Recipes and Food

Recipes. Well, it is sort of like a recipe. I grew up with a lot of recipes. At any rate:Korean food purchased on the internet:

Curry Powder and Ottogi Hash Powder:

It is like this: One boils potatoes and some carrots in some water. When the potatoes are cooked, one doesn't discard the water; one adds the powder to the standing cook water to form the sauce. I had never really seen this method used in Western cooking, although I am sure it must exist.

Rice can be served with these dishes. Browned ground beef is commonly added. There is always a simple lettuce and tomato salad served with these curries in restaurants. I use frozen vegetables instead.

The curry we are talking here is Northeast Asian curry from the supermarket. It is similar to Indian restaurant curries in some ways. Growing up, we had chicken twice a week. If I had grown up in Korea, supermarket curry would have filled the same function.

Vermont House is one of the most popular brands of curry in Japan and Korea. It contains small fragments of apple, for sugar.

Ottogi Hash is a food that seems to be the same as something I ate growing up, "Whiffenpoof Stew", made with beef and onions in a mild soy flavored sauce, served on rice. I am not sure I understand this term, but there it is anyway. I suppose Bart Simpson would call it something like "Siberian Power Food".

As far as worrying about whether pre-packaged curry is a quality food, the packaged mixes, which when prepared and served contain mostly fresh cooked ingredients, can be compared to our concepts of "homemade chicken soup" vs "Campbell's Chunky Chicken Soup." I am sure we've all eaten a lot of Cambell's soup in our lives. A jumbo 17.6 oz bag of curry good for at least 5 pounds of potatoes costs about $4. And, I can recommend "KGrocer" in Los Angeles as a Korean internet food store.