Seaweed Dinner Wraps

The meal and the chef that inspired me ^^

In Korea, it is not highly uncommon to enjoy a variety of vegetables, a meat and some lettuce to wrap everything up in. Many of the man and my favorite meals involve just that, wrapping meat in lettuce. Recently, a friend of ours invited us over for dinner and had a sort of mini-buffet of deliciously marinaded meat, a variety of vegetables, rice and seaweed and lettuce for creating wraps. Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious and inspiring! You can definitely go about this type of meal anyway you wish, our friend included Muenster cheese with her wraps which was fantastic! Ours were a bit more simple just because...it's what I had time for. This particular dinner I cooked up some thinly sliced pork (dae-pae samgyupsal - similar to bacon but uncured), mixed in some bulgogi marinade and a sliced onion for the meat dish. For the vegetables I served up thinly sliced carrots and cucumbers as well as a beautiful mix of sprouts I got at our little grocery store. Throw in some rice and have some lettuce or seasoned seaweed ready to go and you're all set for a most delicious and enjoyable dinner!

Omelet Kimbap

Days of deskwarming in a Korean public school generally leave the foreign English teacher with a few lunch time options:

1. Order in with other teacher's/vice principal...if you can find them.
2. Leave for an hour and find a Kim-bap restaurant or other solo-dining option.
3. Pack your own lunch.

Option 1 and 2 can be great for a couple days or so but quickly begin to drain the wallet, and when you realize one day, while your waiting for some sweet Korean lady to hand over your Kimbap, that you could have made your own with ingredients in your house, you suddenly lean toward option 3.

So, remembering my success with Kimbap in a pinch, I threw some rice in the rice cooker before hopping in the shower.  When the rice was cooked I added directly to the rice cooker container some mayonaise, sesame oil, salt and pepper and mixed it all up.  Set out a sheet of seaweed, spread on some rice and then whisk up an egg and pour it into a lightly greased fry pan.  Next lay the egg out on the rice sprinkle on some cheese and green onions, rolled the sucker up, made a few slices and lunch was ready for the day!

Kimbap in a Pinch

Kimbap is Korea's version of a sushi roll...but not really because Korea is not Japan and sushi is Japanese. So kimbap is a Korean snack/quick dish of rice and things wrapped in seaweed. Typical Korean Kimbap includes ham, egg, pickled radish and other non-Japanese style additions. It's cheap and perfect for so many situations.

Once, in desperate need of a quick dinner, a Korean friend recommended a twist on traditional kimbap...I'm calling it Kimbap in a Pinch.

Like all foods I truly, truly love, this can be adjusted and played with to create some great fusion style eats....here's the basic and a couple of variations I've had some success with ^.^

Prepare rice. White rice. (One cup of un-prepared rice will be enough for about 4 rolls once it's been properly prepared).

Mix in mayonnaise, a touch of sesame oil, drained tuna fish, a veggie of choice (I used bell peppers), and some sesame seeds.

Spread onto a sheet of seaweed ('kim' in Korea, 'nori' elsewhere).

Roll, cut, eat.

Variations~Mix-In:

• Mayonnaise, chopped tomato, chopped bacon, salt and pepper (B.S.T. - Bacon, seaweed and tomato) Quite amazing, trust me.
• Pesto and chopped tomato -- received the most raves at a recent gathering
• Mayonnaise or a touch of salsa/hot sauce, black beans, corn and tomatoes -- haven't tried this, could be a total fail.
• Hard-boiled and chopped egg, mayonnaise, salt and pepper (think egg salad in a sheet of seaweed) -- also, haven't tried but definitely think there's potential!
• Whatever you can think of! Kimbap is the new sandwich my friends, go out, experiment and have a grand ole time.