Welcome to my kitchen.

Okay, so you all may be surpised to find out that I actually spent some hours in my kitchen cooking traditional Korean food. I was at work the other day when I decided to look up Korean recipes and was inspired to try some of my favorite dishes out. Of course, David was excited more than ever. I told him "You have to tell your mom and my mom I cooked for you so they don't think I starve you!" I've never really been a big fan for cooking from scratch but I realized that it's the only way to learn. I could've easily gotten recipes from my mom or David's mom, but they cook by experience and taste. I don't have that. So that's why I found my recipes on http://www.maanchi.com.

#1 Oisobagi (Spicy stuffed cucumber) - side dish

So I failed miserably on one of the steps where it said "add 1 tbs of sugar." I wasn't thinking and added 1 tbs of SALT! So you can only imagine the panic I went through to try to make it right. I still don't know....haven't tasted it yet. It may look tasty but looks are deceiving, you know? We'll see. http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/oisobagi-kimchi

#2 Mae woon gyeran jjim (spicy steamed egg) - side dish

First of all, there were way too many green onions.

It was okay. Probably could've used some salt (used soy sauce instead). http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/egg-side-dishes

#3 Galbijjim (Beef short ribs) - main dish!

For this recipe, I followed everything to the tee, but had to add some more ingredients (more soy sauce, sugar, & corn syrup) at the end because it was bland. At serving time, it was PERFECT!

Leftovers anyone? http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/galbijjim

#4 Vegetable Kimbap (sushi rolls)

Another one of my projects this week was making kimbap for the first time. I can't believe it took me this long to try to make one of the easiest Korean dishes ever.

I was craving this so badly the night before. It was quite tasty!

David's eyes lit up when he walked through the door and saw this on the table.

And for me, brown rice rolls. =) It's just as good! http://mykoreankitchen.com/2006/10/13/vegetable-kimbab/

Well, stay tuned until next time!