Domestic Goddess

Sheena - you are right about the ONI, IMO and YOGIYO. YOGIYO - over here IMO - auntie ONI - sister I'd like to add: Agassi (pronounced A-gah-si) for calling the unmarried women. Peter - you are most welcome. Billy keeps asking when is Serena coming back. He wants to hear more shark tales from her. LOL

Peter, in the Philippines we would add those unlaid eggs in our chicken rice porridge (Arroz Caldo or Jook in chinese). And yes, we fought over for them too.

Fugu - banana heart blossoms are great for the sweet-savory stew called humba. It is usually made with pig trotters and is usually eaten with dried fish called tuyo (the saltiness of the dried fish is a great foil against the sweetness of the meat). Lemme know if you want the recipe.

I, too, preboil my homemade pasta sheets. I saw a pasta machine here in Korea for $50. I might ask Santa that for my Christmas pressie.

Doctortim, you have solved my dilemna of trying to find eggholders here in Korea. I love soft-boiled eggs and toast soldiers but couldn't find egg holders for several years now. I do have soju shot glasses that would do the job nicely like you shot glass. Thanks for the inspiration!

Dejah, I used pre-cooked rice (cooked slightly with chicken stock). The 30 minutes steaming was enough since all my ingredients were cooked (chinese roast pork/sausage, salted egg yolk) except for the reconstituted dried mushrooms. Only 2 packages made it to the freezer and I'm hoarding that until I get to make a bigger batch with mung beans and lotus leaves this time.

I was 29 years old. I just married Ky hubby and he taught me how to make roux, red eye gravy and milk gravy ( a hit with my Filipino family).

My korean friends took me and Billy to a korean shabu-shabu restaurant. It was interesting to see the difference between shabu-shabus in Manila, China, Japan, etc. You have to forgive some of the blurry pics as I used my celphone to take the pictures. Here we have the basic soup stock. Even though it is red, it wasn't spicy at all (to my surprise). The first of many servings of thinly sliced beef. Of course, it wouldn't be korean without the kimchi bowls. The napa cabbage kimchi was so-so (and slightly sweet) but the radish kimchi rocked! A bowlful of rice with toppings and an egg yolk for the bokkum'ed rice later. Leafy veggies, mushrooms and even squash slices to add to the soup. Sigh, another blurry pic of the noodles made in-house by the restaurant. This will be added to the soup after all the meat is consumed. Let's get everything started by adding the mushrooms first. We had pine mushrooms, and two other kinds. Once they were slightly done, we started dipping our beef in the boiling broth. After 3 trays of beef, we decided we were ready for the noodles. You can tell it was freshly-made and was slightly chewy. And when all the noodles are gone and the tasty broth has boiled down to a cup or less, the rice with the toppings and eggyok is dumped in and bokkumed together. I thought I couldn't eat another bite but managed to eat half a bowlful (inspired by the Green's eating prowess ) At the end of the meal, we were served coffee and hot roasted soybean milk tea. It was wonderful!

I made Joonzi today! So this is supper tonight. My joongzi had all my favorite ingredients: sticky rice, chinese sausages, chinese roast pork, mushroom and salted duck egg yolk.

I made Joongzi!!!! Here you go Dejah... After steaming it for 30 minutes.... For the filling I added Chinese roast pork, chinese sausage, mushrooms, salted egg yolks. Breaking it open to reveal the goodies inside. That was soooo good. I got 3 more packages to eat. Two will go to the freezer (for those nights when I get hungry). And one package for my supper tonight.

Great pics of your catch, Doc! I echo what Rancho Gordo was thinking, those fish scraps/bones that were thrown overboard would have been good in fish soup.

Or try it plain dipping it in sauteed shrimp paste (bagoong). It is so addictive that you can eat a whole bowlful of singkamas slices (jicama).

Kris, I swear this happened to me when I did the same thing with the peanut butter container that I was using for my chicken stock. I heard sparks flying and smelled something burning in the microwave before I realized what was happening. LOL

Thanks Peter! *blush* I still have your China and Korea trip reports boookmarked. Whenever I burst out laughing on the computer, hubby asks me if I was reading one of your posts on eGullet.

That is so cute! I remember when I was seventeen and started baking, too.

Lucy - that vegetable is the chayote or sayote as we call it in the Philippines. We usually use it in stir-frys and sometimes as a substitute for green papaya in a chicken soup dish called tinola. The fruit is roughly pear shaped, somewhat flattened and with coarse wrinkles, ranging from 10 to 20 cm in length. It has a thin green skin fused with the white flesh, and a single large flattened pip. The flesh has a fairly bland taste, and a texture described as a cross between a potato and a cucumber. Although generally discarded, the seed has a nutty flavour and may be eaten as part of the fruit. (Wiki)

Melissa - I live in a tiny town here in Korea. We have BBQ chicken here and hubby likes their chicken. I think it is just so-so. Now Kyochon chicken is a different story. Kyochon chicken rocks! I can sit down and eat a boxfull (ok, to tell the truth more than a boxfull). The coating is light, crispy and garlicky. Hmmm... my favorite. My sons prefer it too. I told my hubby that when we move back to the US, that we should move to New York. LOL

You need to warn people that chicken adobo is like crack. Once you've tasted it, you're hooked... ← I have got to tell my Mom about this. She's gonna die laughing. LOL

Wow! Those pizzas look scrumpious. Thanks for reporting, Kobi!

Ah Leung - I remember the foods, sights and smells of the Night Market. The curry balls, the octopus tentacles, etc. There was also this tiny restaurant in Mongkok that served this fabulous Shanghai Rice with Peking Duck slices on top of the mound. Man, I still dream about that dish.

Nakji - adobo is made on the stove top, never the oven. Here's my mom's recipe. Chicken Adobo Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, cut into serving sizes 1/3 cup soy sauce 2/3 cup white vinegar 1 head garlic, minced 1 beef boullion cube or chicken cube (if you don't have this, add a 1/2 tbsp salt) 6 peppercorns 2 bay leaves 2 tsp. vegetable oil 1. In a large bowl or container marinate the chicken with all of the ingredients except the vegetable oil. Let the chicken marinate in the fridge for over an hour. 2. In a large wok, add the chicken and marinade and turn up the heat. Let the chicken boil in the marinade for 10 minutes then add 1 cup of water. Turn the the heat and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes. 3. Thoroughly drain the chicken, leave the marinade mixture in the wok. 4. In another pan, add the oil and heat it. Add the drained chicken and fry until the pieces are golden brown. Drain the chicken and add back to the marinade in the wok. * 5. Turn the heat up again and simmer the chicken pieces until the sauce thickens up. Serve over cooked rice or fried garlic rice. *You can cut up potatoes in wedges or cubes and fry these too. Add the potatoes with the chicken in the wok to simmer it together until the sauce thickens up. Oh, I like eating adobo with slices of tomatoes and cucumbers. The veggies clean your mouth for the next adobo spoonful.

Marlene - my DH would say "Now that's a meal!" I wanted to give a treat to my hubby so I made his favorite: Chicken Adobo.

More pepero from post-pepero day... Lookie at this cute goodie box. It had three foil packs of half-sized pepero. Two boxes from 2 different students of hubby. The middle box (original) was another gift to hubby but the dark ones were hubby's "pasalubong" (Filipino term for gift brought home) to me. Hubby bought this box of Micky peperos to give away to his students. He said he was mobbed class after class.

My favorite pajeon contains oysters and squid rings. Oooh, now I really have a hankering for it right now. And I just ate.

I'm thinking about making a small batch of joong as I've got frozen banana leaves and chinese sausage in the freezer. Would it be okay to eliminate the peanuts? Hmm, maybe just add peeled chestnuts instead?