떡볶이 Tteokbokki~ Korean Spicy Stir Fried Rice Cake

November 2014. Do you know Tteokbokki and Kimbap is a perfect combo? Beside assorted deep frying food~ another favourite way of eating tteokbokki is with kimbap. Tteokbokki is one of the Korean street food that I often made at home~ it can be prepare easily with the ready made sauce or simple home-made sauce. Besides the common tteokbokki, there are also Cheese Tteokbokki, RaBokki (Ramyeon + Tteokbokki) and GungJung TteokBokkI (Sweet Soy Sauce Tteokbokki) that is popular among the Koreans. I will share these three types of Tteokbokki next time when I make it. 

Ingredients (2-3 Servings)

1 pack of Rice cake (400 grams)

1 pack of Tteokbokki ready sauce 

Korean Fish cakes 

1 medium size Carrot

1 small size Onion

1 stalk of Green Onion 

Or, make own sauce if you dont have sauce ready pack: 

2 Tbsp Gochujang 
1 Tbsp Gochugaru 
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Sugar (or Corn syrup)
1/2 Tbsp Fish Sauce

How to Cook:

Step 1. 

Slice the onion, juliennne the carrot & thinly chopped the green onion. I am using different type of omuk here and I cut it into half to bite size as I prefer. If you are using the traditional type of omuk that comes in sheets, cut them into similar length and size as your tteok. 

Step 2. 

Give the tteok a quick rinse to remove any excess starch, then soak them in water while you preparing other ingredients. This step can help to reduce the stickiness and prevent tteok clumping together while boiling.

In a pot, place the rice cakes, fish cakes, sliced onion, carrots and sauce. Add enough water (about 2 cups of water at 480ml) or enough to cover all the ingredients. then bring it to boil. 

Step 3. 

Let it boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the rice cake turn soft and the broth turns thicker, add in chopped spring onions then it is done.

Besides kimbab, I also prepared deep fried Korean dumplings to be eat together with Tteokbokki. We like to eat the kimbab by dipping it into the tteokbokki broth to let it coat with some sauce before put into mouth.

  

  

Happy Sunday Brunch~ Bread Fruits, Desa Sri Hartamas

October 2014. Had a happy brunch at Bread Fruits on Sunday and I love their salmon toast very much! This fruit & bakery cafe in Desa Sri Hartamas always pack with customer especially weekends. Beside selling fruits, the cafe is also famous with serving natural & healthy food, with quality ingredients such as fresh fruit and vegetables, variety of organic dried goods, free-range eggs & wild black honey from Pahang! Have been keen to try up since I hear a lot of good review on them from neighbours.

Our brunch - SatisFry Up @ RM23.80 serve pork sausage or bacon, eggs scrambled or sunny-side up, sautéed mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, mashed potato and arugula, served with rye toast, and a choice of tea, coffee or fresh fruit juice of the day. We get orange juice today and I top up the coffee to cappuccino with extra charges of RM2. The Smoked Salmon Avocado Sandwich @ RM19.80~ is made with smoke salmon, avocado, arugula, capers, onion and home-made lemon cream sauce. I like the nutty flavour coming from arugula and caper. The sandwich serve with salad too which consist of baked potatoes, tomatoes slices, arugula, sunflower seeds, and savoury dressing. A happy Sunday brunch.

Korean Dessert Cafe and Bistro Namoo On The Park , Publika

Super late dinner at Namoo On the Park, Publika - a Korean fusion cafe and bistro. Order a Bibi Rice burger where the burger buns is made with seasoned Korean glutinous rice and gim (seaweed laver), combine with cheese slice, grilled chicken breast patty, a sunny side up (egg), tomato slices and lettuce, served with fries, kimchi and salad. It taste like Kimbab due to the rice bun seasoned similar to Kimbab's rice. Grilled Prawn Aglio-olio sauteed as we loved pasta nowadays. And a Korean Soya & Honey Ttuk Bok Ki as dessert~ a non-spicy version Tteokbokki. The tteok has been slightly pan-fried before put into the soya sauce mixed with honey~ The cafe has nice environment, it's outdoor seating is next to a mall children playground (where the facilities design is futuristic), good for parents who want to have their meal while the kids can play.  

부산 기장시장~ Gijang Sijang, Busan

September 2014. Since we are not able to visit Jagalchi Market yesterday due to massive jam and no parking (it's Chuseok long holiday), we visits Gijang Market instead at this morning before leaving Busan to Jeju in noon. Gijang market is seafood and fishery market, also widely known as King crabs market! There are both outdoor and indoor fishery market selling not only seasonal seafood but also agricultural products such as dried anchovies, seaweeds, Korean side dishes and even clothing are available just like other traditional market in Busan. Currently cutlass fish and flower crab is in the season - autumn, we just had flower crab dwenjang-guk as our breakfast this morning and it is yummy! 

As Gijang is not a big city like Busan and not many foreigner tourist like us visit the market for sightseeing, few seafood seller ahjuma around the entrance actually not so welcoming and scolding us for taking photos instead of buying. Just stop taking picture to respect them if you encounter this. There are many friendly sellers at the back that very welcome you to have a look and take many pictures if you want. If you happens to visit Gijang while you are in Busan, don't miss out to taste the King crab or snow crab here in Gijang Sijang. 

부산 해운대 송정 청솔와송횟집~ Busan, Songjeong-dong, Cheongsol Whasong Hwejib

September 2014. Busan Day 2~ Haeundae > Dongbaekseom > Dalmaji > Songjeong. From Dalmaji, we came to Songjeong-dong, another end of Haeundae to have seafood dinner together with my in-laws family. It's a seafood matjib serving Korean raw fish~ 회 Hoe (read as Hwe in Korean). Songjeong dong is well known with Songjeong beach. After pass by Songjeong beach, continue to drive along the coastal road you will find quite a few of sashimi restaurants line up along the way. While waiting for my in-laws family coming over, we chill-out at the rocks at the seaside since it is low tide. There are locals fishing and some trying to catch those small crabs running between the rocks. My brother in law manage to catch a crab with the disposable chopsticks. After show it to the kids, he let it go back to the rock.

It's my family first time trying the Korean raw fish~ freshly killed and fillet in thin slices upon order. Usually it is decorate in a round flowery shape on a plate, serve together with cho-gochujang, ssamjang and soy sauce with wasabi. Fresh greens such as lettuce and sesame leaves is serve as well where you can eat it as ssam. Besides Hoe, also serve along are steamed sea snail, raw shrimp sushi, hot plate grilled enoki mushroom, kimchi, pickled radish and seaweed soup. Besides that we also order 장어구이Jangeo-gui (charcoal grilled eel). There are two ways of Korean grilled eel~ one is Sogeum Jangeo-gui (salted eel) where the eel is cleaned and salted before grilled. Another one is Yangnyeom Jangeo-gui (red sauce grilled eel) where the eel is first grilled till it is cook, then dip it in red sauce then place it on the aluminum foil which is ready on the side of the grill net. Let the eel that coated with red sauce continue to cook until sauce become thicken and absorb into the eel before eat. End of our day 2 with local Busan seafood delicacy as dinner.