Kimchi jigae, the way they made it in kdramas (!)

It’s 2am – I just finished watching a crazy good Korean drama, am staying up to wait for the recap of said drama, listening to a Korea-based (in English) radio channel, and writing a blog post for a classic Korean recipe.

I am NOT, repeat, NOT creepy. Ok, so, once I was rattling off all the kpop songs I knew to this AMERICAN guy who studied Korean and was in the Korean Student Association. He sort of gave me this…look, I don’t know, like I was a weirdo, an Asiaphile. …Yes, an Asian Asiaphile. Beats me.

Anyway, watching that much Korean TV at least does me some good: I learn a lot about Korean food. On this fake-celebrity-dating-show, every time a guest visits one of the couples’homes, they always, and I’m serious, always request the host to make either dukbokki or kimchi jigae. One reason is these things are quite easy & fast; the other is that these 2 seem to be classic Korean dishes: comfortable, spicy, familiar, and everyone likes it (if you don’t like it it’s your problem). So I watched them make it, and filled in the blanks myself. So, here you go, kimchi jigae like kpop idols would make it…maybe?

Kimchi jigae (kimchi stew)

Cooking time: 15 minutes  + 30 mins waiting

Ingredients

Matcha tofu mousse or I do really fail at styling

I really, sincerely, want to take a good food picture. But I’m also innately, irrevocably lazy. And not very artistically gifted. Look at this:

…and tell me it doesn’t look like p…ok I won’t say it, otherwise you’ll be disgusted and don’t want to read on, right?

Makeshift bun oc (snail rice noodle)

this was my dinner

Woohoo, 15 minute bun oc FTW! Oc buou = river snail (apparently? Well I can tell you it’s not one of those weird snails with antenna on their heads.

So I got the snails, frozen, at the Asian market. The pleasant surprise was that while I didn’t get the delicious water from steaming the snails (it was precooked), the snails stilll carried that distinctive river-creature smell. It’s hard to describe, but if you’ve ever had real bun rieu with real river/rice-field crabs. you’ll know what I mean. This version is quick because I didn’t use pork bones, just ground pork. Pork bones give the broth a yummy, thick taste but can be too heavy-handed sometimes. I didn’t feel like heavy tonight so ground pork was the way to go. Even if it was rather simple, my version of bun oc was delicious!! You can’t really go wrong with tomatoes, onions, and meat. That’s why pasta never fails if you add tomato sauce ^^