Flavours collect like memories. They are powerful conjurors that dance on the lips and the tip of the tongue. I am an amalgamation of everything I have ever eaten. A stew. A mélange. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Korean food
Not Your Eomma’s Kalguksu: an ode to eating on the side streets
Tunxi, China
It turns out that I am a back alley kind of girl. This was something that I didn’t know about myself until we moved to Korea and began to travel through Southeast Asia.
Give me food stalls, stacks of dumplings steaming on street corners, wobbly stools, plastic chairs pressed up against cement walls, narrow passages crammed with tables. Let me sit elbow to elbow on a wooden bench in a bustling market noisy with sizzling, slurping, hissing, lip-smacking goodness. Paper sacks and plastic bags. Crunchy, greasy, savoury, sweet, bean paste, sesame, skewers, buns, pancakes and pockets. I am happiest at Continue reading
Gwangjang Market
We entered the market and walked straight into a tide of kinetic energy.
A steady buzz,
A jostling of elbows.
Nimble fingers press dough into perfectly shaped mandu. Continue reading
Bukchon Son Mandu
There are a few iconic dishes that one shouldn’t leave Korea without trying…one of them is the beloved dumpling called mandu. Steamed mandu (찐만두), fried mandu(튀김만두), meat mandu (고기 만두), kimchi mandu (김치만두), wang mandu(왕만두), or jjinppang mandu (찐빵만두)… Continue reading
Birthplace of Budaejjigae
Food always has a story to tell. Like magic, certain smells, flavours, and meals have the power to transport us through time and space. Whether it is a fleeting snapshot from personal memory that is evoked; or a larger, more encompassing tale that describes a culture, or colours a country and its people. Food is transcendent. Continue reading
One Fish, Two Fish, Ice Fish…Nice Fish!
Winter isn’t going away anytime soon, so why not try to embrace it? This is the question that I have been asking myself repeatedly as of late. In general I am a huge fan of winter, and all of the stuff associated with it: ice skating, snowshoeing, skiing, snowmen, (hot chocolate with lotsa marshmallows)…But winter in South Korea thus far has been Continue reading
Hot and Spicy: jjimjilbangs and jjukkumi
After an Indian summer that seemed to stretch on forever, winter has come to settle in South Korea. There is no disputing this as I gaze from the window of our house, high up on a hill overlooking the northern edge of Dongducheon. Trees, naked and skeletal against the stark blue sky decorate the tops of nearby hills and columns of smoke rise from the valley below. There is wind. There is ice. There is winter. Continue reading