Kiddy Kimbap - 꼬마 김밥

I'm finally doing a kimbap post, but only because my mum is here helping me make them. My little brother's at camp and we decided to make it for his lunch and ours too! It's a perfect picnic recipe and my mum and I enjoyed these under the LA sun. The weather is to die for :)

Have short intestines? Addicted to Alcohol?
I guess you can't really tell if your intestines are short or not... But if you're older and have undergone gastric bypass surgery (stapling stomachs!), you're more likely to become addicted to alcohol! For people with short or damaged intestines, the alcohol goes straight into the intestine and is absorbed rapidly. That higher absorption rate makes alcohol oh-so-enticing, says research team from the University of Pittsburg Medical Center.

There are obese testimonials who developed alcoholism and were treated for their alcohol addiction. What would you rather have? A trimmer figure swapped for alcoholism? Well...both (as in gastric bypass and alcoholism) are avoidable if you get off your lazy butt, exercise and eat healthy!

Kid's Kimbap - 꼬마 김밥 (Ggoma kim bap)
Makes 3-5 servings 

Here's a jumpstart to a healthy lunch! KOREAN SUSHI.
Since we had to be out of the house early the next day, we prepped all the ingredients the night before and kept them in the fridge after letting them cool. Then we made fresh rice that day and rolled the kim bap straight away. If you're making it all in a day, make the rice as your rice cooker says first so that it can cool.

Daikon and Carrot Pickle {Bahn Mi Sandwich}

Woo. Going to a low country boil tomorrow. Filling my belly with some mud crawlers crawfish. I had a Vietnamese friend who loved crawfish and introduced it to me. But, I still think they taste a little like mud. She can pull off their heads so quickly, it's pretty amazing. Hmm... I just realized that there are so many crawfish places that seem to have Vietnamese owners...is that a thing?

Anyhoo, we're going to one in Virginia, and the Southern-ness (whole 4 years I've lived in Texas) is excited to be eating andouille sausages, corn and maybe some crawfish :D

Factoid: Sleeping Too Little Gives you a Heart Attack
At the SLEEP convention this month, researchers from the University of Alabama surveyed first stroke symptoms and how much they slept. They amassed a study of 5,666 people and followed their sleeping pattern for 3 years. Sleeping less than six hours increased the risk of stroke symptoms! And that's not just fat, old prone adults. Man, I really need to sleep more...

Not only for strokes, too little snooze time is a risk factor for many other disasters. So skip the exercise and sleep more. Haha kidding.

Daikon and Carrot Pickle - Do Chua (Vietnamese)
Makes about 1 huge jar

Pickles are the best sandwich accessory

Korean Spicy Braised Chicken - Dak Doritang

One test down, and two more to go. And then I'm free from this academic year...and then I have another 3059708235 years of schooling :(


Anyhoo, if you've been reading my blog, you'll find that most of the food I post are red and filled with chilies. I absolutely love spicy food. Like fire-in-your-hole spicy. Bubs thinks that I must have burned off all the capsaicin receptors. They're the ones that make you feel the burning, crying, mouth numbing sensation when you eat spicy food. I like to snack on raw jalapenos, and it doesn't kill me. I give one to bubs and he'll be sweating out of his ears. Sooo.. here's radical health news for today!


Innovative Surgeries: Spicy foods into getting rid of your Muffin tops
I think a lot of people know that eating spicy food increases core body temperature and may cause you to burn more calories and yadayadaya. What's even more crazy is that at Brigham and Women's Hospital, they're doing surgical procedures that insert capsaicin (stuff in red pepper) to destroy some nerve fibers of the vagus nerve. Results on lab rats show significantly reduced visceral fat - you know those hateful beer bellies and muffin tops.

This is going to be the next new catchy 1-800 Get Thin jingle on the radio and soon you'll be singing ♩ ♫rub chilies into your spinal cord♬♪...Um.. maybe more catchy and witty than that :/
But on a more serious note, it'll fix the fat people obesity epidemic. Woo.

Without further adieu, another one of my favorite spicy dishes.


Korean Spicy Braised Chicken - 닭도리탕
Adapted from Korean-cuisine

Ingredients
Seasoning paste
4 tbsp soysauce
3 tbsp Korean chili paste
2 tbsp Korean chili powder
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp minced garlic
3 tsp minced ginger
3 tsp black pepper
8 tbsp water
2 tbsp rice wine or white vinegar


Pot Ingredients
2 lb chicken thigh (or drummettes or breast)
1/2 cup water
1 large potato
1 large carrot (or handful of baby carrots)
1 onion
5 cloves garlic halved
2 serrano chilies (or jalapenos for less heat!)
10 perilla leaves or green onions (optional)

Mix all the ingredients for the seasoning paste in a large bowl (so you can put your chicken in it). If you have Youndoo, which I used here and also most of the stews I make here, then instead of soysauce + honey, use 2 tbsp of regular soysauce and 2 tbsp of Youndoo.

Set the sauce aside so you can work on your chicken. Feel free to use chicken breast (skin, no skin). Cut them into about 2 inch cubes and cut out the fatty parts. Marinate it in the sauce.

Let the chicken sit in the sauce for at least 15 mins, so now we get the veggies prepared. Cut up the onions and potatoes to roughly the same size as the chicken bits. I used baby carrots because I'm too lazy to peel and cut up carrots :P And for the garlic cloves, just cut them lengthwise in half. Chop up your chillies finely and julienne perilla leaves if you're using them.

Preheat a big pot, add some oil and fry up your potatoes and carrots for about 5 mins and pour in 1/2 cup of water. Then add the chicken, onions, garlic and chilies. Stir it and bring to a boil.


Once boiling, put on the lid and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer for around 15 mins, occasionally stirring once or twice. Then take off the lid and let it simmer for another 15 mins so the sauce can reduce and thicken. The meat and veggies should be properly cooked through by now.


Top it off with some perilla leaves, green onions and sesame seeds!

Enjoy with a huge bowl of steaming rice!

Perilla Leaf wrapped Beef Jeon - 깻잎 고기전

No!! It's raining again. Stupid DC weather. Bubs and I are supposed to go on the embassy world tour, mostly to eat free food experience different cultures through food. Hopefully, DC doesn't make walking outside a pain the the butt.


Sometimes it pays to listen in class. Today, we had a Gastrointestinal pathophysiology lecture and our professor actually mentioned something interesting. Usually this is never isn't the case... But did you know....


Factoid: You swallow 15 ml of air into your stomach with EACH swallow
The average person swallows more than 2000 times a day. If you don't belch, you'd bloat up like a hot air balloon! For babies you have to burp them or they get fussy, fart everywhere and get explosive diarrhea (haha). Then we all grow up and properly develop our abdominal muscles, so they contract and expel gastric air out into the esophagus (food pipe). The rumbling burping sound is then caused by the vibration of the upper esophageal sphincter as gas passes through it. 


Also, did you know in some cows that fail to burp, it can be extremely dangerous? There is such a high pressure buildup of gases in their stomach, they need to insert a rubber hose down their pipe to expel it. In some severe cases, punching their sides open!


I say let it rip. And in the words of Shrek... "Better out than in!"


It's approaching Mother's day and maybe this year I'll remember to thank my mum for doing everything for me (oops). I was just reminded of all the times she made these Gogi Jeon (meat patties) for me for lunch, picnic or for snacking. These are sooo good dipped in ketchup.


Perilla and Beef Jeon - 깻잎 고기전

Ingredients
1/2 cup carrots
1/2 onion
2 stalks spring onion
2 tsp ginger minced
1.5 tbsp garlic minced
2 tsp serrano chilies minced

1lb ground beef
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 tbsp soysauce or Yundoo
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
2 tsp korean chili powder

2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
20 perilla leaves

Chop up finely all the veggies in the first list. Mince up your ginger and garlic.

In a large bowl, put your ground beef and all the seasoning in to it (2nd list of ingredients). Add in all your chopped veggies too. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix everything really well.

Wash your perilla leaves and dry them with a paper towel or wait until it's dry.

Place the 1/4cup of flour in a shallow dish and scramble the eggs in another dish.

Flour both side of the leaf and flatten a ball of the meat within the leaf. The flour helps the meat stick to the inside of the leaf.

Fold the leaf in half and dip it in the egg. The flour also helps the egg stick onto the outside of the leaf.

When you're making a batch, you can flour and stuff all the leaves first and then dip it in the egg one at a time when you're about to fry them.

Turn the heat to medium low and put a good amount of oil in the pan. When the oil is heated, you can add you egg dipped perilla meat jeons.

Each side takes a while because you want to make sure the meat is fully cooked inside. Maybe around 8 mins each side. It really depends on how thick the meat patty is inside.

We also made mini meat jeons made the same way except no leaves. Just make small medallions 1 inch in diameter, roll it in the flour, dip into the egg and fry it up.











Serve it with some ketchup! Trust me, it's really good.