it with a base frosting. You pick out a second frosting flavor and a frosting tip and then go pick your decorations. We picked a chocolate frosting (of course ;) ) which we expected to be a darker brown than it ended up being. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here. It was really fun creating our cake even though Janelle and Ryan strongly outdid us in the creativity/artistic department! The cake was really airy and not extremely flavorful. It was really simple although it did have a few fruit pieces to add some sweetness. The base frosting was a simple cream-based frosting and also didn't have much flavor. The decorations were just colored hardened sugar made into different shapes. Not the best cake I've had but it was nice to have something sweet to eat as sweetness seems scarce here :(
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| Janelle, Ryan and baby Ryan! |
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| "Saranghae" I love you |
Supposedly this is a Chinese dish that a Korean brought over but this dish is not normally eaten in China. All I know for sure is that it is very common here and is fairly cheap. I've had it 3 times now I think and it's pretty much the same every time. As far as Trevor or I know, it's simply noodles with a black sauce which is like a sweetened soy sauce that is generally cooked with some onions and maybe a little bit of meat. The noodles are fairly thick they are a different feeling than other noodles I've had and the black sauce is kind of gooey feeling so sometimes it feels weird to eat. I always feel like I'm getting black goo all over my face when I slurp up the noodles but I guess not since nothing really comes off on the napkin when I wipe my face. Jajangmyun is strange to me for all these reasons. I don't mind eating it but it's not necessarily something I would pick right away off a menu. It is also usually served with these yellow radishes that are prepared in some way that seems kind of like pickling. Trevor and I both hate them. 
This is best described as a type of chicken soup. It contained big pieces of chicken (often with the bone included that had to be picked out), several different types of mushrooms, and a few assorted veggies. The flavor is pretty good but can get annoying after having for leftovers 5 times (we received a large portion of this from the sister missionaries). The soup is also served with flat glass noodles just for added substance and texture. 
I'll try to explain this one without scrambling your brains. A couple of kind sisters in the ward here invited me to lunch with them and the sister missionaries. We went to this restaurant that looks normal until you enter one of the special rooms with all the shabu shabu "stuff" all set up. The seats were on the ground and I had the pleasure of my first cross legged meal with my shoes off. The best way to describe shabu shabu is kind of like a Korean version of a taco. The waitress brings in this orange liquid which is poured into one of the cooking bowls in the middle of the table. There is another bowl that is heating up water. There are vegetables and leaves and meat and a whole assortment of things that I still don't quite know what they are spread all over the table. Once the orange liquid gets hot enough, you start putting things into the bowl for them to start boiling. There are thin rolls of what I assumed was beef that you put in the boiling orange liquid that come out as cooked pieces of deliciousness. Now comes the cool part. You get these little round translucent circles that I thought were napkins (oops!) which are actually rice sheets. You dip them in the heated water and they become kind of soft and pliable. You then take out whatever ingredients from the boiling orange pot and put it in your little rice shell thing. You wrap it all up in this slightly sticky rice cocoon and then have 3 options of sauce to dip it in. It was fun playing with all the different flavors and options and sometimes I had a really good "taco" and sometimes I had a really weird "taco". Meanwhile there are other side dishes around the table that everyone shares that you just grab a piece here and there with your chopsticks whenever you feel like it. This is a very social meal as you are reaching across the table, and putting together your shabu shabu along with the others at the table. I wish I would have taken more pictures but I got really involved with trying to communicate to the relief society sisters who had invited me to lunch. They were so chatty and really nice and wanted to know EVERYTHING about me! Hopefully you can see from the picture what I mean by everything described above.
I've also found many variations of this dish. The one I made consisted of fried vegetables (carrots, onions (yellow and scallions), and red peppers. These are combined with glass noodles and a soy sauce based sauce with sesame seed oil, sugar, and sesame seeds. I chose to garnish the dish with a fried egg. Everything is simply mixed all together and eaten with chopsticks (by now I should be a pro but I'm not :( ). Pretty simple and tastes fine but isn't the best meal I've ever made.
This past Saturday, Trevor and I spent the evening with our friends Janelle and Ryan who are living in Pohang about an hour north of us. We found a cute little cake factory that has all sorts of decorations so you can decorate your own cake to your hearts desire. They make the cake for you and frost it with a base frosting. You pick out a second frosting flavor and a frosting tip and then go pick your decorations. We picked a chocolate frosting (of course ;) ) which we expected to be a darker brown than it ended up being. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here. It was really fun creating our cake even though Janelle and Ryan strongly outdid us in the creativity/artistic department! The cake was really airy and not extremely flavorful. It was really simple although it did have a few fruit pieces to add some sweetness. The base frosting was a simple cream-based frosting and also didn't have much flavor. The decorations were just colored hardened sugar made into different shapes. Not the best cake I've had but it was nice to have something sweet to eat as sweetness seems scarce here :(
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