Happy Bear Eats: Anina's Lotus Root

There was a feeling reminiscent to that of a holiday in our own culture - Thanksgiving or Christmas. We stayed up into the midnight hour to prepare our recipes for the following morning's breakfast. There's nothing quiet as comfortable and homey as co-creating a common meal. Music, B-boy dancing, taking turns in the small kitchen space, cutting, rinsing, sprinkling, simmering, mixing, washing, cleaning....

We were determined to re-create some of the amazing banchan dishes we'd tried at our first dinner...bracken root in perilla powder/oil; lotus root in syrup; and a few other dishes: tiny dried fish with peppers in sesame oil, soy sauce, and vinegar; marinated garlic scapes; cabbage in perilla powder; spinach with sesame seeds; the staple rice (we used brown, as its more nutritionally complete); cut up fresh figs; and mussel 'tang' (stew). An incredible breakfast!

We started our mission at the street market. The fleet of us went in search of our planned list of ingredients, along with our invaluable translator, producer and cameraman. We spent quite some time looking for and deciding on the appropriate/right amount of produce. I was aghast, as I never cease to be, at the abundant variety of produce which is still so enticing and wondrous to me even after 8 months of being here, and at the foods I don't know the words to. I stopped to admire the numerous banchan dishes at one stall and a woman offered me a sample of one dish - it was a mixture of back beans, dried banana chips, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, and figs in a thin syrup. She continued to feed me morsel after morsel, seed after seed, until someone else stepped in and relieved me from the tasting ( I was thoroughly grateful, but still full from lunch).

Another exciting moment was finding a vendor who ground perilla seeds on the spot! into oil and powder! So lucky us, we got some.

I made the lotus root dish. Lotus root has intrigued me from the first time we met. A tuberous root at first sight, but when sliced it reveals a beautiful geometrical design inside. Its flavor is starchy and nutty. Its texture is crisp, but tenderly chewy. This root is versatile in its role, and can be eaten as fruit in numerous desserts; as an accompaniment to savory courses; and on its own as a side portion. Often compared to the Chinese water chestnut and similar in versatility to the potato, its high in fiber, vitamin C, some B vitamins, many electrolytes, and minerals.

First I peeled the tuberous lotus root, then thinly sliced it, boiled it in water for about twenty minutes, then drained the water, added soy sauce, brown rice syrup, sesame oil, and a few dashes of apple cider vinegar. Constantly stirred for about half an hour, then kept adding more of the same ingredients to taste. After what seemed like eons of stirring and adding, stirring and adding, I let it sit for the flavors to concentrate overnight. In the morning, all was well and the dish was complete. It was a fair comparison in the end, to the lotus dish we had eaten at the restaurant the first night. The texture was tenderly chewy, starchy, and wholesome. Filling and sweet. Could make a good dessert as well. But it also melded perfectly with the other flavors of the morning. I'm becoming a proponent for foods that combine as many different flavors as possible in one bite. I also realize the importance of simplicity, but there is a time and a place for each. There's something inexplicably satiating about experiencing each sensation of flavor in one meal. Every taste-bud is quenched, which makes me wonder if every organ is also happy....

We had the driver evaluate our dishes honestly and he pointed out that only two of the 6 dishes we made were distinguishable as non-native-made dishes. He was impressed.

It proved to be surprisingly simpler than I thought to re-create such dishes. They are really all quite simple, but it takes taste-testing intuition and some time learning to navigate the markets to bring a desired result to fruition. I would suggest, if you are interested in making Korean recipes, to walk around the markets, ask questions (via translator is best, but a dictionary can also be an invaluable tool), browse recipes online, and don't be afraid to experiment!