SheenaGreena

The first day I arrived in maryland (on sunday) I ate kalbi off of the grill. We like to eat it with a lot of ssam (veggies for wrapping) so this is what we ate it with. My mother picked fresh sesame leaves (korean version of shiso) from her garden, korean watercress from the garden, as well as large lettuce leaves (from the grocery store). Don't know why I didn't take pics of the kalbi and other things we ate The following day I ate mul naengmyun and I think it was around 100 F that day so it was really refreshing. This one was garnished hardboiled egg, salted cuke, and some boiled beef. Then for dinner I ate some bibimbap with some leftover namul (veggies), leftover kalbi, gochujang, and a fried egg. I know that a lot of korean people like to arrange their bibimbap really neat and pretty but my family just piles a ton of veggies on top and mixes it up. We aren't fancy we only ate 3 different vegetables with it: gosari/fernbracken (brown stuff on the left), doraji/bellflower root (container with the wooden spoon), and some good ol'mung bean sprouts or koongnamul (sp?). Blurry much? Yes I was sober when I took this photo. Here is the bibimbap before mixing and to the right of it is a bowl of bean sprout soup.

Before I went to Maryland, my little sister (21), her boyfriend (22), and my mother all went to korea for a month. I told my sister to try to get me something at Narita airport and this is what she got me. It contains some dried fish, but mostly has packets of peanuts and something called a "soft bean" here are some pics of the back...maybe someone can translate for me? sorry about the flash btw my family ate them with some soju They make great drinking snacks oh and here is some peach flavoured mochi from japan. It tastes faintly of peach, but is kinda bland.

My mother has 3 refridgerators, 2 pantries and a lot of jars in the backyard that store daengjang, gochujang, and other stinky (yet delicious) things. Here's a pic of some soy sauce jars (the 3 big ones with the black lids) that are homemade. I believe each jar costs around $100 or something like that. I have no idea what the other jars are holding. Here is the korean kimchi fridge. You can keep kimchi on one side (it simulates the act of actually burying kimchi). Sometimes my mom keeps meat on one side or veggies on one side. I opened up the right side to see what was inside and this is what I found:

For the next four weeks, I am in Maryland visiting my family. My mother, father, and little sister all live here in the house. As some of you may know, I'm half korean so for the next few weeks I will be eating A LOT of korean food and so far I took a few pictures of what I've been eating. Due to my camera, most of the pictures are horrible and/or blurry, so please bear with me. oh and by the way in Korea, you always call a woman (with children) her oldest child's name + mom. So since I'm the oldest, my mother is known as Sheena momma or Sheena amma by all of her friends....hence the title of the thread. enjoy (i'll post pics as I go along)

I have one of those salt containers that I bought from the japanese (dollar) store. It has a handle with a flip top and a little scooper to pick up the salt. I just flip the lid off and take pinches as I need them with my fingers. There is no way I could use a salt shaker because of the amount of salt I need. I'd be shaking all day

I used to pick blackberries outside of my house in san francisco (my family lived in persidio) when I was very young. I'd pick a TON and my mom would make jam and blackberry pie. Then we moved to virginia and we had lots and lots of wild garlic in our front yard that I would dig up. I loved to smell my fingers afterwards and give the find to my mom for kimchiing (is that a word?). Now that Im older and I live in massachusetts, I see blackberries all the time. I try to pick some, but my boyfriend always freaks out and thinks I'm going to die. Hey, I make sure I don't pick any near any roads and I haven't gotten sick or died yet.

I really like red bull when it came out, cause it tasted a lot like bacchus (a korean energy drink). Now I never buy it cause it's overpriced and I guess I'd rather drink water. i also used to like redbull and vodka, but now I hate pretty much all mixed drinks and prefer beer

yep I don't like that soy bean soup. My mom loves to eat it in the summer when she isn't feeling well, ie it's health food. It is soooooooooooo bland gastro, I still have no idea what you ate. I have had cold white noodles that are really skinny, but not fat thick ones. Sounds tasty though. You should recreate the sauce I made upthread. It's so easy and you can use it for bibim naengmyun and as a dipping sauce for cuke spears.

what else was in the dish?

its soy milk with noodles and you add salt and it isn't kal guk su. Kalguksu is "knife noodles" and is made with a chicken or beef or anchovy broth. When I find the name of the soy bean soup I'll edit it in okay, it's called Naengkongguksu and to me it tastes like wallpaper paste mixed with water and noodles

mmmmmmmmmmm sugary delicious goodness!!! I could really go for one of those coffee drinks right now

they do float, but I have a little phobia with moth and butterfly babies so I can't just wash it out or cook them to death and eat them I'm a wuss I wan't one of those rice drawers, where when you pull out a drawer a portion of rice comes out. That'll keep the damn bugs out

nope, no vitamins. I actually have a multivitamin bottle that I haven't used in probably 2 years. I eat such a varied and healthy diet that I don't really worry. I eat a lot of vitamins, veggies, legumes, grains, fish, and very little red meat so I don't need to worry. I also rarely get sick and the last time I was ill was 2 years ago and I had a really bad sinus infection my boyfriend on the other hand eats NO vegetables or fruit and eats a lot of hamburgers, hotdogs, potato chips, french fries, etc and is always sick. Lately I've been making him eat salads so hopefully that will help him out

oh my god those are my favorite and I can get them everywhere in maryland, but they are really hard to find here in the boston area.

I know how you feel with the moths in your rice. I sifted through some rice 2 days ago and found tons of eggs and larva (barf). I had to throw away about half of a 20lb bag of rice. I was so upset.

jason, if by chance I were to find plums, how would I go about pickling them If I wanted to make homemade umeboshi? just leave them out in the sun to dry and coverd in salt? I just made a really refreshing drink of water, ice, smashed umeboshi, homemade shiso vinegar, and some honey. I bet it would be really good with some carbonated water. This seems like a really good summer drink

I see. crap that sucks. i know that my grandparents (american) have a plum tree in their front yard...but they are purple. I guess I'll have to wait till next year or maybe I will get lucky in maryland

I think that mystery meat is headcheese and damn it tastes freakin fantastic fish sauce is so good, I bet it would be good sprinkled on some butter on a good vietnamese baguette (made with rice flour). yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmm glutinous rice is so good sometimes it tastes good all by itself it tastes like candy eta: how much rice do you all eat in one meal? I can usually only eat one bowl (standard rice bowl, chinese style) of rice, but my little sister always eats 2 in one sitting.

Here is another quote from another_adam on chowhound.com who talks about pickling vegetables with umeboshi paste and some mirin or vinegar. sounds delicious any of you do the same?

yep, arrowroot has a completely different texture than buckwheat

Now it's obvious that you are talking about another type of umesu (or umezu). When I first read your thread, I thought you were talking about the byproduct of umeboshi making. Here is one recipe from here 1 kg ume 500 g brown sugar 900 ml x 2 (= 1800 ml) rice vinegar Put them all in a glass container for one month. and other from here 1 kg green ume 1.8 L vinegar 0.8 to 1 kg rock sugar (koori zao) ← uh oh. all I have is umeboshi, not regular unpickled plums. I have no idea where to get plums...all we have here are american plums which I am sure aren't the same thing. However I bet I can get some when I go to maryland when I go to a korean store? hiroyuki, could you possibly post a link to what japanese plums would look like? thank you very much

panchan you eat with rice....I have no idea why they always serve it to you before the rice and main dish comes. You can pick at the panchan before the rice comes, but I would suggest eating the salty items when the rice comes. A lot of namul (vegetables) like spinach, toraji, or zucchini aren't salty so you can nibble on that before the rice comes. the key is to not stuff your face, so you can enjoy it with your main meal. for example, I ALWAYS nibble on panchan at my mom's before the rice and main dish comes out. panchan is always set up first, because its the easiest to assemble. Just take the tupperware container out of the kimchi fridge and throw it on the table. I usually just eat the seasoned veggies and not the salty items before I eat the rice. turns out naengmyun is actually made from arrowroot (thats what makes it so chewy). I thought it was made from buckwheat, but i was wrong ): those are a different kind of noodle. jap chae is made from potato starch, and isn't as chewy as naengmyun when I was little, I thought that I was going to choke from eating naengmyun noodles because I had such a hard time chewing them

sun, you better believe I'm buying stop and shop sugar....all sugar is the same (unless its organic or in the raw). (: yeah there is some minari in my mom's salad, but also some random and weird greens I have never seen before in my life. when I see her I'll ask for the names, but she'll only know their korean names so I'll post those. did you go to umass amherst? I'm going to umass boston now.

I really really like indian pudding. I had it once it in my lifetime and that was 2 years ago for thanksgiving dinner. If it didn't take so long to make, I'd definitely make it myself. However, maybe one of these days I will get along to making it myself and serving it along side some good vanilla icecream mmmmmmmmmm I don't know if its a native american dish or a new england colonist invention