Korean cooking: Bibimbap

While we were in Korea, we had a lot of great food, but my favorite was bibimbap. I didn't have this at home a lot when I was growing up, more of a simpler version of just rice with a couple additions. When I had the full blown dish, I was hooked. I've been looking forward to making it at home. It's not difficult... there are just a lot of separate bits to prepare.

Bibim means "mixed" and bap means "rice". Add in toppings - it's ideal to have at least five different colors of toppings, some gochujang - red chilli paste, bbq beef and a fried egg.

For our bibimbap I made spinach, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, and bbq beef. I added some kimchee I had in the fridge too. I mixed the gochujang with sesame see oil, sugar and garlic for a little sweetness. My fried egg was a little over cooked but I'll work on that.

The entire thing was mixed heartly and eaten with a long handled spoon. Delicious.

I had dolsot, stone bowls to serve the bibimbap in but I didn't heat them up to make dolsot bibimbap. If you heat the bowls, the rice gets nice and crispy on the bottom. I'm not sure if I can heat the stone bowls on our glass stove top, I need to do some research on that first. Hopefully next time I make it I'll have it figured out.

Seoul Markets & More Food

I loved visiting the markets in Seoul. Namdaemun Market was my favorite. (Am I going to regret not getting one of these pillows?)

The colors were like eye candy. And Aaron enjoyed the bargaining.

Look at this shop! One of everything please!

The market also seemed to be a great spot to grab a bite to eat.

Grab a seat and they will cook it right up for you.

So much to choose from.

Radish kimchee to go.

Everyone keeps asking what happend to her other arm.

Spicy!

Besides the food in the markets, there was intriguing street food. Roasted chestnuts.

Roasted corn.

These weird extruded cones filled with ice cream.

We saw these everywhere.

We sampled lots of sweets. Like this green tea waffle with ice cream.

Ooooh honey!

Ice cream topped with honeycomb!

Patbingsu which is shaved ice topped with sweet red beans and fruit.

I spotted this Peggy Pies shop but didn't get a chance to go back and try it.

Look at those drinks!

Speaking of drinks I loved this iced bubble coffee.

We had to try this cane juice.

Aaron said "It's so healthy!" LOL. Very interesting.

I had to try some chips. I love trying potato chips in other countries. Spicy!

So much food, so little time.

Food in Korea

After a lifetime of eating my mom's Korean food and hearing her stories of food in Korea, I was pretty excited to eat on my trip. Once I was served this delighful bibimbap on the plane, I knew I was off to a good start.

Well, okay AFTER I ate this very American but very delicious brunch.

This was actually more of a snack. Tteokbokki (spicy rice cake), jeon (pancake) and japchae (noodles).

One night we had BBQ. Thank goodness for the giant tube sucking away the hot air and smoke while we grilled up our food.

I love how you get lots of little things in dishes to try.

Another snack we stopped for at a street vendor. We just pointed at things and she served it to us.

Some of the best food to be had.

Gimbap and mandu.

And on our last night... a traditional meal. Bibimbap and...

Jeon and bulgogi.

Perfect meal for our last night in Korea.

Oh but wait. There was the plane ride home where I was treated to ssambap... rice and hot sauce (and in this case bulgogi) wrapped in lettuce. Seriously I have never had such good food on a plane.

N. Seoul Tower & Love Locks

We spent an evening visiting the N. Seoul Tower. The tower is described as a communication and observation tower but it seemed to be mostly a full-on tourist spot.

Seoul Tower was built in 1969 but not opened to the public until 1980.

We rode the Namsan cable car up to the top of the mountain to the tower. It was a little foggy but we still had a decent view.

Much like I've seen in Germany and Switzerland, there were locks of love hung everywhere on the Roof Terrace.

They even built special trees to hang locks on once the fence was filled.

We added one to the fence and also one to a big heart sculpture. Now we have locks across the globe!

Korean DMZ

My dad, a history buff, upon hearing we were going to Korea, suggested that we visit the Korean Demilitarized Zone - DMZ. I wasn't too sure and the travel pamphlets looked intimidating but my mom assured me it was perfectly safe.

So we traveled north to the DMZ. The DMZ is a zone north and south of the 38th parallel north that is sort of a no-mans-land that acts as a buffer between North and South Korea. Each side guards against hostility from the borders.

We stopped in Imjingak to see the Peace Bell...

And the Freedom Bridge. It is an old railroad bridge that POWs crossed, returning to freedom after the war.

There are flags and messages pinned to the barricade at the end of the Freedom Bridge.

This steam locomotive was badly shot and left behind by the North Koreans.

We visited the Third Tunnel. Four tunnels dug into South Korea by the North Koreans in an attempt to invade have been discovered. This is the third one. The last one, the Fourth Tunnel was found in 1990! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but we were able to walk down an incline into the tunnel to the first of three barricades that have been added.

North Korea claims it is a coal tunnel and there is charcoal "painted" on the walls as proof.

Aaron was pretty cranky after that excursion. He was too tall and kept hitting his helmet on the top of the tunnel.

At Dora Observatory you can typically see over to North Korea but it was too foggy to make out much. From this spot you can see the North Korean propaganda village - a fake uninhabited village designed to attract South Koreans to the North.

There was this line where you were not allowed to cross and take photos.

Our last stop was Dorasan Station. This rail station was built with the idea that someday North and South Korea would be reunited and one could travel north beyond this spot. But for now the trains from Seoul stop here.

Basically it is symbolic of hope for the future. No one boards a train heading north here.

I am glad we went to the DMZ. There is so much history to be remembered and it's so interesting. We could have gone to the JSA (Joint Security Area) in Panmunjeom but we had to sign up for it three days in advance and missed our chance. Next time.