melonpan

bought these at san diego... havent seen them in los angeles yet, but im not the most observant person, so its possible that its always been around under my nose. these are green foods brand ("pu reum chan" brand) jeukseok jab chae or "quick jap chae" and it comes in three flavours: (from left) traditional, spicy and jjajang. each package is $1.59. to my credit, i have not been eating ramen and the ilk that often lately (maybe its been a month or two? ha!) and so ive got a backload of stuff i want to try before i get to these, but i am extremely curious how these taste. i dont know how many of you have made japchae (잡채), but those of you who have, im sure you know what a pain in the ass it is. all that prep work... ugh. maybe this is not true if you really like to cook, but i guess you can count me as one of those who just love to eat and eat but dislike cooking (most of the time). but anyhow... can this stuff be any good? these package foods have a tendency to just let you down.... but at $1.59 its worth a gamble, no?

porkylands seems to just be a takeout place (but there are tables outside and thats not a problem in mild sd/la jolla). i dont think they have tshirts. i surely would have gotten one! the names great innit?

regarding mcdonald's version of the jbx... i tried to look up information on san diegos concept mcdonalds restaurant, but my google searches have been fruitless. "diego concept mcdonalds" or "renovat*" or any other number of possible searches have come up with nothing. anybody know where they are and what they are called? i also thought it might be one of the mccafes, but i dont think its that either...

so we went on an unexpected, last minute trip to san diego this weekend. we were driving back home at about 6:30 pm, when i realised i was hungry and that i didnt feel much like cooking... i remembered some place called "mi ho sam gye tang" from the yellow pages which was of course, most appealing because "samgyetang" was right in the name! but miho is waaaaay over in garden grove. i had planned to eat there with another person but had no way to reach her in like half an hour to see if she was free or what. but we decide to go there anyway, since samgyetang sounded soooo good. we arrive there and we see a surprise! to the left of miho, theres some place called gohyang sancheon, which means "hometown mountain and stream" (it could be "mountain stream", but its kind of debatable what the exact meaning is). that may not exactly be very telling, but in bright red neon were the magic words "(original) samgyetang"! "original samgyetang" is to the left of "budweiser" in the red banner below (white writing), it says "sam gye tang / squid bulgogi / budae jjigae / shinDangDong quick ddeokbokki". budae jjigae is an amazing stew made from spam, hot dogs, bacon and ramen (or any combo thereof) and its very spicy. hubby was very excited when he saw the shindangdong ddeokbokki. he wants to try that next time, even though he doesnt know what makes this different from other ddeokbokkis. shindangdong is a district in seoul that apparently has a ddeokbokki alley... i felt really bad about going to miho because i wanted to go there with someone else, so my husband and i thought it was a good chance to try this go hyang place. besides, their specialty is samgyetang! we will try miho next time. inside, it was kind of crowded, as there were only about 35 seats (6 tables). there was only one 4 person table left and there we sat. the waiter (we think he is the owner) was extremely pleasant and friendly. we ordered without even checking out the menus: two bowls of samgyetang, please! while we sat and talked and looked through a korean yellow pages we had grabbed from the outside. we found that there is another go hyang san cheon in la... when we had the chance we asked the owner if the gohyang sancheon in la was the same and if they served up samgyetang there.... he said it was the same ownership, but that that place was a "suljib" or a place to get drinks and snacks, and that they did not have any chicken soup there. bummer... we asked if he knew of any places in la to get samgyetang... he said "yeah, i heard that there were lots of places to get some good bowls in l.a., but im really sorry, i dont know where!" we felt pretty good about him. hes a mensch. our banchan arrived. six banchan dishes, plus three additional dishes per person for the samgyetang. in the far upper left corner to the left of the spoon, youll see a plate of scallions and a plate of sea salt for the soup. theres also an empty larger plate for the chicken bones. the banchan from the top left corner, then going towards the right: hobak namul (stir fried zucchini and onions), gamja namul (stir fried julienned potato), dotori muk (acorn jelly), oi sobagi (cucumber pickles), kong namul (steamed and seasoned soybean sprouts) and kimchi (cabbage pickles). all decent and good. between the two of us, we managed to eat about 90% of it by meals end. not mindblowing, but it was all fresh and tasty. very good for a diner. (click on pic for larger image) then the soup arrived! throwing in all scallions, a little salt, and cracking the chicken open... (click on pic for larger image) they did not stuff the chicken here with anything but sweet rice, but they were much more generous with the extras, unlike at samga chicken... here, each bowl of soup comes with maybe 20 pine seeds, about a dozen or more of whole garlic cloves, two chestnut halves and 4-5 dates. yumms! the yellow round thing is the chestnut half, the white thingy is a garlic clove, the two small yellow pieces are pine nuts and the dark red thingy is the date. you can see the sprig of insam (ginseng) floating in my bowl of soup. i took that photo after i had demolished my poor bird... none left! in the end, our soup bowls were both empty, the banchan cleared out... oh, and the price: $11.99 a bowl. MUCH better deal than at samga. for the hour that we were there, i only saw koreans and i have no idea how well they speak english there. but their menu has extensive explanations in english, so it shouldnt be too difficult if you dont know any korean. besides, the owner there is a really really straight up guy. friendly and personable. hes also young enough (late 30s?) that i dont think he would give non koreans a hard time. we took another peek at miho before we left and saw this sign: it says hmmm "Chinese Medicinal Deer Horn Chicken Soup"? doesnt that sound positively interesting? i cant wait to try it! go hyang san chon 9735 Garden Grove Blvd # A Garden Grove, CA 92844 (714) 638-2047 (i tried looking up miho in the online yellowpages, for a link, but i cant seem to find it. but the address is included above anyway. :D)

we went on a short 2 day trip to san diego to visit a friend. the visit was not food focused, so all the food we had was fairly cheap, fast and filling. on the first day, we spent about an hour on convoy street. we saw a korean supermarket and dropped by to pick something up when i saw "dumpling inn" which i had read mentioned here as having good xiao long bao. so we went in there and ordered some soup (hot and sour) and the dumplings (at the dumpling inn!)... dumpling inn is a really small place. something like 8 tables or so and one wall has mirrors to double the appearance of the place. very modest. there were two workers there cleaning chives (nira) for more dumplings as we waited for our order. finally, after about 5 minutes, our food arrived! both were very good, but i would like to note that the soup was EXTREMELY generous. it was humongous. it was enough to serve maybe 8 single servings, but it was all $5.25. the dumplings were $5.50. (or was it the other way around? those numbers are correct, but i forget which goes with which.) what a deal! cheap, filling, delicious! total bill came under $11 w/o tip. dinner was supposed to be chicken, lamb, beef and veggie kabobs that our friends were supposed to grill up, but their water went out earlier that day, so to save hassle and to get maximum talking time, we just went out. dinner was at a quick and casual little minimall/strip mall, but i really liked the name of the place: porkylands specialty is al pastor, so i got a combo for $4.99: two small tacos al pastor, a pork tamal and rice and beans. two other people got the burritos al pastor, for something like $3.50 or there abouts. very filling. delicious pork. husband went for a felafel plate at another restaurant two stores down. his was also excellent, with crispy crunchy, yet moist felafel, soso pita, some rice, and a really great little iceburg/romaine salad. i dont know how much his plate was, but im sure it was also cheap. sorry no pics of the food... i forgot because we were talking... the next day, we got the whirlwind tour of san diego. we spent most of the time just walking around different parts, but two places were food related... one was the jbx. this is apparently one of two "concept" restaurants that jack in the box has made. i dont know jack in the box that well, but the idea of a "gourmet" jack in the box was too funny. indeed the outside was kind of "hip" with stainless steel, and earthtoned colors... inside there was a fireplace next to a couple of the seats! how cushy! the view near one of the inside entrances... i did not take any photos of the food because we did not eat anything there. we did buy one $3 jack keychain and a can of arizona iced tea (because it was soooo freaking hot). we were just there to gawk, not to eat. they also sold a variety of tsirts and mints (in jack silver tins) and jack-in-the-boxers (boxer shorts). hehehe... i did manage to snag a menu (in english. there were some en espanol too)... (click to see a large image) the items offered are apparently slightly different. i did a bit of research and found a few pages about these new jbxs: www.custompuzzlecraft.com/JBX/jbx.html www.twentysix.net/update/updates/040502/ san diego tribune article my friend said that there was also a concept gourmet mcDonalds in san diego with a turkey wrap to die for, but maybe that will be for our next trip! we spent a few hours at balboa park, but did not eat there. we also spent a good three hours near this other area, the name of which i do not remember... it was a harbor (maybe its just called that?) and in the harbor are a number of many extremely impressive sights including the decommissioned aircraft carrier midway. we ended up eating lunch at some place caled anthony's fishette for fish and chips and a squid sandwich. reasonable prices and decent fast food. fish and chips went for $7.50 and the squid sandwich $6.25... sorry, no pics. on the way home, we made a stop in orange county, but that goes into my samgyetang thread... :D dumpling inn 4619 Convoy St # F San Diego, CA (858) 268-9638 Porkyland Restaurant 1030 Torrey Pines Rd La Jolla, CA (858) 459-1708 jbx (jack in the box gourmet) 804 University Ave San Diego, CA 92103 (619) 298-1273 Anthony's Fishette 1360 N Harbor Dr San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 232-5105

it is japanese toast bread. white sandwich bread from a japanese bakery. i suppose the fat in the whipped cream acts like butter (it _is_ partly butter, innit?) and that helps a lot in keeping the sandwiches from getting soggy too quickly. they hold quite nicely for hours in the fridge, though they dont usually last more than 10 minutes... does this qualify as "english" food? i dont think english people eat these, though.

made some fruit sando the other day... fresh peach / fresh banana fresh strawberry / canned mandarin oranges only the peach sandwiches were so-so. they were too sour and crunchy (basically not ripe, even though they were soft -- yech)...

nicoles in ktown plaza in los angeles does an okay version. like jschyun, i prefer mine with ddeok. i also like lotsa misutggaru (there should be TONS, enough to taste for sure -- adds a nice toasted grainy flavour). nicole's "nicole bingsu" has neither. but it will do in a pinch... from the bottom up: shave ice, condensed milk, cantaloupe, fresh strawberry syrup, paht, bananas, macerated strawberries, scoop vanilla ice cream and a couple kiwi bits

have no idea. i dont know anything about soccer, really. i suppose extra time sounds good!

thank you hiroyuki~! apparently this is in reference to something called "lose time" (at least in korea and probably in japan... but i dont know anything about soccer. what would this be called in english? in korean it is "루스 타임" [ru-seu ta-im]) in soccer games where the ref keeps track of 'lost' time and the players are able to play those lost minutes at the end... thanks again

just had my first kabocha croquette... i know thats not exactly menchi, but it was certainly minced up good... despite it being a stachy food breaded by starchy panko and then deep fried, i was quite surprised by how good it was. i only had one, but i could go for another right now! yummmms! i dont think ive seen menchi katsu before. ill have to pay closer attention! i looked at the the step by step page... it doesnt look toooo hard to make. thank you for the link~~!

well, its still killing me, so i was wondering if anyone would be game for just a very very rough translation from japanese into english. its only fifteen seconds... following this chosun ilbo link click on the movie link near the top of the page. for those who cant see the korean characters, thats fine, just look for the second occurance of "CF" on the page and click on that. the movie should buffer up and start to play (in IE). once its started playing, please forward to minute two. the part i wish to understand is from 2:00 - 2:15 of the movie. its the final segment of the film featuring the principal. it was not translated into korean and i just wanted to know what is happening. no need for exact translations. thank you most sincerely in advance, melon (original query happened in the nomimono thread)

buahahahaha.... chosun ilbo reports today about two companies who have put out a series of commercials. edit: found a direct link to the video with better translations in korean: here. some of the translations have been changed as a result... fanta put out a "classroom series" (top movie link) and suntory put out a acrobats link for their amino shiki drink... both are really amusing. korean translations were provided for the classroom series, but they were kind of spotty. a couple of the classes didnt have any translations, notably the salesman and the principal classes. but they are still a riot to watch. ive translated what i could from the korean. apologies if they arent true to the japanese thats said... 3rd year, room a: rocker sensei! (in class) sensei: oh yeah!!! students: yeah... sensei: baby, baby, babeeee~~! students: baby... (outside) student: will i be able to keep up? * coming soon! new fanta!! * 3rd year, room c: dragon sensei! (in class) sensei: (circling a portion of what he wrote) this is the portion thats going to be covered on the exam students: (write down whats going to be covered) (outside) student: i cant take it anymore... * new semester!! new grapefruit fantas out!! * 3rd year, room d: "exceptional deal" sensei! (in class) sensei: if the video is 1,980,000 yen, the take is 20%!! bonus!! (?) if you do silver, 5% off!! now!! add 13% cashback!! so! how much??!! (outside) student: the savings was 60%... * its summer break!! new peach fantas out!! * 3rd year, room f: dj sensei! (in class) sensei: the ne-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne next person is yama-yama-yama-shita-chan! student: the answer is 3x. sensei: incorrect (outside) student: im hurt... * fanta sweetie is out!! * 3rd year, room g: shogun sensei! (in class) sensei: class has begun! students: (heads are all bowed in front of the shogun) sensei: does anyone know the answer to this?!! students: (stay silent and keep their heads down) sensei: anyone???!! student: (raising head to answer) yes, i know the answer. sensei: how dare you (look up)!!! (outside) student: what was i supposed to do?? 3rd year, room h: soap opera sensei! (in class) sensei: (reading book) sashios hometown... man: (running into room) masako!! sensei: (kicking stool) what now?? man: i was bad... sensei: fool! (slaps man, crying) ive been so lonely... old lady: (standing outside the door) you stray cat... sensei: mother! (outside) student: can we please just go over the lesson... * fanta! plum flavor! * 3rd year, room j: no good for nothing sensei! (in class) sensei: kanji test! sensei: yoko! if youre a senior, you should be able to at least read this! loser! student: i cant read it... sensei: (reading the kanji) to ro pi ka ru fu ru stu! (outside) student: pure unreasonableness... * fanta! even though its spring!! tropical fruits!! * 3rd year, room s: blackbeard sensei! (in class) (students draw keys and put the keys in a barrel with the teacher inside.) sensei: (to unlucky student) you get cleaning duty. (outside) student: whos heard of doing it that way... principal sensei! (not translated into korean)

from the english translation of tirol brand chocolates the following are listed: from the english translatino of meiji apollos: from morinaga brand dars bitter chocolates: i dont have any non-japanese chocolate in the house (:P) other than the following two bars that i found... from american brand ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate (but it says specifically its for baking): and france's lindts 70% dark chocolate bar (which i also use for baking): seems like the same story throughout; all the ingredients lists seem to list the same stuff. however, the top two, the apollos and the tirol are definitely significantly smoother than the rest listed. i think its because they have more butter and oil in them. so maybe thats a clue? it strikes me as sounding true. the tirol and the apollos do taste like chocolate flavoured fat (or butter, if that sounds better :P). perhaps this accounts for the ultra smoothness. i bet if you look at the list for a hersheys bar, you wont find as much fat/oil/butter... i really dont know anything about making chocolates, etc. maybe a real chocolatier or a chocolate freak should know why. maybe the answer is (gasp!) japanese chocolates arent smoother. we just like to think so and weve brainwashed ourselves into believing this! btw, im not a freak, but i am happier around chocolate.

are you going to put hot water into a spray bottle? wouldnt it be easier to pour very carefully from a kettle?

it sounds like if you have the money, then you can have an automatic matsuya machine. :D next time i brew a cup (today?) ill give it a try (manually that is).

it sounds like someone could eventually actually produce an automatic matsuya drip machine. it would be similar to automatic drip machines that are presently available, but the way the water is delivered to the grounds would have to be adjusted. somehow, the water would have to be dripped in a fashion so that it covers a large circular area (say about 5 inches/12 cm in diameter) instead of one single point from a skinny tube. maybe a very gentle spray of some sort. also the water must be given out in timed, measured amounts. doesnt sound that difficult to engineer. and it would only add maybe 5 minutes at most to total brewing time. if the results are really that different, than it should be incorporated into some models, dont you think?

i was wondering about this comment. does wetting the paper of a filter lessen the papery taste? or for that matter does rinsing it lessen the papery taste?

outside japan? like in the u.s.? or in another country? in the u.s., burdock root (gobo) you can find in many japanese, some korean, health food and specialty/gourmet markets (like whole foods). fresh is wonderful, frozen is an ok substitute (although i feel its mushy). krazy salt is seasoned salt and any seasoned salt from other companies should do okay for your recipe. however, you might be looking for janes krazy mixed up salt. froogle lists some vendors: froogle link. ive even seen a bag of mayonnaise karl with krazy mixed up salt in it. if you really are in a jam and need some krazy salt, just use salt, not msg.

some links... first, a photo of some really young hoddeok peddlers from long ago... link to photo. (context.) the rest of these will be boring to most i guess. the recipes are in korean... although this is an english language forum, im still posting them here for the sake of reference... nadias hoddeok blog entry - great photos haeuns hoddeok blog entry great photos here too... (beautiful green tea cake photo) bw0863's blog interesting photo of a green colored mulberry leaf hoddeok (towards bottom). this page is a little frustrating bc the photos of insadong hoddeok and one of freshly made green tea hoddeok from jong-no seem to be missing. argh.... ottogi companys recipe for hoddeok featuring ottogi products of course. but the recipe doesnt seem gimmicky, seems legit enough carrot veggie hoddeok recipe! pingk.coms secret hoddeok recipe vegefoods hoddeok donga papers hoddeok recipe...? someone's chocolate hoddeok recipe recipe from 'cooking encyclopaedia' hoddeok recipe found on a bulletin board alacook.coms hoddeok paper about the history and culture of bread (wrt korea) written by someone in a history dept (univ cheolla bukdo). this has no recipe...

The following is my translation of the essay (which was originally posted on November 8, 2001) found at http://www.ilboniyagi.com/osaka/food/babystar.htm. Babystar -- Ramen Ddang's origins You realise that you're getting old when all of a sudden you want to eat the foods that you ate when you were younger. If one could be forever happy only with the new and tasty foods of the present, then one could be forever young... I think a lot of the frequently said adage "the foods you had when you had nothing". Although my early memories may not be clear, the only snack I remember eating when I was young was ramen ddang. My parents scorned it as "substandard food" whenever I asked them to buy me some. But my heart still warms when I recall distant memories of getting hungry from playing in the dirt with my friends, roughly wiping our black, grubby hands on our clothes and sharing a bag of ramen ddang. So I was very happy when I discovered ramen ddang and similar snacks in Japanese supermarkets because I was taken back to my childhood. Even though other things have changed, this snack appeared just exactly as it did so long ago... Popeye is used to market ramen ddang in Korea, but in Japan a cute baby's face is put forth and sold under the name "Babystar". (At first, broken bits and pieces of leftover ramen were collected and called "Baby Ramen" but "baby" was also probably chosen to target parents buying snacks for their babies and children. In 1973, the year of the oil shock, the word "star" was added to appeal to kids who had big dreams of growing up strong... Maybe the Korean ramen ddang company chose Popeye because of what Popeye stood for (strength and bravery). It seems that Korean kids who wanted to grow up strong were a lot like the kids who like Babystar.) The company who produces the snack is called the Oyatsu Company (おやつカンパニ－) and they have been making Babystar for more than 40 years. When it first opened up for business in 1948, the Oyatsu Company originally made ramen, but because leftover ramen scraps were produced in such amounts and because it just seemed to wasteful to simply throw them away, the company president decided to give the scraps away as a snack to company workers. These workers in turn took these ramen scraps home and shared them with their neighbors. In this way, little by little, it was said, the snack gained popularity; so much so that the scraps eventually became a formal product on its own. In 1959, "Baby Ramen" sold for 10 yen a package, but at that time Japanese housewives felt that dirty corner stores (they were small and narrow, but such corner stores are rare these days) sold "substandard food and low quality cookies". But in 1974, they began to be displayed in supermarket chains and babies, middle school and high school kids alike fully accepted Babystar as a snack. Babystar fans have been around since 1959 and their numbers have been increasing. Even as babies keep getting born and grow up, it's really amazing that a company can keep churning out the same product at the rate of 300 million bags every year continuously for 40 years. When one is running a business, there are lots of distractions. Quality drops and eventually product is merely being nominally cranked out. Sooner or later, for many businesses, production simply ceases. But the Oyatsu Company stakes everything on Babystar. It exerts neverending efforts on maintaining the taste that children like and keeping it cheap and easy to buy. But I don't remember very well how the ramen ddang that I ate tasted; I only remember liking the crispiness of the fried noodles. I recently tried some that wasn't properly fried and it really didn't taste all that good. Babystar comes in a wide variety of flavours. One reason for the Oyatsu Company's enduring popularity might be their introduction of new flavours for every generation. The company also known for recreating the flavours of regional specialty foods. The basic flavour is chicken and the flavours are tweaked from there to make miso (Japanese duenjang), curry, fried shrimp, mayonnaise, yakisoba, soy sauce and so on. Because the flavours they create are taken from the foods of everyday life, Babystar is something you can eat tirelessly. There are companies that make Korean style foods and so perhaps the production of gochugaru (Korean chile powder) and garlic flavoured Babystar in Japan isn't too far off. This winter I heard that there would be a limited production of chocolate babystar. Although it had already been produced some 10 odd years ago, the response at that time wasn't favourable. Still, it shows that somebody thought that that flavour might be popular one day. It seems that a good combination of undaunted effort and the ability to keep up with trends has made both the product and the company successful. The most important thing the company does is getting the flavours that kids like. Another clever thing they do is stick score cards on the packaging which you collect until you reach a certain number; then you send them to the company and they hold lotteries and dole out a variety of prizes. These days you can get a transparent watch which is worth keeping. Kids want it because it's a pretty cool watch, but ultimately, it was put out there so that parents buy more Babystar for the kids who collect the points. [There are three photos in the essay with captions. Here are translations of the captions. Follow the link to the original article above to see the photos.] [top picture with four Babystar packets] 88 yen for one bundle of four packets, 26 grams a pack. One single packet sells for 29 yen. Most children's snacks are sold for around 100 yen. [second photo with the cup snacks] The product above is the same as it was long ago. Ramen scraps are again being pressed into circular clusters, which are easy to eat. After you have finished eating, there is a packet a drawing on it directing you to wipe your fingers with the small towel inside. [third picture of paper cartons with handles] These boxes of Babystar are sold as limited editions at train stations in certain regions. Because each region's specialty food is featured as a flavour, people who go to these stations buy a lot of the boxes as presents. Each box is around 500-800 yen.

junk food queen here again. there is another class of snacks not previously mentioned that i must add to the list... ramen snacks! i dont know what the name for these in japanese is, however. can anyone tell me? also, does anybody like these? or am i the only one? really, these arent just for kids!! oyatsu brand babystar: in korean, these kinds of snacks are called ramen ddang (라면땅). since i dont know the japanese name, ill be referring to the snack by the korean name: ramen ddang. ramen ddang are made from short, fried, wheat based, chicken flavoured noodles. they also come in a wide variety of other flavours. hubby remembered two brands of korean ramenddang from his childhood, popeye brand and jaya brand. he even remembers a tv ad where a korean entertainer "popeye" YI sang-yong, former mr korea, got knocked out by a cartoon popeye. YI sang-yong went and ate a bag of popeye ramenddang while popeye ate a can a spinach. then he knocked the cartoon popeye out! i dont think either brand is sold today, though. (if anybody knows of any korean brands being sold, please let me know!!) though i dont know about any ramen ddang sold these days, the ottogi company (of korean curry sauce fame) fairly recently put out a new ramen snack. bbusyeo bbusyeo, which means "break it break it", is a snack that is packaged to look exactly like real ramen. inside every package there is a white noodle brick which looks just like real ramen. the difference is youre NOT supposed to cook this brick of noodles. youre supposed to break it up into a bowl and eat it up dry. it also comes complete with an outrageous "soup packet" that youre supposed to sprinkle on top. according to the ottogi site, bbusyeo bbusyeo comes in four flavours: bulgogi, spicy chicken, bbq, ddeokbokki. (there used to be jjajangmyeon and curry flavours but now theyre nowhere to be found.) i have seen the other four for sale here in the u.s., but theyre kind of hard to find. too bad because theyre so fun to eat! as for japanese ramen ddang, oyatsu companys babystar comes in quite a lot of different forms (but not the realistic fake ramen form). there is the classic ramen ddang, which is the loose bits and pieces. heres an example of a four flavour variety pack. each 26 gram package is a different flavour: chicken ramen, shoyu flavored agesoba, tempura udon and my favourite yakisoba with mayonnaise sauce. all the noodles are of slightly different widths. the more popular flavours also come in larger, 117 gram bags. the package to the left in english is the "chow mein" flavour which is, in fact, my favourite yakisoba with mayonnaise! the one on the right is the number one selling chicken flavour. babystar also comes in a wavy fettucine like offering. they call this their 'dodekai' type; i think that dodekai just means 'big'. these wavy wide noodles are much easier to pick up and eat than the loose noodle bits. two of oyatsu babystar dodekai style ramen, chicken and yakisoba (both 112 gram bags), plus a closeup of the chicken dodekai ramen: the oyatsu company also manufactures babystar rounds. the rounds are really small babystar bits and pieces are pressed into ciruclar disk pellets. like the dodekai type, these rounds are much easier to eat than the loose ramen. they come packaged in cups and are produced in a number of flavours, including separate minicup flavours. but so far, i have only seen this squid and mayonnaise yakisoba one: during the research for this post i found a few sites of interest. the first, of course, is oyatsu company's home page at http://www.oyatsu.co.jp/. at this site they list current offerings, some of oyatsus regional editions and a lot of other fun looking stuff. i wish i could taste the goma dare (sesame sauce) flavour or any of the 'adult flavoured' varieties. i also found that there is a babystar fan site called we love babystar. they have lots of pages which talk about past limited editions... there is mention of many tantalising flavours like curry, korean pajeon ("chijimi"), korean kimchi (dodekai style), hawaiian tropical curry ramen, mexican tacos, salami... and among tons of other specialty flavours and editions there is even a chocolate one! in trying to find babystar vendors, i found a really interesting company. their website is at http://www.52sii-page.com/. when you read "52" aloud in (sino) korean, you end up saying "oh-ee", so 52sii can be read "oishii". this site is run by a seoul based korean company who specialises in japanese snacks. they sell all of the most popular japanese grocery items and snacks. its really strange, but despite my obsession with japanese foodstuffs, i cannot recall what, if any, japanese products i saw for sale in korean grocery stores, and i only last went a year ago! i guess i was so focused on eating as much korean food that i didnt even think to notice. anyhow, i think that this site exists because it must difficult to find these kinds of products in korea. although im veering away from my topic babystar, id like to mention that until very recently korea had a ban on importing certain japanese goods (like records and tapes, magazines, cars and manga)... but i dont know how this affected japanese grocery products and snacks including ramen and ramen ddang. was ramen and ramen ddang originally imported from japan, or was that illegal or did some entrepreneur bring ramen technology from japan and made them on korean soil right from the start? i do know that ramen wasnt that popular in korea until one guy added korean spices to the soup base. why isnt babystar sold in korea? not spicy enough? i wonder about a lot of japanese products that i think other koreans might like. are these products not available because there is no market for them (too japanese, not korean enough) or because of some ban or for some other reason? lastly, theres this site maintained by a korean who is living in japan: http://www.ilboniyagi.com/ (ilboniyagi means "stories about japan"). this person writes a lot of essays (with tons of lovely photos) about the things he or she has observed while living in japan (i havent yet figured out the persons name or sex). one of the essays was about ramen ddangs origins and my next post is a translation of the essay. it is not the best translation, but if you do read it, i hope that my rendering doesnt get in the way... i found that i dont really know how to translate very well and I struggled a lot with meanings, etc... any and all inaccuracies and awkwardness is my fault; the original is pretty informative and interesting. enjoy!

its all good~! i also really like the tirolean chocolates... any flavour!!!

we went out to a samgyetang place last night. the name is samga dak gomtang (literally "3rd street chicken gomtang"). the english name of their place is much less descriptive: 3rd street restaurant. ive lost my camera so no photos... this is all from memory so things might not be exact, but ill still try to give a good idea of whats what. its a tiny hole in the wall; there are about 10 small tables, seating maybe 4 each? i noticed two wall menus, one with about 5 items, and the other on the far back wall, near the register, was probably the complete menu, with 15 or so items. prices generally ran from around $6-$30. some things that i remember are: dak doritang, dak gomtang, something with duck (maybe it was ori doritang?) and of course samgyetang. we got two samgyetangs. they are around $10.50 a bowl. banchan was simple, tasty and sparse. nothing bad, but nothing brilliant. some anchovies (myeolchi bokkeum), ggakdugi (radish), nappa kimchi and gyeran jjim (an egg dish which i quite liked). 4, maybe 5 dishes. nothing was off and the kimchi and ggakdugi were both refreshing. with the samgyetang you also get spiced up salt (sea salt with some black pepper and a little bit of sesame seeds) as well as some plain sea salt for the broth (which comes unsalted). then you get a ddukbaegi (small clay pot) with the samgyetang. we had two orders, so i am able to describe the standard samgyetang at this place: a bowl of very hot broth, lots of freshly chopped scallions and a whole, tasty bird stuffed with glutinous rice, a single date, a single sprig of insam (ginseng) and a single chunk of ginger. it was delicious, but disappointing. a single sprig of insam... well, okay, if youre going to cut costs, i suppose thats the place to begin, seeing how expensive and precious insam (even the low quality stuff, which im sure this was) can be. but wow, to stuff each little bird with a single, lonely looking date? whats up with that? and, i was also sad to note that they did not provide chestnuts (not even a single one. ) that they were so stingy with the stuffing was the single reason for my disappointment. all other things, the broth, the banchan, etc, were reasonably decent. samgyetang is really not that hard to make. but, like any other decent soup, it takes time. and sometimes you just want to pop over somewhere to satisfy a craving. unfortunately for now, we will try to find other places that serve or specialise in samgyetang and we wont go back to samga. well, at least we wont go back for their overpriced samgyetang. maybe we will try their cheaper chicken gomtang (about $6) and see how that is. but as we are new to the area, we dont know of any places. anyone have any recommendations? thanks so much in advance! samga dak gomtang (3rd street chicken gomtang) 3rd street restaurant 4254 1/2 west 3rd street los angeles ca 90020 213 386 1135

theres jrufusjs posting on ggaetnip... maybe this will help? looking through the recipes, i dont exactly see the stuff my mom made, but it is a lot like the "Kkaetip saengjeoli" he lists. i see in your request, you list 'bean paste'. that is also something new to me (bean paste with ggaetnip) and i was curious... found a recipe called ggaetnip duenjang jang-a-jji (where duenjang is something like miso)... maybe this is it? (in the link above, look under "best 2"): ggaetnip duenjang jang-a-jji 100 ggaetnip leaves 1/2 cup duenjang 1 tablespoon of rice wine 2 tablespoons white onion juice 1 teaspoon crushed garlic (translated roughly): rinse under flowing water, dry well, then lay 5 leaves together (in the same direction) and tie the stems together with string. mix the duenjang, rice wine, onion juice and crushed garlic together in a small bowl. then lay all the packets of ggaetnip leaves, one on top of another, then completely cover the top of the leaves with the duenjang mixture, then keep it in a cool and dark place for a month. when the duenjang taste has permeated, scrape off the duenjang mixture and serve. you can also serve these slightly steamed. as an aside, is shiso different from ggaetnip? i think the shiso taste is a bit more sharp, if that makes sense...