Blog:
Chinatown shopping list
I went to Chinatown this afternoon. It was a very exciting and pleasant visit as usual. I bought these items.
Chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, air vacuumed sticky corn, green onions, Asian chives (buchu) shrimp, thin noodles, Chinese black bean sauce, a can of bamboo shoots, and fresh pork belly! And a dozen live blue crabs!
I cooked the chestnuts and tasted them after my dinner and they were very sweet and delicious! The live crabs are in my freezer! Sorry crabs! Tomorrow, I am going to make “gae jang” (salty crab side dish).
Oh, I love China town and Chinese sellers, too. One seller was very funny even though his English was poor.
Me: how much is this?
crab seller:…. tting tting shawa … (It sounded like that)
Me: Why this crab is more expensive than that crab? (Price tag was on the basket of crabs)
crab seller: … pause .. “boy!”
Me: haha, boy crab is more expensive than girl crab?
The crab seller and I were laughing loudly because we exactly understood the jokes!
Sushi
I made this sushi using the fish on the left (forgot the name but it’s pickled and tastes is like mackerel), avocado, seasoned and cooked eel, laver (kim: nori). I bought these fish at a Japanese grocery store.
On the lettuce, the red stuff is a pickle that I made with beets. Its actual color is very beautiful, but the photo did not seem to show the beautiful color. Anyway, I enjoyed this sushi a lot. It’s very simple to make. I made a wasabi and soy sauce mix to dip it in.
Maangchi is in Joongang Daily
I was interviewed a few days ago by Ms. Jinhwa Jo (조진화) who is working for Korea Joongang Daily News in New York. She let me know the article is already on today!
You may not understand what it says because it’s written in Korean.
It’s all good things about me! Check out my face! I interviewed her, too! : )
My jjajangmyun recipe is updated!
Hi, Everybody,
I think I should let you know that I updated my jjajangmyun recipe.
I made my jjajangmyeon by following my own recipe a few days ago because a few people pointed out their jjajangmyeon turned out too bland.
I exactly followed the measurements in the recipe and found out some were wrong! I don’t know what happened to me when I wrote down the recipe! If you stick to my video recipe, you might not have noticed anything wrong, but those who followed my written recipe closely would have found the measurements were not clear.
Before I started my cooking video recipe stuff, I had never used universal measurements such as cups, teaspoons, table spoons… I used just my spoon. I still don’t use measurements while I’m cooking my everyday meal. I use measurements only when I make videos. It’s actually difficult for Koreans to measure cups and tbs exactly because some sticky ingredients like hot pepper paste or bean paste are not easy to scoop.
Fortunately I’m getting more accustomed to measuring these days.
I corrected the recipe and already updated it on my website, and also edited the podcast and video to make it clearer. But I can’t do it for YouTube because it doesn’t allow us to replace a video.
I hope those who bought my books read this blog. I will correct the cookbook too.
Anyway, I corrected this:
from 6 cups of water to 3 cups of water
from 2 tbs of black bean paste to 6 or 7 tbs of black bean paste (in the video, I used 2 big spoonfuls of black bean paste which is amount of 6-7 tbs!)
Thank you Linda and Jen! Without your comments, I probably would never have found that I wrote down the wrong measurements.
5000th subscriber
I’ll never forget the moment of joy when I got the first subscriber for the first time on YouTube. “Oh my god, someone approves of my cooking ability!” From that time on I felt like I shouldn’t disappoint her! :)
Yesterday I eventually got 5,000 subscribers on YouTube! My 5000th subscriber was Sarah living in California. I decided to blog about her. I sent her email to ask whether or not she wants me to blog about her.
“My name is Sarah and I am 16 years old. I am currently a junior in high school and I work part time in a Sanrio store. The only time I eat Korean food is when my friend cooks it for me. I love the taste of Korean food and instead of always bugging her to cook for me, I decided to learn how to make some for myself :] . Even though I know how to cook Filipino food, I wanted to impress and please my parents with newly acquired cooking skills … hehe… This is when I came across your channel, Maangchi! yay! Unlike other Korean cooking tutorials, you make things very easy to understand and I adore your personality! I have learned a lot from your videos and I’ve recently tried some of your recipes, too (although i still need to work on them >_<). hehe. I'm looking forward to learning more from you, Maangchi!
Tokyo Mart
I was so happy to find this store yesterday. It’s at 91 Mulberry St in Chinatown. The closest subway is Canal St.
I saw many Korean ingredients (hot pepper powder, paste, seaplant.. etc) sold at a cheap price. They even have the short grain rice that I eat! I bought some dried noodles and Chinese egg roll skins.
I love to hang around this area. When you get out of the store, the street vendors on the sidewalk are selling all kinds of fresh vegetables at a tremendously cheap price. I bought a bunch of Asian chives for $1!
Lunch with Mila
Mila was my guest for my next video, maeuntang. She brought some food with her, and we had lunch with maeuntang, some side dishes, and what she brought.
In the front is kong namul (soy bean sprouts) and gaji namul (eggplant). Center is beets, kimchi, and ge jang (crab). Behind that is carrots and maeuntang.
We had a great time, and we were so full. The maeuntang video is almost ready, watch for it soon!
Lower East Side Pickle Festival in New York
I went to Lower East Side Pickle Festival a while ago. People brought their homemade pickles made with so many different kinds of vegetables. It was a hot steamy day, but the tasting of the free sample pickles was enjoyable. Some pickles were not well made, so its taste was kind of soggy. Pickles should be crunchy!
Look at this picture that I took. The girl in the center wearing hat hiding half of her face looks so cute. She was like fresh pickle on that day for me.
Jenny’s daughter Jia Xin
Jenny , living in Singapore, is one of the most passionate students of Korean cooking. She made jja jang myeon (black bean noodles) for her family. Her daughter Jia xin loved it. Jia xin reminds me of myself when I was young. When I had jja jang myeon, my face around my mouth and even around my nose used to be covered with black bean sauce. Jia xin looks so cute! She will remember the taste of her mom’s jja jang myeon when she grows up. I love you Jia xin!!!
