Bibimbap literally translates to “mixed rice” in English. It consists of a bowl of steamed rice topped with various seasoned or pickled vegetables, often meat, a fried egg, and a sauce made with spicy red pepper paste “gochujang”. The vegetables used in bibimbap can vary, but common options include carrots, spinach, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and zucchini. Continue reading Bibimbap with Ssamjang sauce
I love smoothies. Not only are they so colorful and pretty but they also taught me the joy of eating and making breakfast. I was not a breakfast person for a very long time. When I was a teenager in Korea, I wanted to sleep more rather than to have breakfast, and the fact that I had to spend the entire day from 7:30am until 10pm at school and a cram school Continue reading My favorite smoothie bowls
Anyone love to eat pasta for breakfast? I certainly do; probably one of my favorite things to eat in the morning. Well, I could eat noodles and pasta any time of the day to be honest, but there’s just something special about eating pasta with an egg as a breakfast. My whole wheat pasta with kale and an olive oil basted fried egg is delicious and healthy. And it only takes 15 minutes to prepare; who wants to spend more time cooking in the morning anyways, right? This is also a great way to use up leftover kale or any green vegetables in your fridge.
Before I begin, I wanted to tell you that this post isn’t about the food I made at home or tried in my travels. Even though the hero of this post is basil; one of my favorite ingredients of all time, this is going to be my first post about another passion of mine “visual art”. I know I have been absent here for a while; aside from living like a nomad moving and traveling around, I have been busy creating printable wall arts that are inspired by beautiful ingredients from nature and my own recipes. And it was about time that I shared them with you on this site. It doesn’t mean that food related contents won’t be here any more, my cooking and eating journey will continue as it always has.
I recently came across a quote “Happiness is, the smell of basil” Continue reading It’s all about basil
Happy New Year! 2021 has been an incredibly hectic year for me. A main reason I have not been active here since April. In May, my husband and I left our beloved Hong Kong, our second home that we had lived for over a decade. I’d always moved a lot, and never lived anywhere longer than 4 years until I moved to our 58th floor flat in the west side of Hong Kong Island. Our flat with a stunning view of Hong Kong’s skyline and harbour was my 23rd home, and I had lived there for over 11 and a half years. Leaving Hong Kong was as hard as I expected but leaving my close friends was much harder than I imagined.
I can’t believe it’s April 2021, and Easter holiday yet we’re still dealing with the pandemic. It all just feels like a bad dream sometimes. Luckily where I live has been one of the safest countries from the virus in the world, but we’re also one of the countries that had to be in high alert the longest (probably one of the reasons we have been quite safe). I remember talking to my mother in law about the new pneumonia we heard about on the way to the San Diego airport for a flight back to Hong Kong. That was January 2020 and also the last time I traveled. I’m dying to go on any type of holiday (aren’t we all?), but sunny tropical beach destination is where I have been missing the most lately. Continue reading Almost virgin dairy free Piña colada bread
Happy Lunar New Year everyone! I’m still having a hard time believing that it’s 2021. I’m sure you’ll agree with me, last year just feels like a bad dream that I’m struggling to wake up from. I still haven’t seen my family in Korea, it’s been a year and four months since I last saw them. And spending yet another big holiday missing my family was the last thing I wanted. Maybe that’s why I tried to keep myself even busier in the kitchen preparing for the New Year holiday this year, cooking up a storm to feed just two people; me and my husband, haha (we just finished leftovers). I am sharing recipes for quintessential Korean celebration dishes “Japchae” – Sweet potato noodles and vegetables, “Aehobak Jeon” – Korean Zucchini fritters and a simple spring onion salad today. I have also made Kimchi pancakes for the New Year, click here for recipe.
Continue reading Korean New Year foods – “Japchae” sweet potato noodles and “Jeon” fritters
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. My husband and I would normally be in California with his family for Christmas, but like most people around the world we had to stay home and quietly celebrate this year. But still, we were grateful for the fact that our loved ones are safe and sound. We switched our usual roll for this Christmas; he made savory main course and I made dessert. For the first time, I decorated my baked goods with a piping/pastry bag. I was so clueless that I didn’t even know how to fix the tip and coupler into a bag (I don’t know where I got the idea of doing Christmas cookies in the first place). But all and all they came out alright. And most importantly, I had so much fun doing it 🙂 Continue reading My very first Christmas ginger cookies
If I was asked to pick one dish that will make anyone fall in love with Korean food, I’d without a doubt pick “Galbijjim”, soy sauce braised beef short ribs. This melt-in-your mouth beef dish is sweet, savory, luxurious, festive and comforting all at the same time and often eaten at Chuseok (Mid Autumn festival) and Lunar New Year in Korea. When my husband met my family for the first time before we got married, my mom made this dish, which was his favorite Korean food at that time. My mom is a great cook and she also got a little help from her auntie who was running a successful Korean restaurant back then. Needless to say mom’s galbijjim was out of this world. I don’t know whether my husband was too nervous or too stuffed or both but he ended up spending quite a long time in the bathroom after dinner… Continue reading “Galbijjim” Braised Korean beef short ribs
Can you believe it is October? It is so easy to lose the track of time this year. I know fall has started in many parts of the world, but where I live late summer weather, which is a lot more bearable than early and mid summer weather, is here to stay for another few weeks. I promised to post more cold noodle recipes during this summer but I only seem to have shared them on my Instagram. (By the way, please check out my Instagram if you haven’t yet). So I decided to share 3 recipes today. They are all quick and easy, healthy and light with a little kick from spicy sauce. They are perfect for summer but good for any time of the year. Continue reading Vegan and vegetarian noodles, nooddles, noodles
