Our Korean dinner is complete! Wow, what a delicious meal! The oi muchim was tangy, spicy, and sour at the same time. The cucumber was so refreshing, coupled with the rice vinegar, sesame seeds, and gochugaru it made for a very zesty dish. The Bulgogi was definitely the star of the show. I let the sirloin marinate overnight so all the flavors could come together.
Once the griddle got hot the sizzling meat was so fragrant and delectable! We could not wait to try it.
The soy, sesame, ginger, and garlic paired so beautifully with the pears, onion, and carrots in the marinade. It made for a spicy, salty, sweet treat for the palette. My six year old had three servings! We will definitely cook this dish again. Maybe next time we will attempt to cook it over charcoal to get even more flavor infused. The sticky rice was the perfect tool to sop up all the juices from our Bulgogi and oi muchim! We served these dishes with 4 different dipping sauces. Some hot, spicy, salty, and sweet. Here are the recipes we used for this week's trip to Korea!
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-spicy-korean-cucumber-salad-oi-muchim-recipes-from-the-kitchn-173293
Fun Facts:
1. Despite Japanese colonization, Soviet meddling, and North Korean threats today Korea is the world’s 12th-largest trading nation. South Korea produces the LG TVs, Hyundai cars and Samsung phones we use every day.
2. Since 1998, millions of people from around the world have been flocking to the Boryeona Mud Festival. This 10 day festival was originally conceived as a way to advertise mud cosmetics. This popular Korean festival has grown enormously, attracting three million people in 2012 alone. The gray clay is shipped from the Boryeong flats to Daecheon Beach where people take part in mud massages, mud photo contests, mud marathons, and best of all, mud wrestling contests.
3. In 2010, the South Korean government launched its “R-Learning” program to fill schools with automated assistants like Engkey. There are two different version of this robo-teacher. One comes equipped with a TV screen which displays the face of an English-speaking teacher—who might really be as far away as Australia. The other model uses voice recognition technology to help students with their speaking skills. In addition to Engkey, preschool teachers use Genibo, a robotic dog that teaches dance and gymnastics, as well as iRobi, which keeps track of which kids are in class and asks them how they’re feeling.
4. Traveling to South Korea is a bit like traveling into the future. The moment you step across the border, you automatically turn one year older. In Korea, a baby is one year old at birth, instead of zero as in most other cultures. And things get even trickier, since everyone has the same birthday . . . sort of. After the New Year passes, everyone in Korea automatically ages one year, even if they haven’t had their actual birthday yet. It gets even more complex for people who were born just a few days before the New Year. If a baby is born on December 31, it’d be one year old. However, after January 1, that same baby will automatically turn two.
5. Introduced in the early 20th century by Christian missionaries, baseball has become one of the most popular pastimes in South Korea, and there are several interesting differences between “yagu” and the American version. For example, teams aren’t named after cities but after corporations, so there are the Samsung Lions, the Kia Tigers, and the Hyundai Unicorns. Korean baseball games feature female cheerleaders and fans enjoy kim-bobs, which are rings of seaweed stuffed with crab, lobster, and sausage.
However, the most interesting thing about Korean baseball is its dark past as the tool of an oppressive military dictatorship. After staging a coup in the late ’70s, General Chun Doo Hwan declared martial law in South Korea. Chun wasn’t the most popular guy in the world, and he was constantly having to crush revolts and murder protesters. He even shut down all the colleges in South Korea to prevent dissent. When none of those strategies worked, Chun came up with a much more devious scheme.
The Korean Baseball Organization was established in 1981 as a way for people, especially young men, to let off steam. By encouraging people to put down their picket signs and pick up a pair of thundersticks, Chun was hoping to divert attention away from his regime. A former defense minister was appointed as the baseball commissioner, six teams were created by government-friendly businesses, and Chun started improving his image by throwing the first pitch at every game.
6. In South Korea, blood is a big deal. It doesn’t just deliver oxygen to the rest of your body—it determines your personality. People in South Korea are automatically stereotyped thanks to their blood type. While this belief originated in Japan, it has taken a firm hold in South Korean culture, and it might even make a difference in who marries whom.
There are positive and negative traits assigned to each blood type. People with Type A are thought to be conservative and punctual, but they can be also obsessive, uptight, and a bit introverted. However, they think that cheating on their romantic partners is wrong and will thus be extremely loyal. People with Type B are a totally different story. While they have some good traits like creativity and passion, they’re also willing to cheat on their partners, lazy, and impatient.
As for Type AB, they’re supposed to be cool and under control, but they can be elitist, harsh, and judgmental. Type O means a person is ambitious and athletic. They want big things in life, and nothing is going to stand in their way. On the flip side, they’re pompous and egotistical, but once they decide to commit to a relationship, they’re generally pretty loyal.
7. The National Flower of Korea is the Rose of Sharon, Mugungwha.
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8. South Koreans love sweet potato flavored delicacies to such an extent that there is every possible dish flavored with sweet potato. To name a few, there are main courses, desserts, chips, latte, bread and salads.
9. South Korea has the highest education level in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, with 98% of the population completing secondary education and 63% with a college education -- they can't get out of the habit once they reach the work force.
10. South Korea has a worldwide high 82.7% Internet penetration and 78.5% of the entire population is on smartphones. Among 18 to 24 year olds, smartphone penetration is 97.7%.
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