Korean BBQ in the Comfort of Your Home

As a big fan of Korean BBQ, particularly the do-it-yourself aspect of it, I decided to try to make it for dinner. My boyfriend was a week away from taking the California Bar exam, so he needed to load up on brain food. Not sure if Korean BBQ would be characterized as "brain food," but it seemed to be a good diversion from studying.

Fortunately for us, there is a great Korean market right down the street from us -- Greenland Korean Market --, so I was able to pick up all the ingredients I needed for our dinner. While I was there, I also grabbed some things I was going to need for our Shabu Shabu night. [FYI: the Korean BBQ and Shabu Shabu dishes I am making this week are not part of my New Years Resolution, as I've made them before.] 

 

Here's what my shopping list for our Korean-themed dinner looked like:

• Pork Belly
• Soy Bean Paste
• Red Leaf Lettuce
• Green Onions
• Kimchi
• Sesame Seeds
• Hot Pepper Paste (already had some at home)

 I have to thank Maangchi for posting all her authentic Korean recipes online and making them available to those who want to learn to cook Korean dishes. From her website, I used her recipes to make: Pajori (Green Onion Salad) and Ssamjang (Soybean Paste Dipping Sauce), Kimchi Fried Rice, and Gye Ram Jjim (Steamed Egg).

 

Let's begin, shall we...

 Ingredients for Pajori with my addition of lettuce.

 The dressing for the Pajori is made from soy sauce, sesame sauce (I used both hot and regular), garlic, toasted sesame seeds & sugar.

 Dressing for Pajori

 Ssamjang (Soybean Paste Dipping Sauce)

 I also added some soy sauce to the soybean paste dipping sauce, just out of preference.

Ingredients for Kimchi Fried Rice.

 

A quick tip: it's best to used day old rice to make fried rice, as the hardened texture gives it nice consistency. I sauteed the day old rice with a little oil, garlic, kimchi, and some pork belly that I had cut up into bite sized pieces.  

Here I've added the green onions and hot pepper paste which gave the rice and nice reddish tint.

 Gye Ran Jjim (steamed egg). Only made with 4 basic ingredients. Water, eggs, green onion and salt. The authentic recipes calls for salted shrimp sauce or fish sauce but we didn't have that on hand so I just used some salt. Who knew this was so easy to make!

 Steamed egg mixed and ready to be cooked in the microwave on high for 5 minutes.

 No BBQ grill at the house, so we used the good ol' Foreman (which could have been the Hogan, if things played out differently) to cook the pork belly.

 Gye Ran Jjim

  Starting from the blue bowl going clockwise: Pajori, Gye Ran Jjim, Kimchi, Sesame oil with Salt and Pepper, Kimchi Fried Rice, Pork Belly, and Ssamjang. Yes that's some pretty awesome presentation, but like the saying goes, "You eat with your eyes first," hence the effort in the plating. 

 Pork Belly

 Pajori

Kimchi Fried Rice

    

It might seem like this whole dinner would take long to prepare, but actually only the cutting of the vegetables took a while. Otherwise, everything else I did was measure and mix ingredients the recipes called for. All in all, it was a great dinner. My boyfriend loved it, as we didn't have to venture out to get a Korean BBQ fix, but instead, enjoy it in the comfort of our home. And while it wasn't "brain food," per se, it was a great distraction to studying!

If you're a fan of Korean food, you should definitely take some time to peruse Maangchi website and try out some of her recipes. Hey if I can do it, so can you!

Stay beautiful, and stay hungry!

 

Summer 2011: A Time of Color Blocking

A year from now, when I look back on the summer of 2011, I’ll likely remember: color blocking (FUN!); and weeds (as in, unwanted, wild plants).  While color blocking is the more fashionable and understandable, I won’t soon forget the latter.  How do you figure, you ask?  Well, bear with me, and I’ll try to make as much sense of this as possible.

Color Blocking

Although the trend of color blocking was (re-)introduced during the spring, particularly in fashion magazines and campaigns, I started to really appreciate it in the summer.  Sure, spring time is often associated with blooming flowers and sunny weather.  However, I see spring colors as being a bit more subdued, i.e., pastels.  It’s during the summer that we can really highlight the variety and brightness of colors.  And color blocking is the perfect way to do this.

Simply put, it combines the use of two or more blocks of colors in an ensemble to support, complement, and, most importantly, accent each other.  Whereas simply matching colors of an outfit is done to pair traditionally complementary colors or to prevent clashing, color blocking purposely places colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel next to each other.  The result: bright colors, fun combinations, and bold, daring looks.

Summer time is the perfect time to pack up your blacks, grays, and darker colored clothing, and to bring out all your bright colored clothing, accessories, and shoes.  Just that little pop of color to an outfit will show others around you that you are daring and aren’t afraid to be bold.  And as they say: “Fortune favors the bold.”  For those that are a little weary of wearing a brightly colored top and bottom, there’s always the option of color blocking with something a little smaller, such as a purse, belt, or shoes, to give their outfit a little pizazz.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

* Pictures: See pictures above for examples of color blocking.  Special thanks to the up-and-coming model Lillian Rullamas-Liquigan!  At two years old, Lily is the perfect combination of adorable and cute, and she is already blazing a trail in the modeling world.

One of the more interesting color blocking combos that I would’ve never thought would work is orange, green, and purple.  When I think of those colors, I automatically see the Joker from Batman (See http://tinyurl.com/JokerColorBlocking and note that purple suit, orange vest, & green hair).  Definitely not something I’d define as traditionally fashionable.  But now that I see the combination of these three colors in action, be it on actresses, on models, or in magazines, the more I’m interested in taking a risk and trying it out myself.  It’s that kind of boldness and experimentation which makes color blocking such a fun and awesome trend.

Not only have I tried to incorporate color blocking with clothes; rather, I’ve also tried to apply it in different areas, to which I’ve gotten awesome results.  For one, color blocking works great for nails! I’ve used the combination of yellow, pink and purple, at despite the odd color combination, I loved the results! 

*Pictures: For color blocked nails: I was definitely trying to go for brighter colors.  However, they didn’t come out as bright as I had liked, as you can see in the above pictures.  Nonetheless, the combination of the colors works, and I’ve received many compliments on them!  I’ve also done some color blocking with my makeup, coral lips, and purple and turquoise eyes, as you can see in picture #7.

And I’ve even implemented color blocking with food.  Yup, you heard right...color blocking even works well in the kitchen!  I’ve used color blocking while decorating my cupcakes using the orange, green, and purple combination, making fashion now edible!  See Picture #8 above for a taste of the colorful cupcakes.

As I’ve show in my three examples, fashion is no longer just about clothes and accessories.  With the resources we have nowadays, and with a little risk and experimentation with colors, you can make your nails, your makeup, and even your food as fashionable as your wardrobe can be.

Picture 9

Weeds

    While not really a trend, I’ll always remember the weeds of Summer 2011.  It wasn’t for anything related to fashion.  Instead, it was a hilariously adorable moment involving none other than the delightful Lily.  Fortunately, we were able to capture the moment in a picture.  To elaborate, during her fabulous modeling session, Lily “took five” to admire her surroundings.  Being the open-minded, inquisitive spirit that she is, Lily approached a patch of weeds, one of which was as tall as her.  With one breath, Lily inhaled the intoxicating “aroma” of the weeds.  As you can see in Picture #9, Lily’s face demonstrates that even weeds can be pleasant!