 |
| Checking the tteokbokki |
When I first met Su (short for Sujin) I got quite excited, as I had just spent many hours watching a YouTube channel mainly about Korean food and culture. She knows exactly who I am referring to, the "Korean Englishman," who is by now a bit of a celebrity in Korea. There are some very enjoyable videos of British schoolboys trying Korean food for the first time, but Su and I both agree it is somewhat odd to have a whole channel about Korean culture hosted by an Englishman. Both part of the appeal, and a bit problematic! Luckily, Su herself likes the idea of this blog, and is willing to be the 'actual Korean' introducing me to Korean food in real life. Somehow, I have managed to never have a proper Korean meal...only some fastfood 'angry chicken' in Berlin, and dinner at a 'Korean barbecue' restaurant in Sierra Leone, which turned out to be run by a Chinese lady.
 |
| The ricecakes for the tteokbokki soaking in warm water |
Tonight I am getting the chance to try tteokbokki, a kind of rice cakes which are soaked in water before preparation, which gives them a chewy, glutinous texture. While the cakes soak, Su prepares the vegetables for a kind of patties made with grated vegetables in a crunchy batter. Somewhat reminiscent of Japanese tempura batter, the 'Korean crispy frying mix' had sparkling water added to it to make it extra crispy.
 |
| Su preparing the vegetables for the fritters |
Su grates up a storm, adding carrot, sweet potato, zucchini and eggplant. It seems to be much more than we can finish with the three of us, as Su's friend and flatmate is joining us. They normally chat in German, as Su has been in the country long enough, for five years already, and is used to speaking German with her colleagues as well. She works at the opera, in the backstage area ("event technology") which is mainly dominated by older German males. As a young Korean woman, she is definitely an outlier!
 |
| The fishcakes on top of the ricecakes with gochujang spicy sauce |
We chat a bit about the cultural 'moment' Korea is having in the West, with movies winning Oscars (Parasite and Minari), tv-series in the top 10 most watched on Netflix, K-Pop bands like BTS and BlackPink incredibly popular. Even K-Beauty is part of this 'Korean Wave', with lots of American and European fans of Korean skincare brands now. I eye Su's beautiful clear complexion, and compliment her, asking if she also has an elaborate morning routine. "Nope, just the drugstore's own brand facecream!" (dm, for the German readers).
 |
| Placing the grated vegetables with crispy frying mix in the hot oil |
I also admire her tattoos, which he had done in Berlin, by a Korean friend who studies fine art. They are still a bit taboo in Korea, and officially tattoo artists need a medical license, though by now they are quite common amongst the younger generation. After a long (corona related) absence, Su returned back home and her mother quickly remarked:"Oh, a tattoo!" Su managed to deflect the attention by mentioning that she got it from her friend for a remarkably low price, and surprisingly her mother just reacted with, "Oh...that's cool!" It sounds like she has very open minded and supportive parents, who were also quick to accept her changing from theatre studies (just before finishing) to studying at the opera in Germany).
 |
| Vegetable fritter - golden crisy perfection |
Once the vegetable fritters are done, they have to be eaten quite quickly to appreciate the super crispy consistency. I am quite a fan of deep fried food, and these are exquisite. The tteokbokki aftewards has a completely different texture, very chewy and a bit slippery, a challenge for me to handle with chopsticks! They are served with boiled eggs, and a gochujang sauce made with fishcakes, spicy, but still quite accessible to me as a Korean food novice. I ask Su what she missed most when she could not go back for almost two years, and she mentions she ended up dreaming about cheese balls. She would literally be asleep, dreaming that she was in Korea and ready to order them, but would then somehow encounter problems during the ordering process, and then wake up disappointed, without cheese balls. A very Korean ex-pat nightmare...You can imagine what Su's priority when she finally did get back this summer!
 |
| Tteokbokki - chewy ricebakes with spicy gochujang sauce including fishcakes and boiled egg |
No comments:
Post a Comment