Cooking Korean Food!

When I came to Korea in August the only thing I knew how to cook for myself was a Pop Tart and instant ramen. Yes, I am fully aware that putting a toaster pastry in a microwave does not truly qualify as "cooking." I had lived at home all my life and the food at Bryn Mawr was always great, so cooking was never really an option. I knew some people liked to cook for fun, but spending an hour or two just to prepare one meal seemed totally insane to me.Now that I live in another country alone in my own apartment, feeding myself became necessary. After my first week in Korea I realized that surviving on a Paris Baguette sandwich every day for dinner was unrealistic. I mean, they put SWEET PICKLES in EVERYTHING. Sweet pickles are totally repulsive. So, I started to cook some simple meals for myself: first a grilled cheese sandwich, then boiled dumplings, and then pasta. I can make AMAZING pasta now. I can make a mind-blowing garlic-y onion-y tomato sauce pasta full of vegetables, and a classier olive oil, white sauce, and seafood pasta as well. I am a certified carbohydrate expert.

My delicious Valentine's Day meal... because I couldn't book a Korean restaurant :)Since I came to Korea I probably eat about two raw onions a day. Disgusting or delicious?

I also know how to cook four Korean meals and I should really thank Jae Hyun for this, whether he showed me how to make it or just provided me with the ingredients! Here are the Korean dishes I know how to make.

First, I actually taught myself how to make 해물떡볶이, which is one of my favorite street foods. It is haemul ddeokbokki, or spicy rice cakes and seafood. It's better with little bits of squid but my grocery store is so small they don't carry it- I'd have to trek over to a bigger store or Home Plus to buy some. The sauce is spicy (the main ingredient is Korean red pepper paste), and you can also mix in onions, garlic, and carrots, and random green vegetables.

Haemul ddeokbokki with mussels. You can make the sauce but I just buy mine from the store and add in some extra red pepper powder and paste.

Next, Jae Hyun taught me to make 된장찌개,a soup made with soybean paste. This is one of my favorite things to eat at restaurants, especially with samgyeopsal, but it never tastes as good when I make it at home! No matter how much red pepper powder I add, it's never spicy enough for me. This is best eaten with rice and side dishes like kimchi and those little dried salty fish I love to snack on all the time.

Usually when I make it I leave out the beef since I don't really like beef.

Then I taught myself how to make 김치찌개, which is kimchi stew. I think I started to make this because Jae Hyun's mother had given me an approximately 10-pound bag of homemade kimchi and I had no idea how I was going to eat it all and I was going to Japan in a week or two. This soup is delicious and is also best eaten with rice. I think I have a kimchi obsession because I also eat my kimchi jjigae with a side of kimchi.

The most recent Korean food I learned to make is 파전. Pajeon is a Korean pancake. It's very delicious and easy to make. Just like regular pancakes, pour mix into a bowl and then add green onions and onions and whatever else you want. I like to make kimchi pajeon and I usually put in little baby shrimp as well. You can fry it and then dip it in a little soy sauce when you eat it. It is so good! Also, as you can see, I finally bought a table. No more eating at my desk! Yay.

Soy sauce, little dried fish, kimchi, and kimchi seafood pancake. It's messy because I couldn't flip it correctly. It was too big!

Also, Jae Hyun picked out this metal thing for me at Home Plus that I can put in my pot and STEAM my dumplings, as opposed to boiling and then lightly frying them. This little metal thing is awesome and was about $3 and really improves the dumplings. It's like magic!

So, I know this is hard for everyone to believe, but I can actually cook now! And I enjoy it! I mean, except the fact that my kitchen has no heat and all winter I have been cooking in my kitchen in 20-degree weather. And the lightbulb really sucks. But other than that, it's rather enjoyable! And I only started a fire once!

Microwave rice (since the rice cooker that came with my apartment lacks a power cord,) kimchi, little dried fish, pumpkin, and fish cakes which Jae Hyun's mother made.