Kimchi Mamas

You Know You Grew Up Korean/Korean American/Korean Candadian If . . .

The local Sunday paper had a fun article today that got me thinking about growing up Korean in the US. So I've come up with a list of "You know you grew up *Korean/Korean American/Korean Canadian if..." of my own. 

Please add your "you know . . . " in the comments.  =)

--Your mother ever gave you guilt about . . . well anything... (Bonus if she pounded her chest with a fist while doing so!)

--You had 2 fridges: one for food and another for kimchi (or else ALL your food tasted like kimchi).

--You ever had to translate a school note, explain a holiday project and/or had a hard time completing the 3rd grade family tree project because there were some family secrets/shame involved and/or there were a lot of branches on that tree with "eemo and samchun".

--Your friends NEVER spent the night.

--Roasting ghim over the flame on the stove.

--You roasted that ghim for ghimbap - which you ate on day-long, car trips, got out, took a look around, ate the ghimbap and got back in the car. You always returned the same night.

--You were a hobo, a clown or a ghost for Halloween more than once.

--You got hit on the back of the head (a lot).

--Your aunt or uncle would pass you a $5 bill and tell your parents "te-sah, te-sah." He or she was your favorite aunt or uncle.

--Your mom made you sweep the carpet, told you you would DIE if you slept with the fan on pointed in your direction and/or were told that women should never sit directly on the floor.

--Threw up from having "han yak". It was usually dark brown, liquidy and has been boiling for hours...Or your mom smeared honey on a piece of boiled ginseng - like it would make it taste better.

--"Fought" for the dinner bill or insisted on paying while out with your non-Korean friends and then was SHOCKED when they were like "ok!"

--Your dad would get drunk, sing sad Korean folksongs and reminsce about the "good times."

--Thanksgiving dinner included the turkey and mashed potatoes, but also yakimandu, kimchi and japchae.

--Your parents scheduled long distance calls to relatives in Seoul and Busan/Pusan/Busan/Pusan.

--Hotdogs have always been a part of jampong.

--You would rather go to school than be sick at home where your mom would make you clean the house.

--Dad smoked Marlboros or Camels and drank Coors light or Budweiser. Mom never smoked or drank, to your knowledge.

--You had a used station wagon or Buick.

--Going to college was NOT an option.

--There's a random collection of blue produce rubberbands in the house.

--Beef jerky was your parents' favorite American snack food.

--You couldn't have a dog (or a cat).

--Hated eating kimchi with almost every meal as a child, but craved it when you went to college.

--You've heard your mom say "why would I ___ for that? I can ___ that!"

--Two words: Korean School. After church lunch in the Fellowship Hall on Sundays.

So what's YOUR "you know if..."

Laughing about childhood because crying isn't as much fun!

--Angie in Texas

*The side note I'd like to add is that this will mostly apply to those of us who grew up Stateside in the 70's, 80's and 90's.

 

Happy New Year

It's the Solar New Year!

I hope everyone had a restful time off and spent lots of time enjoying their families... although I gotta say that taking care of both kids all day is way harder than being at work. Even if one of them looks this cute:



Anyway, anyone got resolutions for the new year?

I'm not one to make resolutions (anymore, since I never seem to be able to keep them) but I have one word themes for the entire year. The simplicity of one word seems to work for me. My word for this year is humility. I hope the lessons aren't TOO painful. Humble pie can taste rather bitter some times.

My word last year was love. I feel like I still have no clue what love is all about, but I think in some strange way, it helped me to show love to my kids more intentionally.

Oh, did ya'll eat ttuk gook? 떡국? I swear, it's the easiest meal and we probably eat it at least once a month. Leftover rotissarie chicken carcass makes the best soup base too!

- Brought to you by, ramblin' Mary

Little Prince Kids Restaurant Review

Five words for you: Meet me at Little Prince!

Little Prince is a Korean-born chain of kid-centered cafes, and it is basically the healthier, cleaner, saner alternative to Chuck E. Cheese's.  Instead of cacophony, consumerism, and chaos, kids can play in a variety of settings: an indoor jungle gym and ball pit for the more active tykes, a dress-up and pretend play area, and a library.  All areas are supervised by attentive staff who speak both Korean and English, and you can also keep an eye on your little ones from your table thanks to the video camera feeds displayed in the dining area.  Littler kids can stay close to their parents by playing in the middle of the dining area in a quieter, more padded zone.

The menu is eclectic, highlighting Korean-style cafe food.  There is pizza, pasta, and house-made chicken nuggets for the kids, and more sophisticated fare for the parents such as hamburger steak, galbi, ddukbokki, and "grown-up" pastas.  My personal favorite is their kimchi fried rice with cheese, washed down by a couple glasses of their iced coffee.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Little Prince has greatly expanded my social life.  It's the perfect spot to meet up with old or new friends who are in town. 

Do your friends have other kids that aren't quite the same age level as your own?  Send them all on their merry way to play with the unnis/nunas/oppas/hyungs at their own pace.  Chances are, they will start playing with each other as well.  

Is your friend childless, but they would like to meet your kids and hang out with you?  Again, perfect venue: your kids can be around to say hello and be hugged and adored, but then they can zoom off without either party being antsy or nervous.  Then you and your friend can catch up in peace.

They also offer packages for birthday parties, and I think it would be a perfect venue for a dol, or any year up to about age 6.  It's especially handy if you expect a mixed crowd of kids, older and younger siblings, and adults without children.

Food is pretty pricey, but the servings are HUGE.  In addition, you pay a per-hour fee per child.  So, if you are in the southern CA area, you should definitely try it out.  Awesomely enough, Living Social is offering a deal with Little Prince right now (and for the next 6 days).  You get $25 credit for $12, which amounts to 52% off!

So, am I going to see you there?  We can do plan a formal Kimchi Mamas meet-up or just keep it small.  Let's discuss.

Little Prince Kids Restaurant
5300 Beach Blvd. #118
Buena Park, CA 90621 
714-690-1432 

Little Prince website
Facebook page 
Link to Living Social deal

--Julie
(No disclaimer needed; I'm promoting them purely because I've been there a half-dozen times and I love them.)

Kimchi Mama Honor Roll: Sonya Thomas

This past Fourth of July Weekend, the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held a womens division for the first time.  The inaugural champion was Sonya Thomas, aka "The Black Widow," a 43-year-old Korean American, who won by eating 40 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

This is the first I had heard of The Black Widow, and I am a bit ashamed to admit that, because this was by far not her first competitive eating victory. In fact, since her debut in 2003, she has set and broken many world records, defeated men who are household names like Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut, and is currently ranked the #6 competitive eater in the world.  It is also worthy to note that Ms. Thomas achieves all this despite weighing in at 98 pounds.

After reading a few news articles, I was smitten.  I knew we Korean gals can pack it in like no one's business, but other than brief mentions on where she grew up in Korea, there was no mention of how being Korean helped or hindered her at all.  Here's the backstory, in her own words, to winning 29 competitive eating world titles.

Kimchi Mamas: Are your parents back in Korea aware of your competitive eating success, and if so, how do they feel about it?

Sonya Thomas: I think lots of Koreans feel negatively towards competitive eating, they think of it as a bit foolish: why do this instead of using your brain?  They also worry about my health, if my stomach will explode or something.  My parents were the same way when they first heard about it.  In fact, I didn't actually eat that much as a child, so they were totally surprised.  They were worried, but after they saw me on the news, they were happy for me.  Now, they're not exactly proud, but they know their daughter did something special.

KM: That sounds like the best you can ask for with any Korean parent.  Was there anything from your childhood that helps you at all today? 

ST: From childhood to now, I have always been competitive, I always want to be the best, to show people I'm special.  I'm not really outgoing, kind of shy, but anything active, I'm determined to show people I "have it."

KM: Oh wow.  Where does that drive come from?

ST: I was born in 1967, and it was a hard time for Korea, and my family was very poor.  My parents, 2 brothers, my sister, and I lived in a 1 room house.  Not a lot of people could afford to eat white rice, so they would mix their rice with barley.  But our family's rice was all barley!  The American government also gave us flour...so we had noodles everyday.  

I had to be brave, more brave then than now.  My first day of elementary school, I walked there by myself, and registered myself.  After that, I always tried to help my parents earn money.  I remember one time, I was 8 or 9, and we went to the ocean to catch clams.  I kept pushing myself to work faster and faster, and I dug up more than my mom!  About 40 pounds of clams!  Afterwards, as we opened the shells, I was the fastest.  I was the third child, but I was the boss!  [Laughs]

KM: You sound like you'd be the perfect athlete.

ST: During school, I competed a lot in sports, but I wasn't that good.  I wasn't a fast runner, I was too short and not a good enough shooter for basketball, and my reflexes were too slow for badminton.  But I still wanted to be the best at something.  Competitive eaters aren't only competitive in eating; we must be competitive in other things.  I was born like that, always wanting to do something special all the time, something different from other people.  Eating is one of my skills.  In others, if I'm not that great, i just give up and try something else. 

KM: That is so Korean!

ST: [Laughs] Yes, it's very Korean: very competitive, very "hurry hurry,' no patience.

KM: Sonya, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk to us.  Best of luck, and FIGHTING!!!

Sonya Thomas' next competition will be at the Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, NY during Labor Day Weekend.

Sonya Thomas' homepage

Sonya Thomas on Wikipedia

Article from the Chosun Ilbo

"Kimchi Chronicles" on PBS

Marja Vongerichten, wife of three-star Michelin chef Jean-George Vongerichten, has created a series that seems tailor-made for us Kimchi Mamas.  Part travelogue, part documentary of self-discovery, part cooking show, "Kimchi Chronicles" takes the Vongerichtens around Korea, highlighting all the different dishes and culinary traditions, then interpreting them for the home kitchen with the help of...Hugh Jackman.  Here is a clip of Marja introducing the rest of the gang to what looks like 육개장 (yukgaejang).

An extra-long preview of the series can be seen on the New York Times site.  There, you will be bombarded with image after image of HD deliciousness...I can't watch it without drooling!

Marja will also be publishing a cookbook in August, and it's already up for preorders on Amazon.  Just think about it: authentic Korean recipes adapted for the western home kitchen, written in English, from a Michelin-star family...I can't wait to get my hands on it!  Here are some pics:

The show will make its nationwide debut in July, but it is currently running in New York (you lucky bums).  If you have seen it, please let us know what you thought below!  How's the cinematography?  Does it accurately portray Korea and Koreans?  How much does Marja's personal life story come into play?  Is it  food porn, and/or Hugh porn?  Enquiring minds would like to know!

--Julie

PS: Later this summer when they are released, we will be giving away DVD sets of the series as well as the cookbook, so stay tuned!!!

PPS: All throughout writing this, I kept misspelling "Hugh Jackman" as "Huge Jackman."  Freudian much?

PPPS: Man...I am HUNGRY.

Rice talk.

Lately, it seems like brown rice is all the rave.

I think brown rice is an abomination. It makes me cringe when I am told that it is a "healthier" alternative to the glutenous short grain rice. For a long time, I thought it was just me. Maybe all the brown rice I've ever had were cooked wrong. I mean, is it really supposed to be that dry and textured? To me, white rice is sacred. To change my rice, is like... well, there isn't even an equivalent to it in the American cuisine. If you change the rice, you change the entire Korean cuisine... because almost everything is meant to be eaten with rice.

I cook my rice using a very very basic pressure cooker. The kind that you put on top of the stove... not the electric kind. I had a smaller five cup one, but it kind of broke due to years and years of use... so now I have a 10 cup one. I love the pressure cooker because it makes the rice all chewy and super glutenous. Just like the way I am told is bad for me. The cooker makes a "tchee tchee tchee" noise as the steam comes out rattles the metal bell like thingy. I always make more than double the amount we eat for dinner. I scoop out the leftover rice and put it in the fridge for later. I reheat it in the microwave and it tastes like almost like I just cooked it.

I got an electric rice cooker a while back. It's a Sanyo. It got great reviews so I thought it'd be OK. Boy, was I wrong. The rice came out terrible. Every time. It was dry and unevenly cooked... and it took a long time. And it didn't even keep well... the rice would turn yellow in a day. I use it for steaming or as a crock pot now but mostly it goes unused.

I refuse to be converted to brown rice. No matter how "good" it is for me, no matter how others can dress it up with some grated cheese on top, I will stay true to my sticky short grain rice. I will proudly say, over and over again, "I hate brown rice."

What kind of rice do you eat and how do you cook it?

- Mary

New Year Dumplings...and a Giveaway!

New Year preparations have already started in my neck of the woods.  Yesterday, we all headed over to my parents' house to make mandoo.  We don't have a set recipe for what goes into our dumplings, but there is pork, beef, extra-firm tofu, sprouts, kimchi, green onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.

This year, my youngest was able to participate!  We put her in charge of making the flatter version we use for fried mandoo:

And here is my dad, our resident mandoo-making expert, showing his patented technique for making the plumper kind used in soup:

On New Year's morning, the kids will dress up in their hanboks and bow to their grandparents, saying, "새해 복 많이 받으세요!"  Then they'll receive some money and some blessings, then we will all chow down on the dumplings we made!

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To ring in the new year, we're giving out presents!  One of my fellow Kimchi Mamas has a couple brand-new hanboks she'd like to give away to our readers!  They are gorgeous and have really hip colors and styling, so hip in fact, it's hard to find hanboks like these in the States.  

There will be two winners, one for the little Kimchi Babies (size 2, suitable for first birthdays and hopefully a year or two afterwards):

girl

or

boy

...and one for the slightly older Kimchi Kids (size 6...suitable for ages 4-8, depending on how tall they are):

girl

or

boy

(Just to reiterate, there will be one size 2 winner and one size 6 winner, and they will choose the gender they want.)

Enter by submitting a comment below with one of your family's New Year traditions, along with your preferred gender and size.  We will close off comments on January 14th, select a random winner from each size category, and ship the hanboks out in time for Lunar New Year!  Good luck!

The Kimchi Chronicles and OTT

The Kimchi Chronicles advertised as A look at the new PBS series on Korean food featuring Marja Vongerichten, the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's wife.

This looks like it'll be really fun (and mouth watering) to watch. 

I'm just learning about the amazing lady who hosts the whole series.  She's a Korea-born former actress and model currently living in NYC.  Apparently, she's awesome at cooking up the Korean deliciousness so she really knows her stuff.  She's a true fellow Kimchi Mama!

And it's Open Thread Thursday.  I've never put one of these up, but thought I would since I had this cool PBS  series on my mind and wanted to share it.  What's on yours?

How Korean is your Thanksgiving?

I found myself at the Korean supermarket this week, as my youngest son has requested kalbi for his birthday and I needed to restock.  It was busy, as is to be expected at any grocery the day before Thanksgiving, but I was struck by the difference in focus.  Instead of aisles full of breadcrumbs, and piles of pumpkin pies by the door, the store was full of a different autumn fare.  The take out deli section of the store had a dish I'd never seen before--sweet potatoes in some kind of glaze, with white cream dotted on it.  What I was able to glean from the counter conversation was that this was just for Thanksgiving. 

In the picture below are some of the things I picked up.  Not necessarily for Turkey Day, but just autumn foods in general: persimmons on top, chestnuts in the middle, duk (rice noodles) on each side, and rice cakes on the bottom.  Definitely not what I grew up with back East.

It got me to wondering just how Korean the Thanksgiving meal is for Kimchi Mamas?  Chusok was back in September, and I know that is a full on Korean feast.  Is Thanksgiving more of the same?  Or is there just a bowl of kimchi on the table, next to the stuffing?

--Jomama

 

 

Thank Galbi It's Friday

Thank Galbi It's Friday Jjim

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs bone-in thick-cut beef short ribs

Water

2 T sake or mirin

4 T soy sauce

1 T brown sugar

8 cloves of garlic, minced

½ onion, roughly sliced

4 carrots, large chunks

1-2 lb. Korean radish or daikon, large chunks

6-12 shiitake mushrooms (soaked in hot water for 30 minutes if dried)

2 green onions, daintily chopped

½ t pepper

1 T sesame oil (optional)

1. Soak ribs in cold water for at least 30 minutes, changing the water often (to get the blood out).
2. Cover with fresh water in a pot or Dutch oven, then boil ribs 5-10 min.
3. Drain the pot, take the ribs out, and wash them in cold water to remove fat and impurities.  Put back into the pot.
4. (Don't tell my mom, but you can skip the first 3 steps if you don't feel like it doing all that crap.)
5. Add: 2 cups water, mirin, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and onion.
6. Bring to boil, simmer ½ hour.
7. After ½ hour, add carrot/radish/mushroom.  Cover and simmer for AT LEAST 1 hour over low heat, stirring/basting/tasting occasionally.
8. Meat is done when you can poke it with a chopstick with very little effort.  
9. Separate fat from the Good Stuff.  You can use a gravy separator to do a decent job, or you can be hardcore (like my mom) and refrigerate the whole thing overnight, then scrape off the solidified fat.  Discard, or feel free to make candles or what have you, you hippie.
10. Garnish with green onions and fresh black pepper, and sesame oil IF YOU MUST (I think I've already mentioned my disdain for that flavor).