The Wendy House..: Korean Cooking!

I am so excited to share this post with you all because those of you who know me personally, I have always loved Korean culture (especially in the last 6 years or so). I have always been fascinated by Korean ways of life and especially how different or similar they are to the Chinese, because I am Chinese as you know. ;) And because I went through a teenage phase of loving Korean Pop (VIP for life, haha xD), K-dramas, TV shows, Make up and Food – I’m glad I can dedicate a post to Korean Cooking.

Asian culture has slowly infiltrated Western society over the years, more so the Chinese, Japanese and Indian civilisation for example. Whereas Korean culture has taken a back seat and were not as highly recognised (well in the UK).. Until now! A few years ago when a guy named PSY galloped onto our TV screens and was all over the internet, I think was the moment when the world was fully exposed to Korea. Shortly after many began to become fascinated with Korea and it opened a whole market in the Western world, especially for K-Pop.

Although I have always been intrigued by Korean cooking, until recently I personally had never attempted homemade Korean dishes. Aside from the obvious that I am not Korean I always felt that it was quite a lengthy process, the ingredients were not widely available and many of the dishes I researched seemed quite complicated – so it was a clear no go zone. Food Network is such a great channel that I cannot stop raving about that inspires and encourages me to cook and experiment in the kitchen. Lately I have been obsessed with Chef Judy Joo’s (a French trained Korean-American Londoner) Korean Food Made Simple TV show. I don’t want to share too much but would urge you to watch the show (which airs every weekday @ 3:30pm and 6:30pm), she travels to her home country and also shares step by step loved recipes she has developed over the years.

After watching many episodes of the show, I actually plucked up the courage and cooked a Korean meal for dinner – It turned out better than I anticipated!

I cooked up a storm of

Korean Rice Cakes & Fish Cakes,

Kimchi Fried Rice and BBQ Kalbi Beef!

(All Recipes can be found via Food Network website!)

Absolute essential in Korean cooking, to spice things up.. Literally! (Definitely not for the faint hearted!)
Gochujang is a new favourite ingredient of mine now!