Archive for the 'Asian' Category
One of my favorite beverages is the citron tea, or yujacha, 유자차. It’s different from regular teas because it is not brewed from dried leaves but from a marmalade like syrup. The citron is a very unique fruit because it is rarely, if ever, eaten peeled. The pulp is dry and little in proportion to the amount of pith and peel. However, it is a very fragrant and nutritional fruit. Many Koreans drink it during the winter months because it is an excellent source of Vitamin C and is also believed to be a natural source of antibiotics. When a cold is caught, instead of orange juice, Koreans give the advise to drink some citron tea.
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November 20 2009 | Asian and Beverage and Fruit | 4 Comments »
The kimchi is done! It took two full days to complete, but if I were to do it myself, I think it would’ve taken weeks. Experiencing the whole process really made me appreciate kimchi in a whole new way. It’s such a standard presence on my dinner table, that I don’t think I’ve ever really given it a second thought. But that’s exactly why kimchi is so important, because I eat it everyday. To know where all the ingredients came from and how much preparation went into it makes you enjoy it more. I found it really impressive how authentic and culturally intact each part was. All the ingredients were local, seasonal, and all the methods used could have been seen 100, 300, 500 years ago. Well, maybe except the mandolin we used to cut the radishes. That probably cut three days worth of work to two.
In theory, this batch is supposed to last one year, so you can imagine how much of everything we needed (we’re talking restaurant kitchen proportions). No recipe was used and I lost count after 50 cabbage heads, that I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.
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November 12 2009 | Asian and Korean and Thoughts | 15 Comments »
It’s kimchi season right now, which means many Korean families will be making enormous amounts of that famous spicy fermented cabbage. We’re in the middle of making our own right now, and I must say, it is quite a fete. I can see why many families forego the whole ordeal and just buy some at the supermarket. It’s not only a long process, but we’re dealing with pounds and pounds of cabbage, more than you would believe you’d eat in a lifetime. However, nothing beats food made at home. There’s that love and trust that is absent elsewhere.
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November 11 2009 | Asian and Korean and Recipe and Thoughts and Vegetarian | 6 Comments »
Mushrooms are one of my favorite ingredients. They’re easy to work with and perfectly accompany almost any savory dish out there. They’re amazing on pizza, in pasta, soup, stews, pies, casseroles, you name it! It enhances a dish by supporting and deepening the main flavors. Mushrooms, however, are always given that role, the sidekick. They rarely take center stage and shine on their own. That’s why I love this recipe because it’s all about the mushrooms.
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November 07 2009 | Asian and Korean and Recipe and Side Dish and Thoughts and Vegetarian | 5 Comments »
My brother is a picky eater. He knows what he likes and everything else he dislikes. When he and my mom visited me while I was studying abroad in Spain, we spent a lot of time looking for restaurants with dishes we thought he would like. In the end, he ended up eating a lot of hot dogs while we enjoyed amazing tapas with Spanish beer and wine. One of the most hilarious moments during the trip happened when the señora I was living with cooked an elaborate meal for us. He couldn’t get himself to eat all the Spanish dishes she had made, but he couldn’t bear hurting her feelings by not touching any of the food. So he secretly passed morsels of food under the table to my mom, who in turn had to eat two portions of everything. Even thinking about it now makes me laugh out loud. My poor mom left a fabulous meal with indigestion.
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November 06 2009 | Asian and Beef and Recipe and Thoughts | 6 Comments »
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