Cuisine ; Tteokbokki (떡볶이)

Hello there! Now in this post I'd like to introduce to you a food that my family and I enjoy a lot. It is called tteokbokki (떡볶이; or also known as teokbokki, ddeokbokki, topokki, dukboki or simply tokpoki). It is a street Korean food which has gone worldwide. Tteokbokki is made out of soft rice cake boiled with korean sweet spicy red chili sauce. It tastes so delicious for my family and I that we often buy it so much. It tastes sweet and spicy at the same time and with various variation it has much more distinct taste. There are many variation of tteokbokki apart from the original one, there are cheese tteokbokki, ramen tteokbokki, noodle ttekbokki, and many more. We can also add many more ingredients to the mix to simply enhance the taste. The topping can also be altered to add the delicious taste. we can add vegetables, noddles, eggs, fried treats, fish cakes (reccomended),and so much more.
Tteokbokki originated back there in Korea, it was initially a royal food for the Korean royal family, the Joseon dynasty. But as time goes by globalization happens and this dish turned out to be very popular. Tteokbokki can also be found in medical records: a book called “신뇨찬요 (Shingnyo chanyo)” written by Jeon Sunui, a medical officer in the Joseon dynasty (1460). The purpose of the book was to cure people through food and tteokbokki was part of it. Nowadays we can find this dish in street vendor or high class restaurant.

Here is how you make 2-3 servings of this dish:

Ingredients:

1 pound tteokbokki tteok* (about 24 3-inch long rice cake pieces)

1 sheet of eomuk (fish cake – aka oden)

4 ounces cabbage

1 – 2 scallions

*You can find these types of rice cakes either fresh, refrigerated or frozen, (in order of preference for this dish), at Korean markets.

3 cups anchovy broth (or water)

3 tablespoons Korean red chili pepper paste(gochujang)

1 – 3 teaspoons Korean red chili pepper flakes (gochugaru) – optional for extra heat

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon corn syrup (or 1 more tablespoon sugar)

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

Make anchovy broth. Cut the fish cake, cabbage, and scallions into about 2-inch long pieces.

Add the anchovy broth (or water) to a large pan. Stir in the sauce ingredients, except the sesame oil and optional sesame seeds. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the red chili pepper paste (gochujang). 

Add the rice cakes. Boil until the rice cakes become very soft and the sauce is thickened, about 8 – 10 minutes. Stir frequently so the rice cakes don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add the vegetables and fish cakes. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for an additional 4 – 6 minutes. Taste the sauce, and adjust the seasoning if needed. Add the sesame oil and optional sesame seeds right before turning the heat off. Serve immediately.  

http://www.koreanbapsang.com/2012/03/tteokbokki-spicy-stir-fried-rice-cakes.html

Holiday of 2014

(Hi! So this is the very first entry I make in this year so I am very excited! Anyway, go on)
So, it’s holiday season again. Already done with the current semester when I was just getting the grip of it. Anyway, this holiday, christmas and new year (there’s gotta be some jolly yippie coming out of me somehow but really, nothing comes up) was spent with my families back in a scorching, hot city named Karawang. The weather was normally hot, believe me, I know since I spent a few years there, but recently the city has become an industrial area, making it even hotter somehow. Maybe because the fact that I got used to the chill weather of Bandung, so really, the scorching weather was utterly unbearable. My mom and my sister  went to Karawang by car in the morning, the journey lasted for 2 hours, more or less. When we got there it was conveniently on 12 o clock so the temperature was practically burning the nape of my neck. We stayed in my aunt’s house during our visit there, so I darted toward the house once we reached the house, seeking sanctuary from the burning heat inside the house. After having a painfully long kiss and greet session, I discovered the fan standing gloriously in the corner, excusing myself I scooted toward it and turned it on, gosh it felt like heaven breeze. So after that we unpacked our luggage and loaded them into the guest room. After that I took a bath because I simply needed one. Then my cousins and I watched a drama which titled in seasons.
The next day, after finishing the drama current season we were watching, my cousins and I wanted to stroll around the neighborhood, so we took the motorcycle and rode around. Well actually, I wasn’t the who was in the driving seat because can’t ride a motorcycle. Knowing this fact, my cousin cracked up and announced that I should learn how to before I leave from there. So after a journey to the nearest convenient store and buying some ice cream and much much chilled beverages required for everyone in the house, my cousin and I had a quick how-to-ride-a-motorcycle session. You might ask, why was it quick? Did I master it quickly? Well sorry to disappoint you, but it was a quick learning session because I fell too many times and cakes in dirt and can barely continue so I called it off. After that we took a bath (separatedly) and continued watching the next season of the drama.
I spent the next day by visiting my relatives in the town. We covered the area quickly and then my cousin from another line of relative (so many relative I lost count) told my cousin and I that there was an expo in the town’s  square. So we decided we should visit the expo. The expo was made to commemorate somekind of an annual event. There was a large group of things there, I bought some lenses for photography. My cousins also bought the same thing, they also got themselves some shirts. After that we did some more sightseeing and got back home.
The next day, my cousin had an appointment to make a driver’s license with our uncle. We woke up early and got ready to go. Why was I coming together? Because she thought I might need to get out of the house and do some more sightseeing, even though the temperature outside was reaching boiling point, huh. To make the said driver’s license we got to the traffic police’s department there and took a queue card. When her number was called she got into the room and did some tests and filled some forms too. After that we were told to wait a few more minutes for the license to come out. We had to wait a solid 3 and a half hours but finally the license was out and her photo came out funny so we had a good laugh at it, well, I did, ha ha.
So the next day was the last day we were in town. My mother, sister and I visited the graveyard of my grandmother. After that we visited the many relatives (once again) to bid goodbye. And then we took off to Bandung.