Oi vey!

I'm venturing into cooking Korean more (gotta be true to my roots). Despite having grown up eating Korean food that my mom made from scratch, I really have no clue as to how to cook it. In fact, I believe there was one point where I swore I would not bother (this was years ago, after making a batch of kongjaban (black bean banchan) that stunk up my kitchen to high heaven). It seemed to me such a labor-intensive process, when I could easily just buy various banchan at the market - the only downside being that there is only one Korean market in all of Manhattan.

It started with a 90+ degree weekend month when all I wanted to eat was mul naeng myun, but could not find the time to go to a Korean restaurant or the Korean market to buy any of the pre-packaged kind (the only kind I know how to make).

I happened to be running errands near East 59th Street and stumbled upon a Japanese market. I prayed that they would have naeng myun but no... kimchi yes, naeng myun no. I called my mom to see if she could describe any ingredients I could get so that I could make naeng myun myself. She essentially told me to just buy the pre-packaged kind. Gee, thanks Mom.

She did go on to say I could make my own cold noodles using dongchimi (white kimchi) water. But then I'd have to make dongchimi, which actually turned out to be super easy - salted daikon then covered with purified water, wait a few days (more on this later)...

Anyways, this led to more experimentation with pickling and such and I attempted this variation of oiji muchim (mixed/seasoned pickled cucumber).


I was trying to make the kind where the cucumber is totally limp, and has a sesame and spicy flavor. My mom said after salting, squeeze out as much water as possible - that's how the cucumber gets that wilted look.


Actually, I think you're supposed to use cucumber that has already been pickled.


Nonetheless, I pressed on and mixed in some sesame oil, sugar, kochukaru, sesame seeds, black pepper and a little splash of rice vinegar.


Actually quite tasty! Although with those kind of ingredients, how could it not be tasty? I forgot to add garlic and scallions, but even so, I like this method, and it's a great way to use up a bunch of kirbys, which are abundant and inexpensive at the farmer's market right now.