Korean food

Interesting Facts about Kimchi

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

I think this is interesting thing about kimchi. You know, kimchi is getting famous around the world. They even serve it on the plane. But because of its spicy flavor, some people can't eat a lot or kids don't like it much. But I found out this evening while watching tv that there are different kinds of food with kimchi flavor like chocolate kimchi, cheesecake kimchi, and a lot more. But what interest me more was the lemonade kimchi that is sold in Japan. It sounds strange but it's also good to know that kimchi is getting more popular not only in Korea but also around the world.

What's on your Christmas list?

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:22:00 +0000

Have you already made your Christmas list? I just wanna say to be smart in buying things that you need or want. If eyeglasses are in your list, then I'm sure you'll love this $ 8 Rx eyeglasses. There are lots of designs that you can choose from that's why they are My favorite high fashion eyeglasses. They don't only look great but also affordable. With the eyeglasses, you'll learn How You Can Start Spending Smart this Christmas.

Food for Chuseok (Thanksgiving Day)

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Last week from Friday to Sunday, we celebrated Chuseok (Thanksgiving Day) here in Korea. I should've taken some pictures of the food that we made but I couldn't get chance to do it because of my in laws. I don't think it's allow to take pictures while everyone was busy in the kitchen. Like what I always do, I was in charge again with the dishes and was an assistant of my sister in law. Of course I can cook but I'm afraid to make mistakes so I just let my sister in law do it and helped her in cutting or washing some vegetables and ingredients that she needed.

Like what most people prepare every Chuseok, we made some "jeon" or fried dishes like mushrooms with meat, fish fillet, shrimps, oysters, etc.. We also cooked different kinds of "namul" (vegetables, spouts). Also toran guk (taro soup) is always in the list every Chuseok. We also steamed some fish. Luckily, we didn't have to make daejigalbi. My mother in law just bought some pork (oh gyeopsal, thicker than samgyopsal) and beef (seogogi) and made barbecue at night. We're also lucky because we don't make soeng pyeon (a half-moon-shaped rice cake stuffed with beans or sesame seeds and sugar or honey and flavored with pine needles) on Chuseok. My mother in law just buy some in the supermarket.

Chuseok today is not too hard for us because we didn't prepare lots of things like what we always did on the past Chuseok.

Cucumber for side dish

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:22:00 +0000

This is one of the easiest food to prepare when you are thinking of Korean side dishes. Did I mention that Koreans eat lots of side dishes every meals? So this one of them. You don't have to do lots of things. Just peel off the cucumber and cut the way you want it but I usually do it horizontally. I serve it with gochujang or chilli pepper paste because my hubby likes it with gochujang rather than bean paste which others prefer to eat with.

Enjoy the cucumber side dish the way you like it.

Are eggs good for our health?

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Are eggs good for our health? What can eggs give to our body? Cholesterol? Strength? Pimples? Smelly Fart? Anything else? Whatever! I just wanna say that I love eggs. Do you? I don't know when it started but I eat at least 3 eggs everyday. My mother in law told me that I have to serve eggs every meal because it can give us strength the whole day at work. Does it make sense? Even whe she won't say that, I really like fried eggs specially in the morning. Oooppsss... Pardon me! I don't have breakfast because I get up late but eating in the afternoon is like having breakfast.

I can eat 3 fried eggs and sunny side up is my favorite. I also bring egg sandwich to work. I just toast bread, spread jam and put an egg. Very simple isn't it? But I have noticed that my pimples appeared since I started to eat lots of eggs. Do my pimples have connection with the eggs? Well then, I hope I can slow down with eggs.

Oh, by the way. I usually buy a tray of eggs every weekend. A tray has 30 eggs and me and my hubby can eat them in a week. Are we egg-lovers?

Can kimchi cure flu?

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 04:47:00 +0000

My niece who doesn't like spicy food has started to eat kimchi. Her mom told her that kimchi is good to avoid getting influenza or H1N1. I don't know if that makes sense but you know Korea is famous for its kimchi not only because of it's unique smell, savour and taste but also because it's healthy. It's good for our health so koreans believe that it can cure SARS. You already heard that, didn't you? puhaha...Now that the flu which is another pandemic disease is now hitting korea, where there are thousands of koreans who have the flu and there are hundreds of people who get the disease everyday, people are worried about it. So again, koreans think that kimchi is one of the solutions for this problem. If it can cure SARS, it can also do a special role in curing the flu. What do you think?

Cheese and King-Sized Pork Cutlet

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:36:00 +0000

We came from work and I was so lazy to prepare lunch. You know when you're hungry everything is delicious specially if you see some pictures of pork cutlet. I saw an advertisement posted in front of our apartment so I took it and ordered two pork cutlets. One cheese pork cutlet for me and wang (king size) pork cutlet for my hubby. The packed and the texture impressed us when we opened it.

The first bite was okay but after eating several times, the meat is getting strange. Or maybe we were just hungry so we couldn't get the real taste of the pork cutlet but when our stomachs started to fill up, the taste was so strange. My cheese pork cutlet was bitter, I guessed the cheese was fake (I saw on tv that some restaurants are using fake cheese) and my hubby's wang donkas (king-sized pork cutlet) smells strange. The pork smells like stinky socks. Yuck~

When we started to taste and smell the strange things so threw it away. We'll never order in that restaurant. If I like the food in the restaurant, I always keep the business card but that pork cutlet restaurant, well, you know what I did.

Donghae Dried Squids

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:13:00 +0000

I went to the supermarket and saw this dried squid for sale. They are buy one take one so I bought one. They are one of my hubby's favorite korean snacks. Dried squids are what drinkers favorite finger food because they are best with beer or soju (korean alcohol). They are more delicious with mayonnaise or gochujang (red pepper paste). My hubby asked both mayonnaise and gochujang when he eats dried squid. But I prefer to eat them with mayonnaise.

These dried squids are from donghae which is famous for nice beaches so Donghae is also famous with dried squids. The squids are softer, tastier but not salty. They are much more delicious than any other squids that I have tasted.

Bossam

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Another ordered food that we had for dinner. We were tired of ordering chicken so we tried bossam.

Bossam is eaten with delicious kimchi. You have to wrap the meat with the kimchi and some vegetables like garlic, chilli, etc.. The kimchi is crunchy and sweeter than the normal kimchi.

The bossam came with noodles, soup, cola, korean pizza (puchinggae) and some vegetables.

Kimchijeon

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:21:00 +0000

It was raining so I asked my hubby what he wanted to eat. He asked me what is delicious when it rains. I wasn't hungry so I couldn't think anything. Then he told me to make kimchijeon (kimchi jeon), a korean pancake-like dish made with kimchi and served with soy sauce.

Here's my own version of kimchijeon.
1. Chop the kimchi (old kimchi) and garlic.
2. Slice a half potato and half onion.
3. Put #1 and #2 in a big bowl and mix with flour.
4. Put some oil in a pan and fry the mixed ingredients.
5. Wait until it is brown.
For the sauce:
Pour some soy sauce and sesame oil in a saucer then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
7. Serve the kimchijeon with the sauce.

Kimchijeon is eaten as a side dish or snack.

Eat Chicken with Salad

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:01:00 +0000

It was too late and we were hungry. We didn't know what to order so we came up with chicken again. This time it's the salad mogneun chicken (eat the chicken with salad). I heard a lot about this salad and chicken specially to students. They said it's delicious but I didn't get a good impression on my first bite, it wasn't as delicious as I expected. I think the chicken is salty and overcooked and the salad is bland.

I was almost done with my midnight snack but then I decided to eat together. Salad and chicken in one bite. Then I tried another bite again and again and again. Aha, It's not bad at all. That's what they get its name. You have to eat the chicken with salad. Now, I got it!

Snails recipe

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Have you ever tried snails? I don't like them much but they are one of my hubby's favorites. He likes eating this.

I started to make this dish when he treated me to a restaurant and he ordered snails. It was my first time to try that food. I got interested in learning how to make it because I saw how much he likes it. First, I checked every ingredients and I tried to eat several times to get the right taste. It was sweet, sour and hot and spicy. A few days later I went to the market and bought snails in can. Here's what the snails look like.

I cut the big snails into two, slice a cucumber and carrots, an onion, and put some sugar, vinegar, a little kochugaro (powdered pepper), 3 spoons of kochujang (red pepper paste), pour some sesame oil and sprinkle sesame seeds.

It's okay to make mistake at first and you have to get your taste. If you want sweet then put more sugar. That's what I always do. I know what hubby likes so I always don't follow what is in the recipe 'cause I have to follow my hubby's taste.

Have you seen Zenni on TV?

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:34:00 +0000

My student asked a permission to go to the bathroom. When he came back to the classroom, he was carrying his broken eyeglasses. He said he hurried and his glasses fell down on the floor. Ugh! How could it break so easily? Well, nobody has to blame because this kid can get $ 8 Rx eyeglasses which is much better than what he had. Yeap! I guess you also saw Zenni Optical on TV!!!.

Let's give a High Five to Zenni Optical, the affordable with good quality eyeglasses in the World.

Diet food

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Oh yes, I'm on a diet. I go jogging every morning and I bring some vegetables and fruits for my snacks. Here's what I had today. I had some carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and grapes.

Is it too much? Well, it's just my snacks. I still have dinner at home. Do you think I can lose weight if I eat much? Well, they are fruits and vegetables so I think it's not bad to eat much. Anyway, let's wait and see.

Let's Play the Cooking Games

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:17:00 +0000

I don't like cooking but because I love my hubby so I always want to prepare delicious food for him. Whenever he requests some food, even when i'm tired, I'm always willing to make it for him. I always try to experiment new recipes that sometimes make me upset when I make mistakes but I never gave up. I never enjoy cooking but I love playing Cooking Games. I have a cooking chips for my nintendo and pocket recipe game on my cellphone. The cooking game for my nintendo is too expensive. I wish I found this Free Cooking Games earlier. There are lots of games to play and it's more fun than playing with my nintendo. The pictures and characters are so cool! They are colorful and it's so interesting. It's fun to play with the whole family. Who knows your girl will help you cook or become a good cook by just playing the game. She can't only enjoy the game but also learn how to cook.

If you don't like cooking, then i'm sure you'll love the Food Games. Everyone enjoys food and playing food games will give you much fun. I've just done playing with my Chocolate game and the Ice cream parlour. I've just known this game and still new with it but I'm enjoying it.

Ojing-o Chaebukkeum

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:50:00 +0000

Ojing-o Chae Bukkeum

Stuff Squids is another hubby's favorite food. As what I always say, nobody teach me on how to cook so I always make my own recipe. When I go to the restaurant, I just checked what ingredients they put in the dish and I try it at home when I see that hubby likes it.

When I went to the market, I saw this pack of Jomi Ojing-o (squid) which is on sale.

My hubby asked me if I know how to cook it but I said I'd try but don't expect too much. I cooked a little because it was my first time so I expect that I would make mistakes. Here's my Ojingeo Chae bukkeum

Methods:
1. Heat oil in the pan.
2. Put chopped garlic and mixed it until it is brown.
3. Put Jomi Ojing-eo.
4. Add some sugar, corn syrup, honey and powdered red pepper.
5. Mix it well.
6. When it cooked, add some sesame seeds.
7. Serve!

Hint: I use this flower honey. You can just use sugar if you don't have some honey at home.

Garlic Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:07:00 +0000

I used to hate most vegetables specially garlic and onion. But now I can eat any kind of vegetables and you'll be surprised that garlic and onion are one of my favorites. I put much garlic and onions when I cook that's why it makes my cooking more delicious. Garlic and onions are the secret of a good cook, I think. I like garlic and onions with samgyopsal or daejigalbi. I like pickled garlic when I eat gukbap specially naejang gukbap and soondae gukbap. I like garlic bread, garlic or onion flavor when I buy snacks, etc. Don't come closer please, I smell garlic. mwahaha...

When I don't have anything in mind on what for our meal, I just order food. So the menu is usually chicken. I was looking for the advertisement book when the garlic flavored chicken caught my attention. I told hubby to try it and he agreed. It's our first time to order chicken from Don (Money) Chicken which endorsed by Lee Gyoung Gyu. I'm not his fan. Actually, I don't like him. He's a comedian but not funny. I just see his rudeness. Maybe because of his character on tv. I don't know if he's like that in person.

Anyway, it seems like Don Chicken is a new brand chicken 'coz it's my first time to see it on the advertisement. The price is same as the other chicken brands like Gyocheon, BHC, and Ssal Ssal Chicken. It's more expensive than Mexicana, Pelicana, etc.. so I expected that it would be more delicious. I'm right guys! It's delicious even without sauce. But they also give 2 kinds of sauces. Hot and spicy and garlic sauce. Guys, it is worth trying! Actually, I already collected 3 coupons from last week.

Air Purifier for Everyone's Health

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:48:00 +0000

What is the most important thing in our lives? Isn't it the help of each family members? But because of air pollution, there are lots of diseases that suddenly appeared and some of them are hard to prevent. If you are aware of the health of your family, then make sure that your family can get fresh air specially at home. I recommend you to get Atlas Air Purifier to keep the air clean. The purifiers are one of the best! Its goal is to give satisfaction to the customers that's why they make high quality products.

The products include air purifier, air cooler, thermostat, current/voltage protectors and a lot more. So if you need fresh air, you don't have to go out and look for places to get some fresh air because you can get it even when you are at home with Air Purifier. You can save time, energy and money.

Eat raw fish before summer

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Hubby said we have to eat raw fish while it's not hot. In summer, it's not good to eat raw fish so it's better to eat now rather than craving it in the summer. My hubby met his friend last Tuesday evening to have dinner. But when hubby came home, he said he wanted to eat raw fish. I think he was still hungry so I ordered this for only $25.

It's the restaurant where we usually order raw fish but this time there aren't many side dishes. Because of economic crisis, the prices of all products raised so I expected that they would also increase the price of their menu like most restaurants did. This seafood restaurant didn't increase the price but decreased or removed some side dishes. That's better I think because we can't eat all the dishes. We just want the raw fish and we are not into their side dishes.

Simmered Chicken Dish (Ttakkogi Chongol)

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Simmered Chicken Dish (Ttakkogi Chongol)

Ingredients: 2/3 lb. chicken, 5 dried brown, oak mushrooms, 1/3 carrot, 2 oz. watercress, 2 oz. garland chrysanthemum, 1/3 lb. konyak: jellied potato-cake(used like a noodle), 20 gingko nuts, 2 eggs, 1 green onion, 4 cloves garlic, ginger juice, 2 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. sesame oil, 1 tbsp. red pepper powder, 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. red pepper paste, salt, black pepper, MSG

Method:1. Prepare the legs and breast of the chicken by removing the meat from the bones and cutting it into thin strips. Simmer the bones to make the chicken broth .
2. Soak the dried musrhooms in water, remove the stems and cut them into thin strips. Cut the round onion and carrot into thin strips.
3. Cut the small green onions and watercress into 2" lengths.
4. Peel and fry the gingko nuts in an oiled pan. Place them on paper and rub off the top-skins.
5. Cut the konyak into 3/4" x 2 3/4" pieces. Slit each piece down the center leaving the ends intact and twist one end through the slit to shape it like maejagwa, thin Korean cookies.
6. Mix the green onion, chopped garlic, soy sauce, black pepper, sesame oil and salt to make the seasoning sauce. Season the chicken and dried mushroom strips separately.
7. Place the seasoned chicken in the center of a shallow cooking pan, surrounded by the prepared vegetables. Pour the broth over the ingredients and bring to a boil. When the flavor has developed, add the ginko nuts and garland chrysanthemum and bring to a boil and serve.

Hint: The konyak is absorbed in this chicken dish making it more flavorful.

Ojing-o Bukkeum (Stir-fry Squid)

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:26:00 +0000

My hubby said that I cook delicious Ojing-o Bukkeum (Stir-fry squid). Here's how I make it.

Ingredients: squid, sugar, powdered hot chilli pepper (gochugaro), hot pepper paste (gochujang), red pepper or paprika, carrot, soy sauce, onion, garlic, mushrooms

1. Clean and cut the squid and put all the ingredients in a pot.

2. Stir-fry in a medium heat for 10 minutes or until the squid is white and look hard.

Make sure to serve it as soon as it is cooked. I didn't put the amount of each ingredients. You can do it with your own taste. If you want spicy food then add more pepper. If you want sweet food like us then put at least 3 tablespoons of sugar for one squid. That's all! It's easy! Enjoy your meal!

Black Raspberry Vinegar Juice

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:24:00 +0000

Whenever my mother in law visits us, she doesn't come with empty hands. She always brings something for us. The last time that she came here, she brought this Bogbunja (Black Raspberry) vinegar juice.

We have to mix the juice with water 5-6 times the amount of juice. It is sour like vinegar but it is made of black raspberry so it's much more delicious than just a vinegar. My mother in law said it's good for our health. Whatever my mother in law thinks or heard that something is good for the health, then she buys and gives us. That's mother's love, I think.

The juice is good when we have a sore throat and it is drunk with either hot or cold water so it is good in all seasons. I drink it with hot water but my hubby prefer to drink it cold.

Favorite Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:38:00 +0000

My hubby likes munching food when he's at home specially when he watches tv. And here are the snacks that he likes to eat. We usually have at least one of this snacks at home so when I get some groceries, I have to consider or include his snacks in my lists.

This snacks are his newly discovered snacks. They are squids legs. They are not as delicious as the octopus legs but they are cheaper.

These are the octopus legs that we can get online. We have to heat them of fried to make them softer. They are too hard so if you don't have strong teeth, then never try to eat them. They are good food if you don't wanna feel sleepy.

The packs at the bottom are small octopus legs. They are softer of course and we don't need to cook when we eat them. Then the middle ones are zuippos or fish jerky and on top are squids. They are sweet and spicy.

This is the beef jerky. His most favorite snacks and the most expensive of them all.

The food are all great with beer or alcohol but my hubby doesn't drink.

Nuts for our health and mind

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:19:00 +0000

While I was watching tv, I saw another program about the woman who had a cancer and now feeling well because of the food that she eats. The doctor told her that she only had less than a year to live but she survived. In the morning she eats fresh vegetables and fruits. She doesn't have much rice. What is important is eating fresh food and nuts. She eats nuts everyday specially walnuts. She has sacks of walnuts at home that she buys fresh from the county. She eats them as snacks, she grinds them to make salad dressing, she makes juice and a lots of recipe that she make with nuts. Since then I also bought lots of mixed nuts. I bought at least 3 packs of mixed nuts every weekend. In the pack are cashew, almonds, walnuts, and peanuts. We eat some everyday and we've done that for almost a month. Then one day, there were some red spots appeared in my hubby's body. Then he started to itch. His whole body was covered by red spots so he said he had an allergy. I've never seen him like that before. I even didn't know where he got those allergy then he said when he was young, he was allergic with peanuts. Oh gosh, I started to panic but he said he was okay. I told him to change all of his clothes and I also changed the bed cover, pillows, and blankets.

Luckily, he doesn't have them on his face so he went to work the next day. I felt better when I saw him back at home because he looked better or else I would force him to go to the hospital. Thanks God because his allergies were totally gone the next morning.

I still have some mixed nuts but I'm afraid to eat them even when they said they are good for our health. Well, if you don't have allergic with peanuts, then you should eat at least 7 pieces of nuts everyday. They are good for our health specially for our mind. They observed that a student who had a bad grades at school started to exercise and eat nuts everyday so she got a high grades. She said, it's easy to remember what she studied since she started to eat peanuts. Well, I think it will also work for you and for your kids.

Constipation

noreply@blogger.com (idealpinkrose) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Koreans like hot and spicy food so it's not surprising then if some of them are having trouble when they go to the bathroom. They suffer with constipation. Others including young generations have some stomach disease that can cause cancer. I guess it's because of the food that they intake.

According to wikipedia, Constipation, costiveness, or irregularity, is a condition of the digestive system in which a person (or animal) experiences hard feces that are difficult to expel. In Korean it is called Byeonbi. I watched too much tv and I sometimes get some issue about health. I found out that long time ago in Korea, when people have constipation, they cooked honey and make a round shape and put in the anus or dip dodeog in oil and push it gently to the anus. Ouch! The Korean Traditional doctor said it's true but dangerous if you don't know how to do it. So don't do it if your not an expert or else your disease will get more serious.

To heal constipation, eat enough fruits and vegetables everyday. Drink a lot of water and do some exercise. I heard bananas and plums are also good for constipation. Or try this tomato milkshake or fruits and vegetables milkshake that I make for our breakfast.