kimchi onggi

I love Chinese fermented mustard green. It is often difficult to find good ones that is local made. You can buy manufactured bags or cans from Asian countries, but you can count on them being shit, not to mention likely has toxic chemical and food color added. I decided that I will make my own as I know what goes into them, and if I die from food poisoning I only have myself to blame.

an impromptu korean grill meal

I went to Home Depot to look for a replacement sponge insert for my Quickie floor mop. Home Depot bad. They decided to drop the Quickie brand and replace them with another brand. Home Depot just lost another of my consumable item to Amazon. Way to go.  A trip not all loss. Read on.

Whenever I go to Home Depot in my neighborhood I always drop by the Korean grocery store across the street to pick up a few things and this trip is no exception.

pint size sauna

I have not been to H-Mart for a long time and I decide to go explore what new Korean merchandise it has. Portland has a large population of Koreans and there are many Korean grocery stores. Near me there are 3 stores operated by the owners of H-Mart. Riding on the popularity of Korean products they have now gone to town imported a lot of furniture and interesting products from Korea. They now have fancy heated beds controlled by microprocessor. These bed typically has a slab of natural stone like marble so you sleep on a very firm bed. One good thing about these bed is your strenuous activity would likely not keep the person in next room awake.

korean cold noodles

I am not too crazy about entree that is served cold. May be is just I am aware that our taste receptors don't work as well in cold. Case in point, you have to add much more sugar in a cold drink such as ice coffee to taste the same sweetness than if you drink the same coffee hot. Likewise in Northern China there are appetizers that are served cold. To make them tasty the flavor and seasoning have to be more concentrated than if you serve them hot.

kimchi and pork lian gao 炒年糕

Sticky rice cake is eaten in many Asian cultures. It is called lian gao (or lin go in Cantonese) 年糕 in Mandarin. It is made with flour of glutenous rice (sticky rice). Here in Oregon I found the best quality ones are from Korean stores. While they are exactly like the Chinese one, the Korean ones always have a slanted cut instead of straight cut.