A Family Dinner in Seoul

I've been meaning to post about this casual summer dinner my family had in Seoul. I've just been so busy that everything has fallen by the wayside. 

It's the rare moment that my mother and I get the opportunity to travel to Seoul and sup with our extended family, so it was a really joyful occasion, but we wanted to keep it casual on this day. 

My uncles and aunts, the cousins and my mother and me, we all gathered at my cousins' Seoul apartment for a casual dinner. 

Greens ready for ssam

My favorite part of most simple Korean meals is the ssam. Ssam is the tradition of wrapping ingredients in an edible wrapper to keep it all together, typically greens. I love taking perilla, romaine, water dropwort (minari), mugwort (ssuk) and whatever other greens I can get my hands on (Stateside, I often add in cilantro or even Italian herbs), and wrapping rice and ssamjang, doenjang or gochujang in those fragrant leaves.

You can layer, or pick whichever greens and inserts you want. Many people like a small piece of meat in their ssam, but I prefer mine pure and vegetal. I want to taste all the greens, pungent and intense.

You can see that I've placed myself right in front of the ssam.

When all the aunties and my mum were done cooking, we had a great spread that was considered fairly modest for our family, since we love to eat big.

You might think it's funny to see bare feet near the dinner table. We were sitting on the ground, as you often do in Korea, and of course we had taken our shoes off because that's how we do. There were two tables full of family in the end, loaded down with ssam, salads, fried jeon pancakes, japchae noodles, gochu peppers, kimchi and one last favorite thing of mine.

I've eaten this way for most of my life, and have missed it since moving away from my family.

Dduk. I have a slight obsession with these Korean rice cakes, which I purchase at every available opportunity. Whether they're songpyeon, which can be filled with chestnut, red bean or sesame-honey paste, or injeolmi, which are coated in a variety of ingredients, from adzuki bean powder to soybean powder, I'm slightly obsessed with the wide variety of textures, ingredients, shapes and formats of dduk (sometimes spelled tteok).

Dduk: an essential part of my life, I think of it a bit like pasta in its diversity of shapes.

Few things, to me, are so comforting, filling and fun. I've only ever made songpyeon, so I'm looking forward to experimenting with making my own dduk and showing you the results. If you're in a Korean grocery store, make sure you ask for some. Don't expect it to be like a supersweet dessert, but somewhere in between bread and rice, and you might just find yourself craving it again.

Maneki Nekos and Happy Dancing Squids: A Little Tokyo Food Tour

Last week's no-ramen, no-sushi food tour of Little Tokyo in the East Village was so much fun, especially because of the folks on the tour. And the cute animals! Check out these guys!

The "apple taste cider" (which hurt no actual apples in its making) was a definite miss, but the bottle will make an great vase, and dried squid is always a hit for me.

We started our tour off with one of my childhood favorite foods, the mighty OMU-RICE! Ours was topped with grilled enoki mushrooms, which was a really nice touch.

The group grabs takeout containers and splits them outside, a quick and delicious way of hitting up as many places as possible. Next up was my favorite Osaka friend, takoyaki! 

We loved watching the bonito shrink and undulate as they melted from the takoyaki heat.

Almost equally beloved by our group were taikyaki. This cake is filled with red bean paste usually, but this one was full of green tea paste and mochi. I loved the green tea one!

Next up were a Japanese bakery and a Japanese grocery store I often go to. Sunshine Mart in the East Village is a pure gem, and I was able to get mochiko and red bean paste to make mochi at home.

Here we are standing around with our spoils of junk food from Sunshine.

No photos of the delicious pan pastries we had, from sweet potato buns to custardy buns, but head to Pan-Ya to find those sweets.

I can't wait to do this again. I think next time we're planning on British food in the West Village.

Not for All the Fried Chicken in Seogwipo

What would I not do for this chicken, is the real question?

My umma and I spent a month this summer in Korea and Japan. Our favorite destination, despite the love of Seoul relatives, was Jeju Island, where we knew not a soul.

On that island, we stayed in the city of Seogwipo. Sitting like a sunny-side up egg on the southern face of that windswept volcanic island, Seogwipo was a quiet gem from the moment we arrived.

But black pig be damned. Despite being the island's specialty, it was this fried chicken in the Olle Market that I fell for. Hard.

Called dak gangjeong, this dish is inspired by Chinese sweet and sour chicken. Spicy, sweet and deliciously crispy, it's a pure pleasure that I remember from childhood church picnics and afterschool special treats at home.

For a mere W5,000 (5,000 Korean Won, equal to approximately three bucks U.S.) this cup of chicken was mine, all mine. And in a mere five minutes, this chicken was gone, all gone.

The quality and parts of the chicken you use, of course, are important. Here's a great recipe from Maangchi in case you won't be getting to Seogwipo anytime soon.