kangmi: learning korean

오징어

오징어 먹었어요.

Not on purpose, of course (for those of you who know me).  But it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

In my area, there are three restaurants that serve Korean food. One of them advertises itself as serving Korean food. The food isn’t terrible, but it’s not Korean, either.

Another is a Japanese restaurant owned by Koreans who list a few Korean items on their menu. It’s all right, but I missed the egg in my 순두부 last week.

Today I decided it was high time to visit the Seoul Garden Restaurant ("with a licensed Korean chef"), a restaurant that opened this past summer. It serves both Korean and Japanese food. The location wasn’t promising, as it’s located in what may have been the restaurant section of a rundown motel. The menu, however, was. I had just been telling 인선 that I hadn’t eaten 돌솥 비빔밥 since I left Korea, and there it was.

Like most Korean food I’ve eaten here, it wasn’t quite what I expected. It was plain rice served with soup, a whole fish, and an abundance of 반잔. The deep-fried noodles were unfamiliar, but so was the fish staring at me, and I was eating that. Well, I was eating the deep-fried noodles, too, which were chewier than they looked, but they were good. It wasn’t until I sensed a slight fishy taste that a light began to glow, and I asked my waiter what it was. “Dried squid,” he said. “오징어?” I asked. “Yes,” he said.

I’m not a vegetarian, but there are many forms of meat that I don’t eat. These days it’s more out of force of long-standing habit and a well-developed aversion to those forms. However, in certain circumstances, I would eat almost anything put in front of me without a peep. 오징어 joins calamari and prosciutto as meats that I would not normally eat, but which I no longer fear (truthfully, prosciutto should never be feared, but embraced).

Posted by kangmi on November 12, 2004 at 7:58 PM6 comments

초밥

A couple of my husband’s relatives are moving away, so this last weekend all the local relatives gathered for a Saturday potluck lunch.

When it comes to cooking, I’m all for making simple food. However, I’m also capable of making cooking more complicated than necessary. I had in mind to make a salad that’s been well-liked in the past, but I needed to pick up a lot of ingredients at the supermarket. So over a Friday dinner of sizzling rice soup Mr. 강미 and I settled on 초밥.

I don’t ever remember eating 초밥 when I lived in Korea, but when I was introduced to it by a Japanese friend, it seemed familiar, so maybe I did. I’ve made it periodically since. It seemed a good choice for the expected audience. They aren’t the kind of people to be put off by out-of-the-norm food, and I had a sneaking suspicion that our host would appreciate the gesture.

I invited 인선 to join us for lunch. When we arrived, I introduced her to our host, who promptly greeted her in Korean and then switched to Japanese (she’d told me that she spoke Japanese, but not very well). Our host (a distant cousin) grew up in Japan and has apparently not lost his language ability. (He later told me that her Japanese was quite good, and only then did she admit to having studied it intensively for a year. When I’m not feeling envious, I’m reminding myself that eventually, I, too, will be able to speak Korean).

Although I don’t speak authoritatively, I’ve been told that 초밥 is not Korean, but Japanese. That was confirmed on a personal level when I caught our host sneaking one before lunch (I should admit that more than a few of those tofu shells tore when I was making them, and one can’t serve torn 초밥, can one?)

You know those dishes in which deviled eggs are served? They make excellent serving platters for 초밥.

I should also mention that when I stopped at the Oriental Supermarket (that’s its name) to pick up the 초밥 shells, I discovered that there is now 아몬드 빼빼로. Mmmm...nice way to start the holiday weekend. Like Lay’s potato chips, you can’t eat just one.

Posted by kangmi on June 1, 2004 at 2:23 PM0 comments

Soojungkwa :: 수정과

Lesson 207 of 한국어로 말합시다 reminded me of my love of 수정과.

In order to serve it at our wedding reception, I bought up all the dried 감들 at the local Asian market and then ordered some more. I haven’t made it since, but I think I’ll give it a go soon.

Try this or this recipe if you’d like to make it at home. I mean to be a 수정과 snob when I say that whatever you make at home will taste superior to whatever you buy in a can from the store.

Posted by kangmi on April 21, 2004 at 4:22 PM6 comments