This time our Korean Food Fan is Mr. John Frings, originally from The Netherlands and now living in Aruba with his family. Aruba is in the southern Carribeean Sea, and I asked him if there are any Korean grocery stores on the island. This is his answer:
“Korean ingredients are hard to find here but we order from H Mart in the US or from stores in the Netherlands, and let our friends bring them here for us. We have lots of Chinese people and supermarkets here, so the more common Asian ingredients are no problem. Even though I’m in no way Asian, I cook almost exclusively asian food for tens of years now. I discovered the Korean kitchen through you website, and me and my wife are loving it.”
Check out his stunning photos of bibimbap and gungjungddeokbokki! Running my website gives me a lot of happiness, and a big part of that is meeting many wonderful people like John, cooking Korean food for his family.
What is your name and where do you live?
My name is John and I live in Aruba. Originally I’m from the Netherlands
Tell me about the first time you ever tasted Korean food. Where were you, and what did you eat?
About two years ago I bought myself a Korean cookbook and started to make some Korean food. I used to cook Asian food most of the time, mostly Thai food.
How often do you cook Korean food following my recipes?
When I discovered Maangchi’s site, I tried many of her recipes. They all turned out great! I also found other Korean recipes on the internet but I follow Maangchi on Facebook and Twitter and use her recipes many times.
What are your favorite Korean dishes? Choose 3, please!
My favorite Korean dishes are bibimbap, kimchi fries and dakbokkeumtang.
What’s your best Korean dish, the one that everybody compliments you on when you make it?
My favorite dishes are also the ones that I’m best at.
Caramelized kimchi with bulgogi and vegetables
Yes kimchi fries are french fries with a topping from caramelized kimchi and bulgogi. You’ll find lots of recipes for it on Google. I use the topping also for other dishes. It’s delicious !
That bimbimbap looks Divine!
Wondering like MYS what kimchi fries is – the caramelized kimchi you show in the second pic?
Beautiful! Really impressive looking food there, Mr. John Frings! Are “kimchi fries”, basically kimchi over fries?