비빔밥

Yesterday my boyfriend and I celebrated 3 years and ½ together. We thought of going out to a korean restaurant for some comforting bibimbap but after a while of thinking, I decided to try and make it myself. I had had it once before and it seemed pretty straight forward and not too hard to make. I decided to look up the recipe of the bulgogi (traditional Korean beef) which seemed to me to be the hardest part of the meal, and that was pretty simple, too! So we headed to the supermarket and got the necessary ingredients. I just wish I had thought of making it earlier so that I could stop by the Asian market and grab some "extra" things like kimchi to go along with it.

Most people don't know that I actually have a degree in Gastronomy (basically, cooking school). I did it mostly because I've always loved baking, and I even had a a little cookie business from home with a friend for a while during college.

I haven't properly cooked or baked anything in SUCH a long time. Mostly because I have a tiny kitchen, so I always feel discouraged when I think about the lack of counter space I have to work with. But yesterday I thought enough was enough and got cooking!

If you like Korean food, or would like to get to know it, I really recommend watching Maangchi's videos. She's adorable and really entertaining, while preparing delicious-looking food. I just wish I could get her to cook for me every day. Aaah...
Anyhow, I used her recipe for the bulgogi and got it marinating before I did anything else. For the bibimbap itself I used a mix of a few recipes I saw online and basically what I had access to (sadly I didn't have any Asian mushrooms so I had to go with just regular Paris mushrooms instead).

I also decided to try to make some Vietnamese rice paper rolls as a starter since I had the vermicelli noodles and the rice sheets lying around, but I think the rice paper sheets were past their due date, so they weren't sticking to themselves once softened, and took a long time to soften and didn't do it evenly. So they kinda sucked.

But after a few hours and a lot of chopped vegetables...

Ta-da!

Our bowls are really tiny so it all had to be kind of smushed together, but it came out quite nice, if I do say so myself. =]

As far as Asian cuisine goes, I know Japanese cuisine pretty well and udon is my favourite go-to comfort food, but I'd love to get to know Korean food better. Do you have any favourite Korean dishes or recipes?