Extra soft tofu soup, soondubu jjigae, is the most popular recipe request I received from people. It was amazing to get so many requests. This proves that many people from the world like this soup. The broth is spicy and matches great with the extra soft tofu. With the same basic seasonings as this soup, you can choose your own variety. You can use only beef, or clam. You can also use both as I did in this recipe. The kimchi is optional. I’m very happy with this recipe, so I hope you like this too.

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• SaRangHaeYo (사랑해요) = I love you.
• JoAHaeYo (좋아해요) = I like you.

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The Korean beef side-dish Tteok GalBi is a very tasty dish that is a good representative of Korean food flavor. Tteok means sticky rice cakes and galbi is a marinated Korean meat dish. However, you will find out that there is no sticky rice cakes in this recipe. So then, why it is called “Tteok Galbi?” The original Galbi dish uses beef or pork ribs. Tteok galbi has a similar taste with galbi, however, the texture is like sticky rice cakes because it has ground beef and other vegetables in it. Many people love bulgogi or galbi. The soy sauce and sweet flavor mixed with garlic, green onion, and sesame oil makes this dish very flavorful. This recipe can have a strong garlic or onion flavor, so if you don’t like them much, you can reduce the amount. It will be a good dish for a party.

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• AhNae (아내) = Wife
• NamPyun (남편) = Husband

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It is porridge time again. Ya~~~ Sometime ago, I posted Korean style chicken porridge, and many people wanted to know how to make more Korean style porridge dishes. Today I will post beef and vegetable porridge. If somebody gets sick, or doesn’t have a good appetite, this is a good dish to try. I hope you will enjoy this recipe. I will post more porridge dishes later. Thanks!!!

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• YaChae (야채) = Vegetable
• Ssal (쌀) = Rice

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Today, I will show you how to make a type of Korean style DeopBaps. As I said, there are many different kinds of DeopBaps in Korea. Wait, you will start to wonder, what is DeopBaps. hehe… It is a Korean word for a certain type of dish – If you serve some food (usually cooked with different kinds of meat, vegetables, and sauce) on top of rice, and you mix the rice with the food before eating, we call that kind of dish, DeopBap. The SoGoGi DeopBap that I’m going to make today is a non spicy type of DeaopBap. The beef has bulgogi flavor, and there are many kinds of vegetables in this dish. Later, I will post different kinds of DeopBaps. See you soon again~~~

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• DeopBap (덮밥) = The name for the Korean dish which has vegetable and/or meat sauce on top of rice that gets mixed together before eating.
• BeoSeot (버섯) = Mushroom

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Bulgogi is a very popular marinated Korean beef dish. When you make too much bulgogi, and can’t eat it all at once, what will you do with it? Recently, someone asked me if she can reheat the bulgogi later. I told her to put some of the uncooked marinated beef in a freezer bag, and put it in the freezer for a quick meal later. It still tastes good and it is very easy to prepare since it’s ready for cooking.

Today, I will show you another use for excess bulgogi – bulgogi stew. Use some of the uncooked marinated beef and sauce for this recipe. Just adding some added vegetables and noodles will result in this quick dish. Of course it’s very yummy also. Since I already posted how to make bulgogi before, I will skip that part and post a link to it instead. Here are the instructions.

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• TtukBaeGi (뚝배기) = Name for a clay pot

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MiYeok Guk is a popular Korean soup. Korean people eat this soup not only during normal days, but also for special days like birthdays, weaning days, etc. Seaweed has good nutrition in it. (“In Oriental medicine, seaweed has been used for blood purification, intestinal strength, skin, hair, reproductive organs and menstrual regularity” from Wikipedia). So, it is common practice that Korean moms eat seaweed soup for many days after they birth their babies because Koreans believe that this seaweed soup gives nutrition to both mom and baby (the baby gets milk from mom). Maybe, that’s part of the reason why Korean people eat seaweed soup on their birthday, but then again, maybe not.

There is a funny superstition that some people consider seriously about seaweed soup: The fresh or soaked seaweed has a slippery surface. One Korean word for slippery is “미끄러지다,” which can imply that somebody will fall down. Some people try to not to eat seaweed soup near an important testing day because they don’t want to get bad luck from eating it – as to fall down, drop, or fail the test. I personally don’t believe it, but just wanted to share this humorous culture with you. Today, I posted a beef version of seaweed soup, but depending on your taste, you can use tuna can, clam, mushroom, or make it without any other meat. When I have chance, I will post different kinds of seaweed soup later.

Video coming soon…

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• MiYeouk (미역) = Seaweed

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Read the rest of Beef Seaweed Soup (소고기 미역국=SoGoGi MiYeouk Guk) (218 words)

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TteokGuk is a traditional Korean new year soup. Korean people celebrate the Lunar New Year, and this soup is the main dish in that holiday meal. On New Year’s morning, we wear HanBok (Korean traditional clothes) and greet (bow) grandparents, parents, or relatives. Older people give a blessing for the new year to their children along with some money called “SaeBatDon” (새뱃돈)”. After greeting the older people, family and relatives eat breakfast together. The meal will have New Year’s soup, different kinds of vegetable dishes, fish, jeons, japvchae, galbi jjim, and so on. Since Koreans calculate their age according to New Year, and not on their birthday, eating the bowl of New Year soup on New Year’s Day means becoming one year older. It might sound like a crazy idea, but we joke about it. I don’t want to eat more than one bowl of New Year’s soup, because I don’t want to become more than one year older. hehe

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• SaeHae Bok MaNi BaDeuSeYo. (새해 복 많이 받으세요) = Have lots of good fortune for the New Year.
  This is the Korean greeting for the New Year.

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Read the rest of Korean Lunar New Year Soup (떡국=TteokGuk) (446 words)

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In Korea, we love to grill (or fry) and eat marinated meat (beef, pork, or chicken). There are 2 main flavors for marinated meat. One is a spicy, which uses mainly red pepper paste. The other one is sweet & salty, which uses mainly soy sauce and pear (honey, sugar, apple, kiwi and so on) for the sauce. Many restaurants have indoor grilling at each table so that customers can grill their meats at the table by themselves and enjoy the fresh cooked flavor. Today, I will show you a very popular marinated meat dish called GalBi in Korean. It takes time to marinate the meat, but otherwise, it is very simple and easy to make. You can freeze some of the marinated meat to grill at a later time. Enjoy~~

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• So (소) = Cow

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If you go to a Korean restaurant, you might have tried this spicy Korean soup or at least saw it on the menu. It is a popular Korean soup for people who like spicy food. Cooking different kinds of vegetables in homemade beef broth, along with a spicy sauce, will give you great soup flavor. In Korea, if somebody dies, we visit the funeral house to morn the dead person and comfort the family. They usually get visitors for 2 or 3 days before the funeral and they serve food to the guests. Nowadays, this is one of Korea’s funeral foods. I don’t know why, but it is… Of course, we enjoy eating this soup other times as well, especially in cold weather.

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• GukMul (국물) = Broth

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Read the rest of Spicy Beef and Vegetable Soup (육개장=YukGaeJang) (624 words)

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JeYuk BokkEum is a Korean spicy fried pork dish. It is as popular as BulGoGi in Korea. Once you marinate this pork, you can keep some in the freezer, and can eat it later. (of course, after frying the frozen marinated pork.) Like BulGoGi and SamGyumSal (Korean grilled meats), we wrap the cooked meat with lettuce and different kinds of vegetables: garlic, onion, carrots, cucumbers, sesame leaves, napa cabbage, and so on. Someday, I will show you how to eat (wrap) the meat. Try this awesome dish soon.

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• JeYuk (제육) = Pork
  Another name for JeYuk in Korean is DwaeJiGoGi (돼지고기.)

• BokkEum (볶음) = This is way to cook Korean dishes by stir-frying the ingredients in a sauce.
  

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Read the rest of Spicy Fried Pork (제육 볶음=JeYuk BokkEum) (332 words)

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