I found these growing in one of the common areas of my housing development last week after a few days of intense rain. The recent rains had given them something to drink, and they had quite the growth spurt. I don’t know what kind of mushrooms they are. I didn’t pick them and I certainly…
Recipe: Dakkalbi curry soju spaghetti sauce
Last Thursday (Oct. 22, 2009), I enticed my dear husband into the kitchen by his nose with the smell of dakkalbi sauce (used in Korean barbecued chicken; see also this post on the Chuncheon wings video). It’s a characteristic smell of Chuncheon, our Korean “hometown.” But when he looked down at the skillet, instead of…
World Pasta Day
Warning: Eating too much of the wrong pasta can make your butt this wide! People all over the world enjoy a good celebration. If there’s no legitimate historical or religious event to celebrate, we just make up holidays for anything and everything. Here’s an example: October 26th is World Pasta Day, which is supposed to…
Bibimblooper: Beware of broadcasting your culinary ignorance
I was reading a review in the Boston Globe about a new Thai restaurant (“In Norwood, Mint Cafe’s tried-and-true Thai dishes shine“). Google’s Korean food news search pointed this Korean food fanatic to the review. The Thai restaurant offered some Korean dishes. The reporter and I wanted to know why. “The customers want a variety,…
Green tea extracts may slow smokers’ lung damage
Stock.Xchng A new study suggests that daily consumption of a green tea extract from Lung Chen tea may slow the damage of cigarette smoke in the lungs. The animal-based study, led by Judith Mak from The University of Hong Kong, was just published in the journal Respiratory Medicine. What was the cause of the tea’s…
Biology of bouquet: Why do some wines smell like latex, grass or limes?
How does your nose know the difference? (photo courtesy of Stock.Xchng) I will state for the record that I am not a wine connoisseur, even though I write occasional posts about wine and food pairings. My interest in wine is superficial and purely amateur. However, I enjoy reading wine reviews and watching some of the…
A send off to Korea
We had a going away party for a friend who’s leaving for Korea today to start his English teaching adventure. Of course, we had food: pizza, chips, salsa, and kimchi. I sliced up a Korean pear for an appetizer as well. But the most important food to have at a going-away party is dessert and…
Kimchi in the news: Kimchi Love Festival
Notice the dancing daikon radish and Nappa cabbage greeting visitors at the Love Kimchi Festival 2008. The Seoul Museum of History is hosting the Love Kimchi Festival on Oct. 24-25, 2009. This year’s theme is “Design With Luxury Kimchi.” I’m guessing the emphasis will be on the kind of kimchi common during the Joseon (Chosun)…
Wine tasting with friends in Sonoma County
My friends and I got together last week for an informal wine tasting party. It was a blind tasting — the bottles were wrapped in paper bags — with a couple of basic rules: This was a red wine party; no white wines allowed. There was no limit on price. With these very basic rules,…
Green tea may ease mental distress
Atsushi Hozawa from the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine published a study online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which stated, Drinking five cups of green tea per day may reduce the incidence of psychological distress by 20 per cent, says a new study from Japan. In a study with 42,093 Japanese individuals…