The Egg & Spoon Race

[Disclaimer]: I love Korean food as much as the next girl. In fact, if I had to choose, I would say about 80% of the time I’d pick Korean food. A lot of people bemoan the lack of choices within Korean food culture. I am of the firm belief that these Korean food naysayers are confusing the commonality of kimchi and rice for a lack of choices. In spite of the inevitable service of kimchi and rice at a restaurant, I can choose among sweet, salty, mild, spicy, meat, vegetarian, soy, soup, steak, bbq, porridge, stir-fry, noodles, cold, hot, warm, and everything in between. There is not shortage of variety in Korean food, just a shortage in a person’s desire or confidence to try that variety.

That being said, there are days when I crave American food that is next to impossible to find. The most common cravings:

• pizza that has neither corn nor sweet potato on it or in it.
• garlic bread that isn’t topped with sugar
• red velvet cupcakes
• chewy cookies
• granola
• quality sandwiches
• burgers that aren’t from McDonalds
• American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, french toast, pancakes, waffles, omelettes, proper juices)

I have found suitable substitutions for many of these things. The problem is they are usually really pricy. A delicious, juicy burger from Smokey Saloon (no fries no drink) can easily run you over 9,000 won. A brick oven pizza for two from someplace other than dominos/pizza hut can cost in the ballpark of 25,000 won. My favorite brunch place to this day is Flying Pan Blue in Itaewon. However, one omelette and coffee will run you nearly 20,000 won. 

The tasty and reasonably priced places usually have nothing at all by way of atmosphere, waits out the door, or horrendous service.

I’d like to share a delicious brunch discovery I made just yesterday near Ewha University Station on line 2: The Egg & Spoon Race.

Inside Egg & Spoon Race

 This tiny outpost of western deliciousness boasts a variety of big three egg omelettes, homefries, a full drink menu (juice, coffees, espresso drinks), belgian waffles, thick sliced bacon, and french toast. They also have a full lunch/dinner menu that looks lovely as well (some people ordered up some pasta while we were eating and it looked great, and they make some of their own salad dressings I believe).

The service was fantastic. The servers speak Korean and English, although Korean is definitely recommended as the menu has little by way of English. Waitresses responded quickly to requests for syrup for my coffee, and a fresh fork and knife when I dropped them clumsily. They also were able to readily answer questions regarding the menu quickly and helpfully (at least in Korean). Everything was prepared fresh. And while the seating was limited and quite cozy, it never felt too noisy or cluttered (maybe everyone was just enjoying their food that much).

I went with my friend Mina (wordsrundry). I ordered the waffle set after asking what the waitress recommended. Mina ordered the Potato Omelette set.

Waffle Set

The waffle set comes with a big Belgian waffle topped with plenty of powdered sugar, scrambled eggs, salad and bacon and sausage. I don’t particularly like sausage, and they were happy to substitute and extra order of bacon for the sausage. The maple syrup was quality. The eggs were fluffy, but I found they needed a bit of salt (Koreans either make things salt-less or super salty… there is not much of a middle ground), but came topped with fresh cracked pepper. The salad was nothing special, mostly iceburg lettuce with sesame dressing (there were 4 dressing to choose from). The bacon was thick and juicy. The waffle was the perfect texture, and the flavor was just right. My iced americano was nice and cold from the moment it arrived at my table and never got watered down.

Potato Omelette Set

The potato omelette, which was recommended on the site that I randomly found out about the restaurant on, is a three egg omelette filled with cheese, tomatoes, and a generous portion of spinach. You have to option of including the potatoes inside the omelette or outside as homefries. Mina ordered them separate, although I probably would have had them inside. The omelette also came with the same average salad. But, who needs a salad when you have all that delicious brunchy goodness? Mina reported that the omelette was delicious and she was happy that they didn’t skimp on the spinach. She also seemed to like the orange juice, but I didn’t taste it.

Our drinks: Iced American (L) Orange Juice (R)

I would definitely recommend this to anyone living in Seoul or anyone visiting who has a craving for real breakfast (a hard to find treat here).

Each of our meals were about the same (the waffle and oj were more expensive than omelette and americano, respectively). Waffle set and Americano came out to 14,500 won, about 13.50 usd and the omelette and oj were 14,000 won. Without the drinks, the prices were right around 10-11,000 won, or under 10usd.

I was stuffed for about 6 hours after eating.

Directions:

Line 2 to Ehwa University Station (이화대역)

Go out Exit 3 and head straight. At the second street turn right.

It’ll be on your right side, Spoon Race will be written in big letters.

It is small (maybe can seat 15 people MAX) so it’s easy to miss.

There are lots of other amazing looking coffee shops and restaurants in this area, so if you can’t find it, try any number of the other places in the area!

If you go, lemme know what you think!

If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?

This article from The UK's popular daily newspaper, The Guardian, was posted by my Korean tutor on facebook. I think it's an excellent read, especially if you are interested in any of the following: 1) Asian food culture 2) Japanese food history 3) Processed foods and their effects on health 4) fighting MSG 5) ramen

I'll add my own short anecdote:

As many of you know, I've been cooking a lot these days. Usually Korean food, but often American favorites too (Velveeta Mac&Cheese, anyone?), and I've brought some of it to work. Anyhow, my coteacher Mrs. Oh ate some of it and she said it was really delicious, and we started talking about cooking (she has no idea how to cook, she thought it'd be a good idea to boil some beef and quail eggs in 4 cups of soy sauce... just soy sauce. gross) and recipes and she told me that she has a secret too make good food. She said to me, "I cannot cook so I always use 다시다 (dashida) and it makes everything better." I didn't know what dashida was at first, but then I realized that it's soup stock, which is basically MSG + salt (as if msg needs more salt). I said, "isn't that bad for you?" and my teacher replied, "maybe, but it tastes good so who cares."

I kind of want to go back to her and say, "look! It's not unhealthy!" but that wouldn't prove anything because she doesn't care one way or another.

But this also explains why in most Korean recipes that require some kind of broth you are told to soak 다시마(thick dried kelp) in water, because it produces the non-stabilized version of MSG (called glutamic acid, or after fermentation glutamate) which occurs naturally in high levels in kelp and, among other things, human milk, parmesan cheese, soy sauce, tomatos and walnuts. So, this is what adds that deep savory flavor to my jangjorim and ddeokbokki... You mean to tell me that instead of soaking kelp for 30 minutes to an hour, I can just sprinkle in some "not un-healthy" MSG and it's all the same? SIGN ME UP.

This is what contains some of the highest concentrations of glutemic acid in the world, and was the inspiration for MSG: kombu/昆布 (jap.) or dashima/다시마 (Kor.) or haidai/海带 (Chin.)

Exciting

Big news!!

I brought my cucumber kimchi and sweet soy sauce braised beef/quail eggs to my boyfriend's apartment. His mom, and two cousins (one boy and one girl) were also there and so I was a little nervous to here their opinions. JH didn't tell them that I was bringing food so they were impressed/surprised that I brought anything at all. But then, his mom opened the container with the cucumber kimchi and said, omo, where did you get this? And I said, I made it. And she was super impressed because it was so good looking. And then she opened the other container and she was even more surprised.

It was awesome. They were super impressed that I've taken an interest in Korean cooking.

But I warned them: it may look good, but I can't guarantee that you'll like the taste.

JH ate the kimchi first and he didn't say anything right away except: 엄마, 먹어봐, 예찬아! 먹어봐, 예본아 먹어봐, which just mom, try it, Yechan, try it, Yebon, try it. And they all did and they all lost it. They said it was sooooooo good and I was so so happy. I had been nervous originally that it was too spicy, but I wiped away some of the extra spice and so it wasn't so bad at all. In fact, I'd agree that it was quite good indeed. They said that it was better than most restaurants' and his mom kept saying, "아 엄마보다 더 맛있지... 내가 보다 더 맛있어, 어떻게..." which is, "Ah, it's better than mom's. It's more delicious than mine, how can it be?"

Then they praised teh 장조림. I'm so happy they liked it so much.

Oh, and then his mom called his dad and she told him about how I made such delicious food and he asked to talk to me and he said he was really happy I made korean food, and that he wants to try some, and that he loves me because I cook Korean food, and I like Korean culture, and because I am interested in Korea. *^___^*

I'm going back tomorrow and JH insisted I bring more kimchi. I will do so obligingly. ^^

I can't wait to cook more food. I'll be sure to post pictures!

xoxo
A

소고기장조림

This is beef and quail eggs boiled in a sweet soy sauce. It is so effing good. Korean food is easy to make if not time consuming

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Food

Well here is a picture of my dinner. Salad with fresh cucumbers green peppers sesame peanut dressing and chopped almonds~ delicious

And this is 오이소박이 also known as cucumver kimchi. im afraid I have made it a bit spicy but I hope it will good. I will try some in a few hours after the spices have had a chance to soak into the cucumbers nicely.

Later tonight (its only 7) I will prepare 소고기장조림 but i heard it takes a while because you have to soak the meat in wter and cook it and rip it up by hand but I will let you all know how that goes. I just discovered that stupid homeplus didnt deliver all my food so I will have to go out and buy whats left. grrrr.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Cooking Time

김치전.
I made this tonight and I am on the subway to Seoul now with tge kimchi pancakes in tow. I think it wont taste good which is unfortunate since i am taking it to Hoons where his parents and grandmother will see it and probably think “oh god. our poor son. What has he gotten himself into dating such an incompetent cook.”alas.

The good news is I succeeded at 떡볶이 and will be making it again soon. These days I am really trying to get back into cooking. This week I am hoping to do cucumber kimchi a beef and quail egg soy sauce dish and a spicy soft tofu stew. Pictures coming soon~^^

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Updates

So it has been a long long time since I've updated you, huh, dear readers?

Well, the good news is I'm back.

Also, I wanted to announce to you all that I started a tumblr. The reason for doing this is because some of my friends back home have complained that my blog became overrun with my kpop obsession. As a result,  I decided to go ahead and open up a tumblr because I've been meaning to check out tumblr and stuff, but haven't had a good opportunity to do so. I think tumblr is the ideal platform for a blog/site that has a more specific focus. This blog originally started as an attempt to keep people back home informed about my life here, and to perhaps inform/entertain other people with stories about living in a different country, especially one so interesting as Korea. After about 8 months, it disintegrated into an explosion of kpop videos, cd reviews, gossip, and other blatherings. My bad. Anyways, hopefully I will be keeping my tumblr mostly Korean Pop Culture focused, with the occasional anecdote from my life, here, while this blog will be primarily focused on Korean (not-pop) Culture, food, life, and teaching ESL at my middle school.

If you are interested in Korean pop culture (I keep typing Korean pup culture and I don't know why...) then head on over to my tumblr: www.reallywally.tumblr.com Sometimes my shit will be the same, but mostly it'll be different. I'm still testing out all the cool functions on my tumblr, so be prepared for some strange stuff there.

Anyways, school has been crazy. I've been helping a coteacher with her son in the afternoons and in the mornings last week I was cooking with my grade threes just for funsies (man, they are effing TERRIBLE cooks, it's unreal). This week every day nine until 12:40 I'm teaching winter camp. Tomorrow is our last day. We're making modified grilled cheese sandwiches and salad and I'm giving out prizes.

Anyways, I swear to you, I have a killer hot list coming up and I am totally going to do it in a video.

In the meantime, here's a picture of something I've really really wanted to do at E-Mart but hadn't until today!

At E-Mart, after you pay for all your foodstuffs, there is a loooooong metal table and beside that table are cardboard boxes from food shipments that the store had received. People have free access to these boxes to tape them and string them up and use them to haul their groceries back to their own apartment. I love this idea. Almost no one uses paper bags unless they have exactly the right amount of groceries that aren't too heavy but also aren't so few or small that one could just carry them or put them in one's purse. Anyways, I've always seen these boxes, but I also always brought reusable bags to the store (another VERY common sight here). Tonight, however, I underestimated the size and weight of my purchases today and found that I couldn't fit everything comfortably in my one shopping bag and purse. So I had to carry my food over to the table and jerry-rig a shopping box. Here's how I did:

Pringles. Hahaha. They have their own special tape and ribbon to wrap up your box

The things in my box: 3 bottles salad dress, soy sauce, Gochu Jang (pepper sauce), spaghetti sauce, milk, heavy cream, Busan fishcakes, rice cake (under the fishcake), kimchi

Tomorrow I am attempting to make 떡볶이 and 김치전 for dinner for me and Hoon. I'm a little nervous since it's only my second time making these things and the first time 떡볶이 was a total disaster. Plus, Hoon is Korean so if it's not good, he will definitely know. If however, I was cooking for some friends back home, I wouldn't be nearly so nervous.

xoxo

A