Tian Korean-Chinese Restaurant in Ellicott City,MD

Went to Tian Korean-Chinese restaurant for lunch today. I posted several reviews of this restaurant since the restaurant's chef seems to change very often...so the taste seems to change often too...It seems like it's new restaurant everytime I go..ha ha ha...I haven't been there for a while since the bad experience I had last time.

Last time I went, their noodles for jjajangmyun seemed to be linguini pasta... And the sauce was weird too. I didn't go back after that.

But I heard that they started handmade noodles plus I was running late. I ate SamsunJjampong- seafood spicy noodle soup. Noodle was little thinner than I expected but it was chewy. Soup wasn't too spicy and just enough for me with lots of veggies. And our server was very nice and polite. Overall my experience today was good enough.

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Popularity: 2%

Spicy Seafood Hot Pot

My brother visited from Virginia and mom cooked us a seafood spicy hot pot. She made broth from radish and Dashima (Kelp). We used portable tabletop stove to heat it while we eat. We didn't need have any other banchan but we were fully satisfied with this hot pot. Oh but we ate rice with it.  This hot pot just made our lunch the best! I actually had to stop everyone before it was too late to take the picture. Ha ha. This hot pot had shrimp, octopus, crab, watercress, bean sprouts, and tofu. Packed with healthy stuff and yummy too! Oh the soup was nice clean taste and hot it was 'shiwon'

Koreans have a term when eating soup like this hot and spicy soup. We say it's 'shiwon-hada' which literally means 'it's cool' (Shiwon-cool).

Rather than focusing on the temperature of the soup, the term describs how it tastes and feels once the food goes down your stomach... if you know what I mean. For example...I don't it's the best example...but, if you were eating a hamburger and you drink coke to wash the greasy food down or coffee afterwards. That feeling? Lol and Koreans love to have that feeling with hot and clean soup. It doesn't always have to be spicy though. Bean sprouts clear soup is the popular 'shiwon' soup. This term is used usually for clear soups like this hot pot or bean sprouts soup.

What's your 'shiwonhada' soup?

Popularity: 8%

How to Clean a Whole Squid/Calamari

Squid or Calamari. Fried, dried and grilled, steamed, or added to stews. Squid is used in so many different ways in Korean Cuisine.

Let's talk about how to prep your squid and clean it.
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Popularity: 13%

Korean Seafood Pancake-Haemul Pajeon Recipe

Whew...these days Maryland has been soaked with rain...rain...and more rain...and has been little depressing. Although we had short 'vacation' from rain for couple of days with beautiful days, it seems like we will be getting lots more later on. On these days many Koreans look for nice and hot soup or something fried, like Haemul Pajeon , Seafood Korean style Pancake.

Haemul Pajeon or Seafood Korean pancake
Korean Pancake is not usually made for Breakfast like Pancake you may know. It's usually an appetizer, sidedish, or snack. But you decide what it could be. And you decide what size you want it to be. If you order this in the restaurant, it's usually the size of a whole pizza. I guess you could also say this is Korean pizza. This time we made it smaller just because.

So shall we start?

Ingredients: Makes about 15 palm(your hand) sized pancakes

15 Shrimp
1 Squid
150g crab meat
10 scallions/green onion
1 cup Korean pancake mix
3 cups Korean frying mix
4 cups water
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Popularity: 96%

Beef Miyuk Gook/Seaweed Soup Recipe

From my previous post about Miyuk Gook, I discussed about how Koreans started eating Miyuk Gook for their birthdays. In short this soup is healthy, healthy, healthy. And today, the recipe!
The Birthday Soup
This soup can be reheated couple times and will taste good for days so if you really like this soup, don't be afraid to make more than you can eat at once!

Ingredients (Following makes about 4 servings)
40g dried seaweed
200g beef (any beef used for stew/stock is fine)
2tsp salt
1tsp Dashida (Beef Stock Powder)
1/2 tsp ground/minced garlic
1tsp sesame oil

Ok, Let's Start!
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Popularity: 22%