Sunday, June 10, 2012

What I Brought Home From Korea

Yes, all THAT is what I brought home from Korea. I went on a little bit of a shopping spree at E-Mart, spending about $30 on Korean vegan ramyun (ramen, maMA, whatever you may call it!), gochujang (red pepper paste), ssamjang (a soybean based dipping sauce), and gim (sheets of dried and salted seaweed). You can see the bulk of the stash is five 4-packs of Korean ramyun - 순라면.  This is the only vegan brand of ramyun I know of in Korea.  There is some vegan "maMA" as it's called here in Thailand, but I just had to stock up on the Korean brand while I was there!  Anyway, 5 times 4 is 20, so let's see... if I stay in Thailand for 12 months before I get another chance to go back to Korea, that means I can have a dinner of my favorite ramyun about... once every 18 days. Hmm...
Well, I've already gone through two packs! Couldn't help it... when you have one of those evenings, or one of those weekend afternoons, when you really just want a quick and easy meal to satisfy your salty/spicy/scrumptious cravings, ramyun is pretty much perfect! The first pack I whipped up just normal style, minimal effort. Hot and spicy, salty, soooo satisfying.
For the next pack, I got the idea to add some edamame. I had bought a big bag at Chiang Mai's Walking Street for about 50 Baht ($1.75). I love snacking on these, but wasn't sure how they'd taste with ramyun.
Turns out, they make a pretty good pair!
I shelled the edamame and popped them straight into my bowl of steaming noodles. I decided not to add them into the pot while the ramyun was cooking so that they'd stay a bit chewy and crunchy. The combination of hot and slurpy ramyun with cold and chewy beans was really nice.
The edamame also made a good pair with the ramyun by balancing out the salty, greasy "goodness" with a huge punch of nutrients.  Not kidding. Check out edamame's ridiculously high levels of fiber, protein, iron, calcium, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, and vitamins B6, C, and K (click here).
I haven't gotten a chance to use the gochujang and ssamjang yet. But the Gim will be making a blog appearance soon...

In addition to a bunch of packaged food, I did bring home something completely not mass produced.
A loaf of Mipa's homemade carrot cake!  Mipa surprised me with this farewell gift as I was packing my bags to leave her apartment.  I rationed it over the next few breakfasts back in my apartment.
One morning I had a few slices with some Thai fruit that I think is called langsat. It's similar to longan (ลำไย - "lamyay"), but the main difference is that it has sections; longan is just one round piece. Langsat is juicy, sweet and a little sour; nice and refreshing in the morning.
It grows on a bunch, like this. It's not too hard to peel, but the skin is extremely sticky. Even after I wash my hands and the knife, there's still a tacky residue!  Ugly yellow skin, almost as bad as super glue.. but still a very tasty fruit!

I have to say, eating Korean ramyun in Thailand is kinda fun. Whenever I have a chance to merge my worlds, even just in a small way, it makes me really happy. Kinda like this picture:
You can't see exactly what I'm smiling about, so I'll tell you.  This was somewhere around Hongdae area of Seoul.  Lots of Korean restaurants and cafes obviously, such as the one on the left in the background.  Then I saw the big yellow sign in Spanish: el Avion. Ooh, two languages I know!  And THEN, I saw that the orange-signed restaurant was Thai!  Ahh!  Tic-tac-toe three in a row!  My worlds combine! haha!




Sunday, June 3, 2012

떡 떡 Daily Ddeok!

While I was in Korea last week, I had a mental list of all the foods I wanted to make sure to eat during my precious seven days there. Sun Tubu Jiggae, Bibimbap, Kimbap, Pa Jeon.... I did manage to get Bibimbap more than once, Kimbap just once, and even squeeze in Sun Tubu for my very last meal. However, there is one food that I ate in one form or another pretty much every day: Ddeok!
"Ddeok" (떡) actually refers to a pretty wide range of snack and dessert-type foods that are made with rice flour, usually taking the form of a rice cake or nugget. As you can see, they're often very pretty and colorful. Ball-shaped ones like those above, have a bean paste filling, and some kind of powder on the outside. A package usually costs about 1,500 KRW (about US$1.25), or sometimes just 1,000 KRW if you catch an end of the day sale! You can find ddeok stands/shops pretty much all over the place, but definitely around every few corners in any local neighborhood.
All of the rice cakes in this packet of green, black, yellow and red had the same red bean filling, but I think each color had a different flavor. Hard to remember what each one was, but I think the green was green tea and the black/brown tasted a bit like chocolate! Regardless, they went great with this apple cinnamon tea that Mipa had at home. They're chewy enough to stick to your teeth a bit, but still soft enough to melt in your mouth, and sweetened just enough to be pleasantly sweet but not rich.
This form of ddeok, however, is quite bold on flavors: ddeokbokki:

Ddeokbokki (떡볶이) is made with a bunch of sugar, but it also has tons of spice! Yes, red pepper flakes AND red pepper paste (고추장). The solid tubes of white rice cakes are dripping with a sweet and spicy sauce that makes your lips burn and your nose run. I wouldn't want to eat this every day (but many people do - it's definitely a favorite food among many Koreans), but I certainly couldn't pass up eating it once during my short stay.
Although you can buy ddeokbokki at restaurants, its availability is far outnumbered among street stalls. Typically, various tempura are sold alongside it (vegetables like potatoes and yams, rice rolled in sheets of seaweed, and some meats). All of these can be dipped in the fiery red sauce. Also, ddeokbokki stands usually sell odeng (오뎅), which is fish cake. It's kind of hard to describe... Fish paste congealed/cooked into strips and fried or cooked in a broth-like soup. They're sold on a stick, but are also usually chopped up and cooked in with the ddeokbokki. We did check out multiple ddeokbokki stands, hoping one might leave the odeng out, but no such luck. We decided we could live with it, so Mipa just asked the lady to not scoop any odeng into our cup. And it was fine. Fine? I mean divine!
haha, ok, that's an exaggeration. I do like ddeokbokki. But it is those displays of multi-colored ddeok that catch my eye every time!
This one was located at Mipa's subway station, so I passed it all the time!
Some ddeok is more like a floury cake (squares in front of picture), often with raisins, fruit or nuts; others are more dense and moist, sometimes with a liquid filling (the pink, white and green on the top right). This ddeok stand also had other snacks and goodies, like nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and crunchy concoctions. Talk about an accidentally vegan snack stand!

I bought these crunchy seaweed sticks. They were actually more sweet than salty, which is interesting for seaweed... but still perfectly munchable.

I ate them that afternoon with some ddeok.

The white one is one of my favorites. My first Korean boss taught me that it's called "moshi," because of its Japanese origin. She also told me that it's good for your stomach lining. Yes... Why? Because it has such a smooth texture, like you would want your stomach lining to be. It does have a verrrry silky smooth texture, but who knows. And the powder is so fine that I usually end up breathing some into my lungs! Moshi is always a little larger than the colored ones (which means more bean filling!). I don't know if it's a little sweeter than other ddeok or what, but despite (maybe because of) its very subdued flavor, I enjoy it more than any of the colored/flavored ones!
I also bought this interesting "pine bud" drink to accompany my snack. If you've ever climbed a pine tree and got sap on your hands and then ended up licking your hands, you know that sap is bitter and gross - even if it has a hint of "pine scent." This drink tasted like pine, pure pine. It wasn't bitter, or sweet, or salty. Just cool, piney and fresh. Mipa thought it tasted like soap, but I actually liked it! Even while enjoying the familiar, there's always something new to try!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Thank you for the vegan options: Cafe Mano

Ahh, writing this post from back in Chiang Mai....  I had such a great time in Seoul. Time went by so fast, but was full of meaningful times spent with good friends. Looking back, I managed to do a lot of stuff and go to a lot of places! But I'm thankful that I could also make time to slow down and relax, do something simple. Like spend a few hours in a cafe with a good drink and a great friend.
Yessss, certainly grateful for this glass of goodness: Red Bean Green Tea Frappe! Oh man, how can I even describe it? Most Koreans are probably no stranger to the combination of green tea and red bean. But it was a new flavor fusion for me.
Anything served on a doily has got to be pretty special...
And it was! When I first came to Asia about nine years ago, I thought the idea of putting beans in a dessert was a bit bizarre. I was disappointed on more than one occasion to bite into a pastry and find it filled with bean paste... instead of my beloved chocolate. But chocolate comes from a bean. As does coffee. So why not sweeten red beans and use them in desserts and drinks? Answer: why not indeed. Beans help create a great cakey or chewy texture, both of which we all know to be great for sweets. And they work in sweet drinks as well. There's something about the combo of red bean and green tea that I have no idea how to describe. Some foods were just made to be paired together. My very first sip of this frappe convinced me that red beans and green tea fall in that category.
Mipa got her own fancy drink, and of course we had to share, because sharing doubles the fun! Her cream-colored drink was a Brown Rice & Almond Shake. It was really quite delicious. It was smooth and light, gently sweetened, and with a distinct but very tasty nutty/grain flavor. I thought it was really good. But I have to say that the Red Bean Green Tea frappe was goooood... if you know what I mean.
Did I mention that these drinks are both vegan? We got them at Cafe Mano, a spectacular cafe in the Hyewah neighborhood of Seoul. Mipa and I actually came here together about two years ago. (I wonder if they remembered us? :)  It is one of the cheeriest, nicest, cleanest cafes I've ever been to (check out their bathrooms). And it's vegan-owned!
The two ladies that work there are kind, sweet souls. And the ambiance in their cafe is so peaceful and relaxing.
Not all the beverages and sweets are vegan, but everything is clearly labelled, and there are more vegan options than any other cafe I can think of.
Just look for the heart-shaped label to know which drinks are vegan.
In addition to this vegan Chick Pea Salad, there was another vegan "main dish," as well as brownies, cookies, pie, pat bingsu (a dessert made with ice and beans and fruit and other goodies) and more. The food is not cheap. (My frappe was 6,000 KRW, and Mipa's shake was about 5,500 KRW.) But it is high quality and served with love. I think they use mostly organic ingredients as well. I would love to keep going back - there was so much to choose from. Sadly, I was only in Seoul for a week... but now I have some motivation to check out the vegan baked good options I know of in Chiang Mai! Because I certainly appreciate having access to these kinds of cafes. Cafe Mano, perhaps one of my favorite places in Seoul.
It even had some information about vegetarianism and veganism. Not that I could read it... But I hope to be able to some day!
So, if you ever get a chance to go to Seoul. They're open Mon-Sat, 12:00 - 10:00pm, closed on Sundays and the third Monday of every month. ....

Wait for it.... wait... Yes! Check this post on Mipa's blog for directions and other info on Cafe Mano.