Saturday, November 1, 2008

yesterday's budae-jjigae

Below are three pics of yesterday's budae-jjigae-- the first time I've made the stew in America. It was fortunate to pass muster with the Korean work crew, and even Mom-- who was originally grossed out* by the concept when I first told her about it a few years back-- ended up liking it. The huge amount I'd made is all gone now, except for a tiny bowlful.

You can read about budae-jjigae here. Take the origin stories with a grain of salt; there are so many myths and legends surrounding the beginnings of this stew that it's hard to know whom to trust on the topic. Almost everyone seems to agree, though, that the bizarre fusion of American crap (spam, hot dogs, and fatty ground beef) with traditional Korean stew ingredients had something to do with the Korean War.

What ingredients can you identify?











*Many Korean immigrants who came to America following the Korean War have not kept up with culinary trends on the peninsula. I grew up, as a result, with a very traditional idea of Korean food, and that's why I was freaked out, when I first settled into a job in Korea in the mid-90s, to discover cheese kimbap. Since then, I've been exposed to all manner of good and bad East/West Korean fusions, and it's amusing to be able to relay my discoveries to Mom. Mom, for her part, has been brought up to speed regarding most of the recent culinary trends, as many aspects of la cuisine coréenne actuelle appear on her beloved Korean cable dramas. She's quite happy we have cable again, by the way; the Verizon guy did most of the installation yesterday, and will be back for a followup visit on Monday morning.


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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spam, hot dogs (puss rockets),manul (garlic), pa (green onions), dubu (tofu), ohee (cucumber), yang pa (onion), shrooms ($$$), kim chee, baechu (cabbage), eihter parsely, chilantro or that tasteless stuff I can't name, and there has gots to be gochujang (hot pepper paste) in there somewhere...

Do I win?

Kevin Kim said...

Curtis,

Good guesses! Mostly correct, except for parsley/cilantro. It's a vegetable called "sukkat" in Korean; don't know the word for it in English (Charles translated it once for me, I think), but either it or "minari" can be found in most budae-jjigae recipes.

The gochujang appears very clearly in the second picture, where it's a massive, dark red lump in the center, along with the lighter-red lump of ground beef.

You win. I don't know what you win, but you win.


Kevin

Kevin Kim said...

Oh, wait-- I should also note that it's not o-i (cukes), but hobak (squash).


Kevin

hardyandtiny said...

The interesting thing about budaejiggae is there are no oils.

Kevin Kim said...

Hardy,

No oils... unless you count spam grease.

As for the ability to procreate: yeah, there's some Korean proverb about a man's balls dropping off the moment he enters a kitchen. Bleh... so I'm not manly by traditional Korean standards. So what? Then again, neither are the male fashion-slaves of the Dongbang Shin-gi/Lee Jun-ki crowd.


Kevin

ZenKimchi said...

Good job on the Budae Jjigae, my man.

Kevin Kim said...

ZK,

Thanks. Mom said it wouldn't have worked without her help. She's never made budae-jjigae before, but she might be right: it was her suggestion to use chicken stock instead of water, and I think that made a substantial difference.


Kevin

Unknown said...

I believe I translated "ssuk" for you before: that is commonly known as mugwort, or sometimes artemisia (generally when used as a medicine; from the scientific name Artemisia princeps var. orientalis). "Ssukgat," despite the similar name, is actually an entirely different plant (Chrysanthemum coronarium var. spatiosum), commonly known as crown daisy or garland chrysanthemum.

Now you know (and knowing is half the battle).