Food Glorious Food~~~

Who doesn't like to eat?? Food is the bestest friend you'll ever have.

I gotta say Korean food is one of my all time favorite. It's so tasty and flavorful~~ I could not stop eating when I was in Korea. They're made with fresh ingredients, very filling, and healthy. Koreans give a big proportion of food for a cheap price and is always eaten with a steel chopsticks and spoon. They have specific food eaten for certain events, such as Miyeokguk (seaweed soup) on birthdays as a reminder that that was the first they were given as pregnant women eat this soup for nutrients. Eating Miyeokguk on your birthday will bring good fortune for the rest of the year. Besides eating traditional Korean food, there were American food, such as McDonald, Pizza Hut, and so on. But with the American foods, there was a twist. The food they had, they put in flavors that Koreans like and it can outrageous. A pizza I had there, was a curly french fry pizza with BBQ chicken and some broccolis. It was crazy to see how much stuff they can put on one pizza. They really load their food with food. Of course, I live in Vermont, I can't get the exact replica of the taste. 

With Korean cuisines, the best part is the number of banchan (side dishes) you're given before the main meal comes. There are a variety of side dishes given, the most common one, kimchi. Koreans can't live without kimchi. Namul, seasoned vegetables either stir fried, marinated, or steamed. Jorim, like soup, a dish seasoned in broth, can be with tofu or beef. Jeon, pancake-like dish. Japchae, glass noodles mixed with vegetables. Every restaurant is different and can be given different types of banchan, but these are the main. Another good part is, you can always get refills on banchans for no extra cost. 

There are so many Korean foods, it's hard to pick a favorite. So here are my Top 3:

#1 Patbingsu

 Here on the left was my first Patbingsu. This tasty dessert that can cool you off during the hot summer. It consists of shaved ice as the base topped with various ingredients, mainly red bean paste, tteok, and ground nut powder. But you can definitely put in whatever you want. With my first patbingsu, we were given a big spoon to mix all the ingredients together to get all the taste mixed in. Once you take a bite, the shaved ice melts in your mouth with the taste of the ingredients. There are many variations of this popular dessert. On the right, is Ddeok Patbingsu and Cheese Patbingsu when I was in Gwangju visiting a friend. My friend's dad explained to me and my other friend that the cheese patbingsu was made for younger generation while the ddeok patbingsu is suited for the older generation. After trying both, I was really into the ddeok. I guess I do have grandma taste :P I didn't like how the cheese was mixed in with sweet condensed milk and ice cream. It was an interesting mix, though I'm not a big fan of cheese...I go crazy for ddeok so I was already attracted to it. Ddeok is my all time favorite with it's chewy texture and simple taste. You can do a lot with ddeok. With these two patbingsu, there was no need to mix since there was already a lot in it and it could get messy. This dessert is really easy to make as long as you have an ice shaver!

#2 Samgyeopsal

Samgyeopsal is a very popular dish and commonly served as an evening meal.  It consists of fat, thick pork belly, sliced. It's not marinated or seasoned, and is cooked on a grill at the diner's table.. Diners grill the meat themselves and eat the meat directly from the grill. Once the meat is done cooking, you wrap it up in lettuce and other accompaniments. Commonly, raw garlic, perilla leaves, sliced green chili pepper, shredded green onions, sliced raw onion, and of course, kimchi.

The kimchi can also be grilled along with the meat. But you can put whatever you want in the wrap. I like to add rice in mine. Once you're done putting whatever in your wrap, you eat it in one bite. If you have a big wrap, you better shove it in your mouth. Almost always samgyeopsal is served with two dipping sauces, ssamjang which consists of chili paste, soybean paste, sesame oil and gireumjang which has salt, black pepper, and sesame oil.

Once you take a bite of the meat, the juice of the meat comes out and it just melts in your mouth. With the wrap, it's very filling cause there is so much in it, you can just eat and eat more of it. The meat is very fresh and once you put it on the grill, the sound of it sizzling just makes your mouth water. This is a must eat with friends and family.

 #3 Street Food

Street food is always the best. There are so many choices to choose from and it's super cheap!! My favorite street food are kimbap, ddeokbokki, and odeng. Kimbap can be eaten anytime of the day. It's like sushi, but without the fish. It consists of pickled radish, eggs, ham, cucumber, carrot, spinach, crab meat, and rice seasoned in sesame oil. The kimbap is easy to eat as it's cut into bite size pieces. The first time I had kimbap, I could mainly taste the pickled radish. It has a strong sour taste, it overpowers the other ingredients. But once the sour taste is gone, you can enjoy the other ingredients. My second favorite street food is ddeokbokki. I said already that I love tteok. It was one of the foods I wanted to eat when I was in Korea and I was so ecstatic to eat it. Tteok is Korean rice cakes made with glutinous rice flour. Ddeokbokki is made from rice cake, fish cake, red chili sauce, and gochujang (red chili paste). This snack is pretty spicy. I would have to give a 2.75 out of 5 chili peppers. Although it's pretty spicy to me, it's kinda addicting. After the first bite, I wanted to keep eating and eating even though my mouth was starting to burn. My friend told me that people take kimbap and dip it in the ddeokbokki sauce. So I gave it a try, and it was actually a good combo. The spiciness gave the kimbap a kick. I definitely would recommend this to everyone. But if you can handle spice pretty well, go for the ddeokbokki. Last, my favorite street food is odeng (sounds like "OH-DANG"). When you go to Korea and see long, thick sticks, you know it's odeng. Odeng is seasoned fish paste that has been formed into strips or cakes and then cooked. Then it is threaded onto wooden skewers for serving. They sit in broth to wait to be served. The broth gives it a good taste. After each bite I take, I keep dipping it in the broth to get that good taste. The taste of the fish cake reminds me of hotpot, how it sits in the broth to absorb the taste.

If you ever go to Korea, you must try these foods~~~