Since the summer began and I've been getting up later and later, I've found the typical Korean breakfast of kimchee jigae to be more satisfying that my usual fare of bagel/cream cheese or cereal. This dish was made via Maangchi's website recipe, and it turned out wonderfully. If you stumble onto her site, please note that tuna or spam can be used to substitute out for the raw and uncured/unseasoned pork bellies.

As the weather becomes more and more unbearably hot (it's already reached the 100's down here), my thoughts linger on that most refreshing of Korean meals: naeng-myun. For those who aren't familiar with it, naeng-myun consists of chewy buckwheat or arrowroot noodles with a variety of optional veggies...usually involving pear and cucmber slices, radish kimchee, and some protein in the form of beef, egg, or both. The best part about it is its cool broth, which is often frozen first into a highly seasoned slushy. While the homemade version of naeng-myun is a rather time consuming affair, most fans of this dish agree that the next best thing to ordering it in a restaurant is to get the refridgerated version from your local Asian grocer. They sell the dried variety too, but the flavor isn't as authentic. The refridgerated variety is also more convenient. I store mine in the freezer when I bring it home...thereby increasing its shelf life...and when it's ready to make the broth needs only to be partially defrosted while you briefly boil the noodles for about ten seconds, literally.



Here you have mul naeng-myun and my personal favorite. Notice the ice slush floating around. I added julienned cucumbers (make sure you use low-water cukes such as hothouse, Asian, or pickling for the extra crunch), thin slices of boiled beef brisket, boiled egg, a little touch of vinegar, and seasame seeds. I'm not fond of pear in my naeng-myun though others love the contrast of flavors it brings.



This one is called bibim naeng-myun...also from Pulmuone. I actually prefer another brand's bibin myun to this one, but the grocer was out of my usual choice. This one contains some of the frozen broth as well as the hot-spicy sauce which differentiates bibim naeng-myun from the previous incarnation. My usual brand has more red sauce and no liquid. While not my favorite, it's still delicious. Both meals are served in the traditional Korean stainless steel bowl used for noodles.

It's been so long since I've posted here, but I can only blame work. Getting all the grades finalized and the classroom cleaned up for the summer school bunch is hard work. So much so that I had been subsiding on Lean Pockets and takeout for the last couple of weeks. Then the summer started, and who wants to be stuck in the house cooking over a hot stove in 100 degree weather? But at last we hit a humidity low point, I had eaten through all the food in the house, and Atlanta beckoned. The Farmer's Market off Buford is going through a remodel, but I managed to get some staples. Also, because of the wonderous Mangaachi and her delicious recipes, I decided to try my hand at making some homeade banchan instead of just buying it as usual. Tonight I threw together some pickled raw crab and cucumber kimchee. The kimchee recipe I got off Mangaachi's cooking website, but the crab I made from a recipe in a cookbook called Eating Korean.


It turned out beautifully, but I did make some changes to the original ingredients which called for waaaay too much sesame seeds and sesame oil IMO. If I use this recipe again, I'm planning on cutting back on the sugar content as well...it was a bit too sweet for my taste.


The cucumber kimchee was on-the-spot delicious and tasted as good as any I've ever bought.

This is actually a pic from a couple of weeks ago, but my camera battery died on me, and I've just been too lazy to charge it up until today. Pathetic, I know. Anyhow, I finally dragged my friend, Emily, to Atlanta with me and treated her to some fairly good Korean barbeque. Not the best I've ever had (quite limited in the selection of banchan/side dishes), but the meat had a good flavor and was extremely tender. I have a Zojirushi tabletop grill at the house, but you just can't beat the smokey char resulting from those charcoal braziers.

This pretty usagi furoshiki depicts a popular Japanese folktale about a rabbit in the moon (to explain what they see as a rabbit shadow on the moon's surface). The rabbit in the story makes a huge act of self-sacrifice and is rewarded by having his image placed on the moon so humans can remember his selfless act forever. My rabbit has a less heroic role: to keep the pieces of my Totoro bento box together.




As seen here, I've filled the bottom container with rice and the middle container with ingredients for Korean bibimbap: seasoned fern braken, pepper leaves, bean sprouts, egg strips, radish kimchee, and spinach. It turned out rather well except that in the future I will be sure and cut the bibim ingredients into smaller pieces as they didn't disperse as evenly as I'd like in the small Totoro bowl. An stainless steel usagi spoon and chopstick set (not pictured) finished out the piece rather nicely.

Today's bento was a hit! A delicious szechuan stirfy I made from a Cook Do ready-made seasoning mix. All I did was add shrimp and some onions. Of course, it helped that I know a local seafood place that has some lovely wild-caught jumbo shrimp that are just divine if a little costly.



All packed away snugly in my new bento bag...which I believe is the cutest one I've ever purchased and a definite new favorite. It fits the square usagi bento box perfectly and the little applique rabbit design is too cute for words.



And since today seemed to be a celebration of new additions...I thought I'd show off my latest set of hashi. Chopsticks to go. Aren't they just darling? I've alway had the worst problems with finding chopsticks small enough to fit into my bento bags without being too small to use. While the occasional bag will allow for a case or two to be tucked away smartly, most look out of place sticking out at odd angles from an otherwise nicely coiffed bag, so these are just ideal. When not in use, they neatly nest within each other until they are little more than the size of a small pen. When assembled, they fill out to full size and are sturdy with hardwood tips for those who don't like the slippery grip of metal chopsticks.

Good for what ails you. I lived on this while I was sick. Granted, it does have more in it than jalapenoes: shrimp, cilantro, garlic, onions, red chili pepper flakes...but the name comes from the cup to a cup and a half of the lovely green peppers that add a sweet and spicy kick that will clear (or burn) out any clogged sinuses in the vicinity.

Sinigang...aka manna from Heaven. I swear I live off this stuff, or at least I did this past weekend when I was battling a cold. This and my mom's recipe for jalapeno soup. Fiery stuff that. I make the sinigang in HUGE batches because it freezes so well and then just pop a container out whenever I feel a craving come on. Today's lunch was super easy and super fast. Sinigang with pork, bok choy, green beans, onion, and chayote squash (recipe courtesy of my new step-mom); strawberries with sugar; mini toasts with tiny Laughing Cow cheese cubes; and rice. I ended up sharing the strawberries since I packed so many, but lunch was very satisfying and hearty. I think you'll be seeing more of Mr. Bento here lately. Ever since joining the Flickr Mr. Bento Pool, I've learned how to utilize his talents more effectively to encompass a wider variety of foods.

Last night I made two of my favorite dishes...spicy Korean chicken and stirfried bellflower root. It was the first time I had made the latter, but I thought it turned out really well. Notice my bento "bag." It's the first time I've ever used a furoshiki. It's a little rushed (I got a lot better after I tied and retied a couple of times at work) but I was again satisfied by the outcome. Strawberries round out my little box for today. Not only was the meal delicious, but it was very satisfying not to have to wait behind a long line of co-workers all trying to heat up their Lean Cuisines at the same time...something that can be frustrating when all you have is 20 min. to eat.

I love this chicken recipe. Spicy, savory, with just a touch of sweetness...ah so good! I plan on reserving some of the stew to utilize later in some gyoza...a la Biggie (dedicated webmistress and ultimate Bento queen from Lunch in a Box). I doubt mine will come out as beautiful as hers, but I'm willing to give it a try.

My first ever sushi roll using a bamboo rolling mat. I made two, but the first one was a bit loose. I've found that starting it off by hand, and then bringing in the roller to push the "log" up after I've made at least one rotation creates a tighter roll. This one was fairly simple as I didn't want a lot of ingredients slipping and sliding around as I practiced. Just a plain strip of avocado. Packed with a dab of wasabi, a soy fishy, and flower shaped cucumber wedges. *Not pictured

It's been forever since I posted, but I've been abstaining from pure vanity. My mornings have been so hectic recently that most of my lunches are a last minute grab fest and ugly to boot. This was the first time in over a month that I've been able to spend more than 5 minutes slamming something together. The different colored onigiri are the result of the packet you see in the back. It's a prepackaged onigiri mix I bought from the Bento Obento shop. The green is seaweed and tastes pretty much like regular furikake, the yellow is sweet egg with black sesame seeds (my favorite of the three), and the purple one is umeboshi...which to me tasted like rice with cherry flavored kool-aid powder sprinkled in. Not a fan of that one, but it looks pretty. Dessert was kiwi stars with orange slice "moons" and a coordinating crystal pick.

Another wonderful recipe gleaned from Maangchi's site. Korean spicy stirfry squid. Also pictured are pina cola jello with pineapple chunks, cucumber spears with Korean miso dipping sauce, and lots of rice. I tell you, it's hard for me to fill up Mr. Bento...he's so roomy. Tonight I was able to do it but doubt I will finish even half of this. And to think, when I first got him, I thought he was too small.

I cooked up a big batch and froze the excess. The squid was of a poorer quality than I would have liked (I had bought them cleaned and frozen from Atlanta a couple weeks ago) but the seasoning was perfect. As you can see, my wok floweth over.

Just wanted to share images of some of the fruits I picked up in Atlanta. The first one is dragonfruit...which despite its exotic looks and name...tasted like a watered down starfruit: very, very bland. Hardly any taste at all.

The spikey football you see is a durian. Yes, the king of fruits in all its stinky glory. What does it taste like? Like the sweetest custard with a touch of garlic and an onion aftertaste. Sounds disgusting doesn't it...and yet millions of people around the world, myself included, adore this not-so-humble fruit.

You should have seen the looks this meal got at work...and it's one of my most tame. I gotta move to a more metropolitan area one of these days.

Onigiri stuffed with wasabi tuna mixture and topped with sesame seeds. For dessert I filled the bottom container with mandarin oranges and kiwi "blossoms".

My first bento since the new school year started. I still waited a couple weeks into the new semester before bento-ing. Mostly for two reasons:

1. Little to no time. Food prep is the LAST thing on my mind in the mornings since I'm usually running at least two minutes behind and had little to no sleep the night before.

2. Culture shock. It took me a while to get comfortable enough at my old school to bring in "different" foods. In a large and metro city, what I eat for lunch wouldn't raise a single eyebrow, but in a small Southern town the simplest of stirfries is a thing of wonder and speculation.

Here we have my "tester" bento. Nothing too strange and exotic. Mushroom stuffed tortellini (came already stuffed and dried...all I did was boil and serve) tossed with some butter, parmie cheese, and topped with olive tapenada.

Champagne grapes in a neat little container I got from the Bento Store on Ebay. I really like these containers for a variety of reasons...starting with the tight fitting lid, small size, clear tops and sides, neutral color scheme, and absence of designs which might limit which bentoes they'd go best with.

I tell you...Walmart has really started to stock some exotic foods. I would have never imagined finding cherimoyas at our local grocery story. And at a reasonable price as well. In case you aren't familiar with them, cherimoyas are a fantastic little fruit that you eat when they get soft. The inside is a creamy white with big, black seeds. The texture is sorta like a slightly-grainy custard but the taste is very floral and full of perfume. Like taking a bite out of Spring or a bouquet of flowers. Very nice.



****Update****

Beware the cherimoya. Actually, just beware the ones found at any mega market. When these babies finally ripened, I tore into them only to find the most tasteless bits of mushy flesh I've ever encountered. Nothing like the mouthfuls of Spring I beheld from the Farmer's Market. Oh the horror of it all.

Well, it's been forever and five days since I last posted, but so much has happened in the past couple of months. I've moved about two hours north to a small mid-Georgia town where I am now teaching 10th grade. I finally moved out of my mom's house, for which she was NOT happy. Fellow Asian children...I think you can empathize with me on this one. Having my own place and my own kitchen does have its advantages though. I've been able to experiment a bit with my recipes and have found some really fantastic new Korean food sites as well. My favorite so far is Maangchi's Cooking Show. It's a fairly new webpage that features tutorial videos on several Korean recipes. I love the step-by-step instructions and have already made two successful dinners using her recipes for Korean BBQ and beanpaste stew. And after some trepidation, I've even attempted the Kimchee recipe she has posted. It turned out pretty good, but only time will tell if it's truly fridge worthy kimchee. It's always the fermentation process that has eluded me in the past. Here's a pic of the finished product.


And here's a pic of my poor kitchen after all of today's work. Which, let me clarify, involved making kimchee, stirfrying pork w/bitter melon, Korean spicy eggplant saute, and Chinese broccoli w/oyster sauce. Why so much food you ask? Because I absolutely hate cooking during the week. Whenever I come home, the last thing I want to do is stand on my feet chopping and stirring.

Breakfast: Spam Mushubi and kiwi


Lunch: Moonsnail kimchee, seasoned spinach, pickled daikon with black bean sauce (in the Pooh), soy quail egg...not pictured is my rice, orange yogurt cup, and 1/2 a peeled orange.

Coffee cup to show size scale only.

Not pictured: Mr. Bento and bag, Fit n Fresh lunchbox, Lock & Lock lunchbox and bag.