Joon

When I first saw that picture all I could think was... nandato?!?!?! How do you eat with a scallion???

Yeah, the knee cartilage is definitely has the right bite. I'm definitely going to try this the next time I get chicken leg/thighs.. anyone have any tips on separating the cartilage from the bones?

Wow, thanks hiroyuki! I guess this means that for the most part, there's no way to make this stuff at home unless i'm willing to buy mass quantities of whole chicken/breast. I'm still not sure how to get the knee cartilage that way...i guess you have to somehow take out the bones and leave the cartilage attached to the meat. Hmm.

Hmm! I always wondered about 참깨 vs. 들깨. I guess it makes a LOT more sense that it would be sesame seeds rather than mustard! Haha! Since Ggaenip = sesame and sesame seed = white I never realized that ggaenip = 들깨nip and "sesame seed" = 참깨. Thanks!

Sir, you are a machine. You're slowly inspiring me to get a digicam too.

Well, I have distinct memories of all of my korean relatives going to korean-chinese restaurants in the US, ordering jajangmyun and asking for a side of jampong broth. In korea it's considered included "service", but here no one seems to have it/want to give away the broth. I do love the takuan and onion dipped in the sauce. I hope you're dumping vinegar on it! Oh man am I hungry.

The paste/dish is considered Chinese in Korea so you can variegate along that line. I've seen variations with squid, shellfish, all kinds of cabbage/veggies, etc. Served on rice instead of noodles, like Joon mentioned, is also popular. ← Some places also drop an over easy/sunny side up egg on top of the jajang. A part of me says that's just wrong...but it's also kinda tasty.

could you tell me more about that and maybe direct me to a recipe? is it something made with jajang paste, or eaten together with jajangmyun? ← Well, I don't know if it's really traditional or not but most of the people i knew in korea had a habit of asking for the broth for Jjampong. It's a spicy noodle soup. Here's a recipe: http://kalaniosullivan.com/General/Opinions-k2a.htm#JAMPONG and a pic: http://www.econ.umn.edu/~stanleyc/personal_files/jampong.JPG Man I'm getting hungry just looking at that!! For home preparations it's probably not worth the effort. But then again I'm a lazy bum so YMMV!

Hmm. Good point. I think I'm gonna make me some kimchee and pork giris tonight. Yum!

I've always wondered, how is cartilage Yakitori made? Where to you get it from? How do you bind it?

I'll give this a shot the next time I get it...but for some reason soy sauce crab is one of the only foods that make me gag..

That looks friggen delicious. Is it just me or do store-bought onigiri almost never have enough filling?

I don't think I've seen mustard seeds in any other korean food either. Actually as far as I remember there was no such thing as soon dae guk when I lived in korea so the whole dish might be a recent invention. A delicious, delicious recent invention. Man I'm jealous, I don't think there's any place here where I can get soondae freshly made/cut..

Jajang bap! I personally like this just as much, maybe better than jajang myun. Make the same sauce, pour over plain or fried rice for a quick easy delicious meal. And don't forget the traditional/popular Jajang accompanyment of jjampong broth!

Oh my god, the raw crab is probably my favorite korean side dish. The spicy kind, not the soy sauced one. That one makes me gag for some reason. There's one korean bbq restaurant I go to here just for their kye-jang. Man now you got me craving the stuff.

Wow! I totally forgot this dish even existed! I haven't had any since the last new years/je sa in korea years ago. I'm going to have to ask my mom why we never have this!!!

I don't think this question was answered. I also bought chunjang yesterday, and the guy at the oriental store told me it is the same as jajang. Googling seems to confirm it... ← Yep. From what I understand, Chun Jang is the actual name of the (bare) sauce. Jajang/ Myun is the name of the prepared sauce/dish.

Damn, that is a BEAUTIFUL looking home-made jajang myun. Holy cow.

Have you tried adding MSG - like Mi-Won? That was added to most jigaes in Korea. When my Canadian friend in Korea was teaching me to make it, he took a bag of Mi-Won and added a big dose and said, "And then you add a big sprinkle of this stuff to make it taste better." And I said, "You mean MSG?" And he looked at it and gasped - "MSG?! This is MSG?!" ← That's hilarious! From what I understand the negative effects of MSG are way overstated anyway. It's not supposed to be that bad...

Don't forget Japchae bap! All of these dishes are served at what koreans call "Jung guk jip" aka "Chinese restaurant" or more literally, "China house". Nobody in korea would mistake these for actual Korean food. yes, you both (sheena too) have it right.there are subset of chinese dishes which have been adopted and made very popular by koreans. i consider these dishes basically korean, but its not really native korean food. most koreans will tell you these dishes are chinese, but most chinese wont recognize them. or if they do, they will say that its "off" or that its really different. these "chinese" restaurants often have the following characteristics:<blockquote><i><ul><li>they have the name "shan-dong" or "qingdao", a major city in shandong <li>often the only places in korea or in america where you can most easily count on finding handpulled noodles (which koreans call suta guksu) <li>have the following dishes<ul><li>jjajangmyeon 짜장면 (suta guksu dish) <li>jjambong 짬뽕 (suta guksu dish) <li>lajogi 라조기 (a kind of chicken dish) <li>gganpoong-x 깐풍-x (substitute x with chicken or shrimp) <li>fried rice 볶음밥 <li>tangsuyuk 탕수육 (sweet sour pork) <li>palbochae 팔보채 (aka happy family) <li>naeng chae aka yangjangpi 냉채 aka 양장피 <li>mandu 만두 <li>wangmandu 왕만두 <li>japchae 잡채 (its korean, but you can always find this dish too) <li>mapadubu 마파두부 <li>ggotbbang 꽃빵 </ul></ul></i></blockquote>of course not all restaurants have all these characteristics/dishes, but as a general rule, you'll find that what is here is true. and sheena, ggan-poon-gi is not anything like tangsuyuk. sheena, if your parents live in maryland, you MUST try the gganpoongi at dae sung kwan on veirs mill road in wheaton. i dont know if they live in that area, but the gganpoonggi there is to DIE for. we were gganpoonggi ADDICTS. it was ugly. we robbed cars to get our daily fix. humble place. its just a run of the mill chinese korean restaurant, but it is close to our hearts. Dae Sung Kwan 대성관 11215 Viers Mill Rd. Wheaton, Maryland (301) 949-1500 ←

My favorite "offal" bit is the pig ears. That's the stuff that has the white cartilege running through it. Yum! Along with Jok Bal (pig feet) and Duk Boki, it's the food I miss the most from Korea. Fortunately you can get some soon dae and "bits" here (NJ), but I also like the bits better than soondae, and unlike in korea I haven't found a place here that will sell you just the bits. I'm pretty sure soondae is an acquired taste - my friends who love all sorts of weird and nasty korean food have never really raved about soondae. By the way, I believe the black seeds in the soon dae guk are mustard seeds. I can't believe they don't have Soondae in a big city like boston! If you haven't found any yet I'll bring you some when I head up there for St. Patty's day. If you're REALLY feelin the crave, you can get blood sausage almost IDENTICAL to soondae at Latin joints. It's uncanny how similar their blood sausage is to soondae.

My girlfriend likes to call it "Bing bing bop".

Thank you! I knew that kalbi meant ribs but I always assumed it was just beef since those were the ones I was more familiar with. I didn't know that dak meant chicken but that helps a lot with my menu reading now! So can kalbi refer to any kind of bone? ← Technically Galbi means the rib area, not necessarily the bone. (Galbi byuh would actually mean "rib bone".) "Galbi" in this dish is used very loosely - I would guess that the term is used more as a reference to the marinading and cooking, to mean something more like "marinaded chicken BBQ" more than "Chicken Ribs"... An excellent addition to dak galbi by the way would be some jjol myun noodles, which is how I remember most places in korea serving it. Any noodles you can find would make a good addition, even ramen.

Regardless of where it comes from, that meat looks really freeking good. Question for rodizio experts: I've been to rodizio twice, the first time I was accompanied by a Brazillian friend and we were served all sorts of weird stuff I've never seen before. The second time (different joint) all we got was "standard" fares. Is there a secret to getting the more "adventurous" cuts, or is it just a matter of asking for it?

I'm surprised no one here knows about China Star, at the PathMark plaza on Rt 1/Plainfield Ave. You mentioned Indian/Chinese, but this place is a Korean/Chinese joint. Some of my personal favorites: Jap-chae Bap. (clear noodles and rice) Tang Soo Yuk (aka Tang soo so gogi - sort of like sweet+sour chicken) Jam-Bong. (spicy noodle bowl) Boo choo jap chae. (beef and leek/scallions) You mean also want to try Ja-Jang myun, which is like the "Spaghetti with meat sauce" of Korean chinese food. Except it's a black bean sauce, but it's the most popular of the chinese korean dishes. This place is sort of a "Secret" korean joint. For some reason they only hand you the Korean menu if you're korean...I've even gone there a couple times and had so specifically ask for the Korean menu! It looks like a runofthemill chinese joint but their food is really spectacular.