"korea" news and stories

After I posted about the Pickle Sickle, I came across the above at superlocal's flickr page. It's a picture of a truly great popsicle from Korea. It's watermelon-flavored, and the "seeds" are actually chocolate chips.

We need something like this in the U.S. Regular popsicles and fudgsicles and those things that look like red, white and blue rocket ships are fine, but this is really a work of art. And doesn't it just look refreshing?

Actually, I'm having a flashback to my childhood. I think I had something like this when I was a kid. I'm not sure if it was on a stick or maybe a treat that was watermelon-slice shaped that came in a box. Anyone else remember something like this or am I thinking of something else?

[via Serious Eats]

If there's one food I couldn't live without, it's kimchee. It makes sense, since I'm Korean and all. And you would think that 1) being Korean and 2) it being my favorite food, I would know how to make the spicy, pickled cabbage, but I don't. I'm sure I could read a "recipe" and do it, but unlike other "packaged" foods, kimchee from the store tastes pretty damned good. You see y'all, making kimchee is a major to-do, and it's so much easier to just run out to a local Asian market and buy the stuff already made.

That is why I just about fell over when I read that Barbara of food blog Tigers & Strawberries made kimchi at home. Her post has written and photographic detail of the whole stinky, spicy process, from raw Napa cabbage to the final full bottle of kimchee that's fermented for three days.

Source

Health magazine has picked the five healthiest foods that you can get from five different countries. The list isn't complete, of course (I'm not even sure if these are the healthiest foods in the world), but it's a quick guide to the healthy foods that a few different countries have given us.

Spain has given us olive oil, Japan soy, Greece has given us yogurt, and lentils come from India. I've never had kimchi, from Korea, but that's on the list too. You can get recipes for each food at the link above as well.

So readers, what about the United States? What healthy foods have we contributed to the world? And no, Ring Dings don't count.

I came across an article on traditional Korean royal cuisine while perusing the The Korea Times this morning. OK, I lied about reading the Times, I'm not sure how I linked to the article.

Also known as surasang, Korean royal court cuisine was served during Korea's Joseon Dynasty, which ruled the country until 1910. As you can see the meal is laid out on three tables, a main one set with a multitude of banchan (small appetizer-type plates) along with rice and soup and two smaller tables with other dishes. Other than noting that a female assistant would taste each dish to ensure that the monarch was not being poisoned, there's not many details about the food itself in the Times piece.

Curiousity led me to open up my friendly Wikipedia where I soon found a 1,500-word article that proved not only to be a good introduction to surasang, but a pretty comprehensive study of Korean cuisine in general. It's worth reading just to know the Korean words for various types of banchan.

In case you're wondering, sura means a bowl of boiled rice or rice with added grains, and sang means table. Hence surasang. Now all I need to do is find out where to try surasang in New York City.

Source

If you live on either coast, or even in the Midwest in a major metropolitan area, you'll have no problem finding an Asian grocery store. Korean-specific markets are a little harder to find, and if you're somewhere where there isn't a huge population of Korean people, well, you might find yourself at a loss when a craving for kimchee strikes. You can make it yourself, or you can click over to koaMart, an online Korean food grocer.

Sure, they do the dry, non-perishable goods like ramen and rice, but they can send perishable goods like tofu and kimchee as well. I've never shopped at the store since I live in Los Angeles, but if I were in say, the mountains of Colorado (or really, really lazy) I might give them a try. Shipping isn't cheap, but hey, when you need your pickled, fermented cabbage, you gotta do what you gotta do.