unchienne

I like to have at least three banchan, one kimchi, and one soup on hand. When I make soups, I usually make a lot and then freeze half a portion to eat at a later time. My favorites are miso cabbage, soybean sprout and sour kimchi, or kimchi-chigae (with pork, tuna, Spam, or canned mackerel).

For the banchan, I like to have small anchovy stirfry, seasoned tofu, and my current favorite is Maangchi’s miso collards. A lot of my banchan are protein based though. I need to start trying out some more vegetable ones.

And I always have cabbage kimchi on hand.

I’ve ordered both and actually ended up throwing the Tae Kyung one away. My mother recommended it because apparently the name reflects a region of Korea prized for its chili powder, however I was looking for one with a lot of spice and it was a sad disappointment. The other brand listed, I really like. I got the hot version, and it lives up to the hype. Very, very hot and a little goes a long way. Plus, I like that the texture is a bit more fine than the other as I don’t like chomping down on flattened pieces of waxy pepper skin.

Recently my mother got me some homemade peppers, which are amazing, but I still use the one listed as chonnga because I really enjoy it.

I hate when this happens. I’ve gotten rice weevils before, and I attribute it solely to the fact that I purchased from our small, local market who probably had it sitting around a while. Since that one occasion, I’ve always purchased rice from a larger store with higher turnover, or I wait until they restock their products and buy on the day of.

Online might be better, but any product is susceptible if it hangs around long enough. If it’s a little-used product, I doubt buying online would bring more success. However, sweet rice flour is fairly well-used in both Korean and Japanese cuisine, so yeah…I’d probably go online or go to a larger Asian market that restocks this item frequently. I’ve used both Koamart and H mart online, and both were very good. A word of wisdom for H mart though. In small print at the bottom of your order when you’re confirming everything, there’s an option to allow substitutions if your item is not in stock. It’s set to “allow” as the default. You’ll need to change this if you want what you ordered. They say they’ll send out a comparible item, but I’m choosey about things like my gochu powder and doeang jang.

Oh my goodness. I’ve never seen or heard of Korean duck soup before. It looks delicious. I wish I spoke Korean, so I could translate for you.

Matthewop, why do you have an advert as your sig. It seems to be really close to what I would consider spamming. I see you have it on all of your posts.

As per the original post, I couldn’t find much more beyond what gnard shared, but it does look like the variety we’re all familiar with is the “Korean Purple.” It’s got that purple-ish skin and the sweet, chestnut-like flavor. A company called Mericlone labs sells cuttings of various sweet potatoes, and they refer to the Korean one as the Korean Purple…so that is most likely its recognized name.

I just love these. My mom likes to eat them raw. They taste sort of like raw chestnuts when eaten that way, which we also do. I can’t figure out which I love more though, the sweet potato itself or their delicious stems. Yummy as banchan, and divine when my mother adds them to her crab stew.

I have this problem too. Wish I read Korean characters. For the time being, I sort of do a taste test each time I run out, however, most of them have been too dark and have too strong of a roasted flavor. I had some tangjang-jigae with a lighter colored beanpaste that was out of this world, but haven’t been able to find which type she used (can’t ask her as it was just a casual friend of my mom’s who has since moved away). Maybe it was homemade.

I did see some new tangjang in the refridgerated portion of BHFM. Came in a large gallon size jar and was very light in color (looked homemade), but I didn’t buy it b/c I couldn’t read the label and tell if it was just tangjang or made for some other purpose. Next time I’ll be braver. ;)

I’m not aware of any health benefits to the roe. Some roe have decent amounts of vitamins and good fats, but there’s nothing specifically in roe that can’t be found in other meats or vegetables. More than likely, your friend’s advice stems from the fact that roe is part of the urchin’s reproductive system. A lot of cultures attribute healing properties of animals to corresponding body parts and systems in humans. For example, claiming bull penis will increase your sex life, consuming meat from large predators will give you strength, or drinking turtles blood will grant longevity.

There have, however, been talks about tofu helping with menopause because of the presence of plant-derived estrogen.