Category: Food (Page 1 of 22)

Korean food and recipes

Local markets in Seoul / Dalgona

2021/10/28 / Nic / 0 Comments

What food can you buy at local markets?

In this video we head to our local markets to show you the type of food we often buy from there. One of the stalls was selling dalogna, which has become internationally popular recently because of the TV show ‘Squid Game’. While this show is definitely NOT FOR KIDS, it features children’s games in it. Dalgona is a honeycomb candy where children try to get the shape out without breaking the actual shape. It’s been around for several decades but popularity had dwindled in recent years. It’s now been very much revived and apparently there have been huge lines for it as young adults are keen to try it. We were lucky to find it locally without there being big lines.

You may have heard fruit and vegetable can be expensive in Korea, and while that can be true for big supermarkets or department stores, it’s usually decent prices at markets like this and sometimes can be very cheap. Food in general at markets tends to be cheap and it’s an easy way to put together a meal for at home with a variety of meat and seafood, as well as already prepared side dishes.

Hugh and Yul try out some different food in this video, as well as attempting the dalgona game. This is probably the most natural situation we have filmed that shows how Yul is bilingual. You may notice that he uses English when talking to both of us, he will use Korean when talking to Hugh directly and English when talking to me directly. When talking to both of us he may mix some Korean and English into one sentence and this is called “code mixing” and is normal at this age. This is different from “code switching” that bilingual adults use as this is more a part of bilingual development as he learns both languages, but even at this age he is well aware of which language a word belongs to.

Yul switches between languages easily and is a similar level in both. What he speaks is not “Konglish” as I’ve seen some people say, as Konglish means English words that have been absorbed into the Korean language but have changed somewhat in meaning. Konglish is also different from English loan words in Korean, which retain their original English meaning. Yul competently speaks both languages, knows when to switch and only code mixes when he knows that we will understand. There is a lot of myths about kids and bilingualism, one of them being that they are confused, but it’s really not true at all.

Trying Brown Sugar Bubble Tea Ice Cream with Hoju Sara

2020/10/15 / Nic / 0 Comments

Brown Sugar Bubble Tea? Or Boba Tea? What do you say in your country? Have you tried it in ICE CREAM form?

This is just a fun little video with my good friend Sara from Hoju Sara. Brown Sugar Bubble Tea has been so popular in Korea. There have been a bunch of things with Brown Sugar flavour, especially in convenience stores, so we try the Brown Sugar Bubble Tea Ice Cream.

Cooking Korean Food in our tiny Seoul kitchen

2020/04/17 / Nic / 0 Comments

Come cook with us!

We made this video in a natural way so everyone stuck at home, particularly if people are feeling lonely, can maybe feel like they are there with us.

We don’t always get the chance to cook together but it’s nice when we do.

Instant Kimchi?

2020/03/15 / Nic / 0 Comments

Can you make instant kimchi ?

If you know anything about kimchi your immediate response would be “of course not!” However, we do attempt to make instant kimchi in this video. Our secret weapon? A new kimchi seasoning product. We do know the women who invented this product but this is not a sponsored video. Hugh uses it just as seasoning but we wanted to try it for actually making kimchi.

Most of the results were pretty good! Especially if you don’t always like the sour aspect of kimchi. Personally I like kimchi when it’s first made and before fermentation, but for those that do like the deep sour kimchi taste, fermentation is still important when making kimchi.

But also if you just want a spicy kimchi taste on other food, the powder is great for that! It should be available online in the next few months. It’s only a small company, so they are working on making it available at the moment.

The best sushi in Korea?

2019/12/20 / Nic / 0 Comments

Where to get high-end sushi in Korea?

You might think that you need to go to Japan to get amazing sushi, but if you are in Korea or are planning a trip, there are places to have a real sushi experience with a Japanese sushi chef!

We first met Chef Koji in Australia years ago. His wife is Korean and knew Hugh. We had been meaning to visit his sushi restaurant for ages but hadn’t had the chance. They invited us to come make a video though and we ended up having the best sushi experience of our lives.

We love sushi, and are happy to eat all kinda and quality of sushi. But experiencing this type of sushi was just a whole other level. Chef Koji taught us how quickly sushi needs to be eaten because the temperature of the rice is so important. He took us on an amazing sushi adventure and really opened out minds to all the amazing flavours there are- not just salmon!

Our son Yul really enjoyed the udon noodles but refused to eat the sushi. Can’t explain much to two-year-olds! Koji’s own daughters prefer the udon as well. One of his daughters, when asked what her father does, says he makes udon! She understands udon is delicious but not that her father is an amazing and famous sushi chef.

Sushi Koji is open for lunch and dinner and while pricey, as high quality sushi is, it’s well worth the experience.

Where to find Lao cuisine in Seoul

2019/10/21 / Nic / 0 Comments

Lao Cuisine at Lao Piak in Seoul

Over the next few months we are going to show some of the amazing restaurants in the Mangwon area. Mangwon is known for having many small but amazing food places. We want to share some of our favourites. Lao Piak is a place we eat at regularly and it’s one of the only Lao food places in Korea.

The owners and chefs are two Korean women who fell in love with Laos on a trip. They learned how to make Lao food from Lao people in the Laos countryside and then came back to Korea to open their restaurant.

A lot of people assume they have never eaten Lao food before. But a lot of Thai food, especially the types of Thai food that has been exported to the west, is actually Lao food. There has been a real problem of Thaification of Lao food and Lao people have faced discrimination in Thailand for a long time. Also since Thai food is known in western countries more than other countries from region, many Lao people will call their restaurant Thai, even though it’s really Lao food.

These days there is a movement for Lao people, whether they are living in Laos, Thailand or other countries to be proud of their culture and food. If you do see a restaurant openly serving Lao food, please go and support it so that Lao people don’t have to pretend the food is Thai to attract customers.

I think it’s great that the owners of Lao Piak have such respect for Laos and want to show what Lao food is. They could have easily said the food is Thai, as there are many Thai restaurants in Seoul and Thai food is popular, but instead they want to educate people about Lao food.

You can see more details on their Instagram here.

If you have trouble finding places from the Korean address, the closest big landmark is the newish IPark apartments which have a park in front of them. Lao Piak is in one of the nearby backstreets, across the road from the apartments and the park.

Korean Convenience Store Lunchbox: GS25 vs 7-Eleven vs CU

2019/10/15 / Nic / 0 Comments

It’s been years since we’ve done one of these videos! Let’s check out what Korean convenience stores have to offer when you are looking for a whole meal.