Kkaenip pesto pizza fresh from the oven. (Tamar1973 photo) I went crazy in the kitchen again. After working a 10-hour shift at work — yes, I got paid overtime — I was insanely hungry. My frazzled, work-worn brain decided to experiment on my dear husband again. Pizza seemed to be the simplest dinnertime option. There…
Obsessed with OB Beer?
For the man in your life who enjoys Korea’s OB beer, these OB Bottlecap cufflinks are a unique expression of your man’s love of his favorite Korean beer. Creator lorenallen explains their construction as, “These South Korean bottle cap cufflinks are set in a combination of glue and silicone. The bond is extremely strong and…
Help LiNK win $250k from Pepsi to help North Korean refugees
“…LiNK seeks to establish Liberty House, a six-month to a year transitional housing program which will provide newly arriving and recently-arrived North Korean refugees with critical assistance such as food, clothing, shelter and medical attention as well as a safe, nurturing and positive environment and community; while providing other development services (job training, career counseling,…
The 12th day of tteok: Gungjung tteokbokki (Korean palace rice cake)
새해 복 많이 받으세요! Today is the Lunar New Year, or Seollal (설날), in Korea as well as most of Asia. Our 12-day tteokbokki sauce recipe countdown has come full circle to Gungjung tteokbokki, which is the royal Korean court version of tteokbokki. Thanks to the Korean TV drama Dae Jang Gum, this dish has…
The 11th day of tteok: Ottogi curry tteokbokki
As our 12-day tteokbokki (떡볶이) sauce countdown to the Korean New Year nears an end, we consider a Korean-Indian fusion curry sauce developed by Korean food company Ottogi in the late 1960s. Koreans have put their own spin on curry and consume a lot of it. Today, I’m featuring Ottogi’s hot curry paste in a…
The 10th day of tteok: Hawaiian tteokbokki
As we head back west across the Pacific on our 12-day tteokbokki (떡볶이) sauce recipe countdown to the Korean New Year, the next stop is Hawaii. America’s 50th state is also the first place many Asian immigrants settled in the 19th century. Hawaiian cuisine is synonymous with Asian fusion cooking as immigrants from Japan, Samoa,…
The ninth day of tteok: Buffalo chicken tteokbokki
(Tamar1973 photos) Anchor Bar in Buffalo, N.Y., is the undisputed home of Buffalo chicken wings and the next stop on our 12-day tteok recipe countdown to the Korean New Year. The bar’s sweet, fiery sauce is often imitated, but never duplicated, at least until the Anchor Bar decided to start bottling the sauce in large…
The eighth day of tteok: Texas-style BBQ sauce with tteokbokki
If Koreans are the kings and queens of Far-East Asian barbecue, then Texas reigns supreme over American barbecue. So we’re visiting the Lone Star State for the eighth day of my 12-day tteokbokki (떡볶이) recipe countdown to the Korean New Year. With heavy Spanish, Czech and German influences, Texas barbecue is bold and full of…
The seventh day of tteok: Chicken in mole poblano tteokbokki
For today’s installment of the 12-day countdown to the Korean New Year, I’m bringing tteokbokki (떡볶이) to the new world, first stop in Mexico. Due to the labor-intensive nature of traditional Mexican mole sauces, I am not going to make this mole from scratch. The mole that Americans recognize is mole poblano. Wikipedia says, Mole…
The sixth day of tteok: Beef Bolognese tteokbokki
(Tamar1973 photo) Today’s tteokbokki (떡볶이) recipe as part of my 12-day countdown to the Korean New Year keeps us on the Italian peninsula by using Bologna’s famous sauce as the wardrobe for the tteok noodles. When I lived in South Korea, I did not know much about cooking. My cooking skills were limited to grilled…