Korean Stories & Kitschen

 Let's make Kkadugi (Cubed Radish Kimchi), Kimchi for beginners Korea is home to a variety of kimchi types. Radish kimchi is easier and faster to make than traditional cabbage kimchi. It pairs nicely with noodle meals like ramen or black bean noodles (Jjajangmyeon).   If cabbage kimchi cooking level is 10, kkadugi is 3.  <Ingredient> One radish (2-2.5 lb) if you can buy Korean radish, it is better. But you have to order it from Korean supermarket. So, I used daikon which you can easily find at the Meijer supermarkets.  Korean radish is more round, harder and juicier Daikon (Japanese radish) is longer, softer and less juicy I used a daikon since it is easy to find.  1 tbsp coarse sea salt  1 tbsp sweetener or sugar Kimchi paste: 1 & 1/2 Tbsp red pepper (Korean chili) fine powder (gochugaru) 2 tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce & fine salt for vegan) 1/2 onion 1/2 apple 1 Tbsp of cooked rice (or you can use flour porridge*). Important thing is ...

 Potatoes Before coming to the slums outside Chilseongmun Gate, which was the source of all the world's tragedies and dramas—fighting, adultery, murder, theft, begging, and imprisonment—Boknyeo's husband had been a peasant (the second tier of Joseon* societal class - in the order of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants).  Boknyeo had originally been a girl raised under discipline in an honest farming family, even if impoverished. It's been said that these strict disciplines are usually diminished from scholars class to farmers class , but for some unknown reason, a certain discipline, a bit more intelligent and stricter than other peasants, remained in her family. Growing up among them, Boknyeo, like other girls, was accustomed to bathing naked in the stream in the summer and wandering the village in her trousers. Yet, deep within her, she harbored a vague, if somewhat unsettling, yearning for morality. At the age of fifteen, she was sold to a widower in the village f...

 How to make a roll of kimbap In Korea, there are tons of different types of kimbap. There was a franchise kimbap restaurant called 'Kimbap Heaven' some years ago. Literally now Korea is the heaven of kimbap as kimbap is getting so much popularity not only in Korea, but world wide.  Today I made rolls of tuna kimbap for my church potluck. Because most of my church members are vegetarians, I used veggie crumbles (Morning Star) instead of tuna.  To make kimbap rolls, cooking rice is very important. You need to use sticky rice. Most of rice sold in US supermarkets are not sticky rice. So, I usually buy jasmine rice rather than regular white rice. And I use pressure steamer for cooking rice. By doing so, rice increases its stickiness.  <Ingredients for 3 rolls of kimbap> Two cups of rice 4 eggs to make egg rolls 1 carrot two cucumbers 3 sliced strips of yellow dakan 1/2 package of 'Morning star' veggie crumbles 3 lettuce leaves (I only used leaf part after removing...

 There  was a chilly, overcast sky, threatening snow, but instead, a freezing rain fell.   For Kim Cheomji, a rickshaw puller in Dongsomun, this was a truly auspicious day, a long time coming. He escorted the lady next door, who was wanting to go to the inner city, to the tram tracks (even though she didn't live outside of the city). And later he lingered at the bus stop, directing a nearly begging stare at each person getting off, hoping for a customer. Finally, he provided a ride to a teacher in a suit to Donggwang School. Thirty jeon* from the first ride, fifty jeon from the second—a rare, surprising amount of cash this early in the morning. Kim Cheomji, who hadn't seen any money in nearly ten days, was so happy he nearly shed tears when the ten-jeon cupronickel coins, first three, then five, rattled into his palm. Moreover, he couldn't have known better than that moment how useful this eighty-jeon would be to him on that day and time. It could have been enough to...

1  "How could it be missing?" My wife searched for something inside of the closet, and muttered under her breath. "What's missing?" I sat blankly at my desk, flipping through the pages of a book, then asked. "There's one silk jacket left..." "..." I remained silent. But I knew what my wife was trying to do with it. She was going to ask the granny next door to pawn the jacket for her.   For the past two years, I hadn't made a penny, and my wife did whatever she could to keep us from starving to death. She had no choice but to take household goods to pawnshops or junk shops to get some cash.  Even now, her search was for the last remaining silk jacket to buy breakfast. I licked my lips, closed the book I'd been reading, and sighed.  Spring is already half over, but the night air, laden with dew, crept from the corners of the room and embraced the atmosphere. Perhaps because of the rain, the night wasn't yet deep, but the street ...