My Korean Kitchen

Excuse me while I stop and smell the flowers

sue — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:28:41 +0000

(Flowers from Toowoomba Flower Festival)

Hello readers! It’s been a real long time. Thank you for your concerns about my well being and your patience with my blog. I’ve been intending to write a post for a long time but starting a new job and being denied access to my photo album (external hard drive) kept me staying away from the blogging.

I want you to know that this blog will be more active again from this point and the first recipe coming up is Noodles in Chicken Soup (Dak Kalguksu).

Are you starting to warm up?

Raengmyun in Pyongyang

sue — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:01:49 +0000

I got an interesting email from one of my readers, Paul, the other day. It was about his food experience in Pyongyang. So naturally it drew my attention (I’ve never been to North Korea before. Have you?). His description about the Raengmyun (Naengmyun for North Korean) he had was very descriptive and he also kindly attached some photos for us to share.

The restaurant he visited is called “Okryugwan (옥류관) “, one of the landmarks in North Korea, and is located near Daedong river.

(Photo from news.naver.com)

North Korean food is generally known to have a purer and clearer taste than South Korean food. If you are used to the artificial taste of some other food, it might taste quite bland.

Here are some photos of what Paul had and his description about them. Thanks Paul for sharing your experience with us.

(Raengmyun in a brass bowl – Brassware is one of the Korean traditional dishes and apparently it keeps cold food cold and warm food warm. )

The noodles arrived extremely cold and contained a chewy texture. The buckwheat hulls would separate and offered great texture contrast while chewing. The broth was very mild, not salty nor “meaty” flavored but pure and clean.

The mustard and hot pepper condiments are house made. The mustard packed a great punch, but just enough so the noodles natural flavor came through. The red pepper sauce is a winner and combined both sweet and aromatics, one of the best in my memory. Finally vinegar, was just that, white vinegar most likely vegetable as the smell was quite mild.

(I am guessing this is one of the side dishes. It looks like Tangpyongchae – mung bean jelly with beef and egg topping. Is that right, Paul ?)

The many kimchi varieties in Pyongyang tasted to be quite sweet and mild and did not contain heavy amounts of garlic. I learned that this is a Pyongyang characteristic with Kimchi. Truly an eye-opening experience!

If you would like to share your unique Korean food experience with us, please send me an email (sue at mykoreankitchen.com) with photos.

Brown Seaweed Soup (Miyeok Guk)

sue — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 01:32:42 +0000

How are you folks? It’s been three weeks since my last post. I was very busy keeping up with my life, mostly study. And what else happened? Oh! the weather. We had a couple of nasty windy days, one or two weeks ago. I felt like I was in Korea at the end of November. At the end of that day, I was desperate to have something that could warm me up.

I know most of you have completely different ideas about the food you crave right now (I got a couple of requests about Korean sherbets -Patbingsu, a popular summer snack), but I am not in that mood right now. Probably not for six more months to be exact.

So I made this brown seaweed soup (miyeok guk 미역국), because it is such a simple thing to make. It is not creamy like some western style soups nor does it look fancy. Yet the aroma that comes from the sesame oil was just right to comfort and warm me up. In addition, it just tasted so good, as if my mother cooked it. Maybe I am exaggerating, but that was how good it was.

Miyeok guk is also known as birthday soup in Korea. I’ve already mentioned about this on other post, so you can read about it if you are interested.

Ingredients (enough for 3-4 servings, ready in 15 – 20 minutes)

35g dried brown seaweed (Miyeok)
70g sliced beef shank
2 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp soy sauce (I used Kikoman brand)
1 tbsp Korean sesame oil
4 cups water
1/2 tbsp sesame oil and 3 sprinkles ground black pepper – to season the meat

Prep

Soak the dried brown seaweed in cold water for 5 minutes.
Drain the water and rinse the seaweed a couple of times in running water.
Drain the water. Cut the seaweed with scissors to little finger lengths.
Season the beef with 1/2 tbsp sesame oil and 3 sprinkles of ground black pepper.

Steps

Pre heat the sauce pan (or pot) for about 30 seconds.
Add 1 tbsp of sesame oil, the brown seaweed, and the sliced beef then stir it for 2 – 3 minutes.
Add the water then boil it on medium heat until the seaweed and the meat cook (about 5- 10 minutes).
Add the soy sauce and garlic, boil it for 2 more minutes then serve. (You can adjust the taste with some salt if it is needed, however I didn’t use it).

Nothing to do with Salad Kimbap

sue — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:20:47 +0000

I am often amazed at how many kinds of Kimbap are out there. This salad Kimbap is one of those. I made it a couple of weeks ago and have been hesitating about whether I should post it or not. But the picture was just so gorgeous to not to mention it, even though the taste wasn’t really fantastic!

OK, so the point is that I am not talking about this salad Kimbap recipe. It is about my personal matter. I don’t think I have to report about my personal life nor you need to know about it, but it affects this blog’s future and maybe your convenience.

I’ve been so busy and tense this week. I just started a course. Don’t get too excited. It is not a cookery course nor photography. There was one time I was seriously thinking about cooking or journalism, but I decided not to go with either of them.

I am not quite happy to be a student again. It is scary being a student in a foreign country and knowing that I have to study two times harder than others, because of my not very fluent English. I am such a sucker in reading English text. I also need to look after my home after school, then naturally this blog comes very last.

You would be surprised to know how maintaining a food blog well can be such a time consuming and overwhelming matter, especially when you have 1500 or more visitors a day.

I certainly wouldn’t want to close this blog down. I put too much of my energy and love into it. And I also feel responsible for you too.

I hope I can post one article a week at least, but we will see how that goes. You might have to wait for a couple of days or more to get my answers or responses to your requests or questions. You can still request recipes you want to see but I certainly don’t have time to do it unless it is super simple. Just keep these in mind.

Thank you.

Difference Between Bibim Naengmyun and Bibim Guksu

sue — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:47:30 +0000

If you started to wonder what is different between bibim naengmyun and bibim guksu when you read my bibim guksu post the other day, I wouldn’t be surprised. I wasn’t quite sure which one is more accurate as the title either.

Here is a beautiful picture of bibim naengmyun taken by Evil jungle prince and compare it with my bibim guksu picture. Have a close look. Can you tell what the difference is? Not including the toppings?

(Bibim Naengmyun)

(Bibim Guksu)

As far as I know, the main difference is “the noodles”. Naemyun noodles are usually made of buckwheat flour, sweet potato starch or potato starch. They are very resilient and relatively harder to cut with your teeth.

On the other hand, guksu noodles are usually made of wheat flour and sometimes something else added like the soba noodles I used for my bibim guksu (The noodles had 69% wheat flour and 29% buckwheat flour).

I prefer guksu noodles over naengmyun noodles because they are easier to chew, therefore less messy to eat and feels easy on my stomach. What about you?

Here is some information on naengmyun if you are interested.

(Mul naengmyun, photo from hankooki.com)

Types of Korean Naengmyun

Pyongyang naengmyun – Mul naengmyun, served in cold watery radish kimchi broth, the noodles are usually 70% buckwheat flour and 30% starch powder
Hamhung naengmyun – Bibim naengmyun, served in spicy seasoning without the broth, the noodles are usually 100% potato starch.
Busan style Milmyun – the noodles are are usually 70% wheat flour and 30% starch powder

(Type of Milmyun, photo from Gaya milmyun)

Buckwheat Noodles (Memil Guksu in Korean)