South Korea - Our Sixteenth Meal

For our sixteenth dinner, I cooked us a meal from South Korea! Compared to most of the countries we have cooked from, I feel a little bit more familiar with Korean food and culture. I have a lot of admiration for Korea, its ancient and beautiful culture, complex (and delicious) cuisine, cinema, and modern technological sophistication. Still, I had never made Korean food at home before. I did not choose the most adventurous items in the Korean cookbook, for sure (live octopus, for example), but they were still mostly new for us. The theme of this meal was 잘 먹겠습니다 (jal mukesumneda), a Korean expression said before dining, akin to bon appetit (literally, “I will eat well”). This was another long cook, at 7 hours. I hit my 10,000 steps just in the kitchen today!

Mark heating up the grill for the 불고기 (bulgogi, lit. “fire meat”)

Rice (밥, bap) is the center of Korean meals, and is accompanied by 반찬 (banchan, assorted side dishes which are shared with everyone at the table)

Bulgogi before cooking 

Mark doing the honors 

The bulgogi was great -- but my feeling is, you can't really go wrong with steak.

쌈장 (ssamjang sauce), served with the bulgolgi - an interesting nutty flavor

비빔국수 (bibim guksu -- spicy cold noodles)

Mark and I both liked these noodles a lot. To me, they were similar to jjolmyeon, another cold spicy Korean noodle dish made with gochugang.

감자조림 (gamja jorim -- braised potatoes)

These were a big hit. They were perhaps the most "American" tasting part of the meal - this tasted kind of like a breakfast scramble, with the potatoes and green pepper.

아스파라거스 무침 (asparagus muchim -- asparagus with vinegary sauce) -- 
I love everything with gochugang.

fresh pickled daikon -- mild and inoffensive

오이 김치 (oi kimchi -- cucumber kimchi) and 

연근조림 (yeonkeun jorim -- sweet and salty lotus roots)

I've never been a big kimchi person, although I liked this okay. It was a fresher style of kimchi, only sitting out 18 hours before refrigeration. The lotus roots were interesting - as Mark said, "a deep soy sauce flavor." We didn't really care for them, but they were quite visually appealing (though it's a little hard to tell in this photo!).

One thing this meal was missing is soup -- I opted for other items, but I think traditionally, a Korean meal would not really be complete without soup of some kind.

다식 (dasik -- tea cookies) 

Dessert is apparently not a "thing" in Korean cuisine, but I thought it would be fun to try making some Korean sweets, which are usually made for special occasions. I opted for dasik, which are traditionally served for Lunar New Year. (I'm a little ahead of things, since it's not til February 12, 2021.) I made three varieties: matcha, sesame seed, and imitation omija (I could not find omija tea at H-Mart, so I substituted hibiscus). I liked the matcha one -- the others not so much. Mark did not really care for any of them. I had ordered a dasik mold to make these, but it got lost in shipping, so instead I used a bento rice mold Mark bought me a while ago, and then decorated the tops a little bit. True dasik are prettier than these - but I kind of like how they look.

This was the hardest/most interesting meal to shop for, of the country meals I've done, since I actually shopped in-person at H-Mart (our local Korean grocery store), instead of buying everything in English online. Many of the items were unfamiliar to me* and so I could not pick them out by sight (or even guess confidently which aisle they'd be in), and I had to actually cross-reference the Korean characters from the online recipes with the packaging of products on the shelf. It was a fun treasure hunt in a way, but it was also time-consuming, and at times, a little tiring, frustrating, and embarrassing. It gave me a little insight into how annoying it must be to shop in American stores if you are ESL. 

*Like Korean anchovy fish sauce (조청 jocheong), malt syrup ( 물엿 mulyeot), etc. 

I bought us Korean chopsticks/spoon sets for this meal -- as you can kind of see in this still from the charming TV show "Let's Eat," Korean chopsticks are metal, flat, and narrower than Japanese chopsticks.

After dinner, we watched the film Sunny (2011), a very heart-warming slice-of-life film about a clique of friends in high school and 25 years later. A wonderful tale about growing older and the beauty of female friendship. Definitely recommend to all. It was also educational, since I had not known about the student protests for democratic reform/revolution in the 80s (you can read a bit about that time on Wikipedia, here and here).

For these country date nights, we have been trying to select upbeat films from that country which do a good job of highlighting their culture (as recommended on various blogs or forums). Normally, though, horror is by far my favorite movie genre-- and there are some amazing Korean horror films! You can see my take on some here.

When? December 19, 2020

Who cooked? Lauren

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) bulgogi with rice and ssamjang sauce, bibim guksu (Korean spicy cold noodles), asparagus with gochujang sauce, gamja jorim (braised potatoes), oi kimchi (cucumber kimchi), yeonkeun jorim (sweet and salty lotus roots), sesame dasik, green tea and omija dasik

South Korea Stats

• Population: 51,225,308 (27th in the world)
• GDP: 2,027 (14th in the world)
• Life Expectancy: 82.8 -- so high! (9th in the world)
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 2333 BCE / 4353 (very ancient civilization); 1945 was end of Japanese colonization and formal creation of South Korea
• Official Language: Korean; Korean Sign Language
• Rankings (selected) -- as you can tell from these stats, South Korea excels in education, technology, economic prosperity, and medicine
• Highest percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds having a tertiary education degree (68%)
• Highest percentage of graduates with a degree in natural sciences or engineering (32%)
• Best performance in fourth grade science and eighth grade math at Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
• Highest in Bloomberg Innovation Index
• Highest patent applications per GDP and per million population; most patents in force
• Largest shipbuilder
• Highest in 4G LTE penetration (97.5%)
• Fastest Internet connection speed
• Highest in mobile banking usage
• Lowest obesity rate in the OECD
• Highest colorectal cancer and cervical cancer 5-year survival rate
• Highest spending on research and development per capita
• Lowest in Long-term unemployment rate (.01%!)
• Highest in average number of movies watched in cinemas
• Best performance at World Taekwondo Championships
• Best performance at World Cyber Games
• Largest military reserve force

Iran - Our Fiftheenth Meal

For meal #15, Mark took us to Iran (also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran). Our main dish was kabob koobideh (lamb/beef kabob) and steamed Persian rice with tahdig. The grilling on skewers did not go quite as planned, so we ended up having the meat off-the-skewer, which lent itself well to nice sandwiches with lavash. 

Tahdig -- the crunchy darker-colored rice -- is apparently the star of this dish, which is always served to guests. For us, we were not sure about the appeal -- it just tasted like crunchy rice! Not sure if this was a nuance of preparation method, or if we just don't have the palate for it. 

The rice itself was nice, fluffy with a hint of saffron, but again, we were not sure the final taste justified its lengthy (hour+) preparation time. Basmati rice sure is good, though.

Roast vegetables. Another experiment in terms of preparation -- it was a challenge to get these cooked all the way through using this grilling method (roasted over open coals). Gives you respect for the Iranian chefs!

The lavash bread was delicious! Apparently this was made similarly to the way I made pita recently - a dough with olive oil in it. I really liked this, and Mark said it was pretty simple to make. I would like to try my hand at it in the future.

A dish of pistachios with sumac, a traditional Iranian spice which appeared in the kabobs. I don't think I have ever had sumac - it was so delicious! Very lemony, with an earthy tang. Apparently lemon-pepper is considered a reasonable substitute, if that gives a hint to the flavor. I really really liked this flavor - I think it would go well on anything savory that would normally take lemon (salad, fish, etc.). It has been fun building out our spice cabinet through these meals.

The dill/cucumber/yogurt condiment was tasty. This "maast o khiaar" was a familiar flavor for us -- although we know it as "tzatziki," which we eat regularly in middle eastern food.

Raw onion is apparently a common condiment for  Iranian meals -- though I'm not sure we partook.

Our beverage was doogh, a sparkling yogurt drink. Mark liked it, but this one was a little funky for me -- I like sparkling drinks, and I like yogurt, but the combination as a drink wasn't quite right for me. It almost seemed like a Japanese or Korean drink, since they have yogurt drinks there -- I joked with Mark it would have been better with some shochu in it. (Although this would not fly in Iran, where alcohol is illegal.)

For Mark's birthday, I bought him an ice cream maker, and he made us this delicious bastani, a traditional Persian ice cream made with rose water, saffron, and pistachio. A very lovely creamy yellow color, and a delicious, mild flavor. Excellent!

After dinner, we began watching Persepolis (2007), the movie based on the famous (and terrific) graphic novel, which I read in junior high or high school. We ended up being too tired to finish it (though I'd like to later). One of my favorite horror movies is Iranian - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Completely genius and visually stunning. Highly recommend to everyone!

I regret I don't know much about the history and culture of Iran, except that it is a strict Islamic country and women are expected to dress modestly and cover their hair, and there are taboos on certain forms of social interaction between men and women (buses are sex-segregated, for example). One nice thing about doing these meals, however, is that it causes me to perk my ears up when I hear news about countries we have "visited." So hopefully I will learn more.

When? December 6, 2020

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) lavash bread, kabob koobideh, Persian rice with tahdig, maast o khiaar, doogh yogurt drink, bastani ice cream

Iran Stats

• Population: 82,913,906 (19th in the world)
• GDP: 1,631 (18th in the world)
• Life Expectancy: 76,5 (60th in the world, compared to US at 36th with 78.9)
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 609 BC / 2629 -- a very old civilization. The Iranian Revolution ended in 1979, and the monarchy was replaced by the Islamic Republic. 
• Official Language: Persian
• Largest Islamic banking sector
• Largest producer of:
• Pistachios
• Saffron
• Caviar
• Stone fruits
• Turquoise
• Handmade carpets
• Oldest carpet in the world (Pazyryk burials)
• Hottest surface temperature ever recorded (159F!)
• Largest Shia population
• Highest natural background radiation
• Most major earthquakes, 5.5+ Richter magnitude
• Most accurate calendar in use (Iranian calendar)
• Highest ratio of female to male school enrollment (1.22 female per male student)
• Largest number of former national capitals (31 former capital cities)
• Largest population of foreign refugees (mostly Irani and Afghan)
• Largest reserves of zinc
• Fastest growth rate in science and technology - 1000% increase in output over 9 years (2010)
• Largest fleet of NGV (natural gas vehicle -- rather than running on gasoline); 3.5 million in use

Ireland - Our Fourteenth Meal

For our fourteenth date night, we "traveled" to Éire. Ireland was an interesting one to plan, since I've never been to the country, but like most Americans, have eaten various Irish (or Ir-ish) foods for St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to mostly stay away from things we've had before -- so no Jameson or Guinness at this meal! 

Historically, Ireland has apparently not been known for its cuisine (though I understand it has an excellent "larder" and a well-regarded modern food scene) -- but as Mark said, "I like this kind of food." Simple but good fare.

For the main course, I made us Irish Stew. I don't eat lamb normally, because I feel sad for the little creatures, but I tried it for this dish. The flavor was pleasant but unusual (to me), deeper and stronger than beef or pork. Apparently the inclusion of carrots in this dish is controversial... some purists would have them omitted.  

The colcannon was nice -- mashed potatoes with cabbage, onion, and bacon folded in. Mark really loved it.

I've had soda bread before, but had not made it myself. It was very good-- though I should have left it in a few more minutes. I think the big X on top is rather attractive. It was interesting baking with baking powder instead of yeast or levain, for a change.

 

For dessert, we had Irish scones with black currant jam. Yum! I forgot to put the egg in - doh! - but they turned out quite tasty anyway.

I used Kerrygold butter in damn near everything, so that surely helped. :) Ireland is apparently known for its dairy farms.

After dinner we watched Waking Ned Devine (1998), which was innocent and charming. They gave the traditional Irish toast, sláinte, pronounced "slahn-chuh." See this page for some more Irish toast ideas. :)

When? November 21, 2020

Who cooked? Lauren

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) Irish Lamb Stew, colcannon, soda bread with Kerrygold butter, Irish scones with blackcurrant jam

Ireland Stats

• Population: 4,882,495 -- so small! WA State has 7.2 million people. Impressive that Ireland has been so influential despite being so small... or perhaps as an American I have an outsized impression of Irish world influence, due to the large influence of Irish immigrants in America?
• GDP: 344.8
• Life Expectancy: 82.1 -- high, 16th in the world!
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 1542 (formation of the Kingdom of Ireland) / 478
• Official Language: English & Irish
• Most Eurovision wins (the Eurovision Song Contest is an annual international song competition, organised by the European Broadcasting Union and featuring participants representing primarily European countries)
• Most globalized country according to Globalization Index (a measure of the openness of a country to international trade)
• Highest gross national savings

Argentina - Our Thirteenth Meal

For our thirteenth meal, Mark took us down to South America, for an Argentinean feast!

For this meal, we had delicious steak with chimichurri sauce, a salad of hearts of palm, avocado, and tomato, and beef and egg empanadas. Everything was delicious!! This was also our first date night dinner on the beautiful oak table Mark built us. :)

I'm a big steak fan, and we eat it very seldom, so it was happy news for me, to learn that grilled meats from the asado (barbecue) are the iconic Argentinean dish.

The empanadas were awesome. Mark even made the dough himself-- they turned out so beautifully! The egg inside was interesting, but good.

Chimichurri is soo good. 🤤 And he made a balsamic version, too.

I really enjoyed the enselada de palmitos de primavera (heart of palm salad)! I don't think I'd ever had heart of palm before... I didn't even know what it was (apparently, the inner core and growing bud of various palm trees). I liked it! It had a nice mild flavor, like a less crunchy water chestnut. And of course, I love EVERYTHING with lime. 

We also tried yerba mate in a traditional calabash gourd with a bombilla (metal strainer straw). I was surprised to find I did NOT like this, I found it quite bitter. In college I drank yerba mate... but chilled and sweetened, in a can. The authentic version was less palatable to me... I'm a pleb, what can I say. :) I'm sure it would grow on me.

Apparently, by far, the most popular cocktail in Argentina is fernet con coca, also known as fernando, fernandito, or various other nicknames. Conceived of by college students in the 80s, it went on to enjoy explosive popularity. I did not expect to like this - plain fernet is too earthy/herbally for me - but I actually really did! It was very refreshing. The national love affair with this drink makes sense to me, after tasting the yerba mate -- there is a similar flavor profile.

For dessert, we had vanilla bean ice cream with dulce de leche. Mark made this by taking an unopened can of condensed milk, and boiling it for 2.5 hours (although apparently you can go even longer for a darker color and more intensive flavor). This was quite nice! Although I forgot to take a picture (doh!).

After dinner, we watched a terrific dark comedy anthology film, Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales; 2014), about violence and revenge. I'm not sure I learned much about the culture of Argentina from this film, except that bribes and government corruption may be common social concerns. And I suppose that they appear to enjoy a high standard of living and dress fashionably. (I like playing sociologist with these films, but of course, recognize the limitations in making any aasumptions.) 

I was delighted to see one of the characters drinking yerba mate in the traditional fashion, as we had just done. 

A very pleasant evening.

When? November 7, 2020

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) steak with chimichurri, empanadas mendocinas, hearts of palm, fernet and coke, ice cream with dulce de leche (can method)

Argentina Stats

• Population: 44,361,150 (31st in the world)
• GDP: 911.5 (27th in the world)
• Life Expectancy: 76.5 (60th in the world, just after China, at 76.7)
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 810 / 210
• Official Language: Spanish (de facto)
• Highest central bank interest rate (26.25%)
• Largest exporter of pears, vegetable oil, and "football" (soccer) players
• Highest consumption of beef per capita (65.2 kilograms aka 143.7 pounds [!!] per year) -- well, we did our part! 
• Southernmost city in the world (Ushuai)

Australia - Our Twelfth Meal

For our twelfth meal, we dined down under! Australian cuisine is evidently much like American, but I tried to pick distinctively Aussie dishes.

The most iconic Australian food is apparently chicken parma (chicken parmesan), which is served in every pub -- but I couldn't bring myself to do an iconic Italian dish and call it our Australian dinner. So I went with the second most iconic Australian dish, an Aussie original: meat pie with tomato sauce, what the locals call "a dog's eye with dead horse." Despite the unappetizing moniker, it was quite good!

This was the simplest meal I've made thus far, since a lot of the items were pre-made, but a few elements were time-consuming. The tomato sauce was simple to prepare, but simmered for 3 hours before being pureed into a thick sauce. It has an interesting flavor-- sweet, with notes of clove, allspice, onion, peppercorn, and cayenne. The most surprising ingredient to me was the green apple!

I was sick this week and still feeling kind of run down today, so I used store bought pastry for the pie instead of making it from scratch, as I would normally do. It was still good though! These were very tasty but the meat filling was very rich and hearty, neither of us could finish ours. They paired well with Foster's beer.

We tried that most traditional of Australian flavors -- VEGEMITE (a yeast concentrate spread) -- shown on toast in photo above. By god, it was terrible! Haha. No disrespect to our Aussie friends -- I'm sure it's a taste that grows on you. I used a small amount of it in the meat pie, where it lent a pleasantly subtle umami flavor -- but on its own it was like eating bitter tar. We also had a salad with beetroot, which is apparently ubiquitous in Aussie cuisine.

For dessert, I made us lamingtons -- a traditional white cake with strawberry jam filling, rolled in chocolate and shredded coconut. I think they're quite delicious, though Mark doesn't prefer coconut. (I left the rest of the tin coconut free.) He did like the Tim Tams though, a popular Australian chocolate cookie, which we washed down with Milo -- a powdered chocolate you mix into milk, much like Nesquik, but with a nuttier taste.

For our final foray into Australian flavors, we tried Fairy Bread! A staple of children's parties, Fairy Bread is buttered bread covered in 'hundreds and thousands' (or what we would call nonpareils... or simply sprinkles). It tasted exactly as you would imagine. :) But it was too cute a novelty not to try. 

For our entertainment, we watched a very charming comedy called The Castle, about the Australian dream -- every person getting their fair shot, and a chance to own their own piece of property. We've been trying to keep it fairly light with these films, so I chose not to screen a movie about the nation's fraught relationship with their Aboriginal peoples -- apparently it's an ugly history, similar to the US/Native American story. It has been enlightening, when selecting these date night films, to see what crises consume the psyche of different nations. (For Hungary's date night, for example, I opted against various holocaust films.)

I've long wanted to visit Australia, because my favorite TV show, Farscape, was filmed there. Hopefully one day!

When? October 24, 2020

Who cooked? Lauren

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) meat pie, Australian tomato sauce, lamingtons

Australia Stats

• Population: 24,898,152 (more people than Florida, but fewer than Texas!)
• GDP: 1,235 (19th in the world)
• Life Expectancy: 83.3 (excellent! 7th in the world. Although there are significant health disparities-- in 2016, the Australian Indigenous population’s life expectancy was about 10 years lower.)
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 1901 / 119
• Official Language: English (de facto)
• Largest producer of wool, bauxite, lithium, titanium, zirconium, tantalum
• Largest uranium reserves
• Best performance at Rugby League World Cups (men)
• Winner of most Cricket World Cups (men)

Sweden - Our Eleventh Meal

For our eleventh meal, Mark made us a delicious SMÖRGÅSBORD! Funnily enough, my first words upon seeing the spread (before I knew the country) were "wow! a smorgasbord!" :)

This tasty meal was eaten in courses. We started with a shot of aquavit (strong, anise rubbing-alcohol flavor haha), and then tucked into the fish course. Pickled herring (bottom; a staple of any smorgasbord, apparently), from Scandinavian Specialties in Ballard, along with gravlax Mark made himself! 

The pickled herring was an interesting, rich, but very strong flavor. Mark found it delicious-- I think it would grow on me, but my initial impression was not very favorable. The gravlax, though, was fabulous! A nice mild salmon, dill, and lemon flavor, with a tasty gravlaxsas Mark made.

Next was a selection of pickled foods. I did not prefer the pickled cabbage or regular pickled beets -- too much "dirt" taste for me -- but I did really like the pickled golden beets, and olives filled with bleu cheese.

After that, we had the meats course, including some delicious potato sausage that Mark made himself!! He ground the meat and filled the casings and everything. Very impressive -- and very time-consuming, apparently.

Mark also made some very delicious and comforting-tasting meatballs in the slowcooker, which we ate with a very flavorful lingonberry jam.

We also enjoyed two imported Swedish cheeses with knackerbrod (a traditional Swedish crisp bread). I especially liked the greve.

The fresh pickled cucumbers were good, a familiar flavor for me.

For dessert, Mark made us a terrifically rich and delicious "sticky chocolate cake" with blackberry sauce, using berries from our backyard. We also enjoyed some nice Swedish cookies -- I especially liked the Gille Double Chocolate Crisps.

After dinner, we started to watch a film called Songs from the Second Floor, which was pretty silly. We turned it off at a certain point. 

We do love some Swedish films though-- Låt den rätte komma in (2008) is one of my favorite horror films, and The Seventh Seal (1957), Swedish title Det sjunde inseglet, is one of my favorite movies.

When? October 10, 2020

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) gravlax, gravlaxsas, potato sausage, swedish meatballs, pickled cucumbers, sticky chocolate cake

Sweden Stats

• Population: 10,036,379 (91st in the world)... less than the population of North Carolina
• GDP: 521.7
• Life Expectancy: 82.7 -- pretty high, 11th in the world!
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 970 / 1050 ... another old country
• Official Language: Swedish
• Most equal income distribution-- pretty damn jealous, given the radical wealth inequality in the US
• Lowest importance of religion
• Highest proficiency in English as a second language