Some questions...
1. For a normal korean lunch/dinner at home (2 adults & a preschooler), how many dishes are there on the table?
2. What do you cook if you have a preschooler at home? I seem to have the impression that most korean dishes are spicy.
3. How much banchan does a korean mom make in a day, since they are consumed in a large variety but small quantities. Plus there are only 2 adults in my family. And vegetables don't keep too well right?
Thanks!
hello red,
when i was growing up:
1. if it was just rice and banchan, it'd be about 3-4 banchans, frequently including one of the simpler stews/soups. some meals, like kimbap, there'd only be a simple soup or nothing else besides.
2. this site has some non-spicy recipes...i also remember eating a lot of sauteed/steamed vegetables, toasted/oiled/salted seaweed sheets, different fish dishes, other non-spicy soups/noodle and rice dishes, as well as spicy foods. sorry, don't have the recipes (why i need maangchi).
3. guessing 2?
I would say the typical healthy korean meal consists of first of all a bowl of Kimchi, Rice, Fresh Soup, about 3-5 side dishes and a entree. An entree can be things Maangchi posted like stir-fried squid or bulgogi (something that can be eaten WITH rice, rather than separately.)
In turn, the side dishes typically serve to accommodate the entree. But in regular meals, an entree is not needed but is recommended unless your family gets sick of eating the side dishes by itself.
Hope it helped!
keep it simple, kids are kids and they won't eat anything they can't identify i.e. fancy things.
i lived mainly on rice, kimchi, kongnamul and kim. some kind of soup was always in the middle in a big bowl, most time doeanjangguk, and i could eat it or not.
when my mom felt lucky, she would throw a fried egg or meat or fish on the table, but one of the big hits for me would be and still is kimkim-bab, short for kimchi-kim-bab, just plain bab and kimchi rolled in kim.
under reader recipes, i posted my all-time-fav-dish. maybe this kid will like it too.
anything else (my mom is a great cook) i didn't try until i was forced too and as far as i can judge (i have numerous little cousins and nephews in all ages), this hasn't changed for korean kids.
this would be my tips...
what a lot of korean recipes out there don't show are the home style soups that korean families often eat. they are often very simple and light.
soups
kong na mul guk 콩나물국, been sprout soup
mee yuk guk,미역국 , seaweed soup
gogi guk/gom tang/etc,고기국/곰탕/ , beef broth soup
shigeum chi guk, 시금치국, spinach soup
moo gook,무국 , radish soup
for my family there would always be at least 5 banchan with a soup, or a jjigae or a tang. occasionally there would be some kind of meat dish like bulgogi, or kalbi, or some kind of fish fillet.
I second samyoowell's post as being very accurate, in relation to my experience.
For myself, if I recall growing up, on a good day there'd be about 3 banchan that I liked (ex. kimchi, stir-fried dried anchovy, stir-fried fish cakes) and then like 2 or 3 other side-dishes that I wasn't too attracted to, and so I avoided.
Then we each got a fist-sized bowl of rice, and a fist sized bowl of soup or stew (Sollongtang, kalbitang, Soft tofu stew, Jjamppong, or my favorite Rice cake soup). On the weekend or something, we might grill Kalbi or bulgogi or spicy pork bulgogi (with fresh lettuce wraps), in place of, or in addition to the soup/stew.
On a slumm'n day when mom was a slack'n, there'd be just rice and like 1 or 2 banchan, and then a side dish of salty beef or mandu dumplings.
I remember being a kid bratting-out and crying for a BigMac on the way home, and then upon sitting down at the table, me with my McD's, and my parents with korean food in front of them, I'd suddenly realize how bland my dinner was in comparison, and so I'd eat just a few bites of my Mcdonalds, and grab a bowl of rice, so I could eat the Korean food instead.
dance_hermitage.jpg (28.6 KB, 392 downloads) 3 years old Thats really funny RonPaul!
Thanks for the insight everyone!
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