Microwavable quick and easy Korean food

Have you ever had a hankering for a quick fix and some microwavable savory, yet somewhat healthy Korean food? I've found the college student's quick Korean food fix dream come true! Last week, I meandered into H Mart in San Diego with my friend.  We are usually slammed by the smell of the fishy items like in many Asian markets and the aroma from the carby-licious bread goods from Paris Baguette. This is a Korean market with lots of fresh produce, fish, meat, and all the good Korean foods you could ever want. There are plenty of ramen options, too! : ) 

Walking through the store on the weekend you will hear from all corners, "SAMPULL, SAMPULL, TRY A SAMPULL..." In the most Korean ahjumma accent you can imagine. To me, they quickly begin speaking Korean. After all, I am a Korean / Asian face. In most cases I'll start out speaking English because I want to set the foundation for being American and then attempt to spat out some broken Korean when trying to get a point across or confirm something. 

My friend and I discovered bibimbop and japchae bowls. They were on sale for pretty much dirt cheap. By now, the sale price is likely no longer valid, but I'd still recommend checking out these bowls. They're not that bad! The sample assistant persistently challenged us to sample both foods as well as have me snap a quick picture of them. She was inviting and friendly explaining that college students bought baskets full of these pre-made meals. Well...sorry, lady! We are not college students, but we won't pass up a good sample! I'm gluten-free and therefore had to refrain from any food potentially doused in soy sauce. 

Japchae

Lady modeling Bibimbop bowl, but not wanting to show her face!

Kimchi on my mind

Kimchi.

I can't get the blessed thing out of my head. I went out to Korean restaurants every other day this week - maybe a minimum of four times - and indulged in all kinds of kimchi side dishes.
The extremely fermented, bitter, and sour kind.
The freshly made with more than just a hint of sugar or sweetness added.
The bland flavored kimchi.
The hot 'n spicy kimchi in my kimchi kimbap.
The radish kimchi.
The dongchimi kimchi.
You name it. Chances are I had some of it.

Then, I got fed up with not having my own kimchi and went to Zion Market to eat some kimchi kimbap (the Korean version of sushi) and picked up a small jar of kimchi that I've already eaten half-way through in two days. I have a very old jar sitting in my roommates' fridge that I will recover when I return tomorrow.  I've been craving kimchi THAT much. My old jar is so fermented and sour by now that it's probably ready to be turned into a tasty stew.

What did I eat for lunch today? A large green salad with a side dish of kimchi.

What did I eat for snack today? A side of kimchi.

What did I eat for dinner today? NOT kimchi!  I went for a walk and got some tasty pho! Whether I had another bite of kimchi to top the night off, is something I'll leave you to determine.

Dear God, please spare my stomach. I hope these filled cravings are doing something good.

On another note, it's September 1st. Chuseok is next week. Autumn is almost here.

Happy first day of September everyone!

how NOT to eat bibimbap

Yesterday evening my friend and I decided to go to a meeting to inquire about writing for a Korean magazine in San Diego. 'twas a very interesting and fun experience learning about it and meeting all of the people. Though almost all of the people were familiar faces to me, my friend met lots of new people.

Afterwards, we ran out in a flash to find a Korean restaurant.  We originally intended to eat dinner beforehand, but we got a late start. By the end of the meeting our stomachs were making the gurgle gurgle, "please feed me" sounds.

We ended up on Convoy St. at Grandma Tofu and BBQ. In Korean it is known as 할머니순두부!
We ordered a selection of favorite Korean foods.

I usually like to eat fairly healthy and enjoy eating a good hearty bibimbap. I always order the hot stone pot bibimbap. If you would like to sound like you know what you're ordering you can say you want the dolsot bibimbap, which written in Korean is 돌솥비빔밥. The hot stone bibimbap is the best! It cooks up all the vegetables and makes the rice and other foods at the bottom crispy. The stone pot itself always adds extra flavor.  Because I am abstaining from gluten for an undetermined amount of time, I order mine without meat. Most restaurants will add soy sauce to their meat marinade. Though Koreans will tell you that their soy sauce was and is traditionally made without wheat, in America almost all soy sauce is made with the glutinous goodness that we know of as wheat.

As many stereotypical Asians do when their food comes out, we started snapping pictures.  My friend snapped a picture of me while I grabbed my chopsticks and picked up the first vegetable in my stone pot. HOWEVER, might I inform you that this is traditionally NOT how to eat your bibimbap.  See below.

Modeling how NOT to eat bibimbap

How do you eat bibimbap? I would say it's best eaten after adding some gochujang, Korean red chili pepper paste to the top. Using your spoon and or chop sticks mix all of the vegetables, egg, meat, sauces, etc. together.  If you're eating the bibimbap in a hot stone pot, be sure to scrape the food off the sides and allow the other parts to warm up, too.  You can then eat your bibimbap with a spoon!  It's okay to eat with chopsticks too, though it's much more commonly seen and easier to be eaten with your handy dandy spoon. Note: be careful not to burn yourself against the edges of the hot stone pot. When they say hot, they mean it!

My friend ordered the combo with soondubu jjigae (tofu soup) and kalbi (tasty marinated ribs) that comes with a hot stone pot of rice.  A look at what we ate:

Left: Friend. Right top: hot stone bibimbap, bottom: the dishes

Kale Kimchi Omurice and a kind Korean Ahjussi

Today I walked around downtown to do some exploring and spend quality time with myself. Who stays cooped up inside when the sun is shining and its almost 70 degrees in January? Not me!

Look at that beauty of a day!

After my adventures,* I decided to get more adventurous with my food. With an hour of exercise and three hours of walking in the sun later, I worked up an appetite. Though I drank a delicious green drink packed with kale, spinach, broccoli, apple, etc that I picked up at the Farmer's Market and my typical daily fix of a Kind bar,  I still figured I better eat a good evening meal. As usual, I didn't have much food and will need to go grocery shopping soon, so I made something up with the random foods I had. I came up with a rather fun and tasty kimchi and kale omurice! It probably exists somewhere, but I'd like to think I created something for once!! I come up with great ideas --more like yours truly reinventing the wheel. Hey, at least I can find how to best cook up what creative idea is brewing in my head if I need help bringing it to fruition.

About the kimchi and kale omurice...

I tossed extra special "sprouted" brown rice in the rice cooker....don't ask. I bought it at HMart and it was triple the price of any other rice on the shelf. I was looking for brown rice and the package says sprouted is healthier for many reasons. I don't know. Better go ask a Korean to find the legit reasoning behind it. Basically it's good for health and solves some of life's problems? Sounds good to me!

While that was cooking, I made the egg. I mixed up two eggs in a bowl (add a bit of milk or water for fluff and texture). After greasing up the old pan, cooking up the egg and placing it on a plate, I moved onto the fried rice fixins.

I started with the kale. I used the last half of an older bunch of kale. I cleaned, cut, and cooked the kale, much like the blanching you do with spinach, and set that aside.  Next, I fried and cooked the kimchi. Once that was cooked I added the kale back to the pan. Oh yeah! I snuck some carrots in and attempted to add garlic after realizing it was a bit too old. You can add more veggies, meat or whatever leftovers are in the fridge. In the future, I'll be sure to have meat protein lying around. With some sesame oil and the kimchi veggie mix, I finally added the rice! Cooked it all up and placed it in the egg!
Finally, choose the sauce. You can add ketchup or gochujang on your omurice delightful creation. All I had was sriracha as you can see in the pic below. After taking the picture, I garnished it with leftover avocado. You can never have too much avocado in any shape or form and it goes great with omelettes. The kimchi kale omurice was a lot of yumm in my mouth and quite a bit of food!
PLUS! It had kale. As far as I'm concerned, anything with kale is healthier. It's a super food! Right? Heck! You can argue the whole thing is healthy. Kimchi, kale, sprouted brown rice, egg, and sriracha. The only thing not so healthy is the sesame oil, but you've got to throw some in for the sake of having oil and that extra flavor!

Here's the creation::

Enjoy~~

Wanna try it? Make your own rendition and let me know how it works or tastes for you!

Have fun!

*Because this blog supposedly touches upon Korea related things, I'll add the part of my day where I met a Korean man (definitely ahjussi status!!) on my walk. He has lived in the US for quite some time but is originally from Daegu! Crazy! [I have this weird thing with ahjussis and boys/people from Daegu. I love Daegu dialect and happen to be able to find or attract random people from Daegu.] As I was walking, I noticed a cute dog that reminded me of my family's childhood dog. I stopped to ask the breed of his dog not knowing he was Korean...and a friendly one at that!  His dog is a maltipoo (Maltese/Poodle mix) and our childhood dog was a Bichontese (Bichon Frise/Maltese mix). They look very similar. My!...he was friendly. I knew he was nice based on the conversation with previous onlookers, but just how....I didn't know.  He asked me to sit next to him and take a picture with him and the dog. I politely declined!  He then asked if I was Korean. Apparently he could tell. I said, yes. He started speaking in Korean. Not that I needed to, but I did explain that I was adopted. I really hate when people, especially older people make assumptions and project their expectations wanting me to act culturally appropriate or speak perfect Korean. Sometimes I think by telling you I was adopted it will mitigate any strong expectations or predispositions. Who knows.

Once he found out I was Korean AND adopted he again asked me to sit down right next to him and talk. "Please!! Dear," he pats his hand down on the bench next to his lap and dog, "have a seat next to me and let's talk!" Again, I politely declined. I knew I'd be stuck there if I sat down. He is married folks! Nothing like that! (or so I hope!) He has a Caucasian wife and was giving a Korean friend and her child visiting from Korea a tour of various parts of California. They were off whale-watching while he was holding down the fort and taking care of the dog. He really wanted me to sit there and chat him up for another hour, so I could meet the woman and her 8 year old kid. Supposedly the woman spoke really good English. I talked with the ahjussi for a little longer [interesting guy] and I decided to carry on with my own day. As much as I'd love to meet more Koreans, I needed to get going.  I also love Korean kids and listening to them speak in Korean. Part of me wanted to meet them. I love the sound of the language. If not to communicate with my Korean family, I'd learn Korean to speak Korean with my future kids!  I must admit, I love having lots of older Korean friends with kids. As I walked further, just a minute later, I saw a Korean family with a very cute daughter under the age of 5.  My heart melted when I heard the daughter speaking to her mother.Too bad kids have to grow up so fast!  I might have stopped to "observe" them for a minute while stepping aside to avoid photobombing three Korean girls taking pictures of each other by the water.  : )

The dog:

K. End.


~HK~

Summer Samgyetang. Ginseng chicken soup.

Samgyetang (삼계탕) is a delicious hot ginseng chicken soup very popular in Korea during the summer, especially on bok days (복날 translated as dog days).
The bok days are the three hottest days according to the lunar calendar.
Chobok: 초복 (begginning)
Chungbok: 중복 (middle)
Malbok: 말복 (end)

Samgyetang is often eaten for its health benefits and supposed internal cooling. I know! In America we think cold cold cold when it's hot whereas Koreans think just the opposite! Battle fire with fire, they say! When your body is hot, your blood pools at the surface of your body for cooling. That often leaves the stomach and internal organs without proper circulation and  weaker digestion. By eating a hot healthy soup, your body not only gets nutrients but the proper cooling and circulation it needs.
In the past, dog was the meat of choice in the soup during those hot days. Chicken or samgyetang is the most common meal of choice now. It is traditionally eaten on these three days as a way to rest after a long days work and replenish the body with nutrients and energy.  It is tasty and rejuvenating.

For 2013 the bok or dog days fall on:

Chobok: July 13
Jungbok: July 23
Malbok: Aug 12

Samgyetang is a soup made with a whole chicken stuffed with rice, garlic, ginseng, ginger, and jujubes (dates). It is cooked and placed in a broth made for samgyetang. The broth comes in variations with salt and more spices or even creamy milky-like mixes and flavors while other times it is allowed to take on the flavors of the tasty stuffed chicken. A simple broth that soaks the flavors of the chicken is my favorite!

I made a new Korean friend in San Diego and in honor of Chobok we went on a journey to find samgyetang.  We found this delightful dish at "Old Village" Korean BBQ Restaurant on Convoy St in San Diego. I believe it costs $16.99 for one bowl.Believe me, it is worth every penny and I would go back for more! It tasted fabulous! Even my friend said there was no difference in taste and feeling from the samgyetang eaten in Korea.

I felt a little uneasy and queasy that day, but after eating the soup my stomach felt calm, satiated, and satisfied. I was happier and had more energy to take on the next day!  Old Village Korean restaurant has a lot of other varieties of good traditional flavors and Korean foods that you may also consider trying, if your stomach doesn't favor this ginseng chicken soup!

I hope you will taste your way to some samgyetang this summer. I'm ready for more. There are a few days left of summer. Rest and enjoy!!