I got shocked as soon as I stared at my face in front of the bathroom mirror in the morning. There were lots of traces of the battle between my skin and hormones, and it seemed like the hormones won in the battle called “Sugar high”. I had lots of pimples here and there, because I had consumed too much sugar yesterday. My sister said my face looks like it was bitten by swarms of mosquitoes all night.

Yes, when you having some sweets, you really enjoy the moment. You feel good, become active, cheerful, then a bit violent, cranky, moody, then peace comes finally, and the next day, the glory of pimples.

Rabokki (stir fried rice cake and noodle) is what I had for lunch yesterday. Rabokki is combining words for ddeokbokki and ramyun (instant noodles). It is quite simple to make if you know how to make ddeokbbokki. All you need to do is, add some instant noodles and extra water into ddeokbbokki. Voila~!

I simply used the same ingredients from my ddeokbokki recipe, just increase the amount of them for 4 people.

Ingredients for 4 people

(Expected preparation time – 5 minutes, cooking time – 7 minutes)

-For main ingredients

• 1 instant noodle pack.
• Fresh rice cakes 300g (about 30 pieces) – If you use pre packaged rice cakes, soak them in cold water for 20 minutes before you use them.
• Fish cake 4 sheets – 240g
• 1 onion
• 4 leaves of cabbage
• 1 stalk of spring onion (optional)
• 8 instant dumplings (optional)
• 1½ cups of water

-For sauce (Mix them well in a bowl.)

• Gochujang – 4 tbsp
• Dark brown sugar – 4 tbsp ; If you don’t want to be attacked by sugar high pimples, I recommend you to reduce the amount of sugar. maybe reduce it down to 2 to 3 tbsp
• Minced garlic -1 tsp
• Chili powder (Gochutgaru in Korean) – 1 tsp

Preparation

1. Thin slice the onion and diagonally slice the spring onion.
2. Rinse the fish cakes in hot water. (To clean the oil coating from its surface)
3. Cut the fish cakes and cabbage into medium size pieces.

Cooking (I cooked them on a portable burner, it is the restaurant style of eating)

1. Pour the water into the pot. Start to boil it.
2. Add the sauce and stir it well.
3. Add all the other ingredients. (reduce the heat to medium to low)
4. Stir them well.
5. You can start eating them when one of the ingredients is cooked.

Although, it was over sweet, it was really delicious. All of us who ate this meal got high later, but it was worth it for short moment.

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Korea has two national holidays about New years day. One is called Shin jung (solar New years day) and the other one is called Gu jung (lunar New years day – Chinese New years day) Apparently more than 90% of people celebrate on lunar New years day and less than 10% of people celebrate on solar New years day.

Ddeok Guk is the core meal of New Years day in Korea, but Koreans eat it on normal days as well. It means purity (from its white color), maturity (there is a saying that if you have Ddeok guk on New years day, you get one year older, its further meaning is I wish you become mature), wishing long life (rice cakes used for ddeok guk are very long) and rich (rice cakes’ shape looks like currency in the old days). Of course as a kid I wanted to grow up faster, so I ate too much Ddeok Guk and got sick instead.

The Ddeok guk I made was enough for one meal without any rice. I added some instant dumplings, some Koreans prefer eating rice cake soup in this way and they use handmade dumplings. My recipe below is a simple version, the traditional version includes pheasant meat, but now it is rare, people use beef instead. Yet I didn’t even add beef here.

Ingredients for 4 people

Main

• Sliced (garaeddeok) rice cake 400 g
• Instant dumplings 12 pieces

Broth

• Dried kelp (15×15 cm size)
• 5 big dried anchovies
• 8 cups of water
• Minced garlic – 1 tsp
• Salt – 1tsp

Vegetables

• 1/3 of a zucchini
• 1/2 an onion
• 1 stalk of big spring onion

Toppings

• 1 egg
• 2 sheets of laver
• Pepper (optional)

Prep

1. Soak the rice cake in cold water for about 20 minutes. (If it is dried)
2. Thin slice the zucchini and onion.
3. Diagonally slice the spring onion.
4. Beat the egg, pan fry it, and thin slice it. (Normally you fry the egg white part and yolk part separately, but I cooked it together. It is up to you.)
5. Thin shred laver with scissors.

Cooking

1. Pour the water into the pot then add the kelp and anchovies.
2. Simmer it on medium to low heat for about 15 minutes. (It looks light brownish)
3. Take out the kelp and anchovies (I threw them away).
4. Add the zucchini and onion. Boil it for 1 minute.
5. Add the dumplings, rice cakes, salt, and garlic.
6. Boil it until it cooks. (It takes 3-4 minutes) Add the spring onion 30 seconds before you serve the dish. (I forgot to add it, and you can adjust the taste with salt)
7. Serve it in a bowl with the toppings on top (egg and laver). You can add pepper if you want. I always do, I love sprinkles of pepper .

Note

Rice cakes for ddeok guk are called garaeddeok and they are the same rice cake for ddeokbokki (stir fried rice cake with gochujang) but just a bit thicker. You slice them diagonally then it looks like what I used. If you bought a lot of garaeddeok, you can keep them in the freezer.

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I’ve meant to post this recipe since I started blogging, but I just couldn’t post it because my picture wasn’t quite ready. I have tried this meal nearly every week, I’ve never got good pictures. Yes! I have to admit that I may have OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) but it is not as bad as Mr.monk.

This is the most common Korean snack meal in Korea. You can see mini vans or carts that sell this food on the street easily as well. There are lots of variations of this meal, however today’s recipe is the most common and basic way of cooking this meal.

Ingredients for 2 people are

(Expected preparation time: 4 minutes, cooking time: less than 10 minutes)

• Fresh rice cake 300g (I always prefer fresh rice cake from the rice cake shop, it tastes best.)
• Fish cake 2 sheets
• 1/2 an onion
• 1 stalk of spring onion
• 2 leaves of cabbage
• Water 1/3 cup
• Seasoning sauce (mix these in a bowl well) : Gochujang 2 tbsp, Sugar 2 tbsp (I used dark brown sugar), Chili powder 1/2 tsp , Squashed garlic 1 tsp (If you are afraid of spice, you can reduce the chili powder)

Preparation

1. Thin slice the onion.
2. Cut the cabbage and spring onion into medium size pieces.
3. Cut the fish cake sheets into medium size pieces.
4. Separate the rice cakes with your hands.

Cooking

1. Pre heat the wok for about 10 seconds.
2. Add some oil and the onion. Stir it.
3. Add the cabbage and stir it.
4. Add the rice cakes, fish cakes, sauce and water. Stir it.
5. Add the spring onion. Stir it
6. Once all the vegetables are cooked, serve the meal on the plate.

It was really nice because the rice cakes were so fresh. Originally it was today’s menu, but I decided to cook it last night.

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This meal is supposed to include some kind of meat, mostly beef (or pork), but as you know the price of beef in Korea is ridiculously expensive. (About 3000 won per 100g for Korean beef which is about US $3.20) So I didn’t use any meat, but if you can afford it, you are welcome to add it. Without the meat, this meal was still filling enough for 2 people.

However, I will cook this meal with some meat some other time, so do check the update in the future.

Ingredients for 2 people are

(Expected preparation time :5 minutes, Cooking time : 7 minutes)

• Rice cake (About 20 pieces, 300g)
• 1/2 a carrot
• 1/2 an onion
• 4 button mushrooms
• 5 shiitake mushrooms (Pyogo beosot in Korean)
• 1/4 red and 1/4 yellow capsicums (I forgot to take a picture of them, sorry.)
• 1 stalk of big spring onion

-Seasoning Sauce (Mix these well in a bowl.)

• Sugar – 1tsp
• Soy sauce – 4 tsp
• 1 minced garlic
• 1 dash of sesame oil

-Preparation

1. Wash all the vegetables, and thin slice them.
2. If the rice cake is hard, parboil the rice cake. Or just run them under hot tap water for one minute.

-Cooking

1. Pre heat the wok for about 20 seconds.

2. Pour some olive oil into the wok.

3. Put the onion into the wok. Stir it.

4. Add the carrot and stir it until 80 % of the carrot cooks.

5. Add all the other ingredients. Stir it until it cooks.

6. Serve it on the plate.

By the way, I add one green chili for extra taste as you can see on the very first picture, but it was quite spicy. It stung my lips for a while. I liked it though, I don’t think you should add any chili in this meal, for your benefit. (Without a chili, it still tastes good. It is not spicy at all.) That is why it is not listed in the ingredients section.

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