I've created a new section. I originally posted some of my food adventures in the DIY section, but figured that I might explore food enough to have a new section I've labeled, "cooking."

The latest food adventures comes from my love for Korean food. I'm half-Korean, and I grew up on rice, seaweed, spiced vegetables, and all sorts of food with the eyes still attached. My wife isn't crazy about any of it, but I can't go for too long without craving it.

One of my favorite Korean foods is kim-bap, which is the Korean word for sushi. I periodically pick up some pre-made kim-bap at the local Korean market, but at $3 each time, I figured it was time to learn how to make it myself. After stumbling upon a page that shows how to make it, I went grocery shopping at the Korean market and decided that tonight was the night.

Kim-bap is rice, mixed with condiments, and wrapped up in seaweed. The condiments that are used varies, but it often include pickled radish, egg, carrots, spinach, and beef. I didn't feel like buying spinach, so I substituted it with lettuce, and in place of beef, I used odeng, which is like a thick noodle made from flour and fish. It's hard to explain; I don't think there's an American equivalent.

Anyhow, here's a bunch of pictures of the build up.

Ingredients:

Kim. That's seaweed, and it's what we use to wrap everything up.


And here's the kim covered in rice.


I used a potato peeler and shaved off some slivers of carrot to use.


A single egg, fried flat, and then sliced up into strips.


No spinach for me. I used lettuce instead. I'm not opposed to spinach -- I just didn't feel like going through the process of boiling it up.


This is odeng. It's fish cake, or noodle, sliced into strips. It looks kind of gross in that picture, but it's about the most delicious thing ever.


This is pickled Asian radish. It's dyed yellow, and I'm not sure why. But it's always that way. I could have picked up a pack that wasn't dyed, but it was a larger pack, and I didn't feel like spending another dollar. Growing up, my relatives referred to this as "Japanese kimchee," but I never understood why. I'll have to ask my mom. It's not spicy like kimchee -- it's just pickled.


Here's all the condiments piled onto the rice before rolling it up with the handy bamboo kim-bap roller I bought at the Korean store. You can use paper, but I wanted it to be official.


And here it is rolled up. My goodness, it looks like kim-bap. I almost ate it without cutting it up.


Look! Kimbap! I made that!

Delicious. It tasted perfect. And as I've told some of my friends, the way the portions work out, I think kim-bap is about the most perfect food.


Of course, I couldn't go to the Korean store without picking up some fun stuff. I'm a big fan of cucumber kimchee, because it's crunchy, and stays that way for along time, unlike lettuce which gets soggy pretty quickly.


Also, spiced dried anchovies. It's not as bad as it sounds -- it isn't fishy tasting. But one thing that freaks people out is that you're eating the fish whole, eyes included.


Yes. That's an anchovy eye, staring at you from behind the tail of another anchovy.

Anyhow, there you go. That's kim-bap. It was my first time making it, and it was fantastic.