Editor’s notice: Banchan Boyz (BCB) is a bi-weekly column devoted to checking out the food stuff of Deborah Kwon’s childhood and turning Kyle Bender into a Koreaboo.
Kwon: Welcome. This is the episode in which we basically cook our individual food, since we are school poors, and what improved way to boost Kyle’s Koreaboo XP than a Do-it-yourself segment (one of many to come, I’m positive)?
Bender: I can come to feel the 고추장 (Korean purple pepper paste) flowing by my veins. Also, we recognized that it could possibly be challenging for non-Koreans and non-Koreaboos to study 한글, and actually that sucks for you. Go determine it out, loser.
K: So genuine, bestie. This 7 days is a single for the 장s (the Korean term that normally refers to a sauce or paste), with us getting cooked with the two 고추장, 된장 (Korean fermented soybean paste) and 쌈장 (a paste which is ideal explained as a mix of 고추장 and 된장). We designed 라볶이 (sweet and spicy rice cakes and ramen noodles), 해물파전 (savory seafood and scallion pancakes), 된장찌개 (stew created with vegetables and fermented soybean paste), and 호떡 (sweet Korean pancakes).
B: There have been lots of moments in my daily life where by I have observed myself cooking pancakes for teams of persons even with me not genuinely wanting to. Through my senior calendar year of significant faculty we experienced a team meal in our initially-period of time background course to rejoice the conclude of testing for the 12 months. Following 10 minutes of seeing my overconfident classmates totally fall short at building blueberry pancakes, I stepped in. Not since I truly desired to assist them, but due to the fact I was hungry and wished a superior pancake. Thankfully, for the other editors who Deb and I have been sharing this BCB meal with, I got seriously good at producing pancakes in excess of the several years.
K: I, on the other hand, have under no circumstances built a single pancake in my life (inspite of becoming on group pancake in the pancakes vs. waffles discussion). Fortunately for us, I make Korean soups and stews most nights for meal and was pretty, pretty, extremely excited to share my rendition of 된장찌개 with Kyle et al. Fun truth: the 된장 was also employed in the 해물파전, so that was some enjoyable crossover action with our pancake.
B: The most important issue to contemplate when earning any pancakes is your sacrifice, or the minor runt of the batch that you cook dinner to great-tune for warmth, oil, and batter quantities. No sacrificial pancake appears to be great, but they never taste any even worse than the many others. So though the very first 해물파전 was notably sq., did not consist of any seafood, and was mildly uncooked on the within, it was continue to mouth watering.
K: Aesthetic sacrifices are however in truth gorgeous contributions to our flavor buds. Whilst Kyle was making the 해물파전, I was occupied thieving some green onions and seafood, chopping up the potatoes and mushrooms, and striving to run as ordinary in spite of possessing accidentally sliced into my finger (whoo!) even though earning the extremely comforting 된장찌개.
B: Honestly, I just cannot imagine of anything at all more comforting than warm soup and pancakes, specifically when you are sharing a food with other people we completed up that night’s meal with some 호떡 that we obtained at H Mart. They ended up crammed with a cinnamon-sugar mixture that rounded out the salty and savory dishes we commenced with. Luckily, these pancakes did not require a sacrifice given that they were retail store-acquired and just necessary to be warmed up in a pan.
K: This set of food was certainly just a comfort and ease-food items-and-vibes form of evening. I just cannot consider of nearly anything far better than stew and pancakes — which is the variety of excellent shit that built up most of my dinners as a kid. Developing up, I was not normally the major enthusiast of these dishes, but I’ve been going through a newfound appreciation as I have to essentially feed myself in university (and at the same time function to undo the compulsory self-hating Korean several years).
B: Whoo! Praxis! Our other dwelling-cooked meal consisted of one dish that appeared on my TikTok web page by Chef Chris Cho, 라볶이. Striving Korean Tofu House’s 떡볶이 awoke a little something in me, and viewing Cho’s recipe created me want to test my hand at making spicy rice cakes. Not only was this recipe truly uncomplicated, it was the most addictive dish I have ever had. I dislike to acknowledge this, but immediately after creating it this initially time for BCB, I designed 라볶이 for evening meal 4 far more nights in a row.
K: It is real — this is a simple fact check out. What Kyle and the other editors never know is that at any time due to the fact I experienced 라볶이 at Kyle’s place, I far too — although it could not have been days in a row — have experienced 라볶이 for supper at least four instances in the past 7 days. While, I form of just produced an attempt at mixing 고추장, sugar, and 고춧가루 (Korean chili powder) at random with drinking water and rice cakes and secularly prayed that it’d all operate out.
B: Truthfully, I could not have been more satisfied with the dishes that we made for this rendition of BCB. Even although the 해물파전 was not as crispy as it would be if you obtained it from a cafe, understanding that there’s something for us to get the job done on in a afterwards food is definitely exciting. For you, our expensive Koreaboo visitors, we’d advise heading to H Mart, obtaining some substances, and cooking a food with your good friends or roommates if you can. Make sure you stay safe and sound even though you do it although, Ms. Cron is still on the move.
K: Please stay protected — no matter if it’s pertaining to COVID-19 or just becoming horrible at chopping veggies. Anyhow, I consider I’ve sufficiently leveled up Kyle to a center-tier Koreaboo level, and phew, we’re not even midway as a result of the quarter — good. In honor of Korean foods and reconnecting, we existing a three-track playlist (just one for each album) by our bestie Japanese Breakfast.
Get to View Editor Deborah Kwon and Enhancement Editor Kyle Bender at [email protected]. Twitter: @scoobydeeby and @avatar_kyle.
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