Fit for a king

In old Korea, one's status determined the number of dishes that were served at a meal. Although rice and soup are the starting point for a meal, the more side dishes indicated a higher status. We went to a restaurant today that had a cutesy traditional look, but was planted in the middle of a busy shopping center. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was a solid meal -- I'd give it to a king. Rice in a stone pot, kimchi jjigae and doenjang (think Korean miso) jjigae were surrounded by vegetables, seafood, and meat dishes. 

I couldn't be bothered standing up to get the whole table in the picture.

One of my favorites "gae jang" (crabs in soy sauce) is   a simple but delicious way of serving whole raw crabs. After sucking the meat out of the shell, the left over sauce and roe is perfect when soaked up with rice. Another seafood dish, jellyfish, was also well-prepared. It was mixed with a wasabi-ish sauce and served with fresh pear, cucumber, crab and tomato slices. The land meats included bulgogi and bo-ssam (steamed pork eaten wrapped in lettuce and topped with spicy kimchi.) The vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, and green tomatoes were nice to eat in between the other heavier foods. 

 Gae-jang -- note the yummy orange roe. MMMMMmm...

Jellyfish

Steamed pork 

Toast

When I think of toast I think of sliced bread that is inserted vertically into an electric box and then pops out with brown-black lines that mirror the heating coils inside the machine. But here, toast means something different. It refers to an entire sandwich, actually. This morning I had one for breakfast. It's better than McDonald's since it contains only fresh ingredients, but it still satisfies my Saturday-morning craving for something other than the cereal or fruit or nothing I have for breakfast during the week.

In Busan, the toast shop near my house sold these amazing sandwiches with three pieces of bread and a tangy, mildly spicy sauce (like barbecue sauce but mellower.) Here, though, the toast has only two pieces of bread and a mayo sauce. It tasted like either the cabbage, the sauce, or both were laced with sugar though because some bites tasted like candy. Even still, it didn't deter me from eating it. I had the most basic "Vegetable Cheese Toast" which has a scrambled egg, pickles, cabbage, and cheese on it. Other options add things like bacon, ham, beef(?) or all of them to make it a bit bulkier.

Not bad for a five-minute walk to get a two-buck breakfast.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Korea really doesn't feel the same. But that probably could have gone without saying. I still like to do something anyhow. I didn't really have time to plan anything this year. So Jino and I just got some delivery chicken and then threw together a few "side dishes" using stuff we had in the fridge. The resulting menu: barbecue and grilled chicken, garlicky 'stuffing' (bread squares toasted in garlic butter), corn salad (corn, sliced olives, sliced peppers, vinegar, and cumin), fruit salad (apples, pears, persimmons in a mayo sauce), and kimchi. It wasn't the best ever, but it was easy and fun and yummy enough for a Thursday night dinner.

Oh, and yesterday, a delivery man (think UPS) knocked on the door and handed me this:

It's a box of Jeju Island mandarin oranges. They're sooo yummy but I am wondering how/whether we'll be able to eat them all before they go bad. I think Jino's parents sent it.

Kimjang

"Kimjang" (soft 'a' like 'art') refers to the time of year when Koreans traditionally made kimchi by the boat load and stored it in clay pots. As was true when my great great grandparents were alive, these huge batches of kimchi -- heads of wilted napa cabbage bathed in kimchi paste* -- spend the winter outside, in nature's refrigerator. The cold temperatures allow for these to be kept outside and ensure that the kimchi doesn't ferment too quickly. Prepared properly and kept within a cool to cold temperature range, this kimchi can be eaten for maybe even years after it's made. (Don't quote me on the 'years' business, that's just what I've heard. I don't have to see everything to believe it.)

Anyway, as you can see in the picture above, our fridge is packed full of tupperware. Everything but the small containers in the upper-right corner of the main area is kimchi. Cut-radish kimchi, whole baby radish kimchi, and several kinds of cabbage kimchi (including one my grandmother made and shipped to me -- I actually had to have it shipped to my office since no one is at home during the day to receive packages. It weighed nearly 15 kilos, if I had to guess. And I hear rumors it pissed some professors off while it sat in the fridge waiting for me to taxi it home. Umm. We're in Korea, dummies. If you haven't gotten used to kimchi smell yet, maybe you should consider going to another country.)

But anyhow, there you have it. Now I know why most Korean homes have separate fridges whose sole purpose is storing kimchi.

*kimchi paste is the secret to kimchi and varies widely by region and individual tastes and traditions.

Yummy

We've been talking about starting a food blog for a week or so, so I just decided to do it. No rules, no big expectations. Just posting about things we eat or cook, or both or other things, if we should have an urge. We considered several names, all of which were deemed worse than the one we chose. (Among them, "this is why I'm not super skinny", which was axed because Jino is pretty skinny. And "jino's food world" which was axed because it made me feel left out.)

Two things for today:

Over-priced "Oh-gyup Sal" (five-layer pork). It was yummy but the expensive portions meant we left the restaurant feeling a little less than full. The kimchi broth was especially nice, fresh, clean with a nice balance of sour vinegar bite and sweetness. 

Orange Crepes. Jino made them and they were on the table when I got home. The sweet orange syrup was just a 1:1 simple syrup with fresh squeezed orange juice. He reduced it a bit then removed the solid bits to make it nice and clean. Blanched orange zest to top it off. (Who knew orange zest was so yummy?)

Now what to have for our post-dinner snack...