Oh, My, God, My computer is infested with ants. Yes, ants. Those six legged shinny black crawlies have made home in the underbelly of my computer, no doubt the post modern home for upper class ants sick of the sand.
“Daaaaaahling, I lust love these hard clean lines,”
“Yes dear, and these flecks of silver and brass, it must have cost a fortune!”
“Wait till the neighbors see it. They are going to die, just die!”
Is this the reason behind my lack of posting? No. I only discovered this last night (PS if you live in a basement or ground floor do not, do not leave your laptop on the floor overnight to charge.) No, the reason behind my lack of school posting is simple. Remember in High School or college, at the beginning of the year? Your nervousness and excitement, determination to be studious, to absorb all the wonderful knowledge? Yeah. Remember how long it seamed to get things going, how gingerly the instructor danced around subjects, and how you either transcribed his or her lectures or found your notebook blank at the end of class. Remember your aching, longing even, for the class to get up to speed? Then one day boom, its midterm time and suddenly all your assignments are due one day, several tests in a day, maybe even an oral report or two. “But,” you plead with your instructors, stomach in a knot, tears welling in your eyes. “This is so unfair, how can you expect me to finish all this work at one time!”
“Buuuhhahahahaha,” they laugh. “Welcome to college.” They reply, a hint of horn protruding out from under their hair.
Last week the bulk of our assignments for both our sanitation class and our theory class were due. For me this meant completing a 16 page HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) paper, my spice assignment, and a research paper (with bibliography) on Konbu. Not to mention a Midterm in both classes. Seeing that I have a husband who is kind enough (now) to make dinners and I don’t work (yet) I spaced my work out pretty evenly. Nonetheless, all these projects take hours, hours to produce, review, and polish. Try, just try, writing a research paper after years of magazine features, restaurant reviews, and blogging. Yikes. My oral report won fans for my employment of the comic (I figure if you give them visuals, they won’t really be paying attention to you).
Now that we have finished week eight, the separation of the class is evident. I am happy to report that over half the class is passionate and dedicated, people that I would be keen to work with on a project or in real working life. There are strong leaders and workhorses, people who can take criticism and instruction at the blink of an eye, with out making it personal, and then there is the other half. The half that stands and leans and grazes, the other half who could care less about the uniformity of their cuts, their technique, and for whom listening is an art form long forgotten.
Back in week three and four, when the two groups became apparent, I really wanted to reach out to these people, I so desired for the class to be strong, a unit to be reckoned with. My mother-in-law was surprised at my compassion. Advising me to look out for myself, upon hearing about my sharing of my hand crafted study aids (my co-teachers at Sanbon SLP can attest to my flashcard making skills). “But it is no good for me if the people I’m working with aren’t up to my speed or at my level. I just want everyone to succeed.” My leftist liberal heat bleed. I blame it on being a teacher. While I had my favorites (every teacher does) I so wanted my whole class to get it. Did you count how many times I used “my” in this paragraph? 9. I’m sure that is a writing voilation.
Now I find my competitive side has taken over, even admitting out loud that, “well it is nice to have people to make you look good.” I’m not proud of it, but that is the rat race, no?
Here is a sampling of what I turned in. K, one of my classmates sent me this video from you tube. My spice tasting was, how should I put it, more refined, thought out? But faces made as a result of the heat, the drying, the bitter, or allover nastiness of eating and smelling over 30 dried spices were pretty much on queue.
Cayenne Pepper
Apperance: ground Fibrous red bath powder
Aroma: Like the inside of a jalapeno with out the acidity. Like the seeds. Now my nose itches.
Taste: Warming peppery. I can’t believe I just licked some cayenne off my finger. My tongue is on fire.
Curry Powder
Apperance: Dark orange fibrous dirt flecked with dark browns, blacks, and whites
Aroma: Indian restaurants the world over.
Taste: Bitter, peppery, astringent
Ginger, ground
Apperance: Vanilla protein powder
Aroma: Warm spice aroma, refreshing, lemony, awakening
Taste: Peppery, burning
My HACCP is far too boring to read, so instead I will entertain you with this fun sanitation fact:
“Norovirus is very contagious and is often transferred to food when infected foodhandlers touch the food with fingers containing feces.” Every sanitation class the word feces is mentioned at least 5 times. Mmmmm. Feces.
Finally from my research paper:
A Dictionary of Japanese Food, notes that, “o-shaburi konbu is chewed, as a traditional alternative to gum” (83) . Watch out Trident.
It is tradition for Koreans, on the Lunar New Year, or Solla, to serve ddok guk at the ancestor memorial in place of rice. Ddok (rice cake) guk (soup) is a humble soup composed of clear beef broth, to symbolize a clear mind for the New Year, round sliced rice cakes, to symbolize the rising sun and strength, a scant helping of minced beef and a garnish of egg slices.
After performing the service, family members eat the soup then perform customary bows (saebae) to parents and grandparents. Ledged has it you become one year older when you eat this soup on New Year’s Day. Hmm. As I near closer to thirty I’d prefer something that could take the years off, or a fountain of life-esque broth, no?
I remember the streets of Seoul shutting down for Solla and Chusok. For once you could go for a stroll and all the shops would be boarded up, dark. No fears of getting mowed down by a chicken/pizza delivery driver on a moped, and gaze at empty shots of the Namdaemoon gate traffic circle on the news. Most foreigners would end up at any of the numerous pubs in Itaewon, if they weren’t skipping town for a jaunt to Japan or Thailand.
Ddok guk was my first Korean recipe given to me by a co-worker. At the time I didn’t eat meat, and replaced the beef with tofu. Thanks to personal preferences and picky eaters ddok guk has many variations (including mandu!), here are my recipes for this hopeful new years soup.
Ddok Guk 1.
This is the recipe for traditional, clear, ddok guk
1/2 lb brisket, soaked in cold water for 1 hour, and drained
1 Quart water
5 garlic cloves
Soy sauce
Salt and pepper
Two eggs, white and yolk separated
1/2 bag sliced rice cakes, soaked in water for 10-30 minutes
Green onion
1. In a large saucepan, bring the brisket and water, along with the garlic cloves to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook brisket until tender, one hour.
2. While brisket is simmering, skim off impurities from the pot.
3. While the brisket is cooking, season whites and yolk (still separated) with a touch of salt. You can also add a bit of water to the yolks. One at a time, add the whites to a nonstick skillet over medium low heat. Spread out as thinly as possible. I find it easiest to use one of the rectangle pans used for cooking Japanese and Korean rolled omelets. Cook over low heat until whites are completely coagulated and cooked through. Remover from the pan and repeat with the yolks.
4. On a cutting board trim cooked eggs into neat rectangles around 2.5 inches in height. Very thinly slice eggs for garnish. Alternatively, slice on the diagonal about 2 centimeters apart, then come back from the other direction for diamonds. Set aside for garnish.
5. Trim the green onion and thinly slice. Set aside for garnish.
6. Once the brisket is tender remove from the broth and slice thinly, shred, or mince.
7. Taste the broth and adjust flavorings with soy sauce, salt and pepper. Return broth to a boil.
8. Drain rice cakes and add to the beef broth, once soaked these only take a minute or two to cook.
9. Turn off the heat and ladle broth and rice cakes into individual serving bowls. Add a tablespoon or two of the meat and carefully place in the center of the bowl. Garnish with egg slices or diamonds, and green onions, and voila. Don’t blame me for any accrued wrinkles or gray hairs.
This soup is very delicate, if you are looking for bigger flavor add some sesame oil, chili flakes, or even minced garlic to the broth before serving.
Option one:
Instead of going through the painstaking task of separating the eggs, and slicing, simply crack two eggs into a bowl and beat to combine. Add the eggs to the soup after the rice cakes and let eggs cook in an egg-drop soup fashion.
My Dubu Ddok Guk
1 Quart of vegetable stock
1 package firm tofu
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 T minced garlic
2 T minced green onion (reserve 1 T for garnish)
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 T sesame oil
1/2 package of sliced ddok, soaked in water for 10-30 minutes.
2 eggs, beaten
1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil.
2. Add the tofu and boil for 5 minutes. Carefully remove tofu and let stand on the cutting board for a couple of minutes. Cut the tofu into 1/2-inch thick, 1 1/2 x 1 inch planks (basically a little larger than bite size)
3. In a shallow dish, combine the soy sauce, garlic, green onion, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil. Add sliced tofu and coat.
4. Return broth to boiling and add ddok. Cook for just a couple minutes, until ddok is tender.
5. Add the eggs to the broth and stir to cook.
6. Drain off the marinade from the tofu and add to the soup. Ladle the soup into individual serving bowls and lay a few tofu slices over the top. Garnish with green onion.
Even today I still make my tofu version, this time with the beef too. To add tofu to ddok guk, simply follow step 3 of this recipe and add it after the egg in the ddok guk recipe.
If you keep up with the Korea bloggers, then you’ve no doubt heard of Seoul Glow, the video pod casts from Photographer Michael Hurt. The podcasts cover everything from politics to pop-culture, to food, and are a great glimpse in to the day-to-day life in the land of the Morning Calm.
In Seoul Glow’s second video podcast, former Food and Wine editor Susan Choung takes viewers to a ddokieboggie stand.
Personally these videos are almost painful for me to watch. Not because they aren’t excellently produced, edited, subtitled, or hosted. No, watching Susan munch on ddokboggie in the chilly Korean winter, tugged at my heart strings, homesick for the chilly nights Kevin would stand huddled, arm in arm, in front of the pojangmacha, slurping up spicy logs of tooth tender ddokboggie, hands cupping dixie cups of radish broth, trying to stay warm.
What does make me happy though, is the interview with fellow food blogger Zen Kimchi in the New York Times. Read what Joe has to say about what makes Korean fried chicken so magical here. One small step for Korean Fried Chicken, one large step for Korean Food Bloggers!
While cleaning out my blog folders I cam across this unfinished post I started writing back in the fall as a response to the North Korean missile test threats. Having become so attached to Korea these new set of threats seemed more poignant than the ones I carelessly shrugged off in the past. I used to say, “I just watch the South Korean’s reactions. When they start to freak out, then I’ll freak out.” But this time around, I got the chills. The message sent was clearer, more tangible, and something to really consider: a loud cry for help from Pyongyang. While I prepare a dramatic narrative on the highlights and lowlights of julienne, brounois, and fluting, let this tide you over.
Mary
2006 has been the most active for the North Korean’s missile tests.
In March of this year they fired two missiles, in July seven missiles plunged into the Sea of Japan, and just two weeks ago, they tested a nuclear bomb in an underground location.
I moved to Korea moments after American president Gorge Bush declared North Korea one of the three countries in the Axis of Evil. At the time I didn’t pay attention to the implications or severity of this new propaganda phrase. I tossed the statement aside, regarding it as another Bushism. Like fuzzy math, here was fuzzy geography.
However these words struck resonance with BBC reporter Ben Anderson, who took Bush’s challenge head on and traveled to these countries in the BBC documentary, Holidays in the Axis of Evil.
Seeing North Korea for the first time, this way, was heart breaking. The people so thin, the reporters, constantly skeptical, their official guides reciting mind numbing praises of the dear leader.
I have kept this image of the North in my brain, along with Polish Director Andrzej Fidyk’s Documentary, The Parade, and a recent documentary shown in the US on PBS’s Independent Lens, Seoul Train .
With these past missile tests, I grow more concerned for the welfare of the North Koreans, and while ESL boards are buzzing with teachers whose primary concern is what their embassy will do for them if an emergency situation presents itself, Land of the Morning Calm bloggers endlessy type up summaries of articles that don’t appear in the English dailies, I, however, eat.
I explore this in the only way that makes sense to me, food, hoping that if I can become attached to a cuisine, or a dish, I will become attached to its origins.
Thursday afternoon I spent my lunch in Insadong at Gung, savoring Kaesong Mandu, a specialty of the kaesong province in North Korea. The capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty, is a small province close to the DMZ. Large, and rustically charming, these mandu (dumplings) come filled with pork, green onion, and cellophane noodles. It may be as close as I ever get to knowing North Korea”s stories, people and culinary traditions.
