Of Korean Food

You know... you live in Korea for a year and you grow a certain appreciation for the cuisine. It's delicious. It's spicy. It's plentiful. It's cheap. It's very, very cheap.

And so you're excited to come back to Toronto knowing there's a couple Korea towns that can remind you of the good ole days in Korea. There's plenty of restaurants that will serve Korean food just like it was in Korea. Right? Well, not really. Upon coming back to Toronto, Dawna and I haven't really found any Ddukboki, Gimbap or Bibim Mandu that was quite as delicious as it was in Korea.

So what to do but take it upon yourself to create the delicious masterpiece?

Ladies and gentlemen... my attempt at Korean food. Part Uno.


Ddukboki (or so I think it's spelt)
This particular spicy dish was made of rice sticks (dduk), carrots, cabbage, onion and a few hard boiled eggs. Oh, we also tossed in some thin noodles (ramien)... so some may call this a ramboki The red sauce is hot pepper paste (or gochujang).
To make, you mix 1.5TBSP of gochujang with 1TBSP ketchup. Add about another 1TBSP of mulyeot (basically sugar/water/syrupy thing) and add as much water as necessary to show the consistency of this picture. Boil it, add the dduk. When the dduk is floating to the top, you add the vegetables and presto! Ddukboki.



Chumchi Gimbap (Chumchi means tuna.. gim means seaweed... bap means rice)
This would be the closest thing to Japanese sushi. It's basically seaweed, sticky rice and tuna (made with mayonnaise). You can also add strips of cucumber, carrot, pickled cabbage or anything else you'd like.
To make, you boil the sticky rice. Prepare the tuna. I would let the sticky rice cool off. Place the gim (or seaweed) on a flat surface. Take about 1.5TBSP of sticky rice and spread it evenly on the gim.. make sure you leave about an inch at the top free of sticky rice. Add a strip of tuna in the middle and any other toppings you'd like on top of the tuna. Now, it's time to roll it... so basically fold it from the bottom over the toppings, and start rolling... making sure it stays tight throughout the process. Carefully slice afterwards and you're done!



Bibim Mandu (I'm pretty sure bibim means mixed... and mandu means dumpling)
So this dish is layered with raw vegetables. You throw in some cabbage, cucumber and carrot, making sure they are all sliced thinly. Sprinkle some crushed/chopped up seaweed on top. Top with chogochujang (which is simlilar to the gochujang sauce used in ddukboki, but it's mixed with vinegar. If you've ever eaten bibimbap, that's the sauce that goes on top). That's the bibim part. The mandu part of the dish comes from the dumpling shell that you eat with it. You have to go out and buy something called "Mandu-P" which is basically just the shell or casing of Asian dumplings. They're flat.. and almost look like pancakes. You can either boil them or (very) lightly fry them. You basically take some of the veggie mix, put it on top of the pancake-looking mandu-p, roll it up and munch down. Very delicious.


That's the mandu-p in the bottom right corner. Make sure to serve this, as well as other Korean dishes with kimchi... the most popular snack/food for all Koreans. Kimchi is basically fermented/pickled/spiced cabbage. Korean food isn't Korean food without it.

How did it turn out? Not bad for a first timer!

- Gilad (is starving)

Of Lightning Storms

So Bryson had us over for dinner last night, which was amazing by the way. In the middle of a great discussion, we decide to look out the window and see the fiercest clouds rolling in. The discussion had to come to an end as Dawna and I decided to run to the subway and get home before we got annihilated by the rain. We barely made it.

The storm lasted about 2 or so hours... with constant thunder and lightning. The CN Tower got struck numerous times, as did other buildings.

Here's a short clip I caught




- Gilad

Where have we been?

So for the millionth time, this blog will get revived.

A quick update of our lives:
- I work for the Global Youth Network. I love my job. I was an ESL teacher for nine months, hated it SO much and quit recently.

- I went to Kenya for a month. Worked with two amazing organizations. Living Positive and the Ugunja Community Resource Centre. These will be blogged about.

- Dawna is going to Mexico in two weeks... for three weeks. She'll be working with endangered sea turtles.

- Our trips will be blogged about.

- Still not married. Working on it though! Discussion has come up. Got to be a good sign!

- Gilad

Happy Birfday

A happy birfday goes out to my beautiful fiance, Dawna. Happy 23rd!

- Gilad

And teaching it is...

So today was my first day on the job at UNICEF and tomorrow will be my last. While on my lunch break today, I found out that I got a teaching job that pays a lot more... with a lot less working time... and VERY close to my house. Oh, and it's also a full-time, permanent position, unlike this six-week contract with UNICEF. It was awkward telling my bosses that I'd have to quit on the same day I started but it went pretty well.

So yea, I'll be teaching students who are ages 18-25 (on average) who come here to learn English. They're from places like Korea, Japan, South America, Europe, etc. My favourite part of this position is that on Fridays I only work from 9-12 which gives me time to tutor students... and unlike Korea, private tutoring is legal over here. I'm also teaching older kids (unlike in Korea), as well as getting complete freedom in two of my four classes. This means that I can center my lesson around my favourite song, a TV show, a political issue, etc. Lots of room for creativity which I'm definitely looking forward to.

The next post will have pictures of the apartment... I swear.

- Gilad

Downtown Life

Part of the allure of living in downtown Toronto is the accessibility of everything. Restaurants, shops, nightlife, daylife... it's all a footstep away. Living in downtown Toronto also opens your eyes to the homeless, crackheads and drunks roaming around. So it was yesterday when Dawna and I were walking our Korean dogs, while wearing our Korean clothes, when we saw an old Korean man get punched in the face by someone who appeared to be intoxicated. This Korean guy I mentioned runs the convenience store right around our apartment with his wife. At around 11pm, we see an angry guy rush out of this convenience store, slamming the door. Not exactly sure why he did that, but the old shop owner guy chased this man out onto the street. A few words were exchanged and the guy punched the old Korean man in the face. Normally, Dawna and I would not get involved (especially in this area), but when it's an old man getting hit in the face, we felt like we needed to. So we sorta yelled, ran across the street to where they were, just in time to see the Korean guy rip the intoxicated man's jacket off... and the guy ran way. So here we are, standing with this old guy making sure he's okay (which he was), as he holds this strange man's jacket all the while looking for his lense that got knocked out of his glasses when he got punched in the face. We decided to call the cops because we felt worried for this old shopkeeper and his wife. We filed our report, the shopkeepers were very thankful, and we felt like we did the right thing. Don't know if they ever found the guy but it was our first encounter with violence down in this area. Can't believe an old man got punched in the face.

Also, on that same walk, we saw a drunk lying down on the road and another drunk passed out on the grass in the park. Who gets drunk on a Monday?

- Gilad

Toronto

Well, I guess we haven't blogged in a while, huh?

So we're back in Toronto now and living in our beautiful apartment right in the middle of downtown Toronto. Man, it's hard finding a job in this part of the country, isn't it? We've been back here since August 19th and its only this Wednesday that I officially start my first day at work although that could all change. Here's the deal... I got a job with UNICEF as a "funds processor" for their trick-or-treat program. The position is only a 6-8 week thing and doesn't pay very well but it's something, right? Will help pay the rent, bills, etc. It's also just a 15-minute subway ride away and about 25 minutes from my door to theirs. Ironically, I also have a chance at a position as an ESL Teacher here in Toronto. The school I'd be teaching at will surely pay better than that UNICEF job and the institute is a 10-minute walk from my apartment. Oh, and it's also a permanent, full-time position. I have to go in tomorrow at 4 and I guess I'll find out then whether or not I got the job. I hope I did.

With regards to Korea... Dawna and I miss it there big time. We're lucky enough to be living in a city like Toronto where we can get any sort of ethnic cuisine and we certainly don't have to travel very far to find any sort of Korean restaurant. The problem is... the Korean food here is not nearly as good as the food in Korea. It's not only the food we miss though. We miss A LOT of our friends, our old hangouts, the makali bar, the mountains, among many other things. We knew we'd miss aspects of Korea but we didn't anticipate missing so much.

Pictures of the apartment will be up soon as well as more frequent updates of our lives here in Toronto. I should also get around to putting up pictures of our trip to Thailand that happened all the way back in July.

- Gilad