Second try at Korean food

As you may have read awhile back, my first taste of Korean food was trying kimchi. Unfortunately, although it is supposed to be very healthy for you, I just could not get myself to like it.

HOWEVER... I have a new love! I have totally fallen in love with BIBIMBAP (비빔밥)!


This is basically a rice dish that has stir fried vegetables and meat placed over a bowl of rice and topped with a fried egg. The name comes from the word for rice- "bap" combined with a nonsense word "bim" which means to mix... so basically, bibimbap means "mix mix rice!" It was SOOOO YUMMY! I absolutely loved the sweet marinade on the beef combined with the red chili paste spicey sauce called gochujang (although I am amazed that Koreans have taste buds- the sauce was so spicey it almost burned off the skin on my tongue! Luckily it was served on the side and I learned quickly to just dip my fork in it!!) Anyways, it was sooo good!

We had bought our bibimbap at a restaurant in a town near our adoption agency. Since it is about 1 1/2 hours away, I decided I was going to have to learn to make it if I would be enjoying it often. So, I found a Korean cookbook in our library and set to work making a whole Korean meal! We invited my parents over and enjoyed bibimbap made with mushrooms, cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, cucumber and beef. The instructions weren't very hard, but it was very time consuming since each vegetable is stir fried individually and laid as vertically as possible around the sides of the bowl. The middle is filled with the marinaded meat, then the top is topped off with a fried egg. I think I used about 7 pans! Here was our version:















I also made "MANDU" (만두) dumplings as an appetizer. These were basically wontons filled with ground beef, bean sprouts, cabbage and spices and then fried in a pan until golden brown. They were REALLY good!














We finished up our meal with warm honey coated dates filled with pine nuts. (I don't remember what they were called, but they were very sweet and good!)



It was so much fun getting to taste a bit of Korea. Even Carson really liked it! I can't wait to share our daughter's culture with her when she gets a little older!