le blog de tranny

My (Our) favorite restaurant in Cambridge was easily Little Seoul, the Korean place on Regent Street. At one point during Lent term, when I was too stressed out and tired to cook ever, Jasper and I would eat there two, three times a week. And we would each always order the same thing. First we’d start off the meal with an order of seafood pancakes.

These are so effing delicious and pair perfectly with a cold Hite. I plan on attempting this recipe soon, for the next asiany-themed potluck Caroline and I have at our new place.

Jasper was a big fan of the spicy pork bulgogi with rice, while I always opted for the kimchi chigae, which was always so good that I photographed it once (duh).

Anyway, flash forward some months (or one, to be exact) to post-Cambridge life. I was back in Berkeley living in Caroline’s bed for the summer. After asking Jaimie and the internetz for some advice, I was itching to attempt a kimchi chigae of my own. And Caro had really been wanting to make pad thai some night. So we decided that we would make azn foodz 4 the 4th and have everyone over. We took a trip down to Koreana Plaza (this GREAT asiany market on Telegraph and 23rd) and got the proper ingredients for really cheap. Our asian-themed 4th of July potluck was a huge success! Here’s how I made my dish.

1. Slice the pork belly and mince the garlic. Chop up some tofu into cubes.

All of this frozen pork belly cost only like $2! The asians know how to keep it legit (and cheap).

2. Now would probably be a good time to start the rice. I prefer Jasmine white rice but I guess any white rice will do.

3. Fry the pork belly and garlic in a pan with a little bit of sesame oil until just cooked.

4. Bring like a cup or two of water to a boil and add the pork belly (and delicious pork belly pan fat), tofu and a shit ton of kimchi to it. Pour plenty of kimchi juice in there as well. (You could even cheat and empty one of those flavouring packets from a package of kimchi ramen into the soup to make sure the flavor isn’t lacking.)

5. Boil the soup for at least 15 minutes then at the end, add some chopped green onion. Et voila!

… Does it look like the picture from the restaurant?