Chicago

There was my cousin's engagement party in Chicago last weekend. And I went to Chicago last early Friday to see my relatives and Chicago downtown also.

.

A day before short trip, I studied about Chicago for 3 hours and I focused on Grant park, John Hancock Center and the Art Institute of Chicago.

I was worried about the weather because I heard that the possibility of precipitation of Chicago was 30%. However, the weather was really good and I and my friend could enjoy the amazing atmosphere of Grant park. :)

.

Next time, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago.

.

.

This picture is drawn by Pompeo Batoni. I could feel the obvious contrast of masculinity and femininity. The mascular man in the armor and the beautiful woman with willow makes perfect harmony!

.

.

I have no information about this picture. But, I like the depict of woman's eyes.

.

And, another interesting picture.

.

.

On Saturday, I went to the John Hancock Center observatory. The scenery of Chicago was really good. I could see 360 degree of Chicago, Loop and Lake Michigan.

.

I stayed in Chicago 3 days with one of my relatives. It was really good time. The time in Chicago was totally different from New York. - peaceful- :)

dong-gu-rang-ddang

Whenever feel bored or feel stress from something, making dong-gu-rang-ddang helps alleviate me.

.

To make this food, you have to mince all of the ingredients.

It takes time, but I like using knife. It feels so good to me. :)

.

Mix altogether with flour & eggs. And make the balls.

.

Apply the flour and eggs again. And fry.

.

The following is the recipe : http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1249

Beef Casserole & Fried rice

.
This Monday evening, I took my friends in my apartment and had a good time. I cooked my food, my friends brought beers. I was thinking all day long which food I would serve for them, and I made up my mind to make beef casserole, fried rice & beef soup.
.
I flavored the beef casserole with teriyaki sauce, hot pepper paste, soy sauce, hot pepper powder, soy sauce.. etc..
In the fried rice, I added chopped shrimp, beef, and vegetables(onion, scallion, carrot.. etc).
.
.
I want to erase the spoon on this picture. This spoon is ruining this picture!
In my opinion, the key point to make this food delicious is add plenty of onion, scallion and garlic before heat. These vegetables add juicy flavors to beef when they are heated.
The following is the recipe : http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1247
.

I added chopped shrimp into the fried rice & flavored with soysauce slightly. Because I'm a huge fan of shrimp. Many people says shrimp has lots of cholesterol, but I don't care about that. How can I give up the great taste of shrimp? :)

The following is the recipe : http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1248

The key point of cooking shrimp is 'don't over cook'. If shrimps are over-cooked, it lose its own tension.

And the following is essential.

Guggenheim Museum

Last weekend, I went to the Guggenheim Museum with my Korean friends. It was really good.

I appreciated about the fact that I can see this 'real' paintings every week.

Pablo Picasso.Women with yellow hair. 1931

Curry Chicken Salad

Whenever I fry something in my apartment, the smoke detector goes off! However, I don't see any smoke when I fry something. The smoke detector is so sensative. My cousin always advice me turn on the ventilator, but I forgot to turn on the ventilator all the time.

The following food is curry chicken salad.

For me, the two difficult things about frying chicken are making proper batter and knowing the proper temperature of cooking oil.

I believe that the picture of food contains more than recipe.

.

tip1 : scattering the bread crums onto the batter makes the fry delicious.

.

.

the following is the recipe of this food : http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1243

soysauce-marinated eggs

I'm not sure I can call this as a cook or not, but I like this marinated eggs very much.
It's so simple, so I think it's good for the lazy person (like me). :)
.
tip1 : String is better tool then knife when you cut this boiled eggs.
.
the following is the recipe:
http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1236

Whitney Museum

.
This is my first time of visiting museum in NY. I went to Whitney Museum last Friday evening. It was really good and I have a good time to think about a lot of things.
.

George bellows - Dempsey and Firpo. 1924

This was my favorite. I can feel strength from this picture.

Potato wrapped Fried Shrimp

I think shrimp is one of the best ingredient because it's flavour and versatility.
The point of this food is keeping the shrimp's juicy flavor and frying the potato crispy.
.
the following is the recipe of this Potato wrapped Fried Shrimp :
http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1235
.
It's hard for me to keep shrimp spring after cooking.
If you have any tips about cooking shrimp, why don't you share with us?
.

biryani

This is not a real Indian biryani. This biryani is made by Korean chef.
.

I tasted real india's biryani in India's train. Because of the smell of coriander, I couldn't eat food several days. I just ate fruit and cookie.

However, when I move from Puri to Bangalore by train, I have no choice to eat something to stuff my stomach. I need carbs and protein! I tasted the mutton biryani in the train. The biryani also have corriander in it, but it was really good taste.

And after that experience I ate a lot of biryani in my travel.

.

Sometimes I miss the taste of biryani.

.

the following is the recipe of chicken biryani :

http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1230

Train of India

I travelled India twice. (in 2004 summer & 2005 summer)
.
This picture is about my second India trip with my friends and professor. We travelled India for 11 days to investigate India's computer software education and industry. It was my monumental period in my life.
.
As you know, India's train very notorious for it's delay and uncomfortable seats. Whenever we took India's train, it never come to platform on time! On this day, 5 hours delayed. And the train was totally stuffed. But it was totally fine because we were just in India. No problem! :)

Seafood Pajun & Mak-gul-li

I like gold-crisp pajun!

Cut this food large chunks and share with family makes family happy! Don't forget the beaten eggs when you makes this food. Eggs makes pajun more crisp and tasty.

I think if you taste this food, you'll get to like crispy part of pajun. I like crispy part of pajun. It's good! :)

The following is the recipe of Seafood pajun.

-- Ingredient

1 handful of leek, 1/2 onion, 1 squid, 5 shrimp, 2 cups of flour, 2 eggscooking oil, salt, soy sauce, redpepper powder, pepper to taste

-- Prepare

1. rinse the leek and onion with fresh water

2. rinse the shrimp, squid with salty water and remove the shell & intestines

3. cut the squid into slice

4. mix the flour, salt, pepper with water

5. apply the cooking oil on the skillet

6. pure half of the batter and put the leek, onion, squid, shrimp and cook

7. pure the batter again on it and cook

8. pure the beaten eggs & soy sauce and cook slowly

-- Tips

1. Thick pajun is more delicious than thin pajun. Don't hasitate to pour batter!

2. Adding beaten eggs makes pajun crisp and delicious.

3. Pajun is more delicious when this mak-gul-li is added. :)

The following is the recipe of this food :

http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1229

My Sweetheart!

My sister & My dog

.

My sweetheart!

kimbab

When I was young, kimbab is a essential item of a picnic. (plus a bottle of coke)

.

Making kimbab is not so easy, not so difficult.

.

There are tips for making good kimbab.

1. How can cut the kimbab with remaining it's own shape : clean the knife with wet towel whenerer you slice the kimbab

2. roll the laver and wait one minute before slice the kimbab

3. When you cook the rice, add 1 tsp of vinegar. It makes kimbab more delicious.

4. When you roll the kimbab, adding mayonnaise and fresh sesame leaf makes kimbab more delicious.

.

below is the recipe of kimbab :

http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1228

Can you see that?

Can you see the Statue of Liberty?

.

I felt very cold at that time.

.

The goddess must be cold at that time! :)

dak-baek-suk

When I serving a military service, whenever someone's sick, I made this kind of food. This food is good for patient, because it's easy to eat and easy to digest also. This food is delicious and contains lots of good ingredient.

Koreans eat this food a lot especially in summer to get energy. (Of course, you can eat this food all 4 seasons!) :)

This is one of my favorite food.
& it's simple to cook!


The following is the recipe of dak-baek-suk :
http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1227

Kimchi Springroll

Several years ago, I was hanging around with my Korean 'gourmet' friend. We were drunk and hungry. And he took me to the humble restaurant. We ordered 2 pint of beer and spring rolls. It was my first time to taste the spring roll. The springroll in that restaurant was really good.
I can't forget the springroll in that restaurant even now.
.
Agree with me or not, I think springroll and beer are the perfect match!
I highly recommand you to hang around with 'springroll gourmet' friend.
.
.
Following is the recipe of Kimchi Springroll
.

- Ingredient
1/4 lb. kimchi
1/4 lb. shrimp
1/4 lb. squid
3 shiitake mushroom(Pyogo mushroom)
2 tsp sherry
2 tsp smashed spring onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp soy saucesalt, pepper to taste
15 rice paperscooking oil
.
- Preparation
1. rinse the kimchi with fresh water and squeeze
2. soak the shiitake (Pyogo) mushrooms for 20 minutes and squeeze the water out
3. rinse the shrimp, squid with salty water and remove the shell & intestines
4. smash the kimchi, mushrooms, shrimp and squid
5. mix the sherry, onion, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper
6. mix all 4 ingredients with marinade
7. soak the rice papers with the hot water and wrap the marinated ingredients
8. sizzle the spring roll with cooking oil
.
http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1205

Baseball and Hot Dogs!

Last Saturday was my first day to go to the baseball stadium in America. I didn't understand why my cousins are always watching baseball games. So, I went to Shea Stadium(in NY) to check out what is so funny with baseball. (In fact, I went there because I have free time and the weather was sooo good last Saturday! :=) )
.
It was METS vs. NATIONALS. I know nothing about American baseball at all. So, all I can do in the stadium was just enjoy the atmosphere of the spectators.
.
At the first picture, the person in the middle is me. My friends at the left and right made fun of my with my sunglasses all day long. Is my sunglasses too big? Whenever I wear this sunglasses, they told my I just look like a spy of North Korea! --; Even they tease me about my sunglasses, I like my sunglasses.
.
The seat was pretty good even it is just $2 ticket each. But, the price of hotdog and coke was around $10. The hotdog was just plain but it was so good because I was at the stadium and hungry. I thought if I brought hotdogs from my home, it was more delicious. :)

.

There is a recipe of Barbecued Hot Dog on the following :

http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1197

.

Is there any good ways to sneak in my food into the stadium? :)

I love bulgogi.

I love bulgogi.
Maybe you love bulgogi, too.
Who don't like bulgogi?
.

If you never tasted this food, I highly recommand you eat this when you have a chance to visit Korea or Korean restaurant in your country.
.
Bulgogi is a marinated beef roasted with charcoal. Marinade contains soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, black pepper, onions, garlic, soju(alcohol). Bulgogi is tastes better when you use honey instead of sugar. I think the quantity of the beef, onion and soy sauce is the most important when cooks this food.
.
Historically, Bulgogi is from ancient Korea country named "the Koguryo Dynasty"(BC 37). This food called 'Nubiani' at that time. There was no grill in the ancient time, so this food was roasted as a skewer.
.
'bul' (in 'bulgogi') means charcoal. bulgogi is delicious itself, but it's much more delicious when grill from charcoal. Charcoal adds more flavor to bulgogi.
.
I added recipe to following site : http://www.cookscentral.com/recipe.asp?res=1196

Why I started to cook...

I'm a normal South Korean.
.
As you know, South Korea has a draft system even now in military. In April of 2002, I join to the military. At that time, I just thought that I would be a infantryman fight with rifle.
.
But, when I just entered in my company, one soldier on a cooks duty was wanted. So, I became a chef in my battalion. The chef was 4 members and battalion is consisted of 280 soliders.
.
This is why I stared to cook. Before that time, I never cooked!
.
This picture is about the time of the winter discipline. At the time of the discipline, I used to cook the rice and side dishes for 280 soldiers outside. Can you see the tool that I hold? That is a cooking shovel. It loos like a normal shovel, but it's just for cook! I never dig the ground with this cooking shovel, it's clean. :)