So, keeping with tradition, sorry for being negligent. This time I actually do (sort of) have an excuse, and, surprise surprise, it's musical.
The actual play was yesterday (topic for another post, look forward to it-- there are pictures. And videos, but I don't think I like any of you THAT much.), but for the entire like 2 months leading up to it, the musical was ruining my life. All day during kindergarten, then spend the rest of the day and night attempting to unwind from the stressful morning.
ANYWAYS.
This post is about food.
More specifically, soup.
Soup is probably the best food ever.
And by probably, I mean definitely, absolutely, and without a doubt.
Now.
Think about how wonderful soup is (tomato, french onion, chicken noodle... mmm).
Then times that warm, fuzzy, delicious feeling by like a ZILLION, and you've got my favorite soup:
Hay Jang Guk.
It's just so fantastic.
It's made of an ox-bone broth, with giant chunks of pork spine, cabbage, and delicious spices.
Each place does theirs a little differently, but the essentials are always there.
This photo really doesn't do it justice.
They bring it out to your table in these heavy pots with the soup boiling out over the top. You have to finangle the chunks of meat into a separate bowl with chopsticks so you can scrape it off the bone.
The thing with Hae Jang Guk is that everyone has their own way of eating it. Personally, I add the meat back into the soup and dump in the entire sauce bowl (every restaurant's is a little different, ranging from a hot mustard to Korean horseradish). I eat all of the solid bits, then dump in the rice and eat it with the broth.
Other people eat the meat separately from the soup (which should be a crime), and others just dump everything in the pot and eat it all in one go.
Really, any way you eat it is Uh. Maze. Ing.
It's known in Korea as "hangover soup", but I eat it just all the time. If I could, I would probably eat it every day. I know that's a bold statement, but this soup really is THAT good.
My friend Jess enjoying soup at our favorite place in the world.
Everyone seems to have a fierce loyalty to their favorite Hae Jang Guk establishment, and many an argument has ensued about who has the best stuff.
Me and my friends stalk this place a few blocks from our house. We're there so often that the staff doesn't even bother to ask us what we're ordering, but instead just brings it out to a blissful chorus of "gamsa hamnidaaaaaaa" ("thank you").
There's one woman who works there who just loves us (who wouldn't, honestly) and brings us free sodas whenever we go-- an added bonus.
Unrelatedly, guk ("gook") is Korean for soup, but I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing that word used all the time and just soooo casually. It still gives me a start when I hear it, like, um HELLO how many Asians are here that you're using that word??
But then I remember that it's lunchtime and freezing and they're talking about soup, not their time-travel adventures to a fox hole in Vietnam.
Oops?
ANYWAYS.
Another kind of soup that I really like (read: am moderately obsessed with) is Soondae Guk.
Blood sausage soup!
This post is making me hungry.
It's this mild broth with chunks of blood sausage and thin slices of pork in it. There's also a load of whatever that green stuff is, it's like a grassier version of green onions, but who really knows.
It's so SO warm and soothing, and another "hangover soup".
And no, I am not so constantly hungover that I eat hangover soup every day, it just happens to be delicious.
I'm not a big blood sausage fan generally, and was admittedly nervous trying this, but it doesn't taste like blood sausage, it's just this kind of mushy broth-y thing that has magical powers to entrance your taste buds and leave you never wanting to taste anything else for hours.
But seriously, I'm drooling.
I met some new arrivals from South Africa last night, and they were complaining about the food. I tried to reassure them by telling them about these two culinary masterpieces, but they seemed, if anything, more worried than before.
Oops?
Anyways, here's a link to a recipe for Hae Jang Guk, if anyone at home is feeling adventurous.
Or hungover.
