Korean cooking 101 - Seaweed salad

A relatively recent question by a fellow blogger has coincided with a thought I had: I should really explain some of the Korean cooking mayhem I get up to in my wee kitchen. Korean cooking is very fun and exciting due to the variety of crazy ingredients available as well as new techniques to be experimented with. Some recipes I find online in an English version, other times it's guesswork, or occasionally I dip into my (written aaaall in Korean) Korean cookbook.

Today's recipe was mainly guesswork. Sometimes basic dishes are easy to figure out once you have a grasp of basic seasonings.

Seaweed Salad (미역 무침)

Miyeok is a kind of brown seaweed; it's most famous dish is miyeok soup which is traditionally consumed by women for up to a month after childbirth, and by everyone on birthdays.

Fresh from the grocery store.

Miyeok comes in two basic forms, dried or fresh. Dried is convenient as you simply have to soak it in some water and it'll spring back to life. Caution: a little expands a LOT. Or, you can buy it fresh at the market or grocery store. It's really cheap - you can get a huge mass for about a buck. If you buy it fresh, soak it in water for a while. This makes it less salty and slimy. Whether using dried or fresh, after its soak it should be drained thoroughly before proceeding. Once it's well drained, simply cut it up into manageable chunks. Scissors work best for this.

ONE piece after it's been soaked. You can see the need for cutting - who could fit that tentacley thing in one's mouth...?

Now for the seasonings: salt, vinegar (rice or apple - something mild), minced garlic, sesame oil, sesame seeds. Just mess around with the proportions till it tastes nice. I'm guessing for a couple of handfuls of miyeok, you'd want around a teaspoon of sesame oil, about that amount of vinegar depending on how tangy you like it, not much garlic (maybe a small clove), 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of seasame seeds. Salt to taste. Mix it all up and enjoy~~

Whoa nelly...!

Look at this crazy beast that is parked somewhere near(ish) my house!


It's a US aircraft carrier with a crew of more than 5000. Biiiiiig...

Interweb shopping

It's taken me a while but I think I'm now a convert. I believe in Internet Shopping. In Korea, you can get really sweet deals online and it's just so very convenient to get stuff delivered right to you. I have bought books, electronics as well as groceries (!) online with excellent results. Groceries are a new hot area as you can buy loads of 'foreign' foods online that are next to impossible to find in your local shop. For instance, I taught a special interest class about food and wanted to prepare some recipes with my students. I decided upon Mexican style food and a few clicks away I ordered a full taco set including seasoning, taco shells, salsa and canned black beans. The same order also included sour cream and avocados (they arrived in a styrofoam cooler)! The entire thing came in at a reasonable cost and arrived at my work place within 48 hours of placing the order. Sweet convenience. Well, I was just about to browse a site known for its deals on electronics (I'd like to upgrade my headphones) when I noticed that the site has a new category: CARS!!! Hahahaha... Add one Lexus to my cart please~~

Lunch of the day

Last Saturday I took a daytrip to Seoul and as usual I took the KTX (Korea's zippy train - from Busan to Seoul -> 2 hrs 45 min). I didn't get a chance to eat before boarding the train as I was late getting up and out the door so I was at the mercy of whatever was available on board. As luck would have it, the 'doshirak' (도시락), or lunchbox, was purty darn good. For about 7 bucks, this is what I got:In the lunch box, from top left moving to the right by row, sauteed dried anchovy sidedish, 2 tater tots (!), kimchi, sauteed mushroom sidedish, 2 cherry tomatoes, stewed beef, steamed broccoli (a new veggie to Korea but one that's become very popular of late) and the main dish, baby octopus stir-fry. Yum! Included was some water, rice and dried crispy seaweed you can use to wrap up your rice with. Yum yum!

This meal highlights one thing I really like about Korea. No matter where you are chances are you can get some 'real' food. And by that I mean unprocessed, with actual vegetables and cooked by someone by hand. That's good eats.