Korean food

Korean Traditional Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:45:00 +0000

Korean Traditional Snacks or Han-gwa are always present on special occasions like Chuseok (Thanksgiving Day) and Seollal (Chinese New Year) specially when there's Jesa or when the family holds a ceremony for the repose of one's ancestors. Korean traditional snacks are included in the sacrifices offer for the death.

This box of hangwa is a gift from hubby's friend and because we don't practice jesa at home, we brought to my in-laws who always do jesa at home.

The long ones on the corner of the box are like pop rice. They are soft and sweet. In the middle of the right side are grains. They are a little bit hard and crispy. The brown ones on the middle left side of the box are too sweet and glutinous.

They are just snacks but the price is surprising. They are one of my favorite snacks.

Duck Barbecue in Mokpo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 10:28:00 +0000

Koreans believe that ducks are very nutritious food so last time when we visited my hubby's uncle, he took us to the duck restaurant in Mokpo. He said it was delicious and nutritious food so he brought us there. Although my hubby doesn't like duck much, he couldn't oppose the invitation.

I can't see anything special with the menu but it's so expensive. It's just fresh duck in sticks or in short just normal barbecue duck. Oh well, except from the luxurious restaurant, there's nothing that I could like more. It was just expensive but there's nothing special with the taste. I prefer to eat samgyeopsal because the meat is more tender than duck's meat.

The cooking style is special but it suffocates me. It takes long time to wait for the meat to be done.

Finally, it is done. It takes long time to wait but this one stick doesn't take minutes to eat.

Here's the rest of the whole duck. When can we finish cooking it? Everyone was awkward while waiting for the meat to be cooked. I guess everyone was already hungry before cooking the three sticks again.

Dried Mangoes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:57:00 +0000

Whenever we travel around Asia, mango is always my hubby's choice in the market. He loves mangoes that he can eat a kilo of riped mangoes in one seat. He can't stop eating once he started to eat. So, when a friend went home, my brother asked what I wanted so he could send through a friend. Actually, I don't miss any food from home except unripe mangoes and sauce (fermented shrimp). But it's impossible to bring mangoes here in Korea so I asked him to send dried mangoes for my hubby, instead. My hubby loves riped mangoes either dried or fresh. But I don't. So I told my hubby if he likes to eat dried mangoes and he was so happy to hear about it.

So when a friend came back, here's what my brother sent me. Dried mangoes for my hubby.

Korean Fruits

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 09:39:00 +0000

Apples from a friend, tangerines and persimmons from my mother in law. Koreans always have desserts after meals so having lots of fruits at home is just normal. I think it's one of the reasons why Koreans have flawless skin because they eat lots of fruits. Fruits are very expensive here specially when there's an occasion like Thanksgiving day and Seollal or Chinese New Year because they are famous for gift-givings. Boxes of fruits are sent to the relatives or friends during these occasions. You can't even buy retails of fruits. You need to buy bunches or boxes of them.

Although we always have fruits at home, I don't buy them. My mother in law always give or send us fruits that sometimes they get rotten and have to throw them away. I don't like fruits much specially apples. My stomach gets upset when I eat apples so sometimes I make fruit shake instead. But I'm usually lazy so I don't make often. But my hubby loves fruits.

Seaweeds Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 09:21:00 +0000

Seaweeds soup or miyok gook is one of the most famous soup in Korea. It is popular on birthdays and after giving birth. After delivery, the mother eats lots of seaweeds soup because it contains lots of calcium and iodine, the nutrients that is very important for nursing mothers. It is also a tradition to eat miyok guk on birthdays to remind the first food of the mother and passed on to her newborn through her milk which also believes that it brings good fortune for the rest of the year.

Miyok guk or seaweeds soup is not only eaten after delivery or during birthdays but also anytime of the year. It is serve as soup at home or in the restaurants because it is known as a highly nutritious soup.

It is very easy to cook. Just soak the seaweeds. While waiting for it to become soft, boil some amount of water with minced garlics. It depends how much garlic you put. I like mine with lots of garlic. When the miyok is soft, cut it and put in the boiling water. Boil it for about 10 minutes and put some sesame oil and salt. It's as simple as that but it's more delicious if you put some beef (saute the beef first, if you put some). We always put beef on birthdays.

Delicious and Nutritious Polvoron

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:46:00 +0000

I'm not saying it's the best because I made it. I can say that it's the best polvoron because it's the most delicious polvoron that I've tasted, so far. Do you know why? It's because I made it so special. It's my own version of polvoron.

It's just the same procedure with the yummy polvoron that I made last time. But this time, instead of peanuts, I put ground cornflakes instead. It's crunchier so it's more delicious and nutritious. I put less sugar because cornflakes is sweet and I put more skimmed milk powder and less flour.

Here's what I made. Yummy!

I'm telling you! Once you start to eat my best polvoron, you can't stop eating it! It's alright to eat much because it's nutritious.

Red Combo and Corn Pops Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:55:00 +0000

Weekend is Chicken day. We always order some food during weekend. Because weekend is rest day, I also want to take a rest and free from cooking so on Weekend, we always order food and what we usually order is chicken.

I saw in the menu book about the corn pops chicken so I ordered one. I just want to try it.

But red combo is one of my favorites. My hubby likes the legs but I prefer to eat the wings. It's more tasty because it has more spices than the legs. Because legs has more flesh and only the outside part of it or only the skin is covered with spices. Red Combo chicken composed of only chicken and wings. It tastes really good. It's hot and spicy but I love it.

Also, an order of chicken is just enough for us. It's perfect. I think because it's only legs and wings unlike when we order whole chicken, we always leave the chest part of the chicken. We don't like that part of chicken so it always goes to our dog. When there's no chest, my dog has a leg.

Onion Juice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 15:05:00 +0000

My mother in law always give us nutritious food. Today, she gave us some onion juice. Like its name itself, it is made with onion juice and traditional Korean medicine. She told me to drink it three times a day. My hubby doesn't like onions so I drink it alone. I drink it before I go to bed. I drink it once a day instead of thrice like my mother in law said.

My mother in law always asked if I already drank it all. She said she still has much at home so I have to drink as quickly as I could. My mother in law likes buying some nutritious food or medicines to give us. Whenever she thinks that it's good for the health, she buys and give something to us. I hate some of the traditional korean medicines that she gives us but this onion is good doesn't taste bad at all.

I used to hate onions when I was young but I like them now. I eat any kind of onions including onion kimchi or pickled onions that my mother in law also gave me.

Make Yummy Polvoron

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 13:04:00 +0000

My friend sent me a pack of skimmed milk powder from the Philippines. A pack contains 3 1/2 of glasses. It has been almost a month now and I just had the half of glass so I searched on the internet on what I can do with the rest of skimmed milk powder. I found out that I could make Polvoron, a famous and delicious candy in the Philippines.

According to the recipe that I saw, I needed some flour, sugar, butter and skimmed milk for my ingredients so I went to e-mart to get some butter and sugar. I was also looking for pounded rice flakes (rice stamped flat) but I couldn't see any so I put peanuts instead. Here's the ingredients needed for polvoron. I forgot to take a picture of the flour because it was in the fridge.

It's to easy to make polvoron. Just put some flour in the fry pan and wait until it is brown. When it's brown or cooked, put in a big bowl and mix with sugar and skimmed milk powder. Melt the butter in the oven for 30 seconds and pour it in the mixed sugar, skimmed milk powder and flour. Mix well until it is well combined. Then put grounded peanuts. Voila! My Yummy Polvoron!

Btw, I put half of the butter, 4 spoons of sugar, a cup of flour and a glass of skimmed powder milk. I was about to put two glasses but one was enough. It was so yummy!

I didn't wrap mine but if you want you can wrap yours using cellophane wrapper.

Nestle Hot Choco in Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 02 Nov 2013 12:15:00 +0000

Another thing that I like the most in fall or in cold weather is the hot choco. My hubby doesn't like coffee much so I bought hot choco not only for him but also for me. I went to e-mart and went to coffee section to buy this Nestle Hot Choco. I tried other hot choco brands but this Nestle Hot Choco Original is the best so far among the others that I've tasted. It's more chocolatey.

Here's how I make delicious hot choco. Instead of water, I boil milk in the pot. I measure the milk with cup depends on how much I want to drink. I always have a half of mug and I put two spoons of choco powder. I don't put any sugar but my hubby who likes sweets wants his mug of hot choco with a spoon of sugar.

Famous Walnut Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 08:13:00 +0000

Whenever we go to my in-laws house which take about four hours drive, we usually stop over to resting area twice or three times to take a rest and buy something to eat. I usually buy coffee, dried octopus, and when I'm hungry and stopped at Cheonnan, I always buy walnut snack. Walnut snack looks like walnut with bean paste and some walnuts inside. Cheonan Walnut Snack is very famous in Korea. The walnut snacks in cheonan are the best, I think. They are also famous as presents.

Here's the walnut snack that is bought in Cheonan resting area. It's just 3,000 won (around $3). They are yummy no wonder they are famous. They are more delicious than other walnut snacks that I've tasted so far. When you start to taste them, you will never like the taste of the ones that are sold in the street specially downtown. They are incomparable.

Famous Daejigalbi Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 13:52:00 +0000

According to the sign that was hanging at the entrance door, the restaurant will be closed soon so we decided to have some before it will be closed. It's a restaurant in front of our building. We've been there several times. The restaurant serves delicious daejigalbi. It was very famous before but now we realized why it's closing now. Everything is getting expensive so they increased their prices but still the meat is not as much as before. An order of meat is not enough for each person.

Here's the two orders of meat. It's not enough for two people and the meat is a little bit different.

The vegetables use to wrap the meat. Vegetables are also expensive so I understand why it's better to close than to run it without any profit. You can't just increase the price or you will lose some customers. They don't go if they think if it's expensive. They can't even decrease the amount of meat or even vegetables. Vegetables and side dishes can be refilled.

The sauce for the meat.

I feel so sorry to the owner of the shop because the restaurant is not running now and it's for rent. But I think it made a lot a few years ago. It's where we usually bring our visitors at home so the owner knows us a lot. We were regular customers of that restaurant. And on our last day of dining out there, the owner told my hubby the reason of closing his business. He just said that he wants to take a rest but I think the reasons are the ones that I've mentioned above. Those are just my point of views but I guess I'm right. What do you think?

Philippine Bananas and Pineapples

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 13:50:00 +0000

As we know, Philippines is famous for its mangoes, bananas and pineapples. If we go to the supermarket, we'll see that the bananas and pineapples they sell are from the Philippines. They are my hubby's favorites. The food that he usually eats when he visits the Philippines. They are his favorite fruits even here in Korea so I usually buy bananas when I go to the supermarket.

Bananas are expensive here but at night, they are on sale so I always buy them at night. Here are the bananas that are imported from the Philippines.

Then we went out and on our way home, we saw a truck selling some pineapples in the street. Again, they are dole pineapples. Another fruits from the Philippines. When it comes to pineapples and bananas, dole and del monte and famous in the country. I bought two pineapples. They are cheap but the problem is, I don't know how to peel them. I've never tried to peel pineapples so I think I will have a hard time peeling them.

I'd rather buy pineapples in can. They are not fresh but we can drink pineapple juice, too.

Pizza and Cheese Spaghetti

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:54:00 +0000

It's another lazy weekend so it's another food that has been delivered at home. Pizza and Cheese Spaghetti. My hubby always says that it's not good for our health but sometimes I have to choose the food to it. I always yield for the food but sometimes my hubby asked me what to eat and he allows me to order what I want.

While thinking what kind of pizza to order, I saw the cheese spaghetti looks delicious in the picture so I decided to order the set of pizza and spaghetti. I've just made carbonarra spaghetti last weekend but this cheese spaghetti looks yummy so I craved for another kind.

Here's the pizza. I only had a slice and three slices for hubby.

I had most of the spaghetti. My hubby doesn't like spaghetti much.

Yummy Homemade Korean Sherbet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 14:35:00 +0000

We were bored and couldn't sleep so we took a walk and on our way home, we saw a bakery and decided to have cheese cake and patbingsu or Korean sherbet. We were so disappointed with the $5 sherbet because it tastes like ground ice with condensed milk, a little rice cake and beans. So when I went to the supermarket, I decided to buy sugared beans and kernel corn in can. I put some milk in the freezer and let it froze. Then I ground the frozen milk, if you don't have grinder, you can use fork like I do. Put the frozen milk in the big bowl. Let it melt a little so it will be softer and easy to prick with fork to make ice sherbet. Then put some condensed milk, sugared beans, kernel corn and cereals. That's it! The yummy homemade korean sherbet or patbingsu is done!

Cheese Cup Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:05:00 +0000

Except from Kimchi, Korea is also famous for its noodles. Most of their noodles are too spicy. I've been living in Korea for more than 10 years but I've never seen cheese noodles until I saw a program on TV where they indorse some famous food in a convenience store. They said they are the most popular food in the stores and some people don't know about them. I don't go to convenience store except when I go with my hubby when he buys cigars. We have a supermarket just in front of my apartment building so I don't need to go to convenience store.

I got interested in the one of the food that they show, the Cheese Cup Noodles. I love cheese and I wonder what it tastes in noodles. At first I thought it's yucky because cheese and noodles don't sound good to be blended. But still, I want to try it. So when my hubby went to the market, he bought a cup noodles for me. He tasted it and he didn't like it much but for me, it's really yummy!

Here's what it looks like. Doesn't it look yummy?

Like regular cup noodles, just pour some hot water in your noodle, put the seasonings and when it's readyor when the noodle is soft, put the cheese and mix it. Wow! Try it! You may like it too if you like cheese.

Korean Giant Pears

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 16:46:00 +0000

Last Chuseok, we visited my parents-in-law's house and they gave us some dishes and fruits when we came back home. The pears were too big. I've seen lots of big pears but I think these pears are the biggest that I've seen so far. I had a hard time peeling it because it was a little bit heavy to carry. I put it down twice before I peeled one. We usually eat different kinds of fruits or two pears when I don't have another fruit when I serve pears but this time I only served only a pear. Just one pear but there were still 3 slices left.

Here's the pear. It doesn't look big in this picture.

Also Korean pears look much different from other countries that are green and oval. Korean pears are yellow and round. So when I showed my students the picture of foreign pears, they don't know what kind of fruit it is. And they are surprise when I tell that it's a pear because theirs are different.

Korean pears are also delicious specially those that are grown fron Naju, a small city in Jeolla Province. Naju Pears are very famous all around the country. They are the best pears in Korea.

And these Korean Giant Pears that I'm talking about are from Naju. I just said Giant Pears because they are too big. Here's the pear after I peeled and sliced one.

Home-made Carbonara Spaghetti

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Carbonara is my favorite spaghetti but not my hubby. My hubby doesn't like spaghetti much so when we go to the restaurant, we rarely order carbonara spaghetti because my hubby thinks it's greasy.

When I went to the supermarket, I decided to buy carbonara sauce and spaghetti noodles so I made some at home.

My hubby said he doesn't want to eat some so I only made a plate of spaghetti for me. Doesn't it look yummy? I put some sausages. It doesn't look and taste the way I expected but at least I had some and made it by myself.

Here's the steps that I made. I put the noodles in a boiling water with salt. While boiling, I fried the cut sausages and put a half of jar of sauce that I bought in the supermarket. After a few minutes, I put the noodles and mixed in the sauce. That's it! Just as easy as that! Come on! You can also make it! You don't have to spend too much at the expensive restaurants when you can make for less than $10 for two or three people.

Lotteria Hamburger

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 16:43:00 +0000

My hubby's office is near Lotteria, a hamburger shop like Mc Donalds or Jollibee but Lotteria is from Korea originally. They also have branches in Vietnam. I saw some of them when I visited there and maybe in Thailand, too. I may also see one there.

Sometimes, my hubby calls or sends me messages asking if I want to have a hamburger and if I say yes, he would bring a set of hamburger, coke, french fries, ice cream, and tacos or snack wrap.

But I have to eat with my hubby because I can't eat them all. We eat half of each but he always buys two snack wraps. They are yummy and not big enough to share or divide.

By the way, when we really crave for hamburgers, we sometimes get to be delivered at home. They also deliver hamburgers but you have to pay extra amount for the delivery fee and there are 24-hours shops open. One of them is in the other supermarket which is just 5-minutes away from our building.

M & M Chocolates in Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 16:01:00 +0000

My hubby has sweet tooth that's why he loves chocolates. When I go to the supermarket, chocolates is always in my list. I used to love chocolates too but not anymore not because I'm afraid of gaining wait but because I'm tired of eating them. Now a days, my hubby enjoys eating M&M chocolates so I always have to buy two types of them. The plain and the peanuts flavor. Instead of snacks, he eats chocolates while watching TV.

I remember when I was young, I always longed to eat chocolates and when I buy even the cheapest and not yummy one, I felt very happy. M&M's were the ones that I always wanted to have even the fake ones. But now, I can't eat much chocolates and I don't think they are delicious at all.

I always go to the big supermarket which is just across our apartment building and there are lots of different kinds of food from local to imported that's why for me chocolates, snacks, and desserts are not special anymore. It's just because I can buy anytime I want. Maybe if the supermarket is far from us, eventhough I crave for them, I can't buy and eat them because of my laziness to go to the market. But everytime I go down from my apartment, the supermarket is always in front of me, that sometimes even when I have nothing to buy, I just go inside and it attracts me to buy something. Sometimes, I'm shy to get inside and go out without anything on my hand so I buy at least chocolates or snacks which make me tired of eating them now. But I have to buy always because when my hubby doesn't want to smoke, he eats something instead of smoking so we must have them at home.

Famous Marine Chopped Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 15:44:00 +0000

When we went to Gunsan to meet my hubby's friend, he invited us to have kalguksu or marine chopped noodles. From his place, we drove for about 30 minutes to get to the famous marine chopped noocles restaurant. It was a little bit far but it worth it eventhough we had to get back from where we've been to, to take him home.

The place is famous for kalguksu and there are lots of restaurants with the same menus but we went to the one with lots of people (That's what we always check when we go to restaurants that are not familiar to us. If there are many customers, then the food is delicious.) to make that the food is good. So, we decided to eat to Somunan Kalguksu or Rumored Traditional Chopped Noodles.

We ordered good for three people and here's what they gave us.

Oh wow! It's too much! But we almost had it all. We were very full and we were very satisfied with the food because it was yummy. But there was a problem with the service. Maybe because there were lots of customers but that wasn't a reason not to serve the customers well. Hubby's friend asked some more kimchi (you can get refill in all side dishes in the restaurant here in Korea) and the waitress passed several times without giving us anything. Then he thought maybe she forgot about it then she told her again but still nothing came on our table. How much is one minute to get some kimchi? I tried to understand her because she was tired. Then finally, the kimchi came but I was already annoyed.

Except noodles, they also serve brown rice and of course side dishes which is normal to all restaurants to serve different kinds of side dishes.

Near the parking lot, there's also a small amusement park, so after having yummy marine chopped noodles, you can have fun or send your kids to amusement park.

Korean Traditional Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:26:00 +0000

During special occasions like Chuseok (Thanksgiving Day) and Seollal (Chinese New Year), my mother in law has always different kinds of Korean snacks so whenever I come home, I always have to carry some traditional korean snacks.

These snacks that looks like pieces of doughnuts and yet taste like tasteless, hard and crispy donuts, are my favorites. They aren't delicious but it's fun to eat them while watching TV specially with coffee.

Since I'm lazy to upload some pictures on my camera, I decided to check my draft and found the snacks that I think my mother in law gave me last Chinese New Year. I was about to blog for it but I forgot all about it and I'm glad that I feel like blogging now but lazy to upload pictures so I'm happy to see these so hard and tasteless donuts.

Bangujong Naritojip

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:59:00 +0000

When we visited Imjingak, my hubby said that the place is famous for jang-o (eel) and megi(catfish) so my hubby searched on the internet through his phone and found the famous restaurant. He called the restaurant and asked for the address so we used our navigation and found the restaurant.

It was surprising to see lots of cars at the parking lot and the restaurant is as gorgeous as a Korean palace. Click the picture to see the contact number of Ban-gu-jong Narito jip if you are planning to visit there. You can call and ask the exact address so you can easily find it just like what my hubby did.

It's huge but it's full of people that some of the customers have to wait. Here are the people waiting.

It seems like we reached the Korean traditional palace instead of restaurant but to our surprised, it really was the restaurant. As soon as we enter, a guy asked us what kind of room we needed, if it's a cool room (inside with aircon) or an open-air room (outside). We chose the room with aircon because it was too hot but I think it's also cool outside it was windy and there are trees outside.

My hubby ordered megi maeuntang (a pepper-pot soup catfish). He's not a fond of eel.

I'm sorry because I could only take a picture of our left-over. I just snatch it while leaving the restaurant. I was with my in-laws so I think it's rude to take a picture of the food in front of them.

Anyway, it's not only the restaurant is very nice but also the food. No wonder why there are so many people. The food was really awesome. Oh, and the free ice coffee, too. The ice-coffee is also great specially now in summer. You can have coffee as much as you can.

Sweet Boneless Chicken in glutinous rice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:02:00 +0000

Dalk Gangjong or boneless chicken covered with starch of glutinous rice in sweet and spicy sauce is what we ordered for todays weekend meal. Every weekend, if not pizza we usually order chicken. I think because of the booklet menu we have because most of the restaurants written in the booklet are chicken resstaurants or pizza restaurants. We tried different kinds of chicken menu and my hubby didn't know what to order so we tried this dalk gangjong.

My hubby doesn't like eating chicken with bones so he thinks this sweet and spicy boneless chicken is better. But I still prefer to eat fried chicken. I guess my hubby won't order this menu anymore. It's yummy but I think it's a little greasy compare to the other chicken that we usually order. Also, it's mild. It's not as savory and tasty like some other chicken menus.

Sweet Potato Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Whenever I buy cake, when it's not chocolate cake it's sweet potato cake. I thought it was strange to put sweet potato in a cake and for me sweet potatoes are not that special for me it's because I had too much sweet potato way back home. We don't buy sweet potatoes in my country, when we have at home, we usually receive them from my relatives who have farm or from my neighbors. But here in Korea, we can't never receive from neighbors, you have to buy them from the supermarket for a very high price.

One day, while I was looking for our anniversary cake, the saleslady recommended me the sweet potato cake because they were out of chocolate cake. They only had icing cake but my hubby doesn't like icings so I didn't want to disappoint her and besides I was curious about the taste so since then when I buy cake, if it's not chocolate cake, then it's sweet potato cake.

So on our last anniversary, that was a few days ago, I bought this sweet potato cake because we still have some chocolate ice cream.

The cake has sweet potato toppings and the bread is inserted with ground potatoes so it has sweet and soft taste.

I can't never have this taste if I didn't come here in Korea. Koreans believe that sweet potatoes are good for our health so they are trying to make different kinds of menus made of sweet potatoes. And I'm a big fan of sweet potato cake and pizza.