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
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
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
If you ever wanted to visit Hong Kong in the future, you should know that mid October through December and late March through early May are the most beautiful months to be here. There are rainy days in spring of course, (we have subtropical climate after all) but we also have many days of beautiful sun and breeze with relatively low humidity. Well, our spring has just passed by us without most of us even noticing it. Now it is full on summer with scorching heat, rains and unbearable humidity all the way through October, urgh….But at least now I have an excuse to make my favorite noodle salads all the time. Not that I need an excuse, but I really do make cold noodle salad a lot in summer ;-). Continue reading Green tea noodle salad with spicy Asian dressing
I miss good authentic Korean food all year round, but there are a few cold dishes that I miss even more when summer hits Hong Kong hard. One of those dishes that I’ve been missing a lot lately is “Jaengban Guksu”, literally means noodles on a plate. It is cold soba served with lots of fresh vegetables and spicy Gochujang (fermented red chili paste) sauce and boiled eggs. Although called noodles, I think what it really highlights is the crunch vegetables. This dish is sweet, spicy, refreshing and quite healthy. The recipe doesn’t require any specific kind of vegetables, you can use whatever you like as long as they bring crunchiness to the dish. Cucumber and carrots are commonly used in Korea, and sometimes we add fruits like Asian pear. Apple will work great as well. I personally love adding as many rainbow color veggies as I can, not only for nutrition purpose but for making things more fun and pretty as well.
Continue reading Soba noodle salad with Korean chili paste “gochujang” sauce
Growing up in South Korea, basil was not an ingredient that I was ever familiar with. I ate dishes with basil at Italian restaurants, but I had never seen the fresh basil until I went to study in London. First thing about fresh basil that hit me before anything else was its fragrance. The unique and intoxicating aroma of basil blew my mind instantly. Like Marcella Hazan wrote in her book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, “The less basil cooks, the better it is, and that its fragrance is never more seductive than when it is raw.” …What a beautiful thing to say. Continue reading Basil, mint and Pecorino Romano pesto
If you are a vegetarian or a lover of vegetarian cookery you must have heard of Yotam Ottolenghi. Earlier this year I bought one of his cookbooks called “Plenty More”, follow-up to his bestseller “Plenty”, and I love love love it. Not only this book has a plenty of fresh, healthy and delicious recipes, it is also full of visually stunning dishes that immediately say “Eat me!” or more like “Make me, then eat me!” :-). Continue reading Fig Salad inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi
One of my absolute favorite things to cook for the last few months has been roasted bell peppers. My mom always makes me eat them fresh and raw back home, (which isn’t too bad) but roasting really does bring out all the natural sweet juice and flavor from them, and I think it is the best way to eat bell peppers. I never use green peppers though, because these unripe peppers are not as sweet as other ones even when they are cooked. Continue reading Spiced lentil stuffed peppers with halloumi and honey drizzle
I have been wanting to post this recipe for quite a while. The reason it took me so long is mainly because of this dish being almost impossible to plate pretty for the pictures and the summer here has been hot as hell (too hot for belly warming stew…!) Weather has finally become so much cooler now, but I have to say this was definitely the most challenging food to photograph. Continue reading Hearty belly warming Korean stew – Deulkkae Sundubu
I came back from Bali earlier this month. And as expected, it was a paradise and more. Actually Bali had been off our holiday destinations list for a while. It was because of an unfortunate incident my husband had, which led to him getting stranded at the airport (old one, not the shiny new one they have now) and having to sleep in a room with a rat many years ago. Understandably he was quite traumatized by what happened and I almost gave up on going to Bali ever. So it was a real surprise that he suggested Bali as our late summer holiday destination. And I am so happy that he’s recovered from the mortifying experience, because I love-love-loved Bali. Continue reading Balinese “Gado Gado” inspired vegetables in peanut sauce
