Feeling thrifty and feeling lazy, my husband and I agreed to have ramyun for Saturday dinner in spite of its definite killing of Saturday's romantic mood. Cooking ramyun is extremely simple with very minimum requirements. Yes, water, heat, and ramyun are all you need! Yet, I believe many people are willing to pay a little more attention to it, i.e. adding more vegetables to it. That will make a big difference in nutrients as well as taste. I usually add some vegetables such as spring onions, Korean peppers, mushrooms and seaweed mix at the end. I sometimes add eggs or mandu (Korean ...

The delicious mandu (Korean dumplings) that I had a week ago in Myung Dong Kyoja in Korea Town, Los Angeles triggered me to do more research about it. =) Mandu, one of the most favored Korean snack dishes, refers to crescent-shape (or less commonly round-shape) food of meat (usually pork) and vegetable mix wrapped with a thin piece of flour dough. Usually, it's served either fried (usually pan-fry, not deep fry) or steamed. The most similar food in non-Korea culture is Chinese dumpling, jiaozi or baozi. The name itself originates from Chinese food 'mantou', steamed flour buns, but mantou doesn't have fillings. ...

(photo from cbs.co.kr) Insam (ginseng roots, Panax ginseng) (photo from prkorea.com) Dates (Daechu) Until recently, I wasn't in favor of insam cha (ginseng tea), or any dish that has insam (ginseng) such as samgyetang (Korean chicken ginseng rice soup). I assume it was my natural reaction against my mother's forceful(?) feeding of insam whenever I visit my parents in Korea. She boils down ginseng with dates (daechu) in water and have all of my family eat it with honey. I appreciated her intention and efforts especially when ginseng is not cheap for us. But I just hated eating ginseng like that, or in any ...

About three years ago, that is sometime in 2005, hongcho (red vinegar), heuckcho (black vinegar) or gamsikcho (persimmon vinegar) got very popular in Korea. Those are various kinds of vinegar drinks that are fermented from fruit or grain and watered down so people can drink it easily. When I heard about this vinegar boom a few months later in America, I thought some Koreans don't mind eating or drinking weird stuff just to get healthy. It was my typical judgment on that as another Korean living outside of the country. Except the rumor(?) that Chinese circus girls and boys are ...