Korean Rabokki, a mixture of ramen and dukbokki. Water optional, but recommended

Rabokki (combination of ramen and dukbokki) is the ultimate Korean college/bachelor food. It’s everything that’s wonderful about dukbokki, with the addition of fried ramen noodles. Rabokki is doubly great because in true bachelor fashion, you simply throw everything into a pot and crank the heat. Continue reading →

Gorgeous kimchee bibimbap!

Went out for Korean for the first time in 2012, and found this place at the end of the strip of Korean restaurants on El Camino in Santa Clara. We also found one of the best bibimbap’s we’ve ever had, probably because of the hot stone (cast iron?) bowl that it was served in. Continue reading →

Korean taco--with pork bulgogi, peppers and stir-fried cabbage

If you’re at all familiar with trendy foods in California, you’ll know that Korean taco trucks have been making their rounds around these parts for years. The Bay Area has a few taco trucks, but the best ones are apparently in L.A. so we decided to have a few friends over (thanks Clay and Kelly!) and try making some Korean fusion tacos ourselves. Continue reading →

Soymilk is expensive. Even with our Costco bulk discount, we noticed we were spending about $40/month on soymilk, but we were willing to pay the premium because we thought making it ourselves would take days and produce a crappy version of the store-bought stuff.  But much to our surprise, Hags was recently browsing amazon for some kitchen goodies and stumbled upon a $99 soymilk maker that advertised a 15 minute finishing time to spit out a half-gallon of soymilk. So, we took a chance and ordered the Joyoung Automatic and will never go back to the store-bought stuff.

Fresh soymilk

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I apologize for not posting lately! Hags and I are in the middle of opening a yoga studio and have been super busy! We’ll post some pictures soon!

Japanese Shabu Shabu is “hot pot” cooking. The name, “Shabu Shabu,” is the Japanese word for “swishy swishy,” which is the sound that the meat or vegetables make when being “swooshed” around the boiling hot broth at your tabletop grill. The best way to describe shabu is as a kind of do-it-yourself blanching. Shabu is usually made with some miso-based broth and is cooked right at your table with some sort of heating element in the middle of the table. You are given a plateful of raw vegetables and thinly sliced, raw beef, and you just work your way through them, dunking one piece at a time. Shabu is very healthy, there isn’t much room for it not to be. It’s quite low in calories-if you have lean beef, the entire meal is under 450 calories. There are always other options besides beef, I usually order some sort of seafood or dumplings. Continue reading →

How can you eat asian cuisine if you don’t have the money (or time) to cook authentic meals?
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Korean bibimbap in a stone bowl, "Dolsot Bibimbap"

Callie was in the mood for bibimbap and for trying out a new Korean restaurant last week, so we decided to check out Chosun Myun-Oak – a hard-to-find place that Yelp told us was always full of Koreans eating hearty soups and stews. Continue reading →

Go to a Korean restaurant at a busy time and you’re likely to see at least a few tables ordering a Seafood Pancake as an appetizer because it is one of the most universally loved and easy to share Korean foods. It can be presented either pre-sliced or whole, like a pizza.

Korean Seafood Pancake

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I had to make a quick trip to Korea last week so it was tough to get posts up from internet cafes that only have Internet Explorer, but I brought back plenty of pictures!

One of my favorite parts about being in Seoul is that you can walk into just about any restaurant in the city center and be assured of a great meal. Although restaurant chains have started to make an appearance, the Korean restaurant scene is still largely dominated by sole proprietor family restaurants that serve food the same way they’ve been serving food for decades. Not surprising, then, that even when you go to a barbecue restaurant with the express purpose of satisfying your carnivorous desires, you’re still served a ton of veggies in various forms to balance out the meal. My first meal back was pork rib barbecue, where the pork rib is cut in a butterfly pattern so that it can be rolled out in a thin layer and quickly grilled at the table. Continue reading →

Pineapple fried rice, or any fried rice really, is one of the easiest, most versatile dishes around. Any time you have leftover rice with some veggies, your first thought should be to open a can of pineapples and make some pineapple fried rice, especially during the summer.

Pineapple fried rice, a summer favorite!

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