The Perfect Meal is with People

We planned it to be a thank you to the production crew and Ziyeon our translator for helping take Happy Bear's plans and make them a reality. Also, it gave Happy Bear team an opportunity for the team members to make their favorite Korean foods eaten on the trip.

To do it required team work coordination and an investment of time for recipes that some in the team were unfamiliar with.

We shopped at the Geureum Market for our products.

This is a timeline of our preparation.

10pm:

It started with the rice. Many people think they can not eat brown rice but I set out to prove that anyone can eat and like it by using an ancient technique back when everyone had to eat brown rice. By soaking it in bacteria culture, the anti-nutritive plant defences are broken down and when cooked it will be transformed into something as fluffy and delicious as white rice but all the nutrition remaining. So we soaked it and put a little bit of makeoli to help break down the anti-nutrients in it.

Then Anina and I started the lotus root. To make the lotus root we boiled the root and after boiling we put it in a pot with sugar syup, soy sauce, and water and started to make a reduction sauce. We stopped it to finish the reduction in the morning.

Andy jumped in and started and made his gosari namul.

I prepped the vegetables for the soup I planned on making. Deciding on the soup that I chose was based on what options were available for us. We set out to eat only ethically raised food so at the market without knowing the origin of the pork or the beef, I settled on the mussels and mushrooms available to make a mushroom and mussels stew.

I prepped the Solomon Seal Tea for the morning.

12pm

We were asleep.

6am

Mike and I woke up. I drained the rice and then cooked it in the rice cooker.

I had to time the soup so it would be finished just before our meal.

I put the lotus root on to reduce and finish.

By 6:30am

Everyone was awake.

I steamed the mussels. Anina helped me to sepparate the mussels and add them to the pot. The vegetables, liquid, spices were added and rested.

6:35am

The lotus root was finished.

6:45am

Mike finished the garlic shoots.

7:30

The production crew started to arrive.

7:45am

The soup is heated.

The banchans is plated by the Happy Bear members and put on the table.

7:55am

The soup is finished.

The rice is plated.

The table is set.

8am

The soup pot is placed on the table.

We started eating at 8:05am. The Korean could tell foreigners made it but they liked it. They remarked that Korean would have added more salt. There were misses to be sure but there were hits as well. But what we set out to do was accomplished. We got together to eat a meal we made together and enjoy each others company.

This is something rarely done in the modern world and is quite a rebellion against  modern western eating style, because we were celebritating food made with a respect for the past. It wasn't eaten at a McDonald's driving in a car or eaten in a TGIF but in a home and eaten with a large group of people. Koreans do this all the time so it seems the perfect food style to represent this respect for the past. From that vantage of the past we believe we can move forward.

                       

                                                                           -Greg

Check out our recipe section for the recipes shown here.

                       

                                  Bellflower Root Muchim                           Gosari Namul



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Garlic shoots by Mike             Sliced Figs

Brown Rice soaked and fermented   and Mushroom and Mussell JJigae by Greg

Pickled Lotus Root by Anina

 









Mushroom and Mussel JJigae

This was a hit at the Happy Bear Breakfast on Day Three of our Trip with the Korean production crew because of its spicy kick. The Westerners would have liked a little less spice for their breakfast, so act according to your tastes.

To make this simple and delicious simple, you will need:

1. 1kg of Mussels
2. 3T of Gochgaru
3. T of Apple Cider Vinegar
4. 10 cups of water
5. 2kg of mushrooms
6. 2 onions
7. 4 cloves of garlic
8. 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
9. Salt to taste
10. 1 medium sized radish cut into 5 cm cubes
11. 5 small potatoes, cut into 5cm cubes

1. Take the mussels and wash them. Sepparate the mussels whos shells are open and dispose. They are no good to eat.
2. Steam the mussells in very little water. In five minutes they will open and be ready.
3. Sepparate the mussels from the shells.
4. Combine all the elements together and cook all together.
5. Eat and Enjoy.

Saemangeum Sushi: A Different Creature for Each Eater

Our last lunch together was at Saemangeum Sushi Restaurant in Gunsan...and I would say the most ornate of all the meals. It started out downstairs in a fresh, bright/bold blue open room housing tanks of various fish, crabs, and sea squirts. Little red and white plastic flags representing different countries hung from the ceiling. It felt quite surreal, as if we had walked up a staircase that stopped suddenly in the clouds, and here was this room. We turned the corner and found the actual staircase which lead us to the restaurant. A couple banners with the logos and photos of KBS and another tv station decorated the wall, which meant good things.

We sat down on cushions on the floor of one of the few private rooms and marveled at the ocean view and the bright, sunny light coming in from windows. A perfect lunch atmosphere.

We were served first a large square platter of various sushi atop mounds of glass noodles and garnished with bright little yellow flowers with red tips, bunches of parsley and wedges of lemon. The only fish I could identify were sea squirt (which I'd been wanting to try for months!), salmon, and prawn, but there were four other varieties as well.

The sea squirt is that little orange-red, spiky-looking sea-anemone-like creature all over markets. I have seen women slicing them open at markets to reveal an inner orange meat similar to the meat inside a mussel. I was always curious but wasn't sure how to cook them. So at the restaurant they had sliced the 'squirt' open so that its outer skin fell in a blanket underneath the separate-cut pieces of raw flesh. The taste was bitter and I didn't want to take more than one as there were only a few pieces there to go around, so I never ended up finding the appropriate sauce to dip them in, if there was one. I think they could have been good had I matched them with a recommended dip, though. I always want to find a way to make an unappealing taste appealing, because I like the idea that everything can taste good, that there IS a way to make everything taste good. But maybe that is just too lofty a thought.

Next they brought out the platter of fish skin gelatin: grey gelatinous squares of pure fat from the skin of a particular fish. I was intrigued with this idea at first and wanted to try it in its pure form although they recommended it be dipped in sauce. They were right. I tried it again dipped in a soy paste. Better, but still not something I could eat more than two squares of. It literally melted into oil in my mouth and glided down my throat with no effort. I asked the waiter via translation about this dish, and he said 'if you eat this you will never need botox.' Ha.

Fish skin gelatin

Then came the side dishes: kimchi, radish marinated in chili sauce, pickled garlic cloves, cooked zucchini, lightly cooked bean sprouts, and sweetly marinated cold, shredded jellyfish salad ('hepari').

Then the raw oysters in a small black and sea green ceramic bowl nestled in glass noodles on a matching square dish, with a wedge of lemon on the side. Yum!

And finally, a delightful, savory, red-sauced medley of thin tentacle mushrooms, spring onions, garlic, various spices, and the most amazingly tender fish I've ever eaten! As opposed to many other restaurants I've been to in the west, where they skimp on fish, this stew was packed with both short and long fillets of fish. I was already quite full, but I had a difficult time putting my spoon down, as most everyone was finished by this point, and there was still fish left in the pot!

Fantastic Fish Stew!

What I liked most about this restaurant was that we got to try a few different fish both in their raw and cooked forms. It was satisfying to be able to taste them in both styles. Different flavors come out, different nutritional properties are available depending on whether it's cooked or not, just as it is with any food.

The beautiful sushi platter (orange creature above is the sea squirt!)

Flat-fish, simple and delicious in flavor - no need for much flavoring

The lunch spread

Flat-fish cooked in a savory chili-pepper sauce

Oysters! Atop glass noodles that apparently weren't for eating.

Saemangeum Sushi Restaurant

군산시 비응도동 62-12번지

063-464-1000

-Anina

Team Happy Bear Cooks: Mike's Garlic Stems

As the point of the whole 1KFTFFF was to help Hansik popularize Korean food, we Happy Bears figured that we ought to supplement our packed eating schedule with a bit of cooking, too. After all, though everyone deserves to be introduced to all the wonders of Korean cuisine, not everybody is fortunate to live close to a Korean restaurant. While we can't deliver to everyone in the world, the least we can do is spread the word.

Andy and Anina have both already posted about their contributions: Gosari (Fern Bracken) and Yeongeun (Lotus Root).

I myself contributed two dishes, both of them quite easy. First off, a very simple salad I learned from my friend Mina, the chef of the weekly "Vegetarian Dinner for the Earth" at my local branch of the Green Consumers Network. Just take a sweet cabbage (단배추, pretty similar to a Napa) and chop it up into chopstick-friendly chunks. Then, make a sauce of perilla oil, perilla seed powder, and salt. Once you've matched the proportions to your preferences, pour the dressing onto the leaves, then mix with your hands, squeezing everything with just enough pressure that the sauce evenly coats and permeates the cabbage, but not so hard that you crush them into a mush. The result: a rich, oily, and yet light salad that fits right in with the sweet, salty, and pungent side dishes around it. Unfortunately, my coworkers were busy cooking and my hands were busy squishing, so I didn't get any pictures of this one.

Second, another one of my favorites: sautéed garlic stems (마늘쫑 볶음). These were complete news to me the first time I tried them, but I immediately fell for their savory simplicity. To get started, chop the stems up into pieces about 1.5 inches long; again, just right to be picked up with chopsticks. Fill a frying pan with just enough water to cover them, then boil for about two or three minutes, just to soften them up. Move them over to a colander, drain out the water, and heat up a bit of sesame oil. One it's warm, drop in the garlic stems, and, if you are a big garlic fan, slice up a few bulbs and drop those in as well. Lightly brown the outsides of the stems, and before they get too droopy, pour in a bit of soy sauce. If you've got a sweet tooth, now's the time to add the sugar. Either way, once the liquid has mostly cooked off, remove the stems from the pan and sprinkle them with sesame seeds - for extra punch, crush them as you sprinkle, as this will release more flavors, in addition to making it easier for your stomach to absorb all the goodness.

That's all! Serve with rice, soup, and other side dishes for a splendid meal.

Garlic stems pre-sauté



The finished product

Also present:



Seasoned bellflower/balloonflower root (도라지 무침)



Don't recall exactly, but this looks to me like 시금치나물 (blanched spinach with garlic and sesame oil)



A bit of fresh fruit. We were lucky to find local figs in the market the previous afternoon.




All the side dishes in one shot! Those are Tanya's tiny little sweet-n-spicyy anchovies in the top-left, a mayo/sunchoke/carrot/cuke salad at top-center, and my cabbage and perilla salad at top-right.



The spread, including Greg's spicy oyster and mushroom soup!

We were truly happy to be able to share our food with one another and with the translator, driver, and TV crew who worked so hard to make our food tour possible. Thanks, Hansik and KBS^^

Mike

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!

Lotus root being cooked

Various banchan dishes

Geometrically-perfect lotus root

Morning's spread minus the brown rice

- Anina
http://happybeareats.blogspot.com/2011/11/meet-anina.html