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.

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?

Let's talk about how to prep your squid and clean it.


Cut squid's body down to expose the intestine and the ink sac.

*If you want to prep for squid ring style (maybe for fried calamari), Don't cut the body down at the first step. Instead, pull out the inner part by holding the tentacles. And then follow the steps below.*

You might be shocked by PINK rubber glove but this is Korean brand and very comfortable and thick (sold at Korean Markets or scroll down for other choices LOL.) Cut out the inner parts from the body. If you want to use ink for some other cooking recipes, save the ink sac but we don't use it. We are using tentacles as well so cut right next to the eyes and save tentacles and throw rest of other parts out (eyes and inner parts).

After you cut out the tentacles, don't forget to take out the inedible cartilage "beak" part. Flip tentacles and you'll find it in the center. Just pull it out with your hands. Easy enough.

Now the suction cup part of the squid. Grab each tentacle at a time and pull hard to clean out the suction cups.

Squid membrane or skin whatever you call it is EDIBLE but usually cleaned out for the appearance sake. Make a slit (or score) on the membrane like the picture.

And just pull off the membrane/skin on the body and the tentacles as best as you can. Wash thoroughly.

Then just cut them into strips (bite size). Now you are ready to use squid for your recipe.

Recipes with Squid:
Haemul Pajeon/Seafood Korean Pancake Recipe

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Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Spicy Chicken Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun

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


Ok, so clean whole squid and save the body part and the tentacles, clean shrimp (peel off and take out the vein from the top by cutting slightly and pull out the vein), shred crab meat, and cut scallions to 3-4 inches long. Pajeon means Scallion Pancake so Scallions are supposed to be a significant part of this recipe so don't be afraid to cut them big and long!

Mix them together and no need to add salt. It's all premixed in to the pancake and frying mix.

Pour enough oil to fry this pancake. Scoop and spread out as thin as possible and make it into about a palm (your hand) size. Fry at about 7-8 stove temperature knob (DON'T use the Highest Temperature).

Don't forget to flip to cook both sides! And you are DONE!

Enjoy!

*NOTE: If you want Pajeon to be more crispy, add more frying mix than pancake mix and if you want it the other way, then use the opposite proportion.

Other Special Recipes:
Easy Spicy Wing
VERY Spicy Noodle Salad
Mandu/Dumpling

Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Spicy Chicken Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun

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

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!


First thing is to hydrate dry seaweed. Soak in water till it get nice and plump. Wash them first and then cut into bite sizes.

Also cut beef into bite sizes as well. This will be used to cook nice broth. If you don't like beef you can substitute with mussels or just don't put anything to make clear soup. Beef broth is usually the original birthday soup and clear soup with only seaweed is for new moms. But that doesn't mean you cannot choose your preference right? I personally like Miyuk Gook with mussels.

Get a pot and fry seaweed with sesame oil and garlic ONLY. No beef Yet!
Quickly fry so the flavor gets locked in. No need to do too much. Now pour 16 cups of water and add beef. Add salt and Dashida too. If you don't like Dashida, you can leave it out. But we like to add just a little bit to pull flavors together for better taste. Boil at high temperature.

As it starts to boil, you will see these kind of impurities (blood etc...) floating on top.

Now comes the most important step of the recipe. This cannot stay. We need to take them out.

So wait and when it seems like most of them are on top, start skimming those nasty stuff off from the soup and discard. Be careful not to get too much of soup off with it. This will help soup taste nice and clean.

When you are done discarding the impurities, turn down the heat to med (about to 5 on our stove knob) and cook for another 15 minutes.
And you are DONE!

ENJOY!