Korean Megathread Part Du

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Korean Megathread Part Du

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Annyeonghaseyo! The original Korean cooking thread has fallen into the archives and it's about time for a new one. I am going to just steal the OP from it with a few edits because I think it was pretty good and Korean food is the same as it was in the depths of time known as 2013.

Korean Ingredients

One good thing about Korean food is, like Japanese, your pantry staples are pretty much all dried or fermented. They'll keep for ages, and if you don't have anywhere local to buy them you can buy online without worrying about them spoiling in shipment.

Soy sauce. Ganjang (간장) is in all sorts of things, much like other Asian cuisines. In the old thread I was hoping for an effortpost about the different types but it never came. :argh:

I still don't know much about the different varieties of Korean soy sauce. Personally, I don't bother to hunt it down since I don't find it necessary--I use my trusty Yamasa in Korean food as well and it works fine.
Substitutions: Chinese light soy sauce or standard Japanese soy sauce. Do not use anything like Chinese dark soy or usukuchi.

Effortpost!

FelicityGS posted:

Here's a shallow dive on

The Three Main Types of Soy in a Korean Kitchen

There are one billion soy sauces available in Korea, which you'd know if you've ever visited a Korean market and looked at the soy sauce aisle.

Exhibit A: A still I blatantly took from a new story

We are going to talk about the big three varieties that exist--everything else is niche and not typical to most homes. Most homes will have at least two of these three to use.

Soup Soy Sauce/국간장
aka: Joseon soy sauce/조선간장, house soy sauce/집간장

A proper soup soy sauce will be made from a lump of fermented paste (meju/메주) that only used soy beans. It has a much lighter color and tastes a bit more savory. It's the saltiest of all three of the main soy sauces.

In the past, this was the only soy sauce that Korea really used--that's why it's got the alternate names of Joseon soy sauce and house soy sauce. As such, you can actually use this as your only soy if you want, just make sure to adjust down how much soy you use and taste test religiously.

Due to the light color and salinity, it is most often used in soups (jjigae, guk, tang/찌개, 국, 탕) since it doesn't alter the final color much. It also is also commonly used in traditional namul/나물 recipes.

GRAND FROMAGE EDIT: This sounds very much like it's Korean usukuchi, so try that as a substitute.

Brewed Soy Sauce/Yangjo soy sauce/양조간장

Other ingredients can start to show up here. Soy, defatted soy, or flour can all be used to make the base meju; they will be allowed to age and ferment naturally. You can find yangjo soy sauces that were made only with soy or defatted soy; there's debate on which is best, but that's way above my Korean paygrade to dive into the details.

It sits in the middle on the salinity scale, usually.

The special thing about this is that natural fermentation process--it takes much longer to make this compared to the other two. That longer fermentation gives it a much more complex flavour than the other too, and supposedly a sweet scent (my nose isn't that great).

Because those special qualities break down with heat, this is often preferred for dipping sauces, any banchan with no heat or cooking, hui (회/raw fish), and other applications you can think of that don't have heat.

Thick soy sauce/Jin soy sauce/진간장

This is the quicket soy sauce to make, and probably the most common base soy sauce. This is the one similar to your typical staple Japanese soy sauce you probably already have in your kitchen. Since it's made very quickly, with a variety of ingredients, it's the one that gets the most concern on the Korean cooking blogs I follow for being tampered with, and on slow new days this sort of investigation of soy sauces for tampering usually runs.

There's nothing very special about this one. Use it for anything where you're going to be adding a lot of heat, replace it with your Kikkoman if you want, it really won't matter. This one has the least salinity of all the three main staples.

Brands
The two big agreed-on-as-trustworthy brands among Korean cooking (from small no sponsered bloggers up to random public television cooking shows on EBS) are Sempo/샘표 and Chungjungone/청정원*. I think I once saw some English blogger say to never use Chungjungone, but honestly, they've done well when there are random quality control tests by investigators, and I like their jin soy sauce more than I like Sempo's. (I do like Sempo's soup soy and yangjo better though)

You can almost definitely ignore yangjo soy sauce if you want, but I really do recommend a bottle of soup soy sauce if you plan to cook any Korean soups extensively--it really does make a difference to the appearance and taste, and when I finally started using it, I kicked myself for waiting so long.

*this is how they romanize their name, because Koreans give zero fucks about any of the various romanization systems.

Vinegar (rice/apple). Sikcho (식초) is necessary for lots of sauces and dipping. The standard types of vinegar here are rice vinegar and apple vinegar, there are other varieties but these are the two you need. Korean varieties of vinegar are sometimes sweetened, but not as often as other things.
Substitutions: It's rice/apple vinegar, there's nothing special about the Korean varieties. Any kind you have will be okay. I typically use Korean apple vinegar and Japanese rice vinegar.

Rice wine. Cheongju (청주) is used in sauces mainly, the same way it is in other cuisines. It's not really for drinking ever, unlike some of the other varieties. I've never been served it or seen it available. The Korean stuff I've tried has been sweetened, so I stopped using it, I just use Shaoxing since I have it around for Chinese cooking anyway.
Substitutions: Sake or Shaoxing. Shaoxing is closer to cheongju but either works.

Doenjang (된장) is fermented soybean paste. It's pretty salty and sometimes has some soybeans hanging out in it whole, not totally ground up. It appears in a variety of sauces and soups, and sometimes even shows up by itself as a paste for grilled meats.
Substitutions: Doenjang and miso are very similar. You'll want an akamiso for a substitute, shiromiso is too light. Doenjang is more pungent than miso in general.

Gochujang (고추장) is chili paste, and I'd say it's the star ingredient of Korean cuisine. It shows up in loving everything (including many places it really shouldn't). It's made from chilies, soybeans, salt, rice, all fermented together. It's often sweetened a bit as well. Gochujang is used by itself and often mixed with other things in a huge variety of sauces.
Substitutions: There really is no substitute for gochujang, you need to find it if you want to cook Korean food extensively. Last thread I recommended doubanjiang as a sub, but now that I have more douban experience it really isn't similar at all. You can find gochujang online if it's not in a store near you.

Ssamjang (쌈장) is a combination of doenjang, gochujang, and often some other poo poo which is used as a condiment. Typically it's eaten with barbecue, ssam is the name for what you have when you fill a leaf with barbecue and such and wrap it all up, so the name meants it's sauce for that. You can make this at home by mixing things, I just buy it since I can score a half kilo tub for like 50 cents on sale.
Substitutions: None.

Gochugaru (고추가루) is dried hot pepper powder. This is used to spice up things and making kimchi.
Substitutions: I guess you could use any ground up dried hot red peppers but gochugaru is made from a specific species, so I'd find it. For general spicing up of sauces and such sriracha works fairly well with Korean flavors. But again, this is easily found online.

Sesame oil. Chamgireum (참기름) is... oil. Made from sesame seeds. This shouldn't be difficult to find. There are refined ones that are used more for cooking and strong ones for finishing, get the strong finishing kind. There's no difference between the Korean variety and the ones you find in China and Japan.

Kimchi (김치) is kimchi. I'm mentioning it here because it's used as an ingredient in a lot of stuff, as well as obviously being a food in its own right. Kimchi will get its own post.

Dashima (다시마) is dried kelp, used in making seafood stock called dashi (Korean version uses dried anchovies instead of bonito, similar to the Japanese niboshi dashi) as well as eaten. Good dashima should have white powder on it, don't wash it off! That's pure MSG and it's the point of using this.
Substitute: Dashima is just the Korean name for kombu, it's the same thing. Get Korean or Japanese, whatever's convenient.

Saeujeot (새우젓) are tiny preserved shrimps. They're used in sauces and making kimchi. Little umami and shrimp flavor bombs, and they help get the bacteria going in the kimchi I believe.
Substitute: You could use shrimp pastes from other Asian cuisines. Generally everything I've seen with saeujeot, you could just leave them out if you don't have any and it'd be okay.

Fish sauce. Aegjeot (액젓) is the juice of fermented anchovies and such. It's salty and umami and awesome in all kinds of things, you're probably aware of it.
Substitute: Any fish sauce is fine, I've never actually used Korean. Whatever you have works.

Panko. Bbanggaru (빵가루) is a form of bread crumb from Japan used to bread various fried things. It makes a special kind of crunchiness that regular bread crumbs don't.
Substitute: Bbanggaru is literally just panko. No need to search out a Korean variety specifically.

Gim (김) is a sheet of dried algae, different than the kelp from before. You find this everywhere as a side dish, shredded onto rice, put in soup, wrapping kimbap, et cetera. There are different seasonings for this, different sizes, and the bags of pre-shredded gim especially have lots of flavorings like dried anchovies or sesame seeds.
Substitute: Japanese nori is the same thing.

Corn Syrup/Rice syrup/Sugar are used very commonly, because Korea is obsessed with making all food sweet. See just a portion of the corn syrup aisle at the grocery store above. I, personally, never use the syrups and cut the sugar in Korean recipes.

Vegetables

Most vegetables in Korea are either pickled or cooked to death and drowned in sauce. I'm not a huge fan of a lot of them. Pickling will get its own post later since it covers a wide variety of Korean foods, including obviously kimchi.

Common vegetables you will be using in Korean food are the following:

Bean sprouts
Napa cabbage
Green cabbage
Lettuce
Onions
Green onions
Leeks
Garlic
Ginger
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Cucumbers
Hot peppers
Perilla leaves
Daikon

This is by no means a complete list. I've noticed some of the more exotic of these showing up at grocery stores in the US, but it's worth looking for an Asian market. China and Japan also use a lot of the same vegetables, so if you have one of those but not a Korean grocery go check it out anyway.

Meats

Korean cuisine makes heavy use of squid, octopus, cuttlefish, little fish, chicken, duck, and mainly pork. Beef also exists but is expensive as gently caress so it's not used as widely, feel free to take advantage of your cheap American beef and use it more widely. Lamb was once very popular, but the Japanese got rid of it during the occupation and now most Koreans refuse to touch it. Dog meat is less common than it was but my little neighborhood market still has a butcher selling it.

Tofu is also common protein.

Herbs and Spices

Korean food uses no herbs or spices. Cilantro was once popular, but has mostly gone away for reasons I've never discovered, and most Koreans refuse to eat it now. Salt is used, and gochugaru. Otherwise, I have not seen any herbs or spices in any Korean food except the occasional Kaesong grandma who still uses cilantro in her kimchi.

The closest exception is the use of Japanese curry powder occasionally.

Cooking Techniques

Korean food doesn't use any specialized techniques like stir-frying. I've observed little to no technique at all in Korean kitchens�throw everything in a pot at once and boil it to death is the standard procedure for like half the food. I encourage you to use the techniques you already know and ignore any Korean technique advice you see.

The Korean Table

Korean food is served all at once in like a thousand plates. Being the dishwasher at a Korean restaurant must be hell on Earth. Utensils are thin metal chopsticks and a spoon. You eat the rice with the spoon, not chopsticks like you are used to from Chinese or Japanese. You can do whatever of course.

In a typical Korean meal you have rice, which is the main dish. Then there's a soup of some sort. If there's meat or fish, that's a major side dish. Then you have a profusion of other side dishes called banchan. These range from kimchi to namul to jeon to hot dogs.

Korean Recipe Sites

Here is where I'm going to make the most controversial statement: I do not endorse Maangchi. Her food is generally okay, but from my four years of living in Korea I do not believe her food is good. Almost every recipe I have tried from her is off from how things taste in Korea, and not in a positive way. It's not terrible but it's like mediocre diner food. There are some exceptions--her japchae recipe is flawless and I fully support it--but in general I would not use Maangchi as your primary source.

So far, my favorite English language Korean cooking site is https://www.koreanbapsang.com/ I found it fairly recently and have made several recipes from it, all of which were right on with what I expect from Korean food.

Please post any others you've found and they will be edited in.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Jul 14, 2019

# ¿ Apr 5, 2019 01:07

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 12:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Before I get it changed, I'd like to acknowledge I'm a dumbass who hasn't posted a thread in so long I forgot about tagging it properly.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2019 01:21

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

There's a bunch of different daikon cultivars too. I think I'm growing three or four in my garden this year, I'll effortpost about them in like October or whenever they've grown and I can give some comparisons.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2019 04:27

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Catfish Noodlin posted:

I've found a source of soju, and I've purchased a couple fruit vinegars from a local market but they all have this sickly-sweet artificial sweetener flavor to them.

That's just how soju is. Industrial ethanol and artificial sweetners. Are you sure the cocktails aren't using fruit juice to dilute and hide the soju flavor?

ntan1 posted:

I have every Japanese staple in existence in my house (with rotating vegetables) and extremely easy access to Korean staples. Let's say I buy Gochujang, Gochujaru and Soybean paste - is that enough to get started?

Yeah those plus Japanese staples will cover most of your needs.

ntan1 posted:

Anything special techniquewise (I mostly cook Japanese and Chinese food)?

Not really. The Korean cooking flow chart is:

Is it edible?
Yes
|
Boil it for an hour

No
|
Boil it for an hour

One of the big advantages of doing it at home is you can not overcook things to death like a lot of restaurants and families in Korea do.

The only special thing I can think of you might actually want is a dolsot, a stone/ceramic pot used for serving soups and rice still hot and sizzling. You can't get the crispy rice at the bottom of your bowl without one.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2019 15:28

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Eeyo posted:

Huh, is most soju sweetened? The one time I tried it it was just straight alcohol, basically no flavor.

I've never tasted non-sweet soju except for traditional Andong stuff, which was more of a rotting vomit flavor.

It's possible you got shochu, which is Japanese liquor made from various things like sweet potatoes and sometimes sold as soju. Shochu is okay and makes good cocktails like lemon sours, while soju is deeply offensive to me.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2019 03:18

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I don't know if it has a different season, but the kimchi vegetables always showed up in the markets around the same time in late fall. Napa, mu, daikons.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2019 23:43

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I did some jeyuk deopbap. One of my favorite things to get at gimbap shops and only recently did I manage to make a decent version.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2019 23:32

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I dunno, that one stumped me. I've never seen or heard of it before.

# ¿ May 2, 2019 22:57

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Likely forever. It's good unless you see mold on it. Traditionally kimchi was made in November/December and buried in pots to be eaten the entire year, if that helps. I've never seen it go bad.

It will continue to get more sour, which is either a feature or a bug depending on your tastes.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2019 00:46

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

It's much better since the commercial varieties of ddeokbokki are always way too sweet and flat. Very easy to make. You want garaeddeok preferably, the cylindrical stuff. The slices are usually for soups. Ddeok is ddeok though so get whatever and go hog wild.

Fry thin sliced onions in a pan along with some garlic. Add dashi, either the Korean style from anchovies or powdered Japanese stuff is fine. Once that comes to a simmer sauce it up. You can start with a 3:1:1 ratio of gochujang/gochugaru/soy sauce and adjust it however you like from there. In Korea they will usually add a poo poo ton of sugar and rice or corn syrup at this point, I do not since gochujang already is sweet enough imo. Up to you. A little bit of sugar as a flavor enhancer is okay. I usually add some vinegar since I am a vinegar whore. Then your other ingredients--fish cakes, cabbage, and the ddeok is the classic combo but you can add more. Hard boiled eggs, boiled and drained instant noodles, fried mandu, whatever.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2019 01:52

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I never noticed any difference between different brands of Korean gochujang. I can't remember anyone ever discussing it. Haechandeul, Sunchang, and Saempyo are the only big commercial manufacturers I think.

I have been unimpressed by non-Korean gochujangs I've tried but I've never tried anything US made.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2019 00:04

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Extra sauce freezes fine for super lazy ddeokbokki. But it's not exactly time consuming, the dashi flavor is supporting at best so powdered is just fine for it. Gochujang is so overwhelming when put on delicate flavors you could probably just do water with some MSG in it and get the same results.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 06:39

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

paraquat posted:

Anyway, I made jjajangmyeon, according to Maanchi.
I liked her ingredients, but I did not like the outcome of the dish.
Apparently this poo poo needs a lot more salt (and gochugaru....yeah, I know.....sorry)

If it was gross then you made accurate jjajangmyeon.

:boom:

# ¿ Aug 21, 2019 20:01

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

If you're making sushi you add vinegar/sugar to the cooked rice. Basic guide: https://www.justonecookbook.com/sushi-rice/

However this doesn't apply for Korean food, gimbap just uses plain white rice. I find that boring and use vinegared rice when I make it, but that is not traditional.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2019 18:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

paraquat posted:

Actually, the rice in gimbap is flavored with salt and sesame oil.
It's not only really tasty, but it makes the rice easier to work with as well.

I'm sure some people do this but it's not normal. Sesame oil is brushed on the outside of the roll when it's finished, but it isn't mixed with the rice. And everyone I ever cooked for in Asia was horrified I salt my rice but they are wrong, salt is good.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2019 05:13

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Dunno what to tell you. I lived in Korea for years and ate a whole lot of gimbap, never encountered it made with sesame oil mixed into the rice. I usually asked for no sesame oil brushed on top so I would've noticed unless they were using such a tiny amount it wasn't possible to taste it. But like I said I find the plain rice boring and am in no way against altering that. Gimbap isn't exactly fancy rulesbound food, if you have stuff wrapped in rice and nori it's gimbap.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2019 17:33

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

That Old Ganon posted:

expensive beef and boil it for 40 minutes.

This is pretty Korean, to be fair.

That Old Ganon posted:

There's an H-Mart maybe 15 minutes away from me. When I was stocking to make a Korean-ish pantry, I had to ask an employee where to find doenjang. I had no idea how to pronounce it and I showed him the word from the book. He goes, "Doenjang! Oh, doenjang? Are you sure?" I tell him yeah. He shows me where it is and says, "Everybody loves gochujang, you should get that. Are you sure you want doenjang?" What he pointed out to me was exactly what I was looking for and I nodded at him. He says, "It's right there. Uh, good luck" and walks off.

I had no idea H-Mart was such an authentically Korean experience.

That Old Ganon posted:

I've tried gochujang once and the spiciness caused what I made to be inedible; I read it could be kind of sweet, though. I'm wondering if there is a brand that might be milder and sweeter than what my roommate gave me.

I believe there are different spice levels but it is chili pepper paste, it's all going to have a little heat. All of it is fairly sweet. I'd just try using less, basic gochujang isn't particularly hot and you aren't going to be able to go down from that, only up.

That Old Ganon posted:

Other than gochujang, I think I want to try making my own kimchi. I had one once at a restaurant that wound up being sweet and tangy, and I'd like to try to emulate that.

Try looking for recipes for Japanese kimuchi instead of Korean kimchi. Japan is not exactly a chili pepper land and their version of kimchi is less hot and more sweet. Tanginess is just dependent on how long you leave it to ferment, the older it is the more sour it will get.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2019 03:38

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

It shouldn't, it's more that simmering/boiling flattens out the flavor a lot. So you use a more generic soy sauce like a Yamasa for cooking and save your fancy double brewed stuff for uncooked finishing sauce or dipping sushi or whatever.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2019 01:53

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

If it's not fuzzy, it's fine. It gradually gets more sour but it doesn't go bad.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2019 03:39

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I use gochugaru but honestly it's not a super distinct flavor like the dried Sichuan chilies or anything, should be fine. Get 'em online for next time though!

E: And I think I mentioned it but for purely adding hot without changing things, sriracha's garlic heavy heat blends very well with Korean flavors.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2019 22:07

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Post some loving Korean food you jerks.

Butcher had short ribs on sale this week. lovely picture on my lovely Korean phone of some tasty gigantic galbijjim.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2020 02:15

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Kimchi bokkeum is the easiest simple alternative to eating it straight, just toss kimchi in a pan (no oil needed) and cook it for a while. Tastes totally different.

Kimchi's a good addition to a Japanese nabe too.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2020 17:33

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

If you don't like vinegar, sweet, or gochujang you've eliminated like 95% of Korean food. This is almost as wild as the person I met there who refused to touch fish, pork, or rice.

I'm really not trying to be a dick but I am curious what you're eating that's Korean and doesn't involve any of those flavors. Just barbecue I guess? There aren't any Korean sauces I can think of that don't involve at least a bit of sugar, though there are ones where the sugar is there only as a flavor enhancer and the final product isn't sweet.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2020 17:44

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I have no idea what Korean chili powder would be if it isn't gochugaru. Can you post pics of it? If it has a Korean label we can figure out what it is.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2020 00:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Huh. No idea, I'd guess it's just finely ground gochugaru? It does come in coarser and finer versions.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2020 01:47

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I don't think there's any real difference. Chopping it first makes it way easier to deal with when you're going to use it later.

# ¿ May 4, 2020 22:07

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Make Korean food.

I made a haemul kimchi sundubu jiigae. Leftover grilled mackerel, fish cakes, shrimp. It was very good.

The rice looks a lil weird because it was a pack from the freezer.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2020 01:17

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Another common place they appear: https://www.koreanbapsang.com/dak-galbi/ This is one of my favorite Korean things and is very easy to throw together for a weeknight meal.

But basically all of the white cooking ddeok are interchangeable. They're the same material in different shapes. Koreans will use the specific shape for the specific dish, but if that's what you got then it doesn't really matter if they're stick form or flat and round or whatever.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2020 17:39

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Looks better than any bibimbap I ever saw in Korea. An authentic bibimbap is too wet rice with vegetables that have been boiled to death and smothered in so much sesame oil they taste of nothing else, left to get cold, then a splorch of straight gochujang in the middle. Then you sigh and are sad.

# ¿ May 17, 2021 05:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Zombie Dachshund posted:

Wow... what gives? I�ve never been to Korea but I�ve had bibimbap tons of times in the US and it has always been pretty great. It�s one of those things you�ll see even at Korean-owned diners, next to pancakes or burgers or whatever, and it�s reliably tasty. So why is it bad in Korea?

Assorted reasons. One is what FelicityGS said, at most restaurants bibimbap is just on the menu so they have some way of disposing of trash. You really have to go to a specialty dolsot place if you want something that isn't terrible. That's a factor too, I find a lot of people outside Korea don't understand that bibimbap and dolsot bibimbap are different and think that all bibimbap is dolsot. Dolsot is better. Most bibimbap is not dolsot.

Also, anyone who's lived in Korea is likely to have an aversion to bibimbap because about 10-15 years ago, Korea decided that bibimbap is the food foreigners like and started pushing it hard. Full page NYT ads and such. So when you live there, you're constantly being given lovely bibimbap because you're a foreigner and bibimbap is the food for foreigners, right? It gets real old. And IMO even a good bibimbap is one of the least interesting Korean foods, so there's no situation where I want it.

If you're making your own, I can imagine it being good. I can't imagine ever ordering or making it personally. I've had enough. Please don't take it as critical if you love bibimbap, go for it. But if you go to Korea some day do not just order bibimbap at a rando restaurant, find a specialty place.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 17:27 on May 17, 2021

# ¿ May 17, 2021 17:15

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Nothing I can think of that wouldn't be weird. I'd just drain off the excess liquid, it's good added to marinades and stuff.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2021 22:27

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Probably. And as you noticed, gochujang doesn't taste right. Dunno what country you're in but if it's the US ordering gochugaru online is easy. It's dried so it's no problem to transport by mail. It's used a lot, not just in kimchi, so worth having if you're going to Korea.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2022 19:35

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

https://www.amazon.com/Tae-kyung-Ko...129&sr=8-2&th=1

This should be fine.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2022 22:12

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 12:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

OgNar posted:

So what ways would I use that paste i got?
Think this was it.

https://www.amazon.com/Chung-Jung-One-Gochujang-500g/dp/B013HB0CC4/

Honestly I don't know how to answer this because so much Korean food uses gochujang. It's like asking how would I use salt. My advice is to head over to https://www.koreanbapsang.com/ and browse around for things that look good. Avoid Maangchi.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2022 18:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Korean Megathread Part Du