Kimchee Mandu

While I was at the Korean grocery store, I thought I would try and make some mandu again. This is something that I have done on intermittent occasion in the past, but the last time I made any was during finals in law school. And, since my students will have their final this friday, I thought it was about time for another go. The last time, I made a shrimp, tofu, and spinach mandu. It was really dry. This time, I wanted to go for something a little more traditional. And so, kimchee mandu.

Kum Gang San Manhattan

Being that my in-laws had never been able to make it out to the New York or New Jersey area before, my parents wanted to take them out to dinner. This could have been problematic, from a diplomatic perspective. My parents profess to enjoy all cuisines, but they in fact will only eat food if it is Korean. When they go out for sushi, they go to a Korean sushi chef. When they have Chinese food, they go to a Korean-owner Chinese restaurant. And so forth. Although, they do like spaghetti.

The last time the four parents sat down for a meal, it was at a Korean BBQ in Chicago. This time, my mom suggested Korean BBQ. She wanted to go to Zen Zen, a place that my mom swears is in Ridgewood (or Ridgefield?), New Jersey. But, since this was my in-laws' first time in New York, time was at a premium, and I didn't want to have to trek all the way out to New Jersey. The second place she suggested was Kum Gang San. But, for the same reason I didn't want to go to New Jersey, I didn't want to go all the way to Flushing, even though that is one of my favorite Korean restaurants. Fortunately, Kum Gang San has a Manhattan location, which I had no idea. And it happened to be within a few blocks of our hotel.

Hanabi Sushi in Stony Point, NY

After church where my dad announced that he would be retiring as the pastor this coming June, we all went out for an early dinner. In true Korean fashion, we were going to be eating dinner immediately after having eaten lunch after church. We let my mom pick where we would eat dinner. And because I think she suspected that she would need to return me to my wife and in-laws after the meal, she picked a place that was as far away as she could think of. We went up to Stony Point, New York. In her defense, she took me to Hanabi Sushi in Stony Point, New York, which is always worth the trip.

Shin Ramyun

Last week, Sarah was going out with a friend for dinner, so I was on my own for the evening. And as much as I love eating with my wife, I look forward to the times when she leaves me alone. Because this means I get to eat ramyun. Not ramen. Ramyun.

Ramen is an American thing. Ramen was something I ate in college (and for several years after college due to budgetary constraints). Back in St. Louis at the time, you could find it on sale for 10 for a dollar.

Ramyun, on the other hand, is a Korean thing. It's spelled different because that's how Koreans pronounce it. "myun" is the Korean word for noodles. and the "ra" part of ramyun, I don't know what that means. But its unusual because it's pronounced with almost a rolling R sound.

Soju Tasting

Soju is a Korean drink usually referred to as a rice wine. But I am not sure why they use the word, wine. It's about 40 proof and always tastes like watered down whiskey.

I had remembered going to some club in St. Louis back when I lived there. On Thursday nights or something, they would have a soju drink special that featured like eight different kinds of fruit flavored sojus. The weirdest part was that this place was not a Korean club. Nor do I remember it even particularly Asian at all. They just had fruity soju. And club music.

I couldn't find flavored sojus at the liquor store near my parents' house. These are what I found instead.

Happy New Year!

For the New Year, it is traditional for Koreans to eat a dish called, Duk Gook, which roughly translates to rice dumpling soup. There have been multiple times where Sarah and I have eaten the proper version of this; there are also times where I have simply added some duk (rice dumpling) to instant udon. This year, we got the real stuff.

New Year's Eve Dinner

We had travelled home on New Year's Eve, so our first dinner back was even more special of a home coming meal. On top of that, dinner was going to be for 6 people, which is unusual at my parent's house. I don't come home all that often, and the fact that my sister, her fiance, and my wife were also there made this dinner all the more rare.

We had decided to stay at home for dinner because we thought it might be either too difficult or too hectic to try and find a last-minute dinner reservation for 6 on new year's eve. This was more than fine by me. Many of my favorite foods to eat in New Jersey are the foods that my mom makes.

Homecoming Lunch

Sarah and I had made relatively last minute plans to return to my parents' house in New Jersey for the New Year. That meant, we were going to eat. A lot.

The morning of our flight back home, I had called my dad to let him know that our flight was going to be delayed. He asked me where I wanted to eat lunch.

Later, I learned from my father, this is a frequent way that Koreans used to greet each other after the Korean War. 'Have you eaten yet?' 'Did you have something good to eat?' Such questions towards travelers or guests were gestures of food generosity, a highly regarded social value in the tumultuous post-war times, my dad told me.

Sometimes, I think my dad just makes things up.