Seoul Food | Budae Jjigae 부대찌개

Our fridge looked so Korean I couldn't not take a photo (ignore the spilled yoghurt, oops)

This is just a very brief post to share one of my favourite things to cook. Budae Jjigae, or "Army Base Stew" is one of these beautiful inventions made by people who miss their home's food, but can't quite get the right ingredients. So, during the war there was a lot of "American" food, like Spam and sausages, as well as filling, convenient foods like instant ramen and rice cakes.

I love budae jjigae because it's one of these "one-pot" recipes where you kind of just throw everything in and hope for the best. It's hearty, filling, and (when I make it at least. I've had some pretty volcanic jjigae before) just spicy enough to warm you up and give you some energy.

I'm pretty proud of this one, because it was the first time making a Korean-style stock rather than just using water or a stock cube, and also because I had to touch those dried anchovies. I'm notoriously squeamish about touching things, so when I saw that the recipe called for me to rip off their heads and scrape out the guts I was a little bit horrified. But I did it.

As ever, I used Maangchi's recipe, which worked a charm and it tasted just as good as the budae jjigae I've had as part of our school dinners (which are delicious). I usually make a huge pot with enough for maybe 6 people, so that there's enough for the two of us to have a second helping and I don't have to cook the next day...but usually we end up pigging out and there's only enough to eat a much smaller portion the day after, hahaha. It's too delicious ㅠㅠ

담양 | Damyang

After the incredibly deep "hikers sleep", we woke up the next day to a slightly less stuffy, but beautifully sunny Gwangju. The view from the roof of our guesthouse was lovely, and it was quite nice to be able to see a large segment of the city from only the 5th or 6th floor.

The guesthouse provided us with some simple breakfast things like milk, bread, and fresh eggs, after which we packed up, paid, and headed out for Damyang, a small county on the northeast of Gwangju's borders.

The main reason I wanted to go to Damyang was because of its famous bamboo forests, which I'd seen photos of all over the internet, as well as being home to one of the festivals I'd read about a few weeks beforehand. According to 'the Internet' (my second best friend and my proverbial Hitchhiker's Guide) you could get a bus directly to Damyang's most popular bamboo forest - Juknokwon - right from Gwangju Station.

Slightly more savvy with the scale of the city this time, we hopped on a bus (second time lucky, busy weekend life) to the station and waited at the bus stop, which looked a lot more simple than the ones we're used to back in Incheon:

It looked a little bit sketchy, but considering someone had gone to all the effort to hand write the signs in several languages and stick them up, we had some faith and waited. Eventually, as promised, the bus arrived...

totally packed.

But this is South Korea, and so after a lot of shouting from the driver and pushing from the passengers, we squeezed on, standing in the front area where you usually pay, and praying for a distinct lack of the characteristic "emergency brake" pulsing that a lot of bus drivers here seem so fond of :p

The next problem was that we didn't have the right money (no T Money available and no 1000원 notes?!) so we were worried we'd be booted off at the next stop but this isn't Seoul, so apparently different customs apply. After a bit of stumbling in Korean we worked out that he'd be making a slightly longer stop in Damyang at which point we can quickly dash off the bus, get change for our 만원 and finally pay him.

Despite the crush we were too thankful to worry even with my thumb mysteriously bleeding (?!), managed to get change at Damyang's tiny bus station, and hop back on to go the last 20 minutes to Juknokwon.

Seoul Food | 백반 Baekban

Because I don't post about food enough (ha), I thought I'd share with you the incredible dinner my head co-teacher treated me and Nick to sometime back in late January. I'm not sure if this would really be called 'baekban' but I'm also not sure what it's actually called, so until I find out, this is the placeholder name I'll be using.

I read two different meanings for baekban, "hundred side dishes" and "cooked white rice". Either way, it's pretty accurate.

This is a more traditional Korean-style meal, with loads and loads of little dishes scattered around for everyone to pick and choose from. It's absolutely ridiculous and a lot of fun. Usually most places just wheel in a trolley and rapidly throw bowls into empty spaces with skill and accuracy, but this place took a different and presumably more time-efficient method.

They wheel in a second table-top and it slots on over the existing one. In one fell swoop, all of the food is on and ready and you don't have to worry about spilling stuff on a customer in the rush.

It was super nice and we got to have some quality time with our busy co-teachers and coworkers, even if it was only for a little while. ^^

Seoul Food | 보쌈 Bossam

Preparation!  준비하다

It's a very poorly-kept secret that Nick's favourite food is bossam. It's a slow-cooked pork that you usually eat by wrapping it in a lettuce leaf (쌈) with a bit of that really great sauce I'm always banging on about (쌈장) and maybe some garlic and rice or kimchi or whatever you want really.

It's kind of similar in taste to Filipino sinigang, with a texture similar to pulled pork (pre-pulling), but it can also be a little expensive so we thought why not try cooking it ourselves, seeing as it's so easy to do?

I used a combination of recipes as well as advice from Korean friends, and ended up using:

- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- a sizable chunk of belly pork (maybe 300g?)
- a pinky-sized chunk of garlic (basically what I had left from another recipe), chopped finely
- 2 bayleaves
- a sprinkling of peppercorns
- enough water to cover it all
- half a bottle of soju

That last ingredient, soju (Korean rice wine, about 12%) is very important and the aspect most impressed on me by all my sources. Basically, when you boil pork for that long...it stinks. Like, really bad. So, in Korea they add soju which for some reason kills the smell. I'm not sure of the science behind it, but it works and the alcohol cooks off. Due to soju being pretty flavourless (it's like a milder-tasting vodka) there's no flavour left on the meat either!

I suppose you could use white wine (or possibly 'cheap' vodka, which isn't as cheap or nice as soju) and I also saw suggestions stating that a spoonful or two of instant coffee will also do the trick just fine.)

Then, pretty much, you put the slab/s of meat into your boiling water, bring it back to the boil for about 10-20 mins, then turn the heat right down to just about a simmer. Then you leave it. Maybe stir it occasionally, but generally just leave it for about 40 mins to an hour.

So far, I've got the texture down pretty much spot on, but the flavour is lacking and I'm assuming that's just down to experimentation. I tried again a second time and used less water than before, and adding more salt and garlic and it was a lot better. But still not as good as what we've had!

Here's to more experiments in the future :p

Aw yeee