I have had the pleasure of cooking and eating kimpap (kim-bob) for a late breakfast before our hike around the Temple last week. I can describe it as Korean sushi: a square of dried seaweed with rice, crab, egg, fish, cucumber and a yellow pickled vegetable wrapped up in a roll. This was quite good but was rather filling.
How to make: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/07/how-to-make-kimbap-korean-sushi-recipe.html
When we were at the temple (on a different day), we ate a traditional Bibimpap (bi-bim-bob) Korean style lunch by sitting on the floor. This dish is a mix of vegetables in a large stone bowl with rice. Once it is served, you stir it up with a spoon and eat. Although the rice is sticky enough to use chopsticks, it is proper to use a spoon. There is a Korean hot sauce that you add, but I stay clear of that since the outside temperature is already hot enough for me to handle.
http://www.alittlepinetree.com/?bizz_menu=dol-sot-bibimbap
Sometimes my host mom brings me snacks. (Actually it seems like she is feeding me all of the time!) Here is what traditional Korean bread looks like. It is green and is the consistency of bread dough when its thawed from the freezer. Then its tossed in some sort of sweet flour. Although chewy, the flavor is tasty. And many Koreans love tea, so of course tea joins the platter!
And when one does not have a backyard in the city for a barbecue, you simply have one indoors! Here we are about to enjoy a Korean-style sitting-on-the-floor meal where we grab things off of the grill with chopsticks. Since Koreans love meat (as a recently-turned vegetarian, I was a little disheartened), it was the focal point of this meal. The meat is a similar cut to bacon, just a lot thicker. Scrumptious, but I think my arteries cried a little. Other veggies made it onto the grill including mushrooms, potatoes and onions. I asked to throw on my yellow bell pepper (grilled peppers are my favorite) last minute. I'm so glad I did!
Yesterday had a lovely start before a morning showing of Fast and Furious 6 of anchovy stew with rice and seaweed squares. Despite my willingness to try a bit of squid last week, I was a little dubious of starting out a day with fish at 9:30 in the morning. So rice and seaweed it was with some orange slices to wash it down.
The food adventures are endless! I did take comfort food yesterday in baking some banana muffins with Min-ju. I think they were a big hit! Today wasn't as crazy, with a nice Japanese style curry and rice for lunch with some friends from university and a banana smoothie for an afternoon snack! Koreans have made what they call "juice" to a perfection! (I think it is just milk and a fruit mixed together, but they do it so well!)
Pap=rice. So much rice in Korea! And if rice wasn't enough for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there is always snack time! My host mom made some fried sugar rice for me today that was very delicious. Throw some oil into a pan, add cooked rice, flip it over then at the last moment add some sugar to both sides. Viola! A sweet and easy snack!
A lot of time here is spent on food. However the water is something else entirely to comment on. I am not sure why, but all of the water at restaurants and offices are flavored. Not with lemon or cucumber, but with barley, persimmon, green tea, etc. Plain water really isn't an option unless you drink it from a bottle. I suppose it's something I'm used to now. Apple juice almost seems to strong now!
That's all for now. I'll post some more awesome things later.
Happy eating!
