My First and Favorite Korean Dish, Japchae

I love Korean food, but aside from a few dishes that use kimchi or recipes from my beloved Momofuku cookbook, I've never cooked any Korean dishes. Grilled pre-marinated bulgogi? Yes. Cooked a dish from start to finish? No. When I lived in New York, I worked on 34th and Madison, a real crappy part of town for good food. My saving grace was that I was a short walk from 32nd Street. For those in the know, this short block in Midtown is K-Town. I ate at a Korean deli called Woorijip at least twice a week, if not more because it was cheap and good. There was a rotating to-go buffet filled with spicy toppogi, tender bulgogi and my favorite, japchae.

I love cold noodles of any kind, so it's not surprising that I love this dish. It's surprisingly filling and pretty easy to make. It takes a little bit of time to prep all the veggies, but it's kind of soothing to just chop, marinate and mix. 

Considering that it's summer and you're probably craving something healthy and light, might I suggest this dish? I found a great recipe on Beyond Kimchee, a great blog for Korean recipes. Finding the ingredients, namely, the dang-myon sweet potato noodles, was pretty easy for me since there are quite a few Korean grocery stores in my neighborhood. I substituted pork for beef with nice results and used bok choy instead of Korean Spinach because...I don't know what Korean Spinach is. This substitute worked out well too. 

I don't have a pair of kitchen scissors so I skipped the step where you cut the cooked noodles into shorter strands. Big mistake. That is definitely not a step you want to skip, especially if you're going to try and eat this in public...say, at work in front of you computer. You will look very very silly and get sesame oil all over your screen. Sweet potato noodles don't break as easily as cellophane noodles or other glass noodles. You can't break off a bit with a little nibble. So you basically get a super long bunch of noodles in your mouth and you just have to keep stuffing your mouth until they're all in.

For the recipe, head over to Beyond Kimchee and give it a try!

Foodles

My beautiful, silly and talented friend introduced me to Recipe Look. It's an adorable site that posts drawings of recipes. The majority of the recipes are sent in by readers and I was so smitten by the idea that I decided to try drawing out on of my favorite recipes of late, Kimchi Yakiudon.

I quite enjoy doodling. And as this blog shows, I also enjoy food. So...what happened when the two made sweet sweet love at my dining room table this evening? 

Presenting my very first foodle: 

Doodling foodstuffs is way hard yo! The easiest thing for me to doodle was the pig face because I've been doing that since I was a super wee one. (Because I was born in the year of the pig -- I will tell you a great pig story one day...) The hardest? The bean sprouts and the finished product which I didn't even try to put to paper. As tasty as kimchi yakiudon is, it kind of looks like red puke. Sorry. 

Anyhooooodle (ha!) I did send this to Recipe Look and I hope they like it! Even if they don't, I won't cry because it was super fun to do and I suggest everyone give it a try. Now put down your laptop and go foodle yourself. 

Ms. Ha's Kimchi Yakiudon

When I lived in New York, my friend Kathy and I used to cook each other dinner all the time. It was fun, we both like to cook and it saved us a little money. Win - win - win. No one cooks for me in Japan. That's not a complaint, just a fact.  Kathy made kimchi yakiudon over the weekend in NY, so I asked her for the recipe. I cooked it up tonight and it was exactly what I needed on a hectic Monday night. Gooey, kimchi-y and filling.

I prefer yakiudon to yakisoba because I like the texture of udon noodles more than the noodles they use in yakisoba. Considering the name, you'd think they'd be buckwheat soba noodles, but you'd be wrong! Yakisoba is actually made with egg noodles similar to the ones you find in ramen. Please feel free to use this tidbit to start a conversation with a good looking stranger.

Kathy is a really good cook by the way. I'm more of a baker - I use measurements and am sometimes overly anal about cooking. She's a free spirit and her recipe instructions are fun because they force me to experiment and go with the flow. In the spirit of Ms. Ha, here is the basic recipe:

1. Heat up some oil in a hot wok or skillet. Add chopped garlic and ginger.
2. Add onions (greed, white, yellow - whatever). Add pork belly slices (beef if you prefer). Salt and pepper. Cook awhile until pork is cooked.
3. At this point, you can add any other veggies you like - mushrooms, carrots, bean sprouts, bell peppers. The sky's the limit!
4. Add kimchi and mix well.
5. Add boiled udon or egg noodles. Add about 1 TB of soy sauce, 1 TB mirin and some sesame seed oil.
6. Add chopped cabbage at the end and mix well.

TADA!!

SunDu Booyah! :: Tokyo Sundub

I really love Korean food. When I lived in New York, I worked on 34th and Madison which is like a black hole for good food. Subway? Guy and Guillard? Starbucks? How about some Sabarro's Pizza? One can only eat $10 salads and pre-packaged sandwiches so many days in a row before going crazy. The only saving grace is it's proximity to 32nd Street, aka K-Town. It is quite possibly the smallest K-Town you'll ever find, but quality trumps quantity. Korean fried chicken, BBQ and my favorite, sundubu. My sister first introduced me to sundubu in Oakland, CA and I later became obsessed with it after my Korean friend took me to Seoul Garden in K-Town. Breaking it down, sundubu is a hot tofu soup eaten with a raw egg cracked in it and you eat it with rice. Nothing is better on a cold, gloomy day or when you're feeling sick and cranky. It will literally kick all the bad out of your system and it's pretty healthy too! It is so good, that every time my sister came to town, our first meal was at Seoul Garden for sundubu. Ahhh, memories.

There are quite a few Korean restaurants in Tokyo and there is even a soon doo boo chain called Tokyo SunDub. I was hesitant to try it because it's a chain and I have only ever eaten sundubu in mom and pop type shops. Tokyo SunDub gives you lots of options - miso or salt base - meat, seafood of veggie - 5 levels of spiciness. I ordered mine "very hot" but it wasn't so spicy at all - I guess we're measuring spiciness on the Japanese scale here...also, just so you know, just because you order a meat soup doesn't mean there won't be seafood in it too. My pork sundubu also had scallops, shrimp and clams, but I didn't mind. The more the merrier. Speaking of more, check out all the yummy goodies that came with my soup!

 

I love banchan! Banchan are Korean side dishes like kimchi, pancakes and marinated veggies and you always get a ton for free at sundubu restaurants. The milky drink in the picture is Makgeolli, a fermented rice wine popular with girls because it is sweet.

Tokyo Sundub
Multiple Locations in Tokyo
Roppongi Hills, Hollywood Hills B2F