Unsuccessful Turkey Day

For Thanksgiving, instead of going home to sunny California, I went to Boston and stayed with my cousin and her husband and her 4 month baby. Being my cousin (Stella) and her husband (Joseph's) first Thanksgiving in the East Coast, all three of us did not know that the entire city of Boston basically closes, including the grocery store. In California, all of the markets open on Thanksgiving day until mid-afternoon. The possibility that the markets of Boston would be closed all day on Thanksgiving did not even occur to us, so we waited until the morning of and decided to take a nice walk to the market, seeing an empty plaza. Not surprisingly, the only market that was open was H Mart, a Korean market. Ultimately we had to settle for a Korean Thanksgiving dinner. The dishes I helped Stella make were: Dduk Kalbi, Jap-chae, bacon asparagus rolls, mi-yuk gook, kimchi jjeem, brocolli salad, and shrimp and squid fry.

Dduk kalbi is beef that is mashed/ground up. The beef is then marinated with soy sauce and sugar. The one I ate had pine nuts and walnuts inside as well. The beef is rolled into small bite size balls and then covered with flour. After you must fry it and cook it until the meat is cooked. Then putting it in the oven will make the beef more crispier.

Jap-chae is a noodle dish made with sweet potatoe noodles called dangmyeon. You can add carrots, spinach, beef, peppers, and basically almost any type of vegetable you want. You have to first stir fry all of the vegetables and make sure if you add beef it is all thoroughly cooked. The noodles must be cooked separately and then strained. The noodles are initially clear but through soy sauce and sugar, it turns brownish. Then all you have to do is combine the ingredients and noodles together.

Lastly kimchee jjeem is a Korean dish including Korea's famous pickled cabbage, kimchee. Kimchee is simmered for a very long time. In the bottom of the pot, pork ribs are placed and a lot of kimchee is placed on top. After adding sugar and some soy sauce, all you need to do is simmer for a very long time.

I was still glad I got to have a lot of Korean food that I can't have at Smith. I think it was still a successful feast!