Japchae - delicious Korean noodles and a great Fast Diet meal!

For a couple of my fast days recently, I've been making Japchae. If you've never heard of this, it's a popular Korean noodle dish made with beef and veggies, soaked in a sauce made from soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. You may think, WHOA, beef and noodles and sugar and oil? I can't have that on a fast day! And you've got a good point. I'm going to tell you how to get around that so you can enjoy a big delicious plate of Japchae for a fast day dinner!

A while back I heard about some crazy Japanese 'miracle' noodles, which are made from a type of yam and a lot of water, and thus are ridiculously low in calorie and yet still fill you up. There are two kinds, Shirataki and Ito konnyaku, which, now that I've tried both, seem basically the same to me. I think it's a regional difference, or a difference in the way they were produced in the past, or something like that. 

Obviously, with being very very low in calories, these noodles are ideal for Fast Diet meals! They come packed in a bag like this, with noodles floating in a lot of liquid. I bought my ito konnyaku at a local Japanese store, for about 50,000 dong ($2.50). It was enough basically for a full-sized plate of noodles and veggies. This bag actually said on the nutritional info on the back, ZERO for everything! Even zero calories! Now, this seems impossible to me, because they're made of SOMETHING, so obviously they can't be absolutely zero calorie. I have read that they're 97% water though, so if you eat 100g, you're only eating 3g of actual substance, which isn't going to give you many calories at all!

On the second occasion I went to a different store and found these Shirataki noodles for about 38,000 dong, for the same size bag. These ones said 6 calories per 100g on the back, which I guess is a bit more realistic. Either way, does it really matter?

These are a bit gelatinous and slightly like glass noodles, so they work quite well for Japchae.

To prepare the noodles, I drained off the weird-smelling liquid (a bit fishy, really) and rinsed them in a strainer until they didn't smell anymore. I read afterward that you should boil them for just a few minutes, or else they'll still smell a bit, but mine didn't. Maybe it was all the sauce I put on them!

For my Japchae I found a recipe on the amazing Korean food blog, Beyond Kimchee. Holly started this blog as a keepsake for her children to inherit, so that they would be able to cook good Korean food when she's no longer around. If you love Korean food and you haven't seen this, check it out!

Each element has its own special sauce that you stir up and add the main ingredients to, which each either have been blanched or get cooked later. Then it's all mixed together at the end. I'll warn you; this makes quite a bit of work, but I promise it's worth it. I only used about half the sauce ingredients in Holly's recipe, as I was only making it for one person.

Beautiful, delicious shiitake mushrooms.

The first time I made Japchae I used a little bit of lean beef, and marinated it just as Holly describes, along with some shiitake mushrooms, blanched and seasoned in their own sauce, spinach (Vietnamese water spinach, otherwise known as rau muống) blanched then soaked in another sauce, and some onions, carrots, and red peppers tossed about in a fry pan. I used a bit of the excess sauce that the noodles were soaking in to avoid using any more oil. 

Rau muống, Vietnamese water spinach, blanched and soaking in its sauce.

Onions, carrots, red pepper, and bean sprouts, pan fried just until tender-crisp.

Now, as a fast day recipe this was pushing it a bit, as it ended up being pretty much my full 500 calories all in one go. However, I had quite a bit of extra sauce floating on my plate when I was done, so I'm thinking I didn't quite consume all of it. Most (er...just about all...) of the calories are in the sauce because of the sugar and sesame oil, so reducing the amount of that would help a lot in reducing the calorie count!

My first Japchae, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.

The second time I made it, I left out the beef, because obviously this is where quite a few calories come in. And how do you count calories in beef anyway? I bought mine at the market outside my house. It looked like a nice lean piece of meat, but I have no idea what cut it actually was or how many calories would be in it. 

I also had no spinach handy this time, so along with the beef I was able to leave out two of the sauces. I added zucchini and snow peas to the veggie mix, for more variety and vitamins and because I had them in my fridge. The only other change I made was in the sauce for the mushrooms, where I added the tiny bit of rice wine and salt that would normally have gone in the beef and the spinach.

It came out just as tasty as the first time, and at about 400 calories. I think next time I'll try reducing the amount of sesame oil and sugar a bit more. I think I could make it a little less sweet, and as much as I love the sesame flavour, that's where the majority of the calories get added. I also still had a fair bit of sauce left on my plate, so maybe I need to just make less!

This makes a pretty good fast day meal, as both times I ended up with a very full plate of food, which is a hard thing to do when you're only allowed 500 calories in a day! It's delicious, and the noodles do fill you up, at least as much as normal noodles would.

I'll be experimenting more with these noodles in the future, so stay tuned to see what I come up with!

Hanoi Food Challenge #2 - Day Four

Day Four of my Hanoi Food Challenge Number Two started out sunny but relatively cool, so instead of going into work right away, I took a walk around the lake looking for breakfast. I tried going to a place called the Rock 'n' Roll Cafe, simply because I liked the name and they had bánh mỳ trứng  (egg sandwich) advertised outside, but it turned out they didn't actually have any egg to put on my sandwich so I had to move on. What's that about? What kind of cafe or restaurant in this country doesn't have any egg?

I ended up at Cafe Quang, a large orange place around the other side of the lake from work, with chairs out front so you can sit facing the lake.

When I went in to order, the girl insisted on bringing me a menu, even though I could've just told her what I wanted. I asked for a bánh mỳ trứng  and an iced lemon tea. I got lemon juice instead, but I drank it anyway.

It took a while for my sandwich to arrive, but at least I was in a fairly nice location!

A view of work from my breakfast chair.

My bánh mỳ trứng  finally came, and I was a bit disappointed. It was on a proper baguette, which was nice, and wasn't oily at all, which is also a bonus, but was literally just egg with maybe two slices of cucumber. Where was the carrot? The coriander? I had to ask for chili sauce, and by the time I realized I hadn't put enough on, she'd taken it away again. I guess they only have one bottle.

 

This place gets pluses for the good bread, non-oily egg, and the great view, but my favourite bánh mỳ trứng  lady just outside of work wins in terms of price, speed, and flavour. I'll go back to her next time. 

For lunch I was alone, so I went wandering. I had planned to walk down to a street food place down the road, but got sidetracked. Just across Nguyễn Chí Thanh street there's a Korean restaurant that I've probably walked past hundreds of times, but have never gone in.

 

It doesn't look like much from the outside because of the frosted windows, and I guess I never went in to check it out because down an alley very close to work there's a little Korean restaurant that has been a favourite of ours for a long time, so why would I go anywhere else?

The thing is, that favourite little Korean restaurant has recently changed owners, and I haven't even been in since, but from what I've been told, the dishes have shrunk while the prices have nearly doubled. As you can imagine, this was very disappointing, and all I want to do is go in, look at a menu, say it's too expensive, and walk out again. I guess that would just be rude, but how else will the new owner know that he's lost customers by raising the prices so much?

Anyway, because of all that, when I saw this place yesterday all I could think was that it's probably too expensive, but I had to go in and check anyway. Turns out, it's mostly pretty reasonable and about the same prices we were paying at our favourite restaurant before it changed owners!

Note the Korean drama playing on the big TV. Just as it should be.

The menu had all the old favourites like kimchi jiggae (kimchi stew), doenjang jiggae (fermented soybean paste stew), bibimbap (mixed rice with veggies), kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake), and mandu guk (dumpling soup), each for about $6. They also had more expensive meat bbq dishes, and our very favourite, jaeyuk bokkeum (pork in spicy sauce). Unfortunately this last one was $15, which was much more than we're used to paying, but I'm wondering if maybe it's enough for two?

Cute decoration on the menu.

I sat down and ordered mandu guk, and they brought me a full eight side dishes, including a soup, kimchi, a little pancake, and various other goodies.

My soup came and it was tasty as ever, but the dumplings were quite big and falling apart. I think, actually, they may have been homemade while it's possible the ones I've been eating all along were not! They were delicious either way, but there were some large chunks of dough that I actually didn't eat. 

They also brought me rice with it, in the same kind of little metal container that you get it in in Korea, which I had totally forgotten about! Rice was overkill though, as the soup was already quite filling!

What a spread for one person!

When I was finished they also brought me two slices of very cold watermelon, and a cup of that delicious cold cinnamon drink. 

Despite the menu being in dollars, they brought me a bill for 126,000 dong, which was exactly in line with what I'm used to paying for this. 

I just looked on the New Hanoian, and this place has three reviews, all terrible. Maybe that's why I never went. Most of the terribleness centres around a rude manager. I had no encounter with any manager, but the staff was all lovely and friendly. I might go on there and give it a positive review now!

I am THRILLED beyond belief to have found a new Korean restaurant near work, and I feel like a few of my co-workers will be too! I guess it needs more trying out, but I will definitely go back!

Dinner was something Christine and I have been talking about trying for a long time. Chả cá is barbecued fish, although it's cooked in a frying pan in a lot of oil rather than actually barbecued. There's an old chả cá restaurant in the Old Quarter that's so famous, the entire street is named after it! However, I've been told that Chả Cá Anh Vũ down on Giang Vo is the some of the best chả cá in the city.

The address is 116k1 Giang Vo, but when we got there, we found another, identical restaurant at 120k1 Giang Vo. I was a little concerned that it was a copycat, but when we went to the original restaurant they shooed us over there, so it seems that they've just expanded.

There's only one thing on the menu here, so no ordering is necessary! A guy immediately brought us all the fixings and placed them in very precise places on the table. Peanuts, sauce, slivered onions, herbs, noodles, chilies, bowls and chopsticks were all carefully positioned, then they brought a bowl full of green onions and dill. 

Finally, we got a burner and a frying pan full of chunks of fish already sizzling in oil. They added the green onions and dill, and stirred it up for us. 

The guy then showed us how to mix the noodles, fish and greens, onions, peanuts, and sauce in our bowls until we had a tasty mixture.

Maybe it was all the build-up, or maybe it was that my tummy was misbehaving a bit (I don't want to blame my breakfast, but timing says maybe....), or that I found the fish to be a bit rubbery, but this wasn't as good as I was expecting. I mean, it was tasty, and I liked it, and I would eat it again, but it wasn't WOW for me. I probably won't crave it like I do some other Vietnamese food. But hey, you can't win 'em all, and it's another thing that's been on my list for a long time, checked off! 

Today (Thursday) was a fasting day, but I'm back at it tomorrow, so come back on Saturday to hear all about Day Five! 

Dakgalbi - Spicy Korean BBQ chicken

Long before I came to Vietnam I spent two and a half years living in South Korea. It was my first time in Asia and my first time in a non-English speaking country, so of course everything was new, especially the food! I remember on my first day of work, my boss asked me what I wanted for lunch, and I just stood there dumbfounded, not having a clue what to say. I asked what was available, and he said, well, anything you want. It didn't seem like the time or place to ask for pizza so finally I got a suggestion for kimbap out of him and was able to have lunch with everyone else! During my first year there I found a few more dishes I liked, but I it wasn't until I went back for another year that I really started to get to know the food better.

During that second year I found dakgalbi. It's chicken (usually dark meat) that's cooked in a huge round frying pan at the table, with cabbage, onion, carrots, sweet potatoes, maybe some rice cakes and a lot of spicy red sauce. It very quickly became my favourite dish and I wanted it all the time!

Since I left Korea I have craved this regularly, and have found it here and there but it's never quite right, because it's never cooked in front of me, I've always been alone (Koreans don't cook this at home, and if you eat out in Korea you're nearly always with people!), and it just doesn't taste the same. I tried making it myself once and it was tasty, but so spicy I could barely eat it!

I've had houseguests this week. My Korean friend Jiyeon of Runaway Juno and Stephen of Bohemian Traveler were visiting on their way through Vietnam. I first met Juno in Singapore after I left Korea for the first time. We were staying in Chinatown and celebrated Chinese New Year there together, both being completely deafened by the firecrackers! We then traveled up into Malaysia together, to Melaka and Kuala Lumpur, where we found a Korean restaurant and had a well-earned taste of the food we were both missing so much!

From reading Juno's blog I've seen that she makes Korean food for people all over the world. Obviously, when I found out she was coming here, I wanted to cook with her, and what else would I want her to teach me to make but my old favourite dakgalbi?

In one of the imported food shops here I found the key ingredient, gochujang (spicy red pepper paste). You can see on the bottom left corner of the label there's a thermometer with a 4 (I think out of a scale of 5) for the level of spiciness! Wowzers!

We assembled all the ingredients: chicken, onion, garlic, gochujang, rice vinegar, sugar, rice wine, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

I set to work de-boning the chicken, while Juno worked on the sauce.

Then she added the chicken and mixed it in well by hand....



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and we left it to marinate while we went out for the afternoon!

 

When we came back hungry we cut up some vegetables and put them in a frying pan (yeah, they call it BBQ but it's not) with the chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juno cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces with a pair of scissors - Korean style!

 

And we added ramyeon noodles, just like I used to have it in Korea.

 

And it's done! We served it with rice and cold beer!

 

This was the closest I've had to what I used to eat in Korea, and it was pretty spicy but still edible! Not to mention delicious! 

Dakgalbi

 

*all measurements are approximate. Taste the sauce and add things until it tastes good!

 

5 tbsp gochujang

2 small tbsp sugar or maeshil (Korean plum syrup)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp rice wine

1/2 onion, pureed

1/2 onion, chopped

1 bulb garlic, diced very small

2 tbsp sesame oil

black pepper

 

approx. 1 kg chicken (dark meat)

cabbage, carrots, green pepper, baby corn, sweet potato, or whatever other vegetables you want

 

1 pkg ramyeon noodles (optional, or more, if you want)

 

Mix together the gochujang, sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine, onion, and garlic. Taste to see if the mixture of sweetness, sourness, and spiciness is ok. Add sesame oil and black pepper at the end, to taste. Add chicken and marinate for a few hours.

 

When you're ready to eat, cook some rice and boil the noodles until they're soft.

 

Put the chicken in a hot frying pan and cut it into bite-sized pieces with scissors. Add vegetables. Cook until the chicken's cooked through and the vegetables are tender. At the last minute, add the noodles and stir through. Serve with rice and cold beer!