Omurice with cute-face rice balls 오무라이스

I have been in Korea for a year and a half (yes, that long already!) and I had never even made an omurice ...until this week!  I'm pretty sure that Omurice originated in Japan, but either way it is still a super popular dish in Korea.  It is basically as it sounds - an omelet filled with fried rice.   Unfortunately for vegetarians however, it is often filled with ham as well as veggies (as things always are here!).  So, just like with the mandu last week, I decided to make my own and share the joy with you lovely people reading this. 


Traditionally, Omurice does not come with cute face rice balls (everybody say ahhhh).  It's just I found this really cool seaweed face stamper in a shop that same day and really wanted to use it!  

Usually ketchup is squirted on the top, but I don't like detest the horrible minging red stuff so I used bbq sauce instead.  To be honest, no sauce is just as good if your filing is yummy.

Ingredients (makes 2):

3 or 4 eggs

Splash of milk

Rice - I can never measure rice correctly so just do what you want!

Onion - I used spring onion and garlic chives, but regular onion is more traditional.

Carrot - chopped finely

Rice seasoning (if you want more flavour - consists of salt, pepper, seaweed pieces and dried veg)

Splash of soy sauce

A teaspoon (or less) of crushed garlic

Chili powder if you want a lil' kick

Butter.
If you eat meat, then either add chicken or ham for best results.

Chopped veg

Directions

• Dice the vegetables 
• Fry the vegetables with some butter until soft (not healthy, but tastes goood!).  Then add the already cooked rice and soy sauce / chili powder and stir fry.  Set aside.
• Mix 3 or 4 eggs together with a sprinkle of salt and pepper
• Add butter a pan and when it is really hot, add the egg.  Make a thin omelet.
• Pile the veg in the to center of the omelet and then fold up each side.   Ideally it should be folded in to a half-moon sort of shape like this.  
• Flip the omurice over on to your plate and squirt on a bit of sauce.  Hey Presto!

            

Stir-fry the rice and veg

Pile the rice in the middle of the omelet before folding

To make the rice balls, just squeeze some cooled down rice in to balls and add seaweed shapes to make a face.  You can buy special seaweed stamps for this purpose if your're not feeling very artistic!

Shrimp and Tofu Mandu with a Soy & Apple Vinegar dip 새우 두부 만두

One thing I love about Korea is mandu.  Mandu are hot steaming (or fried) delicious dumplings which are available almost anywhere.  You can find them on both street-food stalls and in so many restaurants.  The possibilities for mandu fillings are endless, yet there are only usually 2 (maybe more) options available in restaurants; Kimchi Mandu (spicy cabbage/veg) 김치 만두 and Gogi Mandu 고기 만두 (meat).  The Koreans are very traditional with their food and like to stick with what they know works, and for most people these do work, but for people who don't eat meat then there is often a problem!  Like for example, last week.  It was freezing cold.  It was even snowing.  I really wanted some kimchi mandu.  The first mouthful of eating a steamy spicy kimchi filled dumpling of joy on a cold day with a side dip of soy sauce is actually rather amazing  (sorry, a bit OTT!?)  


I was on a mission.  I took out to the cold icy streets and ventured towards a mandu restaurant about 10mins down the road.  I had never tried this restaurant before, but they make them fresh so I assumed they'd be good.  Anyhoo, I ordered my kimchi mandu, and took a huge bite.  Unfortunately for me, it was rammed with carcas meat as well as kimchi.  Bleugh.  Quite often they just use tofu to mix, but on a few occasions there has definitely been meat involved.  So, I didn't get my mandu fix that eve.  


Butttt...this did provoke me to get off my bum to the supermarket and buy some mandu wrappers to make my own.  I also found this nifty little device in my local Daiso store which is actually a super good invention when it comes to  mandu-making....

As much as it looks like a prop from the Saw movies, the leg-breaker mandu-folder-overer-thingy is something that I would very much recommend to anybody interested in making some mandu. 


Kay's Shrimp and Tofu combination Mandu


I decided to make prawn and tofu mandu, partly because they are both such great absorbers of flavour, but mainly just cos I like 'em :-)


If anyone wishes to recreate my yummy mandu, then here is the recipe:


Mandu Ingredients (makes about 25):
Mandu papers/wrappers
About 25 prawns (tails/head off and poo-cord out)
About 250g Tofu
A few chives
Sprinkle of sesame seeds
Crushed garlic (maybe 1/2 tsp)
Small handful of sweet potato noodles (Dangmyeon)
Splash of sesame oil
Splash soy sauce
About a Tbs of Cornflour
Salt / Pepper
Sprinkle of Chili powder
Salt & pepper to taste
(Grated ginger - I didn't have any, but imagine it would be a great addition).


Dip Ingredients:
Soy sauce
Apple vinegar
Splash of mirin/mirim (rice wine).
-Mix them together in a dish.  Equal parts soy sauce and apple vinegar with a dash of mirin.

Sweet potato noodles

1. De-poop the prawns if they need it (the black veins along the top and bottom)
2. Cook the Dangmyeon noodles for a few mins until they soften. 
3. Drain the tofu of water and mix all of the above ingredients together and leave for at least an hour to marinate.
4. Blend or chop the ingredients and put a small spoonful of the mixture in each mandu paper (not too much or they will just be messy).
5. The easiest way to fold is to make a half-moon shape and squeeze the ends to make them stick together either by using water or egg.
6. You can then either fry or steam.  I chose to steam mine, but fried are just as good.  It takes about 7 mins.

Put wrapper in the mandu folder and add a bit of filling

Fold

Steam and enjoy! ;-)

PEPERO DAY 11/11/11

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this blog hasn't it!?  I have been meaning to write a post about Pepero Day since Pepero Day, but I have been so busy.... James had family visit, then we adopted a stray kitten, then I had family visit, then we bought another kitten, then we went to Hong Kong and then it was Christmas and now it is already 2012!  Well there's a little update for you all if you were at all interested.

Pepero Day is a magical annual event in South Korea which is pretty much like Valentines Day, but it is for everybody, not just couples.  Strangely enough, this momentous chocolate filled fun day occurs on the 11th of the 11th which is better known for us back home at Armistice Day.  While everyone in England (minus a few) is holding a 2 mins silence at 11am, the people of Korea are exchanging chocolate covered biscuit sticks and getting high on sugar and E-numbers.  I did make sure to hold my 2 mins silence even with the sugar rush!

As mentioned above, Pepero are chocolate filled and/or coated biscuit sticks which come in various flavours.    The story goes that the main company 'Lotte' noticed a rise in sales on the 11th November, so decided to celebrate it and market the day as 'Pepero Day' and hell has it worked!!  In the week or 2 leading up to Pepero Day, the supermarkets and mini-shops are heaving with huge Pepero displays (and more recently other chocolate/teddy's and flowers too).   This year was 2011 (or last year should I say), so I think even more of a big deal was made out of Pepero Day being 11/11/11!  I must say that I took great pleasure in eating a Pepero at 11 minutes past 11 on the 11th month of the 11th year :)

Display made out of numerous boxes of Pepero

Outside a little GS Mart

Soo many Pepero!

Arriving at school on Pepero Day morning was actually more exciting than arriving on the day of the Christmas Party...  The kids were MENTAL!  I'm sure they had already eaten a few boxes for breakfast...  James and I were spoiled rotten by our students.  Here is a picture of the Pepero (with a photobombimg kitten...or maybe I put him there, I can't remember...)  which we received before lunchtime...  more came after lunch!!

In short, I LOVE PEPERO DAY!  We NEED to have something like this in England.  Mr Prime Minister, if you are reading this, then take note and get on it!

A Trip to the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ)

Visiting the DMZ is on almost everyone's to-do-list who comes to Seoul.   I mean who wouldn't want to go to visit the world's most heavily militarized border and get a glimpse in to the worlds most secretive country?  I had been meaning to visit for a while, so finally decided to go on a tour with Adventure Korea.  The tensions between the two countries were ok (apart from a few 'accidental' gun shots taken at the North a few days before) so it seemed like a safe-ish time to visit.  Here is a bit of info what we did on the tour.

DMZ

The DMZ is the De-Militatized Zone between North and South Korea.   It is basically a 4km no-man's land which was divided after the Korean War.  It is rammed with mines and is full of nature.  According to some of the touristy stuff at the border, there are even a lot of bears wandering around in there.  How they don't set of the mines though I don't get...

Before I went on this trip I didn't realise how close I actually live to North Korea.  It's crazy.  As soon as you are out of the main hustle and bustle of Seoul, you are pretty much on the main road leading up the North.  You get a strange feeling as you look out of the window and no longer see skyscrapers, but barbed wire and watch-towers along the sides of the road.  You can even see North-Korean territory pretty soon after leaving Seoul. 

Imjingak (임진각)

The first point of call was the village/park called Imjingak AKA 'peace village'.  Imjingak was built in 1972 and is located 7km from the border.  It was built in the hope for unification between the 2 Koreas.  SO many families became divided after the war, so this village is now the site where people from the North visit and perform ancestral rites by bowing towards their home town on Chuseok (thanksgiving) and New Years Day.   It was quite an interesting area - you can strike the giant 'Peace Bell' and even buy some real North Korean currency.

One huge tourist thing you must see here is the derailed train which has 1,200 bullet holes in it after getting shot at and bombed.   It is a huge symbol of the division between the North and South and has become Registered Cultural Heritage.

Derailed train after war

Tongilchon (Unification Village)


The next stop was fooooood.  Being a vegetarian, I loved the tofu and soybean lunch we had.  I'm not sure how much the meat eaters were loving it though...  We ate in a traditional restaurant in the village of Tongilchon which is one of the unification villages.  We had a drive around after to look at the homes of the people who live in the DMZ.  The people who live here get a lot of state benefits such as no taxes and no military duties (which every Korean man is assigned to do).  Their security is so high here that they don't even have to lock their doors.   The downside however is that this is the first village to 'go' as it were, if the North attacked.

Traditional restaurant in Tongilchon

You can buy North Korean beer in the shops, mmm

 

The Third Infiltration Tunnel (3땅굴)


Next we made a stop to visit the 1.7km scary mofo tunnel dug by the North Koreans to make a surprise attack on Seoul.  Unfortunately, we were forbidden to take photos so you will have to make do with my detailed description of  the 'scary mofo tunnel'.  We got kitted up in bright construction hats and made our way deep down in to the steep, cold darkness.   At times the tunnel was so small that even I was banging my head super cool helmet (and I am relatively short).   Apparently 4 tunnels have been found so far and there are believed to be another 10 out there - there is even a reward for finding them, although there is no possible way anyone could just decide to go and hunt for a tunnel without getting blown up by mines or shot first.  Bit unfair really, I'd quite like to go tunnel hunting....  Anyway, you walk down the tunnel at a ridiculous angle and then when u get to the end (barbed wire) you turn back and climb the dreadful incline back up.  Least to say, I have now joined a gym, so if I did this again, it might not be as painful!




Dora Observatory and Dorasan Train Station  (도라산)


The penultimate stop was Dorasan Observatory where you can actually look in to the Demilitarized Zone and North Korea.  The city of Kaesong is visible in the background.  It is the second largest city in North Korea and you get a really hallowing feeling looking in to the city, with the huge North Korean flag towering over everything.   You get a strange feeling here, it is so peaceful.  All you can hear (apart from the people you are with) is the nature in front of you in this large area of no man's land, yet at the same time you are looking in to the most secretive 
and communist country in the world.  Photos here are strictly prohibited so you will have to make do with a pic taken form behind the 'camera line' (about a zillion miles back).  I did take a really good sneaky one, but a soldier saw and then deleted it from my camera.  Humph.

Looking in to North Korea

The final leg of the trip was to the Dorasan Train Station which has the tag line  "not the last station from the South, but the first station towards to North".  The amazing this is that if the North and South become 'fwwwieennnddssss' (sorry, couldn't resist it) again, then it will be possible for me to get a train all the way from Seoul back home to London!!  Not that I would, but just saying.  Cool, huh?   One fun thing about this station is that you can purchase tickets to go up on the platform, and because it is extremely rare for a train to pass through, you can even play on the tracks!!

Tracks to Pyeongyang...

Map if the North and South become 'Korea friendsss'

Just chillin on the tracks

Hmmm, which way to go!?

Passport stamps form Dorasan

Tteokbokki Town

Sindangdong Tteokbokki Town 

신당동 떡볶이 타운

I recently went here and felt that I just had to write about it!  This post is to inform people who are in Korea about this delicious area of Seoul, and to inform those outside of Korea about the legendary food that is Tteokbokki.

Tteokbokki  떡볶이

Tteokbokki (pronounced 'tockbocky') is a traditional Korean street food that is also served pretty much anywhere.  The street food version usually tastes better than the restaurants, but not in the case of Ttokbokki town (which I will get to later).  It consists of cylindrical pressed rice cakes which are cooked in a spicy and garlicky sauce alongside 'odeng' (fish cake), egg, onions and various vegetables.  

Now, I love spicy food, but I was so shocked to see kids as young as 5 years old tucking in to this stuff when I first arrived.  I was sitting there blowing my nose every 2 mins, whilst these kids were like 'mmm yummmmyy morrreee!'   Kids back home need to learn a lesson or two!  


Tteokbokki Town


After experiencing some major Tteokbokki cravings, I decided that I needed to give this place a visit.  It is located in Sindang-dong, and is basically a whole street (not town) filled with spicy, yummy tteokbokki restaurants. 

The entrance to 'Tteokbokki Town'

The most popular restaurant is apparently called 'Halmeoni Tteokbokki' which has a big picture of a granny over entrance ('halmeoni' means 'grandma' in Korean) - it opened in 1953 so it's been open a while!!  It seemed more of an older clientele  restaurant though, so we opted for the bigger, more 'hip' (lol, granny joke i'm so funny) restaurant opposite called 'I Love Sindang-dong'.    It was huge!  Apparently back in 2002, seven tteokbokki restaurants merged to form this big mumma of a restaurant.  It is mega-popular with young people and also celebrities (they all had their photos/autographs up by the entrance to entice people in).


Their menu was really varied.  The description of 'tear rice cake' made me laugh; "require of sweat and tears" - I guess it's spicy!??  And when they say spicy  in Korea, hell do they mean it!    

We opted for the cheese filled tteokbokki (and a beer) and it was......amazing!!!  
They brought over the pan and it was filled with SO MUCH FOOD!  There was tteokbokki (obviously) - both regular and mozzarella cheese-filled.  There was a whole pack of ramen, eggs, mandu (dumplings), glass noodles, vegetables etcetc.  

The pan of uncooked food

I love these kinds of restaurants where you cook your own food.  In England we are too health and safety conscious to let people have their own gas cookers on their tables in restaurants, so it makes a really exciting adventure to be able to do it here!!  Not sure letting me in control of a gas hob is wise though, especially after a beer....


Anyway, we got cooking and after about 5 mins of stirring and bubbling we started to eat...

Omnomnomnommmmmm

And to top it off, they even had a DJ and some musical entertainment!  

How to get there:


Leave exit 8 and turn left shortly after the exit.  Keep walking straight and then you will see the above street sign <3

My summery/typhoony holiday to Boracay

I remember getting really excited last year about the prospect of going to Boracay, but because of the pay situation, or rather lack of pay situation, I was gutted that we could not go.   I wanted to go sooo badly, and jumped at the chance to go this year.

One downside of working in a Hagwon in Korea is that you get set holidays; 5 days in the summer and 5 days in the winter.  Unfortunately, my summer break fell right in the middle of the typhoon season for the Philippines (yay...).  I knew this when booking it up, but I'm a bit of a risk-taker so thought 'what the hell, i'm sure a little rain once a day for 10mins won't be a problem.'  How wrong I was, haha.

The Journey


Our flight was at 7.30a.m so had no option but to leave for airport after work on Friday and camp out.  You many remember me mentioning 'jimjilbangs' in a previous post (24hour sauna/bathing houses) and how I've never had the privilege of sleeping in one.  Well, now I have.  I suppose it beats sleeping on the airport floor, but it really wasn't something I'd do again in a hurry.  There is a Jimjilbang located in Incehon airport.  You pay about 20k (£12) to get in and then you get some shorts/t-shirt to change in to.  There are baths if you want, but I think most people just retreat to the 'sleeping' room to get rest before their flight.  In the women's changing room, there are a couple of private rooms with a bed in them.  I say bed, but I mean a hard uncomfortable surface.   I half got to sleep on one of these, when I awoke to a rather angry ajumma banging on the door telling me to leave.  Apparently you have to pay extra for these 'luxury private rooms' so I was sent to the room with snoring men.  At least I got a sleeping mat.  I don't think I got any sleep that night.  Not only were there snoring men, but they also had the air-con on really high - it was freezing!  Still, I got a nice hot shower before my flight and it is better than sleeping in the main airport.  Can you imagine one of these at Heathrow!?

The journey to Boracay Island was kind of long-winded.  We had to get a flight to Manila, then a connecting flight to Caticlan, then a boat to Boracay as it is too small to have an airport.  To get around in Boracay, you ride these 'tricycle' things which are basically a side seat attached to a motorbike.  They were pretty scary!!

Here is a video of our journey on a tricycle:

We took this tricycle to our hotel, and after James half-fell out of it, the driver stopped and decided it was too steep to continue (really, you think!?).  So we walked 5 mins down this hill and in that space found a tiny rabies infested kitten, a few stray goats and some cockerels.   I genuinely thought the kitten was a small black plastic bag until it meowed and then walked towards me.  It looked a bit like a zombie kitten, all it's fur was hanging off.  I don't really know how to act around rabies-infested animals so I kind of freaked out at the poor thing.  It must have only been a couple of days old :(  We saw another lost kitten another day so I went to the shop to buy it milk, but the milk just got absorbed by the sand.  Poor ickle thing.

The Arrival
Anyway, we arrived in the early evening so had a stroll down the main strip.  The weather was amazing, the sand was whiter than white and the sea was a beautiful turquoise colour.  We ate food, then sat at this beach bar during Happy Hour (which ironically was 2pm-8pm - that's what I'm talkin about!).  The sky was pretty cloudy, but we got to see a sort-of-sunset whilst sitting under a palm tree and drinking a beer on a tropical island.  Perfection.

The bar was called 'NigiNigiNooNoo'sNooNooNoo'

The First Day

The next day we got up bright and early to go Island Hopping.  The sun was shining and without a doubt, these islands were the most gorgeous places I've ever seen.  One plus about it being off-season was that the islands were pretty deserted.  I've never seen such white sand in my life!

First we went snorkelling.  I did this before in Turkey, so wasn't really expecting to see much.  How wrong was I!?  It was amazing - tropical nemo fish everywhere, colourful corals etcetc.  Such a great experience.

I found Nemo :)

Next we went to a private Island called 'Crystal Cove Island.'  We had fun here exploring caves and looking at the awesome ocean views.

One of the caves

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at 'Puka Shell Beach' my camera battery had died. The boat journey back was pretty scary, the winds were picking up rapidly, and we were quite glad to get home.

Ladyboys <3

That night we took a stroll down the beach and found LADYBOYS!!  They were dancing with fire.  We  I wanted to watch them, so we got BOGOF cocktails.  What we didn't realise when I ordered my Strawberry Margarita, was the the cocktails had to be the same.  Sorry, James!!   So we were sitting there with our pink margaritas watching the show, and it was fabulous.   Here is a video clip of some of them dancing to 'It's Raining Men':

Typhoon 'Nock-Ten'

The rain came down later this night, and it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  The winds were so strong that they were coming in our apartment through the vents in the bathrooms and blowing us during the night.  During the day, if you went outside for just 30seconds in this rain, you would be drenched.  The rain even found it's way in through our windows and made a huge puddle on the floor.  Unfortunately, an island like Boracay shuts down completely when this stuff happens.  The boat trips get cancelled, and the beach is far too windy to sit on.  We did actually go in the sea for a bit during the typhoon, but it was so rough.  Just going in up to your knees gets you pulled under.  So for the next 4 days, we had to just sit around in the bars eating and drinking!  It REALLY sucked, but the holiday was worth it just for that first day.

'White Beach' not looking so white

No lifeguard today then!?

Flooded Streets

Flooded Restaurant

Something Disgusting

One thing I did learn, was that the Philippino's eat something even worse than what you would find in Korea. A friend I met out there tried one and could only describe it as a 'duck abortion'  (Bleughhhh, excuse me whilst I go to puke)...  It is a speciality called a 'Balut' which is bascially a fertilised duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell.  Here is a picture which I found on Wikipedia for if you actually want to see what it looks like: Balut Picture

Something Funny


We found a bar called 'The Hobbit House' which only employed midgets little people.  I found this rather hilarious, albeit a bit prejudice.   Here is a picture of the 'hobbits':

Hobbits holding menus.

So if you are reading this and are considering going to the Philippines, then I would strongly advise that you do not go during typhoon season.  We were lucky that we got one great day, but it's a big ole' risk.  Any other time of the year, you will have the most amazing time, like ever.

CURRY UDONG SOUP

Anyone reading this who knows me will probably know that I love to cook.  I'm not the most organised cook in the world and I pretty much never ever measure or record what I put in to my creations.  I just add things and see how it goes.  But one problem with this method is that I can never remake something the same second time around.  Anyway, I bought a rice-cooker the other day so will be doing a lot more cooking (well, cooking that involves rice...) and it has inspired me to start a food-blog-sort-of-thing.  I've been a bit shit  lazy with the blog updates so this will give me more to write about.

SO....

I am going to use this blog to:

 a) Add recipes that I would like to remember 

and  b) Add interesting Korean foods that people at home may find strange/amazing/disgusting etcetc

and c) Give you lucky, lucky people an insight in to my kitchen (or lack of with my one-hob stove).

CURRY UDONG SOUP  카레우동

The first meal I would like to share with you is Curry Udong soup.  You might be reading this thinking 'you spelt udon wrong, it doesn't have a 'g' at the end.  You idiot.'  Even if I Google 'Udong,' it kindly replies: "Did you mean: udon".  Err, no actually Google.. Udong is the Korean, as opposed to Japanese (Romanised) spelling of what is essentially the same thing (a thick wheaty, chewy noodle).

Anyway, I'm blabbing about nothing.  Let's get back to the recipe.  This is for two people:

Ingredients 

2x packets of udong noodles

1x medium onion

2.5x tbsp curry powder

2x cups of water with some dashi stock in it

1/3 cup of mirin / mirim (rice wine)
Corn starch to thicken

Splash of soy sauce (reduced salt if poss)

a sprinkle of sesame seeds

and a sprinkle of black pepper (optional, but tastes gooood).

1. Boil the udong for 1-2mins then rinse and set aside.
2. Finely chop the onion and then fry for a few mins until soft.
3. Add the curry powder and mix in with the onion.  (A good idea at this point would be to mix a tiny bit of water in with the powder to make a paste to avoid lumps before adding to the pan).

Ottogi curry powder

4. Add 2 cups of dashi stock (2 cups of water and about 2 tsps of dashi stock or vegetable stock)

Dashi - beef stock

5.  Add 1/3 cup of mirin (rice wine)

6.  Add a splash of soy sauce.

7.  Bring to the boil and add the necessary amount of cornstarch to thicken the soup up a bit.

8.  Add the udong noodles to the soup and cook for a couple more minutes.

9.  Serve up and sprinkle on a few sesame seeds to make it look good ;)

Curry Udong Soup