A Vegetarian in Seoul

Being a vegetarian in South Korea is not easy. At least in Japan, there is "shojin ryori" meant for the Buddhist monks. Besides, Tokyo is teeming with Indian restaurants which invariably have vegetarian food. In Seoul, pretty much all food is likely to contain fish sauce especially if it is considered good quality.

On a recent trip to Seoul, I finally had the chance to visit an Indian restaurant (on the outskirts of Seoul in Suwon), but the experience is best forgotten. The dishes we ordered were so average, I wondered if they had watered down the vegetable korma because they were running out of it. I don't know if all Indian restaurants in Seoul are this bad, or just this one was. However this time, I also had memorable vegetarian food. I got a chance to try the vegetarian set menu in a traditional Korean restaurant called "Pulhyanggi", an experience definitely worth writing about.

Pulhyanggi has several locations in Seoul and the one I went to, located in HanNam, was a short cab ride from my hotel. The restaurant is very cozy and tastefully decorated and has both Western and Korean style of seating. The menu has several set options, including one for vegetarians. The restaurant seems to be pretty well known for it's vegetarian set menu. Even though I was pretty hungry, the full page of items in front of me seemed overwhelming!

Each dish in itself was very small and very beautifully presented. Such as one slice of grilled mushroom was presented on a small plate. The waitress who was dressed in traditional clothes pointed out the item in the menu as she set it down on the table for me. Sometimes she had a rather bemused look on her face - maybe I wasn't eating the food the right way or in the right order. But I certainly enjoyed it, every last bite! So please enjoy these pics....

This one is the crepe with 9 fillings. The waitress deftly filled the 2 small crepes and rolled it up with the chop sticks for me.

These 2 soups came first - one is a pumpkin soup and the other one is a cold vinegary radish soup.

Lone slice of mushroom and bamboo shoot grilled on their own small platters! They were quite delicious.

Sauteed Mushroom with a beautiful yellow flower. Didn't eat it, it was too pretty!

Isn't this tempura so artistically done with the small ring of chili pepper for the stem?

Even though this picture got screwed by, I had to put this in because it is my favorite Korean dish - Jab Chae. Glass noodles with sauteed vegetables. Pulhyanggi's jab chae is probably the best I have had.

These are the ingredients for bi-bim bap. The waitress was quite shocked when I just started eating them on their own, but I was too full for the "bap", which is Korean for rice. They also served burnt rice water which has a very rich flavor. I beleive this came about because Koreans used to cook rice in stoneware, and to avoid wasting the burnt rice stuck to the bottom, they would pour water in to it and drink it with the meal.


Koreans do not typically eat dessert, but they always end the meal with fresh fruit. In the summer, it is most often watermelon. I am not sure of what would be served in the winter. I got a piece of pear and rice cake. The rice cake takes some getting used to, it is very chewy and not at all sweet.

There is no tipping in Korea, and the service fee is already included in the bill. The price of the meal without the 15% service fee is 55000 Korea won. Definitely worth another visit. I need to go hungrier next time!! It sure is a lot of food! Pulhyanggi's address is here:

http://www.visitseoul.net/jsp/english_new/eat/eat01_02.jsp?template_id=136&info_id=3040100046&onloadset1_num=null&onloadset2_num=null

Oven-braised baby turnips and baby carrots

We got a bunch of baby turnips in our CSA box this week and I still had the baby carrots from last time. So I started hunting around for recipes to use them up and found a rather simple but appealing recipe and decided to give it a try.

Wow! The result was just out of this world. I made a few modifications to the recipe based on what I had in hand.. it was just so mouth-wateringly delicious. So here's what I did:

Ingredients:

1 bunch baby turnips

1 bunch baby carrots

1/4 cup lemon / lime juice

2 Tbsp olive oil

salt

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small pc ginger grated

4 Tbsps chopped parsley


Method:

1. Wash the turnips and trim the stalk so just a little bit is left at the top.
   
2. Wash the carrots and do the same. If there is still soil left on the carrots, then peel the outer skin
   
3. Whisk together remaining ingredients except the parsley
   
4. Place the turnips and carrots in an oven-proof dish and pour the braise and make sure everything is coated. There is about 1/4 inch of liquid at the bottom of the dish.
   
5. Sprinkle the parsley on top
   
6. Cover and bake in a 350F oven for 30 - 40 minutes
   

The carrots which were fully immersed in the braise were so lemony! The turnips were milder yet delicious. I am going to see what else I can use for this recipe.

Being part of the CSA is exhausting in a way. Just looking all those parsnips and parsley root and turnips and big bunches of escarole filling up the refrigerator makes me take a deep breath. When V and I shopped at the Farmer's Market, we had a plan in mind. If one or both of us were going to be traveling, then we could plan for it. On the other hand, the CSA forces us to be more creative and spontaneous (although so far I have no bright ideas about what to do with parsley root!). We are still weighing the benefits of the CSA to see if we want to continue.

CSA: The Locavore's Dilemma

So V and I received our second box of produce yesterday from the CSA farms. We are doing this on a trial basis for a month to see how it compares to our regular Saturday morning Farmer's Market run. Pros and cons to follow later, but I noticed this article in slate.com today and it deserves a mention on this blog.

http://slate.com/id/2214524/

More pictures and recipes from this week's CSA box to follow.

Parsnips

These ugly things are parsnips. They look like uncouth radishes, they are less watery than radishes, and they are also a bit on the sweet side. I got a bunch of these in my box from the farm sharing which V and I are doing on a trial basis for a month.

The recipe below is from our friends P & V who have been doing the "Community Supported Agriculture" produce delivery for a while now.

1. Wash and trim the ends and scrape the skin off the parsnips.

2. Slice them into thin rounds, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and layer on a baking sheet.

3. Heat oven to 400F and bake for 20 minutes till crisp.

It was quite delicious and irresistible. Every time I passed by, I had to pop some in to my mouth. V didn't get any. Well, I just have to make it again next time we get it!

Soup weekend - Lentils with Garbanzo beans and Choy Sum

Since both V and I have been feeling a little under the weather, we decided to do an end-of-the-(cold)season soup weekend. We usually try to cook enough to last us for atleast part of the week, so we made 3 different kinds of soups - a lemon pepper rasam (this is the Indian mom's version of chicken soup), an Indian-style lentil soup with Garbanzo beans and choy sum, and a barley mushroom soup. V made the last one with a recent recipe from the New York Times, while I made the other two. The lemon pepper rasam is from Dakshin, my trusted South Indian cookbook, and the Indian style lentil soup is my own creation. So here's the recipe.



Ingredients:

Garbanzo beans (kaabuli chana) - 1 cup
Lentils (thuvaram paruppu/toor dal) - 1 cup
1 bunch choy sum (you can use spinach instead)
1 inch piece ginger grated
4-5 pods of garlic minced
2-3 green chilies slit into halves
1-2 dried red chilies
1 yellow onion - chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch garam masala
cumin seeds (jeeragam) for tempering
1 Tbsp vegetable oil for tempering
chopped cilantro for garnish

Advance preparation:

1. Wash the garbanzo beans and soak in warm water overnight. Pressure cook (or cook on stove) till it is soft
   
2. Wash the lentils and pressure cook (or cook on stove) till it is mushy. If you are cooking it on the stove, then it is preferable to soak it in warm water for an hour or so.
   
3. Wash the choy sum, and remove the ends. Separate the green leaves from the stems. Chop them separately.
   

Method:

1. In a wok, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.
2. When fragrant, add the red chilies and green chilies and stir for a few seconds
3. Add the onion and after a few minutes add the garlic and ginger and cook till the onion is translucent
4. Add just the stems of the choy sum. Sprinkle some water in the wok, cover and simmer till it is soft
5. Add the garbanzo beans and lentils, and heat through
6. Add the choy sum greens, cover and cook just for a few minutes
7. Season with salt, pepper and garam masala, heat through and switch off
8. Garnish with chopped cilantro before serving

We recently procured a Lodge cast iron pan to replace our non-stick pan (for health reasons) and we are quite excited about it. It weighs a ton however and the lid actually is heavier than the pan! Will take a little getting used to!

The above recipe goes to the vegetarian soup event at Lisa's kitchen: "No Croutons Required".

Napa Valley Bed & Breakfast

Beazley House B&B
1910 First Street
Napa, CA 94559
(707) 257-1649

http://www.beazleyhouse.com/

V and I stayed at Beazley House B&B on our visit to Napa and even though this post is a little late coming, I definitely wanted to write about it. The innkeepers prepared special vegetarian breakfasts during our stay since we had informed them prior to our visit, but more about the breakfast later!

Beazley House is within walking distance to downtown Napa. It was a rainy weekend when we were there, and we were glad for the warm fire in the living room that was always tended to. There was an electric hot water kettle and a variety of great teas, and also some cream sherry just in case one was in the mood for a night cap. V took a liking to the "Masala chai" and I fell in love with the "Raspberry Rooibos" tea. (V declared that any tea with berry in it was too girly for him!) We had numerous cups of the tea in the cold evenings in pot-bellied Beazley House mugs. In fact, we bought one of the hand-made mugs to bring home with us; it does seem to keep the water warm for a longer time.

We did not see Jim & Carol, the owners of the inn on the first morning at breakfast, but we got to meet them on the second day. They are a very warm couple and seem to genuinely enjoy being innkeepers. Jim asked us about our experience at Ubuntu, to make sure he was recommending the right thing to his future vegetarian guests.

Now getting to the breakfasts at Beazley, they were simple, elegant and healthy affairs. Carol, apparently used to be a nurse before she became an innkeeper and hence she always modifies her recipes to make them more healthy. Yet, the main dishes on both days were very flavorful and filling. There was always fruit and cheese, fresh coffee, orange juice and yogurt.

On the first day, we had scrambled eggs with red bell peppers and bread pudding with berries. On the second day, Carol made great quiche (flan) with mushrooms and we also got a fruit cup with berries and other fruit. She apparently substituted the cream in the flan with yogurt, and it tasted just wonderful.

Beazley House, being in Napa, is at the southern tip of the wine country. This could be a good starting point from where to head north to wineries at Oakville, St Helena and Rutherford and other places. V and I did enjoy our stay here, and would consider it if we were visiting the area again.