Korean Traditional Snacks

Korean Traditional Snacks or Han-gwa are always present on special occasions like Chuseok (Thanksgiving Day) and Seollal (Chinese New Year) specially when there's Jesa or when the family holds a ceremony for the repose of one's ancestors. Korean traditional snacks are included in the sacrifices offer for the death.

This box of hangwa is a gift from hubby's friend and because we don't practice jesa at home, we brought to my in-laws who always do jesa at home.



The long ones on the corner of the box are like pop rice. They are soft and sweet. In the middle of the right side are grains. They are a little bit hard and crispy. The brown ones on the middle left side of the box are too sweet and glutinous.

They are just snacks but the price is surprising. They are one of my favorite snacks.

Delicious and Nutritious Polvoron

I'm not saying it's the best because I made it. I can say that it's the best polvoron because it's the most delicious polvoron that I've tasted, so far. Do you know why? It's because I made it so special. It's my own version of polvoron.

It's just the same procedure with the yummy polvoron that I made last time. But this time, instead of peanuts, I put ground cornflakes instead. It's crunchier so it's more delicious and nutritious. I put less sugar because cornflakes is sweet and I put more skimmed milk powder and less flour.

Here's what I made. Yummy!

I'm telling you! Once you start to eat my best polvoron, you can't stop eating it! It's alright to eat much because it's nutritious.

Make Yummy Polvoron

My friend sent me a pack of skimmed milk powder from the Philippines. A pack contains 3 1/2 of glasses. It has been almost a month now and I just had the half of glass so I searched on the internet on what I can do with the rest of skimmed milk powder. I found out that I could make Polvoron, a famous and delicious candy in the Philippines.

According to the recipe that I saw, I needed some flour, sugar, butter and skimmed milk for my ingredients so I went to e-mart to get some butter and sugar. I was also looking for pounded rice flakes (rice stamped flat) but I couldn't see any so I put peanuts instead. Here's the ingredients needed for polvoron. I forgot to take a picture of the flour because it was in the fridge.

It's to easy to make polvoron. Just put some flour in the fry pan and wait until it is brown. When it's brown or cooked, put in a big bowl and mix with sugar and skimmed milk powder. Melt the butter in the oven for 30 seconds and pour it in the mixed sugar, skimmed milk powder and flour. Mix well until it is well combined. Then put grounded peanuts. Voila! My Yummy Polvoron!

Btw, I put half of the butter, 4 spoons of sugar, a cup of flour and a glass of skimmed powder milk. I was about to put two glasses but one was enough. It was so yummy!

I didn't wrap mine but if you want you can wrap yours using cellophane wrapper.

Pizza and Cheese Spaghetti

It's another lazy weekend so it's another food that has been delivered at home. Pizza and Cheese Spaghetti. My hubby always says that it's not good for our health but sometimes I have to choose the food to it. I always yield for the food but sometimes my hubby asked me what to eat and he allows me to order what I want.

While thinking what kind of pizza to order, I saw the cheese spaghetti looks delicious in the picture so I decided to order the set of pizza and spaghetti. I've just made carbonarra spaghetti last weekend but this cheese spaghetti looks yummy so I craved for another kind.

Here's the pizza. I only had a slice and three slices for hubby.



I had most of the spaghetti. My hubby doesn't like spaghetti much.

Yummy Homemade Korean Sherbet

We were bored and couldn't sleep so we took a walk and on our way home, we saw a bakery and decided to have cheese cake and patbingsu or Korean sherbet. We were so disappointed with the $5 sherbet because it tastes like ground ice with condensed milk, a little rice cake and beans. So when I went to the supermarket, I decided to buy sugared beans and kernel corn in can. I put some milk in the freezer and let it froze. Then I ground the frozen milk, if you don't have grinder, you can use fork like I do. Put the frozen milk in the big bowl. Let it melt a little so it will be softer and easy to prick with fork to make ice sherbet. Then put some condensed milk, sugared beans, kernel corn and cereals. That's it! The yummy homemade korean sherbet or patbingsu is done!

Home-made Carbonara Spaghetti

Carbonara is my favorite spaghetti but not my hubby. My hubby doesn't like spaghetti much so when we go to the restaurant, we rarely order carbonara spaghetti because my hubby thinks it's greasy.

When I went to the supermarket, I decided to buy carbonara sauce and spaghetti noodles so I made some at home.

My hubby said he doesn't want to eat some so I only made a plate of spaghetti for me. Doesn't it look yummy? I put some sausages. It doesn't look and taste the way I expected but at least I had some and made it by myself.

Here's the steps that I made. I put the noodles in a boiling water with salt. While boiling, I fried the cut sausages and put a half of jar of sauce that I bought in the supermarket. After a few minutes, I put the noodles and mixed in the sauce. That's it! Just as easy as that! Come on! You can also make it! You don't have to spend too much at the expensive restaurants when you can make for less than $10 for two or three people.

M & M Chocolates in Korea

My hubby has sweet tooth that's why he loves chocolates. When I go to the supermarket, chocolates is always in my list. I used to love chocolates too but not anymore not because I'm afraid of gaining wait but because I'm tired of eating them. Now a days, my hubby enjoys eating M&M chocolates so I always have to buy two types of them. The plain and the peanuts flavor. Instead of snacks, he eats chocolates while watching TV.

I remember when I was young, I always longed to eat chocolates and when I buy even the cheapest and not yummy one, I felt very happy. M&M's were the ones that I always wanted to have even the fake ones. But now, I can't eat much chocolates and I don't think they are delicious at all.

I always go to the big supermarket which is just across our apartment building and there are lots of different kinds of food from local to imported that's why for me chocolates, snacks, and desserts are not special anymore. It's just because I can buy anytime I want. Maybe if the supermarket is far from us, eventhough I crave for them, I can't buy and eat them because of my laziness to go to the market. But everytime I go down from my apartment, the supermarket is always in front of me, that sometimes even when I have nothing to buy, I just go inside and it attracts me to buy something. Sometimes, I'm shy to get inside and go out without anything on my hand so I buy at least chocolates or snacks which make me tired of eating them now. But I have to buy always because when my hubby doesn't want to smoke, he eats something instead of smoking so we must have them at home.

Home-made Spaghetti

It's my first time to make spaghetti at home. I never tried to make before. First, I don't know how to make sauce. Second, I don't know which sauce in the supermarket is better. Third, my hubby doesn't like spaghetti much. But I think it's time to make spaghetti because the guy next door gave us this 3 bottles of Rose Spaghetti Sauce. He was going to another City and my hubby was kind to drive him to the terminal so he gave the sauce to him with some of some grocery products.



I bought sausages and spaghetti noodles the next day so I made spaghetti. I can say that it's not bad at all.



I realized that it's not hard to make spaghetti at home. It's so easy. Just boil some water and put some salt. When it is boiled put some noodles and wait for 10 minutes. Remove water from the noodles and put some olive oil on the fry pan, fry sausages and put some sauce. After few minutes put the noodles and mix well. That's it! As easy as can be!

Dunkin Donuts in Korea

Of course there are also dunkin donut shops in Korea. Last time, I invited my hubby to go downtown because I was craving for donuts. Because it's just few minutes away so we went there to find out that the store was already closed. The dunkin donut shop was changed to ice cream shop. My hubby wondered if the reason was about the news that they used ingredients that is not good for our health. He wondered if all the stores were closed because of that. After a few weeks, we went to the train station to pick up my in laws. They were tired so instead of driving, they took the Korean bullet train or KTX. I was so happy to see the dunkin donut store at the station so I bought 6 pieces of donuts.

No matter what they say, I still love donuts. And I'm glad that I found a store near my place. Yummy!

Noodles with Beef and Vegetables (Seogogi Chapchae)

Noodles with Beef and Vegetables (Seogogi Chapchae)

Ingredients: A 1/3 lb. beef, 2 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. green onion, 1 clove garlic, black pepper, 1 tbsp. sesame oil.
B. 1/3 lb. Chinese noodles (tangmyon), 1 1/2 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. sesame salt
C. 1/3 carrot, 2 oz. bellflower roots, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 round onion, 5 dried brown, oak mushrooms, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, 1/2 bundle watercress
D. 1 egg, 1 stone mushroom, pine nuts

Method:
1. Using tender beef, cut it into thin strips and let it stand in the A seasoning sauce.

2. Cut the carrot into thin strips and fry it lightly adding salt in an oiled pan.

3. Scald tghe bellflower roots in boiling water and shred them finely. Fry them lightly adding chopped garlic and salt.

4. Halve and cut the round onion into thin strips and fry adding salt.

5. Cut the watercress into 2" lengths and fry lightly adding salt.

6. Cook Chinese noodles in boiling water until soft and rinse in cold water. Cut them into 8" lengths and mix with sesame oil.

7. Fry the marinated beef with the dried mushrooms and sprinkle with sugar and soy sauce.

8. Stir-fry the #6 moodles seasoning to taste with soy sauce, sugar and sesame salt. Combine all the prepared ingredients thoroughly and season with the sesame oil, black pepper and MSG.

9. Place the #8 mixture on a plate and farnish with the egg youl strips, stone mushroom strips and pine nuts.

Hint: 1. When stir-frying each ingredient, befin with the light-colored ones. Fry the beef and dried mushroom last.
2. Add the watercress later so as to keep the fresh green color.

Tuikim (Fry Food)

When we had a vacation in Australia, we usually had meals at a Japanese restaurant. I like sushi and hubby like the Tempura (Fried shrimps and potato). So when we came back here in Korea, i bought some shrimps, potato and flour use for frying. I tried to cook Tempura (Tuikim) but i failed the taste and texture. Since then, i never tried to cook tuikim anymore.

When hubby said that he wanted to eat Tuikim, I checked the books where the name of the restaurants and phone numbers are listed. They are advertisements of the restaurants near here and we use them when we order some food. Luckily there is this Tuikim restaurant listed so i ordered this.



Fried broccoli, fried rice cake, fried shrimps, fried sweet potato, and fried crab meat. And the sauce with cucumber and radish pickles.

Banana ice cream

I always buy bananas because i use them when i make juice in the morning. We usually drink fruit and vegetable juice*** in the morning. Sometimes i have to throw away some over riped bananas. That's really a waste. Bananas here are expensive here because they are delicious bananas that are imported from the Philippines.

One of hubby's favorite fruits are bananas but i don't like them much so he has to eat most of the bananas. My mother in law always tells me that bananas are good for our health so i have to eat bananas too. Did i say that i don't like bananas? Well, i love ice cream, anyway. So, here's a tip for you in order not to throw away those rotten bananas. Put a stick (skew) and wrap the bananas in a plastic and put them in the fridge. There you go! You already have an ice cream. It's yummy! It tastes like a banana ice cream. Here's the picture of my banana ice cream. hehehe...

Stir-Fry Rice Cake (Ttokpokkum)

Stir-Fry Rice Cake (Ttokpokkum) "똑볶음"

Ingredients:
A. 2/3 lb. rice cake,
B. 1/4 lb. beef, 1 tbsp. soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. green onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 tsp. sesame salt, 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
C. 1/4 lb. carrot, 2 oz. bamboo shoots, 3 dried mushrooms, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 cup water
D. 1 tsp. soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp. sugar

Method:
1. Cut the sticks of rice cake into 1 2/3" lengths and divide them into lengthwise quarters. Scald in boiling water and rince in cold water.

2. Cut the beef into thick strips and season it with the B ingredients. Cut the carrots, bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms and cucumber into 1 2/3" long, flat rectangles.

3. Fry the seasoned beef in a pan until cooked and add the vegetables, rice cake and water and bring to a boil. Season with the D, sugar and soy sauce and stir well.

juippo and squid legs

When we went for a drive last week, we dropped to the downtown because we were craving for this octopus and squid legs. But we were upset when we knew that they only sell this legs at night. Oooh no!

We were still thinking of the squid while driving in the county so on our way home we dropped by downtown again to get this legs.



Hubby also bought this juippo.



When we came home we rented a dvd and watch the dinosaurs movie. We slept while watching the movie. Although we like cartoons but this dinosaur is not fun to watch. Anyway, at least we enjoyed the legs eventhough we didn't enjoy the movie. hehehhe..

Kimbap (rolled rice)

We always skip breakfast but we usually buy kimbap when we go out in the morning. One day, we saw on tv that some restaurants who are selling kimbap used rice from China. Since then, my hubby told me not to buy kimbap anymore.

I missed eating kimbap so i've tried to make by myself. Here's how i made it.

Prepare eggs, ham, pickled radish, seasoned burdock, crab meat, roasted laver, tuna and mayonnaise.



Fried the eggs and cut into long strips. Put the ingdients in a plate.


Tuna and mayonnaise are optional. But of course it makes the kimbap more delicious.


Pour a little amount of sesame oil into rice and sprinkle some salt.


Spread the rice onto the laver and put all the ingredients on top then roll.




Cut the rolled rice and serve.

Patbingsu

Summer is over and I think it's not the right time to post about this korean sherbet called Patbingsu. I had it at the bakery in front of my apartment building with my hubby during the summer and just now that I saw the draft on my blog.

We were bored so we decided to go out but lazy to take a walk so we decided to have patbingsu instead. Although it was the same franchise store that we had in Seoul but this Patbingsu is more delicious because its more ingredients.

The one that we had in Seoul doesn't have kiwi and watermelon like this.



Thanks for this recipe, the next time that I make patbingsu at home like the one I made here, I'll also put some watermelons and kiwis. Yummy!

soondae

Soondae is a pork sausage filled with sweet rice and sweet potato vermicelli noodles. It is a food made of pig intestine and blood. It is a traditional korean snacks sold by various restaurants as well as street vendors. It is eaten with a mixture of salt, ground pepper and kochukaru (korean chili powder) or chokochujang.

ice cream

Summer is here. What i like most in summer is because i can eat ice cream. And in summer, ice cream is always on sale in the mart. Those aloe vera flavor is $1 each and the rest are mostly 50-70 cents. Well, would believe that i bought all of them for only $3? Except the one in the cone. If i'm not mistaken, i bought that for $1 or 80cents.

cornflakes and milk

Hubby and I are night owls. He's always running out of time in the morning so he doesn't have time to eat breakfast. I just give him cornflakes and milk or sometimes fresh fruit juice. We love this almond flavor and because hubby doesn't drink milk so i buy this black soybeans milk.

chicken (red combo)

When i'm tired and lazy to cook dinner, i always asked hubby what he wanted to eat. That means, we have to order some food. We have this book of the restaurants in the neighborhood with the telephone numbers. These restaurants are mostly chicken or chinese restaurants. When we look at that book, we always come up choosing to order chicken. Now a days, the red combo from kyochon is our best choice. Red combo are chicken legs and wings. It tastes hot, sweet and tender. Koreans don't think that chicken is a side dish. They eat chicken first, and eat rice and soup after having the chicken. Hubby doesn't eat rice after eating chicken. See that chicken in the box? If i don't mistakes, maybe i only eat 2-3 pieces of legs. Hubby can eat all the rest so there's no more space for rice.

Oh! by the way, everytime we order chicken, it always comes with a can of cola and pickled radish.