For homemade dressing we mixed olive oil, red wine, Dash, soysauce and vinegar.

It's healthy and tasty but I need to grab something more to eat. I've been starving too much in the morning. Maybe I'll make some kimchi fried rice.

Anyhow back to her bibimbop...

She sliced radish very thin and mixed with some salt and red pepper flakes. Spinach steamed and mixed with sesame oil, salt, and garlic.

She also prepped carrots, bean sprouts, mushroom, and Bulgogi and put them in separate bowls for us to choose what we want.

Fried egg on top finishes it off. Add red pepper paste and sesame oil ( makes it easier to mix). This is the usual bibimbop but you can add or remove things to make different variations. That's the beauty of bibimbop. And this was mine! She had Miso soup and kimchi as a side.

So I had this big bowl of bibimbop and couldn't sit straight after. So full whew.

Mixing/Noodle Soup Bowls on ebay:

2x Japanese Noodle Miso Soup Bowl Dragonfly Green #4309 US $9.99

Pottery Barn Asian Japanese Japan Set of 4 (8) Noodle/Soup Bowl Plates Off White US $79.99

24 pcs 7" 20 oz Restaurant Porcelain Noodle Soup Bowl US $19.99

18 pcs 8" 28 oz Restaurant Porcelain Noodle Soup Bowl US $19.99

Japanese Plastic Lacquer Udon Noodle Soup Bowl #7133 J1871 US $7.99

10x Japanese Plastic Lacquer Udon Noodle Soup Bowl #7133 J1871 US $45.00

Once a friend told me she ate a very healthy meal...spinach salad. Yes that's good but let me show you an alternative way...Asian way...of eating spinach, as a Banchan/Sidedish with rice. I think that's little more filling than just a salad heh heh.

Just slightly cook and mix with sesame oil and salt and you are done!
Okay..okay...I'll be little more specific...scroll down!

Ingredients

1 bunch spinach
1 tsp salt
2 cups water

(Mix)
1-3 chopped scallions
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1/4 tsp salt

(OPTIONAL)
Little garlic
1/2 tsp sesame seeds

Let's Start!

Wash spinach thoroughly several times so you don't have to wash it after it's cooked.

Add salt to water and bring it to boil. When the water starts to boil put clean spinach and let it sit only for about 2 minutes. No longer than that!

Take spinach out and drain water. If it's too hot just briefly wash spinach once and squeeze excess water out. Cut spinach twice (into bite size).

Now just mix spinach with scallions, sesame oil, salt and sesame seeds (and garlic if you want).

Serve with rice and other banchan. If you didn't make it too salty, feel free to just eat it by itself.

That's all!

As you get familiar with the basic spices and sauces for Korean food, like sesame oil, feel free to add more or less depending on your preference. After all it is to please you not me ^^. Beauty of cooking after all is to adjust to your liking right?

Enjoy!

Spinach Seeds- Organic- Gigante D'Inverno- 200+ 2012 Seeds $1.69 Max. Shipping US $.94

250 water spinach garden plant heirloom fruit / vegetable / herb seeds US $.99

Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Jhuck-Special Occasion Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi

However, as ironic as it may sound...I do LOVE pickles and this spicy cucumber salad! Yummmm!!
In fact, this banchan is my FAVORITE!!!!!! I can eat so much rice with just this alone.

Like I told you before, I hate FRESH cucumber because of that FRESH seed smell, which cucumber lovers like it FRESH... as for me, pickles are 'pickled' and this recipe actually doesn't use the seed part (Keep this in mind to just throw away! or eat it if you must....)

No seeds, spicy, sweet, and fresh crunchy...Mmmmmmmmm...I want some!

Why should you eat this?
1. Eat more vegetables in different ways: In fact, that's the beauty of Korean food! You get to eat vegetables in many tasty ways! Not just regular old salad anymore!
2. Healthy diet and weight loss: more veggies, more benefits your and less greasy stuff means lose weight! Yay!
3. Spicy foods promote and protects health and possibly weight loss too: If you can't take the heat, please don't over do it.

So cucumber lovers or not, as long as you are not allergic to it...
Shall we start?

Ingredients:
5 cucumbers (You know those big fat juicy kind?)
OR 10 small cucumbers
1tbsp salt
1tsp ground garlic
1tsp sesame oil
2tbsp hot red pepper paste
2tsp sugar
OR skip the sugar if you are diabetic like my dad
1tsp roasted sesame seeds (OPTIONAL)
And some chopped green onions!

First, clean and peel the skin off.

Then, cut around the seed center part by cutting one side and turn it to cut the other side, thus making a rectangular remain of the center seed part (Very left one in the pic). DON'T use the seed center part and slice others thinly.

Now, put all the cucumber slices in a mixing bowl and sprinkle salt all around and mix it so all the slices will be 'pickled' briefly. Let it sit for 15 minutes.We are not making Kimchi, so we don't need to let it sit too long. Just enough that it's flexible or soft but still fresh and crunchy.

After 15 minutes, wash them thoroughly. We don't want it to get too salty.

When you are done rinsing it out we need to squeeze out the excess water out. But gently please. If you are too strong...it would all get mushy and lifeless. So gentle firm squeeze will be good. We just need to get enough water out...not to completely dry it out, so don't worry too much.

Add garlic, hot pepper paste, sesame oil, and sugar.

Now, mix it well. You will end up having watery sauce. Don't throw it away. It's part of banchan. You used juicy cucumber after all!

You are done! Serve with rice. You can even eat the extra sauce (watery part) with rice too.

*If red pepper paste is too spicy for you, just add less and vice versa.*

Enjoy!

Other Banchan/Sidedish Recipe:
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi
Non Spicy American Cabbage Kimchi
Kimchi Fried Rice
Young Radish Water (YeoulMoo Mul) Kimchi
White Non-Spicy Kimchi

Kimchi Facts:
About Kimchi
Different Tastes of Kimchi
Korean Homemade Kimchi Part I-Most Popular
Homemade Kimchi vs Store Bought Kimchi

It's crunchy, fresh, and SPICY! Hot days are coming soon...and MD experienced sudden burst of preview of the summer for couple days already. These days something that can wake you up and give you a nice kick at your stress could be this Spicy Noodle Salad. I mean...it's really spicy for me. Anyhow after sweating (if you can't handle spicy anything please don't try this at home!) and turning RED I felt better and felt cool (literally!).

So if you are adventurous enough (...and if you can take the heat!) let's see how we made ours!

**NOTE: I have linked some unfamiliar ingredients to its pictures. Hope this helps!***

Ingredients-Makes 4-5 servings
0.52lbs Mixed Greens (I really wanted a lot of greens so we put a lot!)
1/2 Romaine Lettuce chopped
1 cucumber-thinly sliced
1 pack Fresh Rice Stick Noodle
1 mung bean sprouts
1 carrot-thinly sliced
2 scallions chopped

Sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp Sriracha Hot Sauce
1 tbsp hot pepper paste
1 tsp sesame seed
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp sugar

Let's Start!

Slice cucumber and carrot thinly. Chop scallion and Romaine Lettuce. Wash and drain sprouts to use them fresh. Add all the others (veggies) in a mixing bowl and top with cooked rice noodle. Add all the sauce ingredients together in another bowl.

Rice Stick Noodle is easy to cook and needs to be cooked very quickly. Actually you just need to put int hot water for couple minutes. Please follow the instruction on the packaging. When you are done cooking the noodle, rinse and drain the noodle and mix the noodle with the sauce FIRST.

After mixing noodles thoroughly FIRST (to have even taste) mix/toss everything together.

*Other Version OPTIONS*
1.You might want to add extra spiciness with chopped Korean green pepper.
2.You might want to play it down by adding Hoisin Sauce. Hoisin Sauce goes well with Sriracha Hot Sauce and more sweet. (Please see Restaurant Pho Nam Review for the pictures)

Iron Chef Mu-Shu Hoisin Sauce 15 oz US $7.99

Roland Hoisin Sauce (no Msg), 5-Pound Can (Pack of 3) US $28.51

And you are done! Don't forget to have lots of water/milk next to you!

Ok, Here we go...

Ingredients
1 Soft Tofu (If you only have a firm tofu, just quickly cook in boiling water to make it softer.)
2-3 Scallions-chopped
1tsp ground garlic
2tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp oyster sauce (click for image)
2tsp sesame oil
2tsp sugar
1tsp lemon juice OR vinegar
1tsp hot pepper flake/powder (if you like some kick into it)

Cut tofu like so. If you can't do this, don't worry. It's only cut that way for the appearance. You can cut in different ways or just leave tofu as it is (I like to have it as it is for my late nite snack. Tofu, sauce, and spoon... and you are ready!)

And when you are done or decided with how the tofu will look, just mix all the ingredients together (except for Tofu, of course). Then just pour the sauce over your all ready to eat tofu. Just don't over use your sauce. It may get too salty. Otherwise, ENJOY!

Other Banchan/Sidedish Recipe:
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi
Non Spicy American Cabbage Kimchi
Kimchi Fried Rice
Young Radish Water (YeoulMoo Mul) Kimchi
White Non-Spicy Kimchi

Kimchi Facts:
About Kimchi
Different Tastes of Kimchi
Korean Homemade Kimchi Part I-Most Popular
Homemade Kimchi vs Store Bought Kimchi