Are you eating enough???

I think it goes without saying that no matter where you live, food is incredibly important. But, I think it also needs to be said that in Korea, food is MORE important. Koreans love food. They love to make it, eat, it, and share it. They love to make sure that you like your food, that you are eating enough food, and even if you say "Yes, I'm stuffed it was delicious!" they will give you a skeptical look until you heap a bit more on your plate.

Chris and I both eat the school lunch in our teacher's lunch room. Most of the kids eat lunch in their own room - a cart with the hot food on it is delivered to each room and a few students (sometimes with a homeroom teacher) serve the rest of the class. Most meals in Korea, including cafeteria food, consist of about 6 different dishes. Kimchi, of course, and rice are the staples. The other dishes range from a mystery meat sort of stir fry, fried slabs of tofu, dried squid salad, to quail eggs, cabbage salads with spicy dressings, or seaweed (yep, that's all, just seaweed).  Soup - how could I forget? There is always soup. Usually it has an interesting fishy taste. I was recently told that basically all soup broths are made with salted dehydrated sardines. This reminds me. Korea has 2 basic flavors. Fishy and spicy. The fishy is fairly self-explanatory. Many things, I dare say most, have a slight to strong fishy flavor. Fishy is also a common aroma. We have a raw fish restaurant next door to our apartment, so we catch whiffs of this fishy aroma .... frequently.

Back to the food. 2 basic flavors - fishy and spicy. The spicy flavor is a little bit different. There is this red chili paste that they only sell in gallon barrels. (Ok, I'm exaggerating slightly, but seriously, only a little bit.) The chili paste goes in everything. Its not the kind of spicy that sets your mouth on fire with one bite, but it does add a bit of heat to the meal.

We've been doing a bit of eating out to try new foods. I think our favorites so far are dukgalbi, which is spicy fried rice with chicken and seaweed mixed through, and mandu, which are little dumplings with a mystery filling. :) They are yummy, so I don't feel like I need to know what it is.

Although we have eaten out a fair bit, we are cooking most of our meals at home. (And by "we" I basically mean "me," but Chris gives it a go sometimes as well.) I think I should warn you that I will be bragging just a bit about my cooking triumphs. I've been trying to use easily accessible ingredients for our meals here - which means that a bit of creativity is necessary. Its been really fun to think about what I've got at home and then to mix up a concoction, never sure if it will taste ok. Thankfully, I'm married to a very encouraging man  who is also a great sport. He confidently digs right in to whatever ends up on the table. Other than one rice burning mishap, I have to say I've enjoyed many a satisfying victory!


I will share with you my 2 favorites so far.

Beef, mushroom, and lemon stir-fry. (serves 2)
Stir fry beef strips
 1/2 a red onion sliced thin
  1 cup mushrooms (I used some little mushrooms that are cheap here, but I'm sure any would do. If the aren't small, slice them)
  1 red pepper/capsicum sliced thin.
  A lemon
  3 green onions chopped fine
  1 glove garlic crushed
  1 little chunk of ginger diced finely (or grated)
  2 T olive oil (I used grapeseed oil, because that's what we have, but its very similar)
  A splash of rice vinegar
  A splash of sesame oil
  2 T soy sauce.
  Salt to taste

Basically, I put the red onion, garlic and pepper/capsicum in a pan to soften. If you had a zester, you could add the zest of the lemon as well.
In another fry pan, I cooked the beef almost all the way through. I added some salt and the ginger.
(This is a side note, but I read that your stir-fry has better flavor if you cook the meat in a separate pan - it helps the vegetables retain some of their own flavor. Maybe you already knew that. I did not.)
Meanwhile, cook noodles of your choice. We had it with a Korean noodle.
Make a sauce with the soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice (entire lemon), sesame oil.
Combine the meat, vegetables, and cooked noodles. Pour the sauce over and add green onion.

Pretty easy. It tastes really fresh. We loved it.

Tuna Pasta with Dill and Dijon.

I can tuna.
Penne pasta for 2
1/2 red onion
1 large stalk celery
1 T dill
1 T dijon mustard
2 stalks green onion
2 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed



Cook the pasta
Stir-fry red onion and garlic, add celery and dill.
Add tuna (do not drain can)
Add oil and mustard.
I also added a good bit of black pepper here.
Combine tuna mixture with pasta.