jkim

oship seju is a very popular young person's drink... or at least it was when I was at that age... People in the early/mid 20s play drinking games with it. Not as strong as soju, and sweeter so the girls enjoy, but not as heavily sweet as baekseju for the guys. You should try mussam with your sam gyup sal / kket nip ssam. mu ssam tastes a bit different from takuhan or the white radish pickle at fried chicken places.

Hold on, I think I got my geometry wrong. 5 - 6 cm RADIUS is what I'm after... about as big as my palm (grown man)... And I never wrap rice with that thing. I only use it together with kketnip (perilla leaves), spring onions, misutgaru, chan gi rum (sesame oil) and 1 - 2 types of grilled meat. No rice. If I'm to have rice in my ssam, I'll use a lettuce leaf, ssam jang, and optionally some spring onions and meat.

pre-packaged mu ssam can be bought from a korean grocer in the refrigerated section. It is about 5 - 6 cm in diameter.

To torakiris// It may be a bit late, but street foods not to miss that have not been mentioned are: - Soon Dae and Liver, with salt and red pepper - Soon Dae Bok Keum - Various Pojang Macha foods - chest nuts and sweet potatoes

So anyone have any new feedback on this topic?

eh? in the first post of this thread you said you hate curries!

nakji: it's called oship seju, not oship oship.

I think nakji is referring to o-ship-se-ju (오십세주). 50% soju (소주) + 50% baek se ju (백세주). It's strange... my mum's oysters in 보쌈 were red, not the natural color. And I wouldn't recommend the frozen oysters ... When oysters are to be eaten raw, they should be alive and shucked while alive at time of pickling.

I really enjoy this show.

Melon! What happened to you hate curry rice and only your husband like it??? My wife HATES curry rice. What's your secret? How did you get to like it? Maybe I will try on my wife.

I can name a million dishes that taste better with meat that has NOT been browned. Sam Gye Tang Sul Leong Tang Jok Bal Bo Ssam just to name a few. Also another category (i.e. uncooked): Yuk Hwe (korean style steak tartare?) Yuk Hwe Bi Bim Bap Think of the bigger picture. The world has a lot more different kinds of food than just Chinese and Western.

1. Mixing curry does not have anything to do with Age. I think it is a cultural thing. All Koreans I know mix it. I even cook it pre-mixed (add rice to the pot in the last 2 minutes, and mix away). 2. Korean and Japanese curries taste different. Don't ask me why. I don't know. I have had both and I prefer the Korean Ottogi curry to the Japanese S&B. I do like the Japanese apple curry though... I have noted that S&B has MSG in it and the korean ones I have had recently do not. 3. My recipe is as follows: Ingredients: 1lb ***fatty*** pork (i.e. sam gyup sal) - cubed. 1 small zuchini. 3 large potatoes - cubed. 3 carrots - cut into small pieces. 4 celery strands - cut into small pieces. 1 apple - small slices. 1 pear - small slices. Frozen peas. 2 large onions sliced. 3 cloves garlic. small piece ginger. Method: - Heat a very small amount of sesame oil in a wok / pot on low heat. - Prepare a large bowl of water, and place the curry powder in the water - stir when not doing anything with the other stuff. - When oil is hot, throw in the garlic, ginger and let sit for 10 - 30 secs. then throw in the meat. Let the meat fat melt... - when meat is not sticking to the bottom, throw in the cubed potatoes, onions and carrots. Stirfry until meat is cooked. - Add the water with the powder in it, and adjust heat to high. Let it come to boil. - Add the rest of the ingredients, and put heat on medium/low. - Let simmer for about 20 minutes on medium/low. - Add adequate amount of rice, and stir in to the curry to make a "bok keum". - Plate the colored rice, on one side, with accompaniements on the other side to reduce dish washing. "regular" accompaniements include at-least 2 of: - normal kim chi. (or preferably bae choo kkot jo ri)*** a must!!! - takuhan. (only when kimchi isn't available) - some form of tempura. - fresh vegetable sticks - i.e. green chilli or cucumber, together with a bit of ssam jang (1 part dwen jang 1 part go chu jang small amount of freshly chopped garlic some sesame oil). - left over celery or carrot sticks from cooking together with mayonaise.

nakji // show us a pic. hiroyuki // Standard ddok bok ki shouldn't be accompanied with rice. The ddok is a rice product and thus it is very... not nice, when accompanied with rice. There are always variations that are more suited to be rice accompaniments, which call for various meat elements in order to reduce the % of volume that the rice sticks take up. The rice sticks are an alternative to rice, so obviously the amount of rice sticks used would decrease in this instance. And I would not be eating ddok bok ki that is longer than a day old (reheated a maximum of 1 times, and preferably not even)... leaving it for a week is not recommended. If it is too spicy, try toning down on the chili elements. Standard accompaniments to ddok bok ki to reduce the heat include non-rice foods such as: - Udon noodles in clear broth. - Odeng in clear broth. - Tempura variants. - Kim bab / Sushi variants. I'm sure at-least 3 of the above are very easy to procure in Japan. In particular, twi gim gim bab (nori tempura) may be something you want to try. - Roll tiny (about 2 cm diameter) nori rolls: cut a paper in half and roll 2 nori rolls vertically. |------| | | | |------| - Filling of nori is by choice but you should not use more than 2 filling elements. Common filling elements include: carrot, zuchini, sausage strips, ham, spam, egg, kim chi (variants), and "jut gal" variants. Other suitable ingredients would include fake crab meat, pre-boiled squid legs, pre-boiled calamari fillet, fish fillet, or really... any other ingredient you can think of that is nice when cooked. - Cut the small rolls into 3 pieces (or pre cut the paper before rolling). - Make a very light batter. Dip small pieces into batter. Deep fry.

Thanks for all your replies. What I'm trying to achieve with my recipe is something of a cross between western pancake and Korean pancake. For more information on Korean pancake, please feel free to head to http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=38905&st=0, where ho-ddeok is described in its many glorious incarnations. Main differences I want to achieve (to either variant) are: 1. Ease of cooking. Western pancakes are more liquidy than the korean counterpart. The dough is watery, so that you can pour straight out of the mix into the pan and voila. The Korean kind is a kneeded dough, kind of like pizza base. Lots of work. 2. Texture differences. The Korean pancake is a lot more chewy and has a soft, crunchy (I know they are opposite words but I dont know how to describe it any better) outer layer where the dough has browned. I haven't been able to achieve this with my recipe. The western pancakes tend to be soft and fluffy. By overcooking, all I get is burnt pancakes, and not the crisp that I am after. 3. Use of easily available cooking utensils. I don't want to have to use a korean pancake griddle. I'd rather just use my 20cm tefal skillet, the way that western pancake is made. 4. New flavours. I want a heavily buttery taste, akin to buttermilk pancakes, which is not the case in ho-ddeok.

I don't like Lotteria. Their burgers are awful... I'm sure you can catch the subway when you are in Korea, so I'm going to list some places that are far away from Myung Dong. I don't recall any places of significance in Myung Dong, except for the night market. Places you want to go to while in Seoul: 1. Soon Dae Tower (shin dang dong). Take the number 4 (blue) line to Sadang station, and then change to number 2 (green) line. Great for soon dae bok keum. 2. Shin Chon. People go to Shin Chon for dak gal bi. Don't ask me exactly which restaurant or why. I just know that they do. Take the number 4 (blue) line to Dong Dae Moon Un Dong Jang (stadium) station, and then switch to the number 2 (green) line. 3. Chung mu ro. This is the "arts" district of Seoul. Take the number 4 (blue) line to Chung Mu Ro station. 4. Cham sil. This is the location of the famous lotte world amusement park. number 4 (blue) line to Dong Dae Moon Un Dong Jang (stadium) station, and then switch to the number 2 (green) line. 5. In sa dong. This is where you can get han jung sik for about 2 man won / head. Go to gwang hwa mun station (blue line up to dong dae mun station, then to number 5 purple line) and then go by foot for about 15 mins. 6. Yong San. Number 4 to seoul station, then down the national line. This is the place for electronics... yong san jun ja mart... electronic black market. 7. Samsung. This is the location of the koex mall. number 4 (blue) line to Sadang station, and then switch to the number 2 (green) line. Here, you can find Outback (western family restaurant with aussie theme), montecarlo (western family restaurant), Zenzen (great sam gyup sal place), jugjug (beer place) and some other stuff inc. world food court. 8. Ap ku jong. I never understood the fascination people had with this place. Not my kind of place at all.

In the absense of knowledge of where better to, I'll just make some corrections or additional notes on ZenKimChi's list. 23. Odeng/Eomuk (Street-side Fish Noodles) These are, in fact, "fish cakes" - the same as that used by the chinese. Street stalls usually boil this in a seaweed / anchovy broth; or may cook them with ddeok bok ki. 24. Hoddeok (Stuffed Street-side Pastries) Mmmmm. Fried dough with brown sugar. Well worth waiting in long lines for. Syrup stuffed pancakes is the best way to describe this. Very springy but innocent lookign pancake, with a molten core of hot sweet syrup. 25. GeiJang (Raw Fermented Crabs) One of my favorite side dishes. Raw crab has a fanstastic gelatinous textures. Gye Jang is not fermented. It is pickled for preservation, but does not go through the fermentation that kimchi goes through. 57. Soju (Rice Whiskey) A sweet potato liquer, strong, and will have you cursing the world if consumed in copious amounts. Soju is not from potatoes, and normal soju (gum doo ggo bi, etc) is not strong. Cham ee sul is 21% if i remember right. Taste is similar to vodka, but less sweet and has a more harsh texture due to the pure ethanol that is usually mixed into it to save mfg costs and artificially boost alcohol %. 69. Any product with Green Tea in it Green tea appears to be the bridge between traditional Korean desserts and European sweets, showing up in everything from frappuccinos, chiffon cakes and ice creams. I think this is an import (from japan or china). These products didn't exist when I was in Korea. 71. Yogurt Soju Cocktail I raised my eyebrows the first time some one offered me soju mixed with a yogurt drink served to my preschool students, but one sip and it is the best darn creamcicle you’ve had in years. Not yogurt. The koreans call acidopholis drinks (i.e. yakult) yogurt. They are confused if you mention real yogurt to them.

Well, the food without shellfish would be... > jja jang myun - "chinese" the Koreans call it, but I've never seen it at any real chinese restaurants. > so go gi tang su yuk - another "chinese" dish, beef in batter in pineapple sauce. Ask for the beef (so) one, not the pork (standard) one. > hwe + mae un tang - raw fish and fish bone soup. > gop chang - intestines. make suer it is so, not dwe ji.

First, I'm in Australia, so when I say cornflour, I actually do mean the white stuff, that you refer to as starch. And I have been using the same set of ingredients for 4 different batches, of which the second and third were bitter, but the first and 4th were good... which actually doesn't make much sense unless I'm inadvertantly doing something different each time (i.e. different temperature of something when putting it in, or something like that). I'm quite happy with my pancakes, when it is a "good batch". But I am always open to try new recipes and integrating their technique with my own to find a better pancake. Thanks for the links. I will definitely check them out.

That's because they don't. They (the korean sam gyup sal places such as ZenZen @ ASEM / SamSung-Dong) use sesame oil, a mild mustard, and kong garu traditionally, using the oil and mustard to bind the powder onto the meat. I didn't know it was kong garu when I first tried it. As you would know, kong garu and misutgaru have very similar color and texture, so I mistakenly thought it was misutgaru when trying it at home..

The corn flour and rice flour is there to give the pancake more "bounce", or a more... elastic feel? is the best way to put it. I'll check whether the corn flour is OK as per your suggestion. I just assumed that flour goes for ages and didnt check. BTW how would I check? Can I smell it? or by eye? The powder looked fine as far as I could tell.

(Host's note: this new pancake topic has been merged in here. This post is not in response to the above request.) I use the following recipe, but it seems to be hit/miss... sometimes being pretty good, but sometimes exhibitting very bitter flavours (50% chance that a batch is bitter from past experience). (3 20cm pancakes) 1 cup flour. 1 tblsp baking powder. 3 tblsp rice powder. 3 tblsp cornflour. 5 tblsp sugar. 3 tblsp maple syrup. 1 tsp vanilla essense. 1 cup milk. 4 whole eggs. mix powder, add wet ingredients, fry over melted butter. What can I use to improve this recipe? I have not been able to identify the source of the bitter taste. I usually serve with icecream & fruit, or bacon, eggs, sausages and tomato sauce. Either way, the bitter taste really makes the thing horrible.

now for my recipe for pajori. It's a bit different from the standard pajori that i've seen, even though the ingredients are the same. Prepare ingredients WITHOUT mixing them, in small individual bowls or spoons: 1 tsp sugar 1 pinch salt some pepper 2 tblsp chilli powder (korean) 1 tblsp rice vinegar 1 tblsp sesame oil 4 - 6 large spring onions, cut vertically into strips. Arrange the spring onions in a large bowl. mix all powder ingredients in 1 small bowl. Sprinkle the powders in to the large bowl evenly to cover the spring onion, then try to "wet" the powder with the vinegar. You don't have a lot to work with. Toss in the oil. Mix by "working" the bowl. I move the bowl in a circular fashion. Do not touch the pa with your hands or chopsticks. Difference between this method and the standard (premix sauce and then work in) is that the pa will be much more firm and crunchy. Some people use soy sauce in their preparation. I don't.

I have no idea where to buy fresh misutgaru in the US since I'm in Australia. However, what I can tell you is that I like to flavour my sam gyup ssal with misutgaru. They use kong garu in korea, and I tried it at home, but I didn't know it was kong garu at the time. I actually thought it to be misut garu. So I tried it with misutgaru, and actually now prefer it over kong ga ru. Marinade pork belly strips in a bit of mi rin (white wine will substitute), garlic, onions, spring onions, and sprinkle a bit of sesame. Leave to sit for a few hours. cook over weber bbq (or any other home charcoal bbq solution). Cut into small pieces with scissors. dip into sesame oil + mustard of your choice, cover generously with misutgaru... wrap in mu ssam + kket nip + ssam jang (with fresh chopped garlic - not pressed), and some home made pajori. the perfect sam gyup ssal. Another dish I like misutgaru with is dwe ji ggop jil. But I'll go into the details of that next time.

What the hell? Have you been to Korea, woman? There's whipped cream on subs at every single bakery I been to for the last 6+ years. It's actually really delicious, as the sub really isn't a sub but a sugar bun (i.e. similar to baked donut dough... but softer). But yes, foreigners think this is weird stuff when it's actually really nice. I like our korean bakeries, even though it has stuff that people (before they taste it) find to be "weird".

OK. I am Korean, but I really got to get a word in here. Koreans do not do the whole globalization thing very well... not in terms of food anyway. The Pho that is served around places is foul. It tastes nothing like real Pho. Then there is chinese. What is chinese without duck and char siu? But the "chinese" in korea do not serve duck nor char siu. So don't go around spreading the word that there are a lot of vietnamese places around. I've been to em, and they are just foul. The amount of localization that is applied to food before becoming accepted as mainstream, and thus financially and economically viable, bastardizes food beyond the point that it is still recognizable for what it was originally intended. Thus all food undergoes a "re-invention" process upon becoming commercialized in Korea. Paying 1man won for a bowl of disgusting "pho" that really isn't... vs going downstairs and paying 5 chun won for a bowl of really delicious seol long tang and kot jjo ri kim chi... not much of a choice. Beer is another thing I have major major problems with. It's very expensive for a beer enthusiast to get a decent drop. It costs me from 8chun won to man 2 chun won for a bottle of a decent drop, where as the local water would cost only 3 - 4 chun won. But then the local stuff tastes almost as bad as the American watered down stuff...