cook: kalbi + banchan

I suppose I’m in the mood these days for ethnic, specifically Asian cuisines. I'd cooked Vietnamese and Filipino nights, and a week ago, I had picked up short ribs, already marinated in a Kalbi sauce. We also had just harvested summer squash and cucumbers from our garden, and so I knew Korean night had to be next. I'm not as familiar with the banchan or side dishes that serve as appetizers or the prelude to the grilled proteins of a Korean meal. The fermented cabbage would be easy as you can now buy kimchi at just about any grocery store here in California, even the Grocery Outlet where I bought this jar. And I improvised another banchan with just a green salad with miso dressing.

 

And so with the cucumber, I made a oi muchim.    

And then it was just a matter of frying up the short ribs and boiling some rice.

The last time, I cooked kalbi, my husband didn't care for it, and those ribs had come from Trader Joe's which he said were too grisly. These short ribs had come from Costco and weren't already pre-cooked.

 

I think the last time we ate at a Korean restaurant was years ago with my brother and his wife. I remember really enjoying tiny dishes of not just pickled cucumbers, but pickled bean sprouts, radishes and scallions as well as other types of fermented Napa cabbage before grilling the bulgogi. I really need to trek to the H Mart, which I just remembered opened just a year ago.