KOREAN FOOOOOOOOOOD!!! PART FOOOOOOOOUUUURRRRRR!!!!

Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)

Kimchi jjigae, or kimchi stew is one of the meals that I ate a bunch (and maybe still do) as a kid. It was easy and quick to make, and was still tasty and flavorful in my opinion. Of course though, kimchi isn't really something everyone might really like. It's known for it's pungent and strong (not in a good way) smell, which some people might really hate. So as you can probably guess, the main ingredient in this stew is going to be kimchi. Now... let's get cooking!

Ingredients

Some ingredients you're likely going to need are...

• 8 ounces of pork bell,
• 1 (1-pound) package of tofu,
• 3 cups of kimchi,
• 1 tbsp. of olive oil,
• 1 cup of water,
• 1/2 cup of kimchi juice,
• 1 tbsp. of Korean red chili flakes,
• and 2 tsp. of sugar (Ha 90).

Here are the ingredients!

Materials

Here are some materials you might need...

• A pot, 
• a knife, 
• a cutting board,
• and a large spoon or ladle.

Steps

1. So first, you are going to want to wash your hands (of course!) and lay out your materials and ingredients so that they are easy to reach. 
2. Take your pork belly and cut them into bite-sized pieces (Ha 90).
3. "Cut the tofu and kimchi into bite-sized pieces too" (Ha 90).
4. Next hear your pot, and add your oil along with your pork and kimchi. Stir and fry them for about 5 minutes (Ha 91).
5. After those five minutes your going to want to add your water, kimchi juice, chili flakes and sugar into the pot. Stir, and then close the lid and leave the soup to boil for 15 minutes.
6. With 15 minutes passed, you'll then want to add you tofu and leave the soup to boil for another 10 minutes (Ha 91).
7. Now pour your soup into a bowl using your ladle/large spoon, and you have created kimchi jjigae/stew!

Adding the pork and kimchi

Pouring in the rest of the ingredients (except tofu)

Now adding the tofu

FINISHED!!!

How do you eat it?

So this soup/stew is pretty salty, so I'd definitely recommend eating it with rice or something. I mean there's no really special way to eat this meal. You'd just eat it like any other soup. However, the author in the book I'm using advises, "it might be quite spicy, so serving it with a glass of water would be wise" (Ha 91).

How does it taste?

I think that this dish is pretty flavorful, which can be a good thing or bad. It has an overwhelming kimchi taste, so if your not a fan of kimchi, this might not be your favorite meal ever. But for me, I like the flavor since I'm pretty used to kimchi by now. Although if your planning on going out and talking to people after eating this, I should warn you. Your breath might not smell too great.

Summary

In conclusion, this was a fun and simple dish to make. One good thing about the recipe in the book is that it helped to tell you where you can buy some of the ingredients. Like if you're not too familiar with pork belly, it tells you that you can find it typically in Asian grocery stores. One thing that I would change if I were to make this again is the amount of kimchi I put in the soup. It was a little too salty, and I think the amount of kimchi had a large part in causing that. I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!!!

Quick Questions:

• Would you consider trying this meal?
• What bothers you about this stew?
• Have you eaten kimchi before?          

          Ha, Robin. Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2016. Print.