Korean Stories & Kitschen

 Potatoes Before coming to the slums outside Chilseongmun Gate, which were 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* social class system, with scholars being the highest, followed by farmers, artisans, and merchants).  Boknyeo had originally been a girl raised strictly in an honest, if poor, farming family. It's been said that this strict discipline is usually lower in the farming class than in the scholar 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 her own dignity. At the age of fifteen, she was sold to a widower in t...

 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...