Kimchi fried rice with a fried egg.

Kimchi.

Sauteed with sesame oil. Next I sauteed onions and pork, and added rice.

Everything, looking lovely together in the pan.

Fried egg, sunny side up.

Mmmmmmm. This is pretty great.

Korean bento boxes at Arang, Japantown, SF.

These are amazing! I've been to Arang a few times before and never knew they had these bento boxes! With each box you get rice, salad, two mandoo potstickers, a potato banchan, japchae, and a meat of your choice--all for about $10.

This is an awesome deal for a nice meal that you can get late at night! I got the spicy pork, which was a bit fatty, but was yummy. The mandoo was fine, and the potato banchan was actually really nice! The japchae was interesting. I actually liked it, but it kind of had a glaze or sauce, or something on it that isn't normally found on japchae. I enjoyed all of it though.

Edric got the bulgogi combination, which also comes with tempura.

I love that we rolled from Michael Mina to Arang and got these bento boxes! Thanks so much, Edric! ;)

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Japanese curry with chicken.

Curry, it's been awhile. ;)

I used Japanese curry mix with assorted veggies and chicken.. with a little Tapatio because I'm, oh, you know, obsessed! ;) This makes SO much curry! Looks like it'll be curry for a week and I'll definitely freeze some of it... ;)

Delicious!

Korean style ramen with dumplings.

Shin Ramyun with egg, green onion and dumplings. I don't like my ramen with too much broth and I don't like my noodles overcooked so I rarely go out for ramen, but I enjoy making my own. :)

It was chilly and gray out so ramen sounded SO nice after a long day at work. It definitely hit the spot. :)

Grace's birthday cake from Paris Baguette, Santa Clara, SF.

I haven't had Paris Baguette since Korea! I'm still so sad that I didn't start food blogging while I was living there, but Paris Baguette is a huge Korean chain that is now in select US cities.

I don't super love Paris Baguette cakes. I just don't find them very flavorful, which is great for Koreans though because most Koreans don't like things to be too sweet. If I'm having a slice of cake though, it better be delicious. ;)

This was very pretty and most importantly, the beautiful birthday girl, Grace, loved it! :) Happy birthday, Grace!

Ahnah's blue rice.

Ahnah made this blue rice! It's hilarious. I have never thought to use food coloring in rice! Could be very cool for some dishes! Haha, it just cracks me up to look at!

Muir Woods and Brother's Korean BBQ, Inner Richmond, SF.

It was my first trip to Muir Woods! I can't believe how long it took me to get there, but there are some great hikes and it was actually very beautiful with the mist (not the greatest weather!). The hikes are nice, too, but we were all starving! Haha.. classic.

After talking about Korean food we decided to actually get some. We went to Brother's, which I'd been to once before and liked. They give a good array of banchan.

Spicy pork and kalbi. These were very good.

This was the worst tofu kimchi I've ever had. EVER! You normally can't go wrong with tofu kimchi, but this wasn't even the right dish! :( Here is the Google Images link to tofu kimchi.. Yea.. you can see why I would be confused.

Food coma!

A big thanks to Tony for a fun day. :)

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Pre-sotball brunch at Namu, Inner Richmond, SF.

Mimosas courtesy of Namu--thanks so much, guys! Their mimosas are fabulous--a nice amount of pulp, and not super cheap bubbly. ;)

Pickles also courtesy of Namu. Yummy.

Kimchi and pancetta fried rice.

Perfectly cooked sunny side up egg. Great combo of kimchi and pancetta. To be honest though, I thought it would be more flavorful from the look of it. It was a bit light, but still very nice--a really nice amount of fatty richness throughout the rice.

Korean breakfast burrito.

Beautiful. Again though, a bit of a tease! From the looks of it, I was expecting lots of big flavors, some spice, etc, but this was very light. Not bland necessarily, but definitely not the flavors you're expecting when you look at it. Also, the crispiness was a bit in-between--it wasn't a chimichanga (which would have been GREAT), but it wasn't a soft burrito.

Burger with kimchi relish. I really like how they asked if we were sharing and then cut it into 3 parts for us!

A good burger, not super great fries. The burger was nicely cooked and flavorful, but there needed to be more relish! I had maybe one good bite with relish and that bite was great, but then the rest were a bit sadder. Haha. Solid burger though.

This was a great brunch. I would definitely recommend it. I'd probably even recommend brunch over dinner at Namu. Nice and quiet, too, with no lines.

So I went to brunch with my friend Joe and our friend Alan. Joe doesn't think SF has that great of a food scene and I've taken it upon myself to show him otherwise. he really enjoyed Namu's brunch--even more than I did. That and I took him to Sai Jai Thai a few weeks ago and he liked that a ton, too! I'll have him raving about SF food in no time! ;) Haha. Thanks for the great brunch, Joe! :)

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Kalbi dinner at home, Spokane, WA.

We grilled up tons of my parents' amazing kalbi for my last night in town!

This is what I call hardcore marinating. :)

Mmmmm. This was the first batch.. there were many more to come!

Apologies for the blurry photo. This was the spread, with banchan and kalbi!

Here is one of my ssams! Ssam is the traditional way to eat Korean BBQ. You take a piece of sang-chu lettuce or a sesame leaf (some even layer up with both!) and you create your own lettuce cup of sorts. My ssam (pictured above) included rice, ssam-jang (spicy soy bean paste), walnut banchan and a piece of kalbi. Sooo great!

When my parents and I cook we just use our hands and taste along the way so the below recipe isn't exact, but it's one I found online that sounded the closets to how we make it!

Kalbi Recipe
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef short ribs (flanken cut)
• 1/2 cup light soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons garlic (finely chopped)
• 3 tablespoons rice wine (or Soju)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 green onions (finely chopped)
• 1 cup Coca-Cola

Directions:

1. Place the ribs in a dish for marinating.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl, being sure to add the coke last, as it will foam up a bit when added to the other ingredients.
3. Pour the marinade over the beef and massage it in for about one minute.
4. Cover and let marinate for at least 4 hours turning at least once.
5. Heat gas or charcoal grill to medium hot.
6. Remove the ribs from the marinade and place on the hot grill.
7. Grill the ribs, turning once, to desired doneness, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.
8. Serve with rice and a variety of Korean side dishes such as kimchi, namul (trio of vegetables) and musangchae (white radish salad) for a delicious Korean meal.

Kimchi grilled cheese with a fried egg on top.

I chopped up this kimchi. It's nice to use a pretty "old" or sour kimchi, not fresh kimchi.

Cheddar & mozarella mixed shredded cheese, topped with kimchi on wheat.

I toasted it like any other grilled cheese.

Then I topped it with a fried egg, sliced it diagonally and stacked the haves for this photo.

My dad used to eat kimchi with sandwiches, and with everything, really. Haha. He's so smart. I thought he was nuts when I was a kid, but little did I know! ;) The spicy, crunchy, slightly sour, pickled kimchi flavor goes SOOO well as a relish in this grilled cheese sandwich! Mmm mmm mmm!

This was great for a quick sandwich with ingredients I had on hand, but NEXT TIME I'm going to do this sandwich with artisan bread, bacon and a better cheese! :) Bacon will be a great combo because it is like the Korean sam-gyup-sal (삼겹살), which is often eaten with grilled kimchi.

Bibim mandu (비빔 만두).

Bibim refers to something that is mixed and mandu is the Korean style dumpling. This is one of my favorite modern Korean dishes, that's a bit harder to find in the States. Essentially it's fried mandu that's eaten with a slaw and Korean chojang (초장) hot sauce. Chojang is also a fairly new sauce that is the traditional Korean red-pepper hot sauce go-chu jang (고추장), with vinegar (식초). The consistency is lighter and I think it just has a great flavor!

Sesame leaf (깬잎). Such an interesting flavor. It's wonderful picked, Korean style, and also a very important ingredient in many Korean dishes. To make the salad I chopped this up along with seaweed (김) and romaine lettuce.

I'm going to make mandu (Korean dumplings) soon, but didn't have time to today, so tried these.

Fried in a bit of oil.

I forgot the plate the romaine lettuce as part of the slaw! I did end up topping this with the chopped up romaine, which really helps add a nice crispness to this. The salad varies from place to place though.

Mmmm! SO GOOD! I had this with rice, of course. The actual mandu that I purchased wasn't that great--it said it was kimchi mandu, which is usually very flavorful, but this was pretty bland. Good thing I had it with the nice slaw and sauce!

Korean groceries at Kukje Super Market (국제 마켓), Daly City, CA.

Yay Kukje (pronounced gook-jeh)! This is the largest Korean grocery I've found in the SF Bay Area. The stores in SF proper are pretty small, this place has a nice cold deli section with lots of packaged ban-chan (Korean side dishes).

New (to me?) bottled makgeolli, pronounced mahk-gul-lee (막걸리)! I've never seen these before! This is so crazy because mak-gul-lee is a very traditional Korean rice alcohol that's always served in a large ceramic carafe or bowl. It's usually more milky, too! I guess since soju is a big hit, they are trying to market this, too though. I didn't get any on this trip, but will have to try one sometime.

Italians have their olive oil, we have our sesame oil. :)

I don't get the chance to come out here very often so it was a nice treat--thanks for the ride Joe! I'm SO excited to make some slammin' Korean dishes in the next few days!

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Lettuce wrap tacos, four ways.

Left to right: Fish, grilled veggies, chorizo & poato, shredded beef.

These were all taco fillings I got to-go from Tacolicious, but since I don't like tortillas, I decided to eat them with romaine leaves! This was very Korean of me, where it's called ssam (쌈). So so great! I don't get the appeal of tortillas and I feel bad saying that, but this is healthier and adds a nice crispness, while not taking away from the flavorful filling!

Korean noodle salad with sausage.

Buckwheat noodles with a Korean dressing (that I'm also going to use to marinade some meat for Korean tacos!). Yums.

Rice bowl with veggies and shrimp.

Brown and rice mixed 1:1. Frozen veggies and shrimp with a light garlic glaze. Delish.

Random food-related photos, The Strip, Las Vegas.

YES! I love this song by Jimmy Buffet! I'm definitely a country girl at heart. :)

I love that they have daiquiris flowing in slurpee machines! Delicious! Fat Tuesdays was all over the place, too.

The ONLY Korean restaurant I saw on The Strip!

Third time's a semi-charm, Stone Korean, Embarcadero Center, SF.

Banchan. A little weak. I feel like they should be more consistent with their banchan portions. Sometimes you'll go and get 7 side dishes and sometimes 3. It's good for a Korean restaurant to change up the banchan, but still good to have a lot.

Stone wings. The wings changed? I liked these more than last time though, but again, it's confusing to not be consistent. Hopefully this is a change that sticks and doesn't change again!

Pork and Kimchee sandwich. Okay, so the first time I dined here, I tried the entrees and was disappointed. The next time I came back to try the happy hour menu and that was fine. This time I came to try one of the sandwiches! I keep coming back because I really want to like this place! I feel like it has potential.

So, okay, let me just say my dad has been making us Korean sandwiches since I was kid so I'm kind of a self-proclaimed expert. :) This sandwich didn't cut it for me. The bread was boring--bland, dry, didn't add anything and made me want to eat the pork and kimchee with rice. I feel like a nice, buttery, toasted artisan bread would be perfect. And some veggies--it was just pork and kimchee, and not even the best pork and kimchee so yeah.. not my favorite.

The bibimbap was nice. I like the veggies they use, but I think it's completely silly that you have to pay $1 extra for an egg on top, when it is standard with the dish. Also, they don't put enough rice in it--some people might like that, but I don't. Taste wise, it's fine, but it's meant to have a certain rice : everything else ratio.

I'm VERY happy to report that we had a friendly waitress though! I think she maybe worked sales or retail before because she tried to get us to order a million things, which I didn't really like, but she was at least nicer than the previous wait staff. And I don't mean she suggested things saying they were really good, she REALLY tried to get us to over order. It was strange. We didn't though and it worked out nicely. We shared the above three dishes among three people and we were all very satisfied after. But yes, yay for better service!

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