Monday, February 23, 2009

Bachelor's meal

There is a food staple that is always available in a typical Korean guy's fridge, Kimchi. You may ask, why is this so? Growing up in a Korean household, kimchi may be literally one of the first solid food you start off eating. With that being said, every time you take a bite into the fermented napa cabbage; it takes you back to the good old times when your mom would accompany it with warm rice and soup. Kimchi is also one of the most accessible Korean food out there that can invoke such a nostalgia. However, the problem with all good things is it has an end. Kimchi although super delicious, after a while, reaches a state where it gets much too sour to be enjoyed. Depending on the temperature of the fridge it can vary from a week to couple of weeks before kimchi reaches this state. This then brings me back to a meal I made couple days ago. I was craving kimchi, but it was too fermented to be eaten in its raw form. Therefore, I decided to make what Koreans call "Kimchi Jjigae." You can say its kind of like a soup, but don't get me wrong, it is not your typical watery soup. What defines jjigae is its thickness and sharpness of flavor that goes hand in hand with rice. It is a popular dish among Korean bachelors as it is very simple to make and they always have old kimchi lying around that can be only used in jjigae. Ingridients can be pretty much anything you have lying around in your fridge or freezer. For mine, I added in a can of tuna, turkey bacon, and spam. To make sure my jjigae would be flavorful, I boiled it to the point almost where all of the water has evaporated and then placed in more water and boiled it again. The finished product looks something like it would be suitable for barnyard pig, but don't let the looks fool you. The smell and taste of it is literally out of this world! You get a nice sourish soup base thanks to your fermented kmichi alongside with all the flavorings of various meats you have placed in. With rice, its literally explosion of flavor everytime you dip in your spoon. All I can say is I was one happy boy after I finish this little bad boy.

No comments: