Hello everyone,
We are back with our second installation of our community-voted top goals of the month. If you missed it the first time around, you can find our thread for October here for a quick explanation of the way that these threads are being operated. As you may notice from the title, we will also be revealing the results from the previous month in these threads, which will be the norm going forward.

October Results

5th Place: Turinturo flip reset, pre-flips into beautiful air dribble (Rogue vs XSET, NA Fall Regional #3)
4th Place: Virtuoso comes off the backboard to score a Deevo-esque goal on 0 seconds (Endpoint vs Top Blokes, EU Fall Major)
3rd Place: Virtuoso scores an absurd pre-jump goal from the ceiling (Endpoint vs Solary, EU Fall Major)
2nd Place: FairyPeak! with the most delicate of re-directs on 0 seconds (Renault Vitality vs Barca Esports, EU Fall Major)
1st Place: Ayyjayy double flip reset double tap (Ayyjayy vs LionBlaze, NA Gold Mine)
Our October winner is AyyJayy's brilliant mechanical display in the NA Gold Mine finals. While flip resets, double-taps or even flip reset double-taps are common-place, double flip resets are still exceedingly rare, and given the stakes of the match in which AyyJayy's double flip reset double-tap took place in, it's a worthy winner of our first goal of the month.

November Shortlist

Goal 1: Fahad77 with the Dirty Kickoff (Fahad77 vs Fairy Peak!, EU Gold Mine)
Goal 2: Joreuz forces OT in dramatic fashion (Joreuz vs Fairy Peak!, Salt Mine Underground)
Goal 3: Alpha54 hits Musty vs. Denied (Renault Vitality vs Denied, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 4: Breezi 0 boost double wavedash to set up Scrub (Team Singularity vs Team Liquid, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 5: Back-To-Back Highlight by Eekso! (Galaxy Racer vs Sauce Squad, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 6: Zamue recovers from the whiffed ceiling shot to catch Top Blokes off guard (Vodafone Giants vs Top Blokes, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 7: Fairy Peak with an 8 Boost Double Tap (Renault Vitality vs Vodafone Giants, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 8: Amphis with the cherry pick goal (Ground Zero Gaming vs Renegades, RLO Masters Week 3)
Goal 9: Rehzzy Incredible Flip Reset Corner Read Assist (SWAG vs Team Singularity, EU Grid - Qualifier)
Goal 10: Faisal with a mid-air bump to secure the goal in the Nicecactus Clash: Middle East (Sleeping vs Forest Hunters, Nicecactus Clash: Middle East)
Goal 11: Caard triple taps vs True Neutral (Ellevens Esports vs True Neutral, SAM Winter Split - Phase 1: Prime Series 1)
Goal 12: Monkey Moon bumps FlamE out of the way to score a pre-flip re-direct (Team BDS vs Top Blokes, EU Grid Week 1)
Goal 13: eekso with a crazy read to score from a crazy angle (Galaxy Racer vs Top Blokes, EU Grid Week 1)
Goal 14: Aztral with an Unbelievable Flip Reset Double-Tap Off the Ceiling (Oxygen Esports vs Rix.gg, EU Grid Week 1)
Goal 15: Envy executes a fake kickoff to perfection in the final seconds (Team Envy vs NRG Esports, NA Winter Regional #1)

Mod Spotlight

u/DS0308: Back-To-Back Highlight by Eekso! - While the first goal in this clip is impressive in of itself, the second goal is the one that particularly strikes me. He gets a perfect touch off the wall despite having to first drive back around it from the corner of the pitch, then adjusts his car with a full spin that delays his shot just enough so that Rise can't time his challenge on the backboard correctly. I'd definitely consider it one of the more visually appealing goals of this month.
u/John_aka_Alwayz: Monkey Moon bumps FlamE out of the way to score a pre-flip re-direct - Even by the standards of the best player in the world, this absurd goal left Hunted & Sleegi speechless. Even without a defender in the way, the angle would be pretty impressive considering he arrived from the opposition goal line, but to muscle FlamE out of the way simultaneously, no one could have seen it coming, Who dare says bump plays are boring?
u/MadWooookie: Rehzzy Incredible Flip Reset Corner Read Assist - I think I can say that for most of us, we have quite high expectations from the newly formed SWAG (Kuxir97, Flakes, and Rehzzy), probably most of us former Team Liquid fans. And although the results haven't been fantastic, there's a lot of promise for this team. This shot by Rehzzy, who would be considered the unknown player on the team, shows what is to come, and a sort of hopeful intrigue. Rehzzy is sure to be a future star no matter what team he's on, and this highly mechanical, as well as team focused assist, is a strong showing of his incredible ability.

Voting

Voting Link
Once again, we will use a Google Form for voting. You will be asked to vote for your personal top 5 from the above list, with each ranking giving a certain amount of points towards an overall score that leads to a final overall ranking (1st = 10 points, 2nd = 7 points, 3rd = 5 points, 4th = 3 points, 5th = 1 point).
Voting for November will end at the commencement of our December thread.
Once again, we encourage everyone to discuss any goals from this month that may not have made this list in the comments that you thought were particularly noteworthy, while also encouraging the submission of clips from lesser viewed competitions or regions so that they have potential to be spotlighted here.
We look forward to seeing your responses,
- RocketLeagueEsports mod team

An Ode to Meal Planning, or: How I Learned to Stop Wasting and Love the Leftovers

분식점 (Bunsikjeom/Korean Diners) - History and Ordering Tips for Plant-based Eaters

History
A little bit of history, and any Koreans present please do feel free to correct me. Starting in 1963 or so, during the reign of Park Chung-hee (박정희), there was apparently either a shortage of rice or it was determined that eating other crops like wheat and potatoes would be more economically efficient. There were two notable policy results of this determination:

The production of soju from rice was either banned or very strongly discouraged, and it switched to a mostly potato-based formula which is, as far as I know, still dominant today (perhaps with some rice added now that it's no longer restricted, and luxurious 100% rice sojus are available).
Nationwide, the government banned the sale of rice at restaurants between the hours of 11am and 5pm Wednesday to Saturday, from 1969-76. They began to promote "분식" (bunsik/flour-based foods) as an alternative. In its original meaning, this term largely referred to noodles (most prominently ramyeon), fried foods, dumplings, fish cakes, and various "kabobs" that could be made without significant amounts of rice.

By the mid-70s South Korea's economic situation had begun to stabilize (even Park's detractors, which include most sane people including me, acknowledge his economic brilliance) and it was no longer necessary to ration rice. But the bunsik restaurants remained, and steadily began adding rice-based dishes such as kimbap (김밥), bibimbap (비빔밥) and fried rice (bokkeumbap 볶음밥) to their menus.

Bunsik Restaurants
The most prominent 분식 chains nationwide are 김밥천국 (Gimbap Cheonguk, literally "Kimbap Heaven"), 김밥나라 (Gimbap Nara (meaning "Kimbap Nation"), and 김가네 (Gimgane, I think this literally means "Kim's Restaurant" like the family name Kim but I'm not sure). These are not by any means the only 분식점, but they are the easiest to find for someone who's new to Korea and may not know the language well yet. Generally Gimbap Cheonguk and Gimbap Nara have red signs. Some of these may be open 24 hours a day, although I feel like that's becoming less common as tastes diversify and convenience stores improve their offerings. Gimgane usually has yellow or white signs, is slightly more expensive than the others (due ostensibly to higher quality, though it's not really all that much better despite having a fancier menu), and will usually only be open between 11am and 9 or 10pm or so. All 3 often deliver via apps. Note: Though all three of these are chains, quality and offerings may vary.

How to get Bunsik as a Vegan or Vegetarian
In the comment section of another post on this subreddit I, overcome with concern for a vegan friend who admitted to indulging in copious amounts of Lotteria burgers, wrote up the following suggestions for ordering from restaurants like these:
"Bibimbap's your ticket. Go to any 김밥나라/김밥천국/김가네 (Gimbap Nara/Gimbap Cheonguk/Gimgane), ubiquitous diner brands, and say:
"저 계란 안먹는 채식주의자이에요. 야채비빔밥 주세요, 고기 빼고, 계란 빼고"
(jeo gyeran anmeog-neun chaesikjuuija iyeyo. Yachae bibimbap juseyo, gogi-ppaego, gyeran ppaego).
My Korean here may not be grammatically perfect but it should be sufficient. Literally it means "I am a vegetarian who doesn't eat eggs. Please give me vegetable bibimbap, no meat, no eggs."
You should end up with a vegan bowl of rice and vegetables with spicy sauce (고추장/gochujang) that will be a palatable and healthy, if low-protein meal. It's impossible without a VERY fluent command of Korean to never end up accidentally consuming some kind of invisible amount of seafood, but most of the time the above order will be vegan as they don't usually put shrimp-fermented kimchi directly into the bibimbap as far as I know.
Another option, if it's present is 유부초밥 (yubu chobap). I personally don't really like the stuff, but it's bean curd stuffed with rice and is, as far as I can tell, natively vegan. If you were to order this with bibimbap you'd have a fairly complete meal and, if you like bean curd and rice a lot, a rather satisfying one. Yubu may not be available everywhere however. I have never seen this served in a non-vegan way, but don't blame me if your server somehow innovates by adding ham or mayo. You could always say "고기 빼고, 마요 빼고, 계란 빼고" (gogi ppaego, mayo ppaego, gyeran ppaego) but they're gonna look at you especially suspiciously for that one since it probably never contains those things.
Other potential options:
쫄면, 계란 빼고 (jjolmyeon, gyeran ppaego). You're asking for spicy noodles with no eggs. In my experience, this dish appears to always be vegan except for the half of a hardboiled egg placed on top, which is easy to toss. Warning: On occasions this may be very spicy.
일반김밥, 햄 빼고, 생선 빼고, 오뎅빼고, 계란 빼고 (ilban gimbap, haem ppaego, saengseon ppaego, odeng ppaego, gyeran ppaego). You're asking for standard kimbap but with no ham, fish, fish cake, or eggs. This would most likely result in, if they're willing to engage you, a roll of rice and seaweed with carrots, cucumber, radish, and maybe sesame leaf in it. I would enjoy this, personally, but as with the vegan bibimbap you're kind of short of a complete protein unless you can score some chewy black beans (검은콩 geom-eun kong) as a side dish. Asking for those, in general, might be a good way to add protein.
Additional suggestion: "고추장 따로 주세요" (gochujang ttaro juseyo, meaning "give me the gochujang separately"). This should result in a small adjoining plate of generally vegan hot pepper sauce. You can substitute 간장/gangjang for gochujang in this phrase, if you like salty food, and have soy sauce to dip your yubu or kimbap in. Note, if you say this when ordering bibimbap or maybe even jjolmyeon you might get the spicy sauce on the side instead of inside the main bowl (장/jang means sauce in general, when the sauce you're referencing is already known to the listener). This is useful if you aren't good with very spicy things, but is also adding to the litany of special requests and thus might engender a degree of resentment if the staff feel busy at the time."

Additional options:
Soy Milk Noodles - 콩국수/콩물국수 (kongguksu or kongmulguksu) - This is a natively vegan dish, consisting simply of noodles served in unsweetened soy milk, with sugar and/or salt served on the side. The reason I didn't mention it above is that there are many restaurants which will refuse to (or be unable to) serve it during the colder half of the year. 설탕 (seoltang) is sugar, 소금 (sogeum) is salt.
Vegetable Fried Rice - 야채볶음밥, 고기 빼주세요 (yaechae bokkeumbap, gogi ppaejuseyo) - This is also an option for vegans maybe if you ask for the eggs removed (gyeran ppaejuseyo).
Tteokbokki - 떡볶이, 어묵 빼주세요 (tteokbokki, eomuk ppaejuseyo) - Rice cakes in spicy sauce, with the fish cake removed. Normally contains eggs, which vegan folk can have removed as mentioned above.
Omurice - 오므라이스, 고기 빼주세요 (Omeuraiseu, gogi ppaejuseyo). This is fried rice wrapped in an omelet, originally a Japanese dish. Due to the prominence of eggs, it is wholly unsuitable for vegans.

On the subject of kimchi:
A final note on kimchi. Kimchi is generally fermented using seafood, most frequently shrimp. Vegan versions can be ordered online (see lovinghut.co.kr), but will rarely be encountered outside of specialty veg*n restaurants. That said, I estimate I've had kimchi over five thousand times, and perhaps ten to twenty of those times have I actually been able to see the seafood in it (usually oysters in very recently made specialty kimchi, as I recall, it's been a few years). So, for new visitors to Korea, you'll have to decide how strict you're going to be about avoiding it, as it will be on almost every single table at which traditional Korean food is served and is so ubiquitous that it is essentially a metaphor for the culture itself. Literally they spent supposedly millions of dollars to develop a space kimchi for Yi So-yeon, the first Korean astronaut, and Park Chung-hee warned Lyndon Johnson that if supply lines in Vietnam were unable to deliver kimchi to the front that the Korean soldiers would be unable to fight well due to a devastating drop in morale.
For any of you vegetarians who have decided you'll try kimchi, I recommend:
김치김밥, 햄과 어묵을 빼주세요 (gimchi gimbap, haem-gwa eomuk-eul ppaejuseyo) - Gimchi gimbap, no ham, no fish cake. As above, if you don't eat eggs, say "gyeran ppaejuseyo").
김치볶음밥, 고기과 햄 빼주세요 (gimchi bokkeumbap, gogi-gwa haem ppaejuseyo) - If you've read this far, you'll know what this is.

TLDR:
Most important phrases:
x 주세요 (x juseyo, give me x)
y 빼주세요 (y ppaejuseyo, get rid of the y)
Restaurants: 김밥천국, 김밥나라, 김가네
Food: bibimbap, yubu chobap, jjolmyeon, gimbap, kongguksu, bokkeumbap, tteokbokki, omurice

One of my favorite methods: spicy tomatoes, eggs, and carbs (lots of variations, awesome for any meal)

Have You Eaten? Tteokbokki (떡볶이 - Spicy Stir-Fried Rice Cakes)

Welcome to the third serving of Have You Eaten? This month our chosen snack of the month is Tteokbokki! Also known as Spicy Stir-Fried Rice Cakes, tteokbokki is commonly seen in dramas as it is one of the most popular street food snacks around. It is a cheap snack for anyone on the go. You’ll often see characters picking it up when in a rush or if they are stressed out by life. It stands out on the screen as its sauce is bright red but it wasn’t always that way…

A Brief History of Tteokbokki
Tteokbokki wasn’t originally a dish of the common folk as it is today, the earliest known recorded version of Tteokbokki was found in a 19th century cookbook, “Siuijeonseo”, in which it was known as “steokbokgi”. It was a soy sauce based rice cake dish served with beef and available vegetables such as scallions which was exclusively served to Joseon royalty during the first month of the year. This is now known as “Royal Court Tteokbokki”.
Funnily enough tteokbokki as we now know it was developed by accident. Back in the 1950’s when Ma Bok Lim accidentally dropped a rice cake into some hot sauce and found it so delicious that a new snack was born. She started selling it in Sindang and eventually it became the tteokbokki we know and love today. This area is now known as “Tteokbokki Town” and is full of famous tteokbokki restaurants including the original Maboklim Tteokbokki. They host festivals and competitions there from time to time.

Types of Tteokbokki
Tteokbokki is typically made with small pieces of the long cylindrical rice cake, commonly known as tteokbokki tteok (tteokbokki rice cakes). It is usually served in a sauce and is most commonly served with some combination of boiled eggs, fish cakes, and scallions. There are many different versions available in street market stalls and dedicated restaurants. Here are a few of the more common ones you might find:

Tteokbokki (standard) - gochujang (chilli paste) is the standard spicy sauce
Gungmul tteokbokki - a soupier version of standard tteokbokki
Gireum tteokbokki - a drier version of standard tteokbokki in which tteok are fried in oil and served with very little sauce. This version is famously found at Seoul’s Tongin Markets (across from Gyeongbokgung Palace).
Ra-bokki - standard tteokbokki served with ramyeon
Cheese tteokbokki - standard tteokbokki that is either topped with cheese or where the rice cakes themselves are stuffed with cheese
Royal court tteokbokki (gungjung-tteokbokki) - gangang (soy sauce) is a less common non spicy option
Jjajang tteokbokki - jjajang (black bean sauce) is a sweeter savoury option
Curry tteokbokki - tteokbokki tteok in a yellow Korean style curry sauce
Cream tteokbokki - tteokbokki tteok in a carbonara sauce

Dramas with memorable Tteokbokki Scenes
Like with the previous foods we have discussed, tteokbokki is seen in so many dramas, here are a few that have stood out to me:
My favourite tteokbokki scene of all comes from one of my favourite dramas, Radiant Office. It features a scene in which the lead, Eun Ho Won, and one of the side characters, Seo Hyun, go to eat tteokbokki as eating spicy foods is one known method of combating stress. They order four ascending levels of heat. As they eat the differently spiced tteokbokki they share one thing that has been stressing them out and release their stress, until they reach the ultimate spice level four. Throughout the process the characters get to know one another a little better and become closer. At the time of my first watch I hadn’t tried tteokbokki so I couldn’t really imagine how spicy that tteok could get, now I fully understand their pain and love the scene even more.
The Heirs had a storyline in which a tteokbokki restaurant was a very symbolic place to one of the characters, Choi Yeong Do, as a result there were quite a few meaningful scenes shot there throughout the drama. Sadly, a lot of tteokbokki was wasted in the process.
Pegasus Market features a really fun tteokbokki storyline in which the heir to the company whose only happy childhood memories revolve around tteokbokki decides to have a go at creating his own tteokbokki franchise. Everyone is too afraid to tell him how incredibly awful his tteokbokki is and there are some pretty amazing reactions to the tteokbokki allround (especially since this one is based on a webtoon). How the market deals with the problem is great too.
Finally Let’s Eat 2’s leading lady, Baek Soo Ji had a childhood trauma when it came to overeating tteokbokki that caused her to be unable to eat it. After a day of starving herself on a date she comes across Gu Dae Young who is snacking on it for the second time that day and steals his meal before realising what she’s done. Understandably he was annoyed by this.
What dramas have scenes that have stood out to you?

Personal experiences with Tteokbokki
I won't lie, I’m not the hugest fan of tteokbokki. I keep trying it thinking maybe this time I’ll love it, but I think it is kind of like Vegemite in which you need to be brought up eating it to really get it. It’s usually either too fishy, too spicy, or too chewy for me. Thanks to Hi! School - Love On here is an accurate depiction of my initial impressions and attempts to eat tteokbokki with chopsticks. The first time I bought it, I got a humongous plate of “cheese tteokbokki”, it took me a really long time to eat half of it (the cheesy half). I don’t think I ate it again until I went to Korea where I ate quite a lot considering my feelings about it.
Most memorably of all with u/MerinoMedia I visited Dooki in Hongdae, a chain which were prominently featured in quite a few dramas around 2017/2018 including My ID is Gangnam Beauty one of the rare occasions they weren’t eating tonkatsu! I really had to try the cheese ring and it was seriously cheesey. OMG. So much cheese. But it was truly a lot of fun trying all the different types of rice cakes.
I also had some tteokbokki at the Tongin Market but I don’t think it was gireum tteokbokki, just standard tteokbokki. It was super spicy but somehow I managed to eat it all without crying.
I haven’t tried to make my own tteokbokki, but in preparation for this post I got some instant kinds to try. So far I have tried the Jjajang flavoured one which was not great and as a bonus it exploded in my microwave. I’ve decided to hoard the rest in case I get trapped inside my house for a while and need some excitement one day.
What types of tteokbokki have you tried? What were you experiences? Has anyone tried the original tteokbokki at "Tteokbokki Town"? Or have you ever made your own tteokbokki from scratch or pre prepared ingredients?

What’s the Next Course?
Our April snack needs to be chosen! This month we will be choosing between three different foods/drinks, cider (soda), bibimbap (mixed rice), and gimbap. PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE HERE. I’ll leave the vote open until this Friday’s Weekend Wrap-up post goes live then announce the winner there. Our next post will be on the 26th of April 2020.
Until then come and share your experiences whether they are limited to drooling over tteokbokki be it simply on screen or more in the comments below.

Have You Eaten? Bibimbap (비빔밥 or Mixed Rice)

Welcome to April’s serving of Have You Eaten? This month our chosen food is Bibimbap, also known as mixed rice. The name bibimbap breaks into two parts to describe the meal - bibim (비빔) meaning “to mix with various ingredients” and bap (밥) meaning “rice”. Bibimbap is a simple, homely yet hearty and relatively healthy meal. It is usually prepared with rice, whatever banchan (반찬 or side dishes) is at hand and mixed with some sauce to tie it all together, traditionally gochujang (고추장 or red chilli/pepper paste) is used.
A Brief History of Bibimbap
The true origin story of bibimbap’s creation is not actually known. There are a number of theories about when and where in history it first was created:

Royal origins theory - It was originally a simple dish known as “sura” ( 수라 King’s meal) served during the Joseon dynasty when a light meal was required or when the royal family attended court.
Peasant food theory - During harvest season farmers would take all their food combined in one bowl with them.
Donghak uprising theory - During the uprising of 1894 the rebels were forced to mix their dishes together as there was a general lack of crockery to eat from.
Eunbok theory - After the completion of ancestral rites people would take a portion of each dish into a bowl and mix them together.
Lunar New Year theory - On the eve of the lunar new year ordinary people would take all the leftover food they had and mix it together with rice as it was considered necessary to get rid of all uneaten dishes before the new year began.

It is believed that the dish was originally known as “goldongban” which translates as “rice mixed vigorously” (also “hwaban” which means “flower blooming on top of rice”) and is recorded as early as the 17th century, with the earliest recipe being recorded in the Siuijeonseo. Some sources state this is the first in print mention of “bibimbap”, however, a study from 2015 argues against this.
In the late 1990’s Korea Air was the first airline to serve bibimbap as an inflight meal paving the way for it to become an internationally renowned signature dish of Korea. Since then the dish has grown in popularity on a global scale.
Now there are all sorts of modern takes on bibimbap from cup bibimbap, to easy microwavable bibimbap, to all sorts of bibimbap flavoured dishes, they have even developed it so that astronauts can fulfil their bibimbap cravings but none of these can beat the original form.

Symbolism of Bibimbap
As a dish bibimbap is very symbolic. It is said to “symbolise the harmony and balance in Korean culture”. Additionally the individual colours of the ingredients are also symbolic following the principles of the five elemental colours (Obangsaek 오방색) each colour represents a body part, a position and an element.

Colour	Body Part	Position	Element	Representative Ingredients in Bibimbap
Red (Orange)	Heart	South	Fire	Gochugang, Carrots, Chilli, Jujube
Black (Brown)	Kidneys	North	Water	Mushrooms, Seaweed, Beef
Blue (Green)	Liver	East	Tree	Cucumber, Spinach
Yellow	Stomach	Centre	Earth	Egg Yolk
White	Lungs	West	Metal	Rice, Bean Sprouts, Radish

Varieties of Bibimbap
As mentioned above bibimbap is a dish which combines rice with a number of ingredients, the typical inclusions you will see are namul (sauteed seasoned vegetables 나물) and kimchi (김치). It may be topped with a protein (either cooked or raw) and/or an egg (either cooked or raw). Gochujang is typically added to bring everything together and add a kick. Other common additions include sesame oil, soy sauce, and doenjang (fermented soybean paste 된장).
Bibimbap is endlessly customisable to an individual’s taste, so I’ll just discuss a few of the main versions you can find. The names of the different variations of bibimbap generally stem from the location in which they originated, the type of dish in which they are served, or the type of protein featured in them.
Jeonju Bibimbap (전주비빔밥) - the most famous of all regional bibimbap varieties. In this version there are many different inclusions most importantly the rice is cooked in beef and bean sprout broth and one of the inclusions is bean sprouts grown in the area. This is typically served in a warm brass bowl.
Dolsot Bibimbap (hot stone pot bibimbap 돌솥 비빔밥) - this version of bibimbap is served in a hot stone pot
Yangpun Bibimbap (양푼비빔밥) - this version of bibimbap is served in a yangpun bowl (metal bowl).
Sanchae Bibimbap (bibimbap with wild vegetables 산채비빔밥 ) - this version of bibimbap is made using seasoned leafy greens and other wild root vegetables found in the mountains.

Memorable Scenes in Korean Dramas Featuring Bibimbap
Bibimbap usually appears in a drama under one of the following circumstances:

A character has reached a new low /is stressed out by life; they drown their sorrows in a big bowl of bibimbap usually whilst wearing their best tracksuit/in secret.
A character is too lazy to prepare a meal or has almost no food left to eat and they are starving
A lower class character is eating in front of a chaebol or higher class character and for some reason they have no ramen on hand (poor sheltered chaebols have never tried either of these foods, it’s pretty hilarious!)
A character needs to bond over food with someone they are not that close to. Bibimbap is best when shared out of a big metal bowl.

As this is the usual case it’s hard to think of too many super memorable scenes featuring bibimbap. Here are a few that I personally enjoyed:
In the first season of Let’s Eat Lee Soo Kyung’s mother comes to visit and prepares bibimbap as a meal and comments that it might not be good enough. Goo Dae Yeong replies that it is perfect as it is impossible to get the right taste when only making one portion. Apart from the horror of the eggshell in the frying pan that catches my eye every time I watch, this is a great mukbang scene which showcases the dish bibimbap and how it should be eaten well. It definitely made me want to try it out.
In the classic rom-com Full House, frustrated at waiting for Young Jae to come home, Ji Eun begins a late dinner of bibimbap. When he arrives home she offers him some only for him to tell her “that’s not bibimbap, that’s dog food!. No, I don’t eat things like that”. A few days later she catches him stuffing his face with bibimbap and has to help him alleviate his resulting indigestion. I really like how the scene where Rain prepares the bibimbap and stuffs his face is shot, so here’s an endless loop of it.
Bibimbap is a common feature in many family dramas as you see more of the characters day to day life which includes simple home meals like bibimbap. In the drama Smile, You, the family members were under strict rules for when and what they could eat and so there were a few sneaky bibimbap scenes along the way. In one of these scenes, in order to get Jung In to eat something after having not eaten all day Hyun Soo demands she make him some food. Reluctantly she prepares him some bibimbap which he rejects saying it is too salty and that she has to eat it all or she’ll dob her in for wasting food. The bibimbap she prepared was so-so but this scene was particularly nice as it highlighted the change in the leads relationship.
What bibimbap scenes are memorable for you?

What Experiences Have you had Eating and Making Bibimbap?
Bibimbap is my mother’s absolute favourite Korean food, so I have extremely warm feelings about it because she gets adorably excited at the prospect of eating it every single time it comes up in conversation. I didn’t personally try it before my trip to Korea as it was something that was easy to find everywhere. My first time eating it was on my flight to Korea and it was so delicious I was mad at myself for choosing other dishes over it in the past.
I also ate it by the seaside after visiting Odeo island. I am not 100% sure what sea creature it was because my Korean is about as basic as my ability to identify sea creatures. I think it was possibly sea urchin, whatever it was it was pretty great.
As for cooking, I’ve made bibimbap a few times but I’m pretty lazy with the whole cooking the ingredients separately in order of darkness concept so I don't make it very often. My Korean Kitchen is my usual go to for Korean recipes. By some miracle I managed to find some gochujang at the supermarket today so I’m going to make this one for dinner tonight.

What’s the Next Course?
Next month is KDRAMA’s 10th birthday so we will be celebrating in the traditional way with a bowl of Seaweed Soup (Miyeok guk 미역국) on the big day (Sunday 10th of May).
Until then we’d love to hear your experiences with bibimbap be it simply on screen envy or more in the comments below.

Additional Bibimbap Material:

Historical and Biological Aspects of Bibimbap a Korean Ethnic Food - The study which argues against the theories surrounding bibimbap's history
Bibimbap Globalisation Foundation Story of Bibimbap - Origin of bibimbap, mentions in literature, and Jeonju Bibimbap information
Visit Korea's page on Bibimbap - More regional varieties with pictures
Stop eating it wrong - Bibimbap - For “correct eating technique” tips see this video (or just do your own thing - no judgement here).

Have You Eaten? Chimaek (치맥 or Korean Fried Chicken and Beer)

Welcome to our second serving of Have You Eaten? For those who missed last month’s post the idea behind this new monthly food/snack/drink segment is to create a space in which we can discuss the dramas that featured the chosen food/drink of the month and made us crave it. Particularly memorable moments in dramas that featured it, recipes, personal anecdotes about cooking or eating it, pics, mukbang, reviews of store bought versions, basically whatever you can think of relating to it.
This month our focus snack Chimaek (치맥) comes in two parts, Korean Fried Chicken and Beer, a delicious and beloved combo. You might love them together or separately but there’s no denying when you see them in a drama, you often find yourself craving them too.

A Brief History of Chimaek
Let’s start by discussing the etymology of the portmanteau chimaek! If you’re from an English language background and you’ve spent any time attempting to learn Korean you’ve probably found that food/beverage names are the easiest as there are a bunch of English loan words and patterns in naming. When it comes to chimaek it’s a pretty obvious one to break down. This slang term takes the ‘chi’ from chikin (fried chicken) and the ‘maek’ from maekju (beer) to become chimaek. It first appeared around the time of the 2002 Soccer World Cup, a time considered to be “peak chimaek”.
While neither fried chicken nor beer originated in Korea, they’ve managed to turn the two into their own classic combination. It is believed that the dish spread from US soldier bases, slowly growing in popularity after cooking oil was introduced in the early 1970’s. The first restaurants appeared in the late 1970’s and the market continued to grow over time. As a result of the late 1990’s IMF crisis in Asia many individuals who lost their jobs opened fried chicken restaurants. The next major growth period was the previously mentioned 2002 Soccer World Cup by the end of which the number of fried chicken restaurants in Korea grew exponentially.
In 2013, wildly popular Korean drama, My Love From Another Star brought the craze to the world starting with China. In fact, the drama is credited with single-handedly saving the Chinese poultry industry after the avian flu had caused a severe decrease in people eating poultry.
There are currently more than 87,000 fried chicken restaurants in South Korea!

Korean Fried Chicken
Korean fried chicken is a little different to its original source as it has evolved to cater to the Korean palate. For more information on how it’s made here is a video from the company who first added seasoning sauce to the dish to make it easier and more delicious to devour.
There are a few different styles -

The original whole chicken - tongdak (통닭)
Boneless chicken/pure flesh chicken - sunsal (순살)
Regular pieces - commonly referred to as chikin (치킨)

Then combine with different flavours (most commonly) -

Fried chicken - huraideu chikin (후라이드 치킨)
Seasoned chicken - yangnyeom chikin (양념 치킨) - a sweet and spicy gochujang based sauce
Soy sauce chicken - ganjang chikin (간장 치킨) - a sweet and salty ganjang based sauce
Scallion chicken - padak (파닭) - fried chicken topped with thinly sliced scallions (green onions)
Half-half - banban (반반) originally shortened from yangnyeom ban, huraideu ban now used to describe any combination of two flavours.

Korean Fried Chicken is most commonly served with pickled radishes, known as “chicken radish” or chikin mu (치킨무) and beer - maekju (맥주) or carbonated non-alcoholic beverages.

Which Dramas Have had Memorable Chimaek Scenes in Them for you?
Thinking of dramas with high quality chimaek scenes is a little tougher because they are literally everywhere so most of mine are more recent watches rather than being truly memorable moments so I’m looking forward to hearing those that stuck with you -
Many dramas have set out to teach us that eating compatibility is one of the most important things to consider in a relationship and you should only dine with those with agreeable palates. Cinderella and the Four Knights highlighted the importance of choosing a partner based on chicken limb preference and it is pure genius. Seriously everybody, update your online dating profiles today.
Radiant Office taught me that opening a chicken shop is an option many people consider when everything else falls apart. While The Sound of Your Heart highlighted the importance of using ethically sourced domestic chickens.
When it comes to eating, Let’s Eat taught me even if everything goes against you, eventually you will get your fried chicken moment, you might just have to wait a while. If you are really lucky you may come across a unicorn like Lee Soo Kyung who will let you eat all the drumsticks AND wings you can handle.
But usually what’s memorable is just me dying of envy over the product placement. Everyone’s current favourite Crash Landing on You taught me that if I ever find myself in Pyongyang it’s still possible to enjoy chimaek, just not BBQ Chicken brand chimaek.
Be Melodramatic taught me just how hard it is to get that desired PPL moment in the first place.
Last but definitely not least is Man x Man which may be the ultimate chicken lover’s drama of all, featuring both types of KFC, Korean and Kentucky fried. Park Sung Woong really sold his addiction and in turn sent me loopy with cravings.

What’s Your go to Order? Have you had any Memorable Chimaek Moments?
Fortunately, thanks to my Queen Jun Ji Hyun, Korean Fried Chicken is fairly easy to source. Otherwise, I might have to consider deep frying my own and honestly that is an emergency call waiting to happen.
When it comes to ordering the fact that half ‘n half exists is such a blessing for all the indecisive people out there, including me. Apart from the Fried Chicken with Snow Cheese (aka Powdered Cheese Hell) I had at a music festival in Korea, which was a plate of mild food regrets, every flavour I’ve had has been amazing.
Sadly, though, despite being able to get perfectly fine Korean fried chicken, I can’t get the Korean fried chicken of my dreams, NeNe Chicken’s creamy onion chicken.
Here’s my chicken story (you may have heard it before):
The year was 2019, I was living my best life and travelling to the land where fried chicken dreams come true. During my stay my Weekly Binge friend and co-conspirator u/MerinoMedia was flying in to join me for a weekend of food, drama sight-seeing and more food. She’d told me to wait to eat fried chicken together and demanded we get Seventeen’s 네네치킨, I was happy to oblige. We took our chimaek to a drama hotspot, Ilsan Lake Park for a super late lunch picnic and it didn’t take more than a sip of beer (mostly because we gave up drinking it because it was in serious need of soju to make it drinkable) before we were serenading the locals with a beautiful rendition of Love is the Moment. As for the fried chicken we ordered half creamy onion half seasoned, all delicious. The creamy onion chicken was especially good, a combination that should be gross, but is somehow perfect. After Merry left me I ordered it once more before returning home and ate it for days (it’s even great for breakfast but the onions will stink out your life). When I found out that NeNe chicken did have franchises in Australia it was a real emotional roller-coaster, because for some tragic reason they don’t stock the best flavour here. I did try another company’s version while in Sydney but it just wasn’t the same. Alas. Will I ever have that recipe again?

What’s the Next Course?
Our March focus still needs to be decided! This month we will be voting between three different foods/drinks, banana milk, bibimbap (mixed rice), and tteokbokki (spicy stir fried rice cakes). PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE HERE. I’ll leave the vote open for a week and then make an announcement on the following weekend wrap up post. Our next post will be on the 29th of March.
Until then we’d love to hear your experiences whether they are limited to drooling over chimaek be it simply on screen or more in the comments below.

A big thank you to u/MerinoMedia and u/AlohaAlex who gave up their free time to read through my first draft (which was a low key hot mess) and increase the quality! Also to Merry for being my number 1 Korean fried chicken girl and to Aloha for making two of these gifs (the really good ones - for more see dramagifs). <333
Dramas featured in this post not mentioned by name: Father is Strange, Best Chicken, Reply 1994, Something About 1%, Heirs, and Missing 9.
Since you made it this far here's a picture of me preparing for this post, jk, here's a real one ^^

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

August 31st 2020
We went to petit potato. We planned to meet up at 6. He said that he was already at empress walk early and that he was waiting at the back door nearest to Haig. So uhh once I got there (exactly at 6 lol) I didn't see him... He said he ended up getting bored and walked to the front and he kinda teased me a bit about being at the front ); ANYWAYS since I confirmed with the restaurant that there are still seats available, we just went in and WOWWWWWW the restaurant looked so fancy schmancy. He said it actually looks WAY better than the one at Leslie Square since LS is cheaper. So uh once we got a seat we spent like 30 mins looking at the menu because there were SO MANY YUMMY things on the menu to choose like wtaf I have to come back again some other time(s???). So for drinks, I had trouble with deciding between 2 drinks and what he suggested was to just get both (1 for each) and if we don't like it we can switch drinks since that's what his father does. Interesting but I didn't expect him to be okay with that, especially with my mf boba preferences aaaaaa (yeah I took the strawberry drink lol). For dessert we still didn't know what to get so we decided to save it for later. I got sliced beef teppan pasta, miso kakimayo, and a strawberry drink. He got the spicy beef wrap with satay sauce, chicken curry soup (mom's recommendation), and the house special boba (with my shiitty preferences lol). He said he usually comes to petit potato for lunch so he'd normally get bibimbap or omurice hehe. Anyways, my main course came out first so I ate first but I did offer him some since it was in a HUGE iron dish but he didn't want to have some ): He said he's trying to avoid the dairy stuff because of acne and partially his stomach so I offered to switch drinks with him but he said no which did make me kinda sad but whatever it's highly understandable (I actually thought we were gonna try both drinks together which is why I ordered the boba with certain preferences but guess not so rip). Lol I was wondering why his dish took so long to make since it's just soup but then the dish came out and BAM it was huge and there were 2 big ass chicken pieces on there and he also got some rice served on the side. So in the meantime I decided to get dessert for us :00 He can eat durian <3333 We got the mango honey golden toast. Took 30 mins to get it lol but it was fine. He seemed to take a longer while to finish cuz he said how the question is whether he can finish the food before the dessert comes out. I was like definitely before the food comes out and wondered why he was concerned and what he said was that he's trying to eat slower to match his father's pace and I was like ooooo. I told him how I was afraid of being a faster eater than him but he turned out to be even faster than me so it was oki ); Once he finished we just talked about random stuff which eventually led to me telling him the entire drama I had with my landlords and wow, WHAT A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE THAT WAS... A BAD ONE ):< he laughed a lot loooool. He said ze cantos are always petty and YES I AGREE. The toast arrived shortly after and WOW it was HUGEEEEEE. We both took pics of it and bruh he got such a derpy photo of me )))): So I called it a jenga game cuz of how we were taking turns to break down this mf and we had the universal utensils but I wouldn't have minded sharing cuz u know ); At some point he had to use the washroom cuz the gas in his stomach finally got to him ))): When he came back he said we should continue finishing it but I was already super full so I told him I'm done for now but I ended up eating the leftover mangos loool cuz they're worth it. We decided to not pack the remaining cuz no point since it'll just be soggy bread at the end. Oh yeah looool I told him I got 2 credit cards and he was like wtf why do you need two cards T u T Also we were talking about running at some point and wtf this guy takes 3 mins to run a km...so fast wtff.. Oh yeah pt 3 when he e-transferred me the money for splitting the dessert he saw my middle name and was like "there's a kim in your name?" And I was like yeahh and then I learned that his middle name was supposed to be jian cuz his father's name is jian but typo so now it's jan loool.
Okaaaaay so after we just went on a random walk to digest this FAT meal we had hehehehehehe we went around DSAC and then we ended up walking to Haig where we sat on a bench and just talked for a whopping 2 hours? Idk but I was happy that we were able to talk that long in person XD I got to momentarily rest on his shouder at some point :000 and partial carress as he was fake weeping about girls :000000 O yeah we had what I thought was a staring contest at some point but then he just punched my shoulder and spooked me > <
He said that he wanted to get married by 30 since his parents got married at around that age..mmmm guess I'll wait until 30 as well :3
Oh yeah at some point he offered me to come over and I was like wait really cuz I thought he only wanted me to come over once the whole covid 19 thing is over but turns out it could have been whenever wtfffff wowowowowowowowowowo so I was like sure but in the end we ended up still staying on the bench LOL so kinda sad moment but THANKFULLY I had to go pee cuz it was urgent so I asked to go over to use it but this guy was like "let's check empress walk first to see if it's open" and I was like sure but in my head I was like wut >_> Whatever I already knew it was closed so it was gonna be a waste of time and like BRO IT WAS PAST 10:30 I WAS SO SHOCKED THAT WE WERE OUT FOR SO LONG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I got to give him a couple of headpats but like I gave an awkward one like I could have given a better one if the mood was much better ;-------------; wawawawawawawawawa do I even still have a chance I feel so embarrassed.........
OKAY SO yeah washrooms were closed so we ended up walking to his house (which was a pretty long walk tbh cuz I thought it'd be much shorter than that since he said he lives near Haig) but boy when I got there it was ONE HUGE ASS HOUSE WTFWTFWTF IT LOOKED SO BEAUTIFUL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Yeah uh so I quickly went to use the washroom and yeah we headed back to empress walk since he offered to escort me there as he was the host then the guest then the host idek XD Man this house was so precious like it smelled like walking into a luxurious piano store and it looked like an Ikea showroom as well and I was very careful cuz of how precious it was ; u ;
So as we were walking back we were just talking about the house and other stuff and then I was thinking of coming back in a few months for a proper tour since he did say he will give me one but then I randomly brought up the next day as well since I was in Toronto until then and he was good with that and I was like whaaaaaaaat oh damn that's cool so yeah I told him I'd come back the next day and give him a short notice beforehand and he was good with that. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
So we got to the station and just as we were about to part our ways I saw him standing there doing the hug gesture and I was like o-o cuz I got rejected last time so I was happy this time and yes I went for it and then I told him how I didn't expect one cuz I got rejected last time and made a tear gesture and he did it as well and then told me how we could also hug again the next day (which ended up not happening RIP) but yeaaaaaaaaa I kinda gave a tight ish one but he gave a loose one so I just loosened it cuz ya know it'd be weird if I did more...... Good day I got home at like 12 something lol.

So, I've unintentionally made a huge amount of a natural, powdered beef flavouring as a waste product of fermenting beef sauce. Suggestions?

I am 28 years old, make $95,000, live in Denver, CO and work as a Quality Specialist.

Disclaimer: I wrote this last month as an experiment, as I’ve never really thought to keep track of my expenses (other than looking at my CC statement every month). It was interesting to see how I spent my money and how hard I tried to have no spend days haha.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): 401K - $44,664.77 from my first job, which had a great match. $15,273.97 from my second job, which had a terrible match. $6,423.47 from my current job, which has an okay-ish match (I currently contribute 10%). Roth IRA - $20,264.71 (I’ve been maxing out my contributions for the last 3 years).
Savings/investment account balance: ~$120,000 - My dad manages my savings (he’s a finance guy) and guarantees me at least a 5% annual return. Basically anytime my checking account goes above some arbitrary amount, I throw some money into this “account.”
HSA: $508.37. I contribute $15.00 per paycheck (pre-tax) and my employer contributes $31 per paycheck.
Checking account balance: $17,447.01.
Credit card debt: $0. I pay off my CC balance in full every month.
Student loan debt (for what degree): $0. I graduated with about $18,000 debt, which I paid off 2 years after graduation. I went to an OOS school (5 year BS/MPH) and the rest of my tuition was covered by grants, scholarships, and my wonderful parents/grandparents. I also worked the entire time during school (at one point, three jobs at once!).
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $4691.17 after all deductions (taxes, 10% 401K contribution pre-tax, $30 HSA contribution pre-tax, $11 dental insurance, $8.28 vision insurance, $103.52 medical insurance) .
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: ~$2,000 on average, UNTAXED. I do some contract work for another company (not in the same industry as my full-time job). I realize as a 1099, I’ll need to owe a lot of taxes next year, so I routinely remind myself that the check I receive every month is not my actual take-home. I’m trying to end this contract though, as I don’t need the money (although it is nice!) and I feel guilt/pressure when I don’t put in hours and instead want to enjoy myself (AKA travel and do all the Colorado things). I’m open to any other side hustle ideas, though!
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $780. I live in a 3bed/1bath townhome with two other girls.
Savings/investment contribution: Stated above that I just throw money into the savings/investment account that my Dad manages when my checking account goes above a certain limit. I can withdraw from this at any time if I need to. I try to save around 50% of my take-home salary.
Debt payments: $0.
Donations: Varies. I’ll contribute here and there to fundraisers and causes and I volunteer with my local Kiwanis club and college alumni club.
Electric: Varies, but July was $18.68 for my portion. This is much higher in the winter.
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $37 for my portion.
Cellphone: $0. I’m on my parents plan.
Subscriptions: HBO Now - $15.64. Spotify - $10.79. Apple iCloud storage: $0.99. I use my boyfriend’s Hulu with no commercials and my Dad’s Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Gym membership: $59.99 for ClassPass.
Car payment / insurance: $92.09 for insurance. My car is paid off in full (bought off my parents about 3 years ago). It’s not the newest car, but I don’t drive very much so it’s fine.
Day 1: Wednesday
5:45AMish: Wake up to my boyfriend, C, getting out of my bed to leave to go back to his apartment, since he leaves much earlier than me for work. It was my birthday yesterday and we ended up crashing at my place after dinner. I take some Advil and chug some water to hopefully feel better after really getting up (another year older, armirite?). Fall back into a half-sleep.
6:30AM: Alarm goes off. Alarm gets shut off.
6:45AM: Second alarm goes off. Snooze.
6:53AM: Third alarm gets shut off. I’m kind of up and scroll through social media.
7:00AM: Quick body shower (I don’t usually shower in the morning but I met up with C right after I got home from work yesterday and didn’t shower, oops) and go through my normal routine - Brush my teeth, wash my face, put in contacts, get dressed (olive green t shirt dress, pale pink tassel necklace, and slip on white quilted leather sneakers, my office is very casual), go through my super complex skincare routine of just Neutrogena moisturizer with sunscreen, swipe on some Maybelline eyeliner and Burts Bees chapstick, take my meds (I have epilepsy), pack my lunch, and I’m out the door by 7:35AM.
8:00AM: Sweaty from my 25 min walk commute (while listening to trashy Bachelor-related podcasts). My knee is aching, as I hiked a 14er last weekend and then stupidly decided to do a 5K the next morning and then did a HIIT workout the next day. Second oops. Take care of a few emails and get office coffee (very bad, but free), a giant glass of ice water, and heat up my egg cup muffin things (I meal prep these every Sunday for breakfast for the week).
8:30AM: Morning office routine of bouncing between The Skimm, reading some other news/Reddit, emails, work, etc.
10:30AM: My Director wants me to go watch a couple of intern project presentations. I haven’t had my morning snack and know I’ll be starving by the time it ends, so I shove a few almonds in my mouth. Watching the intern presentations makes me laugh a little bit and reminds me of when I was an intern (at another company) and how fabricated the “assigned projects” were. They were all overly enthusiastic, but the presentations were good to listen to, as I’m still new-ish to this company and learned a bit more about other departments/functions.
11:30AM: Heat up my lunch of leftover paella from dinner last night while continuing to work.
2:30PM: Grab grapes that I brought for an afternoon snack and continue working. I also decide to buy two pairs of North Face hiking shorts from REI for an upcoming trip to Moab - It’s going to be HOT and I don’t have any “hiking shorts.” Not sure if these will fit, but I’ll return them if they don’t. $67.00
4:45PM: Leave the office. Contemplate signing up for a gym class, but decide I should let my knee rest another day. Call my Mom on the way home to catch up and figure out what we’re doing when I see my parents for a day in a couple weeks when I’ll be back on the East Coast.
5:15PM: Get home, lay in bed scrolling through social media for a bit, then head to a new (for me) Asian grocery store because a coworker told me this one has a bakery and I need baos in my life. I wander each aisle of the empty store and am saddened that one bao is $2.09! I text my Mom about the days of $1 baos in Flushing and Chinatown (I grew up in New York and my parents and grandmas are still there). Also text C about this, but he doesn’t really care. I buy kimchi, chili bamboo, 4 bags of frozen dumplings (will give 2 bags to C), and 6 baos because I have no self-control. $41.28
6:45PM: Get home, unpack my goodies, eat a hot dog bao (if you know, you know), more leftover paella, then lock myself in my room to watch last night’s Bachelor in Paradise since I missed it (and my bedroom has AC, which the rest of the house doesn’t). Text my friends from back home about the episode (I recently moved from the East Coast and miss my friends dearly and love talking about this nonsense). Contemplate who’s the bigger asshole on this show.
8:45PM: Shower and wash my face with GlamGlow Thirstycleans, moisturize with St. Ive’s body lotion, Olay face moisturizer, then head downstairs to do some contract work. I also order a pair of hiking shorts from Outdoor Voices and will compare with the North Face ones and return whatever doesn’t fit. $56.32
10:15PM: Head back upstairs, take vitamins and meds, put on Kiehl’s lip mask, and watch an episode of Handmaid’s Tale (I’m late to this show, so I’m binging). Fall asleep around 11:30PM.
TOTAL: $164.60
Day 2: Thursday
6:30AM-7:02AM: All the alarms. Don’t know what I’m doing with my life.
7:15AM: Finally struggle out of bed because I know I’m already running 5 minutes late. Normal getting ready routine (black striped linen jumpsuit and Adidas sneakers and accept the fact that I will have to get naked to pee all day), pack my lunch, and I’m gone.
8:00AM: Bad coffee, water, egg muffins.
8:30AM: Morning routine and work work work work work.
10:45AM: Mid-morning snack of grapes.
12:00PM: Lunch with my boss and a couple other coworkers. One coworker is in from out of town, so lunch is expensed. I eat a falafel bowl with spicy hummus, roasted cauliflower, Israeli salad, and half a pita. My boss makes me take a few leftover falafel and sweet potato fries back to the office but I don’t know what he wants me to do with them. I hate food waste, so I’ll probably end up eating them later today.
3:15PM: I take a quick work break to look up some trails and activities for my girls trip to Moab!
4:45PM: Time to trek home. I hop on a free shuttle that would take me halfway home but I miss my stop as I’m scrolling through Instagram, ugh. I get off at the next stop and walk the rest of the way home, texting C about how I was annoyed that the shuttled didn’t stop at every stop like it’s supposed to (but I should have been paying attention). I chat with one of my roommates and meet her girlfriend and eat a little bit of leftover paella from dinner on Tuesday before the gym.
6:15PM: Arrive at the studio and find free street parking! I use ClassPass and today’s session is a strengthening class at a barre studio (I don’t love actual barre, but I like the weights-focus of this particular class). I kind of regret going since my knee is acting up again, but I feel sweaty and good afterwards.
7:15PM: Arrive home, sit for a second, then head out to my sand volleyball game (byob!).
8:30PM: We lose (we’re not very good), but a team that’s playing after us needs girls to fill in and me and my friend and two other people from our team stay. We end up winning! Winning is a lot more fun. I have two Coors Banquets (sorry not sorry) and we decide to meet up with the rest of our teammates at the bar.
9:30PM: Arrive at the bar but realize that our teammates went to another bar. I stay at this bar for a drink with a couple from my team and we end up bonding over common interests and past lives (shoutout to the Bay Area where I lived for a year and LOVED, but the struggles were real). We make plans to meet up for dinner and drinks at some point and I invite them to my weekly volleyball Sundays at the park. I get excited because making friends as an adult is hard. I have a Hazy IPA, which my teammate covers. I’ll get him next time.
11:15PM: Way later than I expected to get home tonight. I shove a hot dog bao into my mouth, shower, and put on reruns of How I Met Your Mother (one of my “background” shows in rotation, the others are The Office and Parks & Rec) and fall asleep way too late.
TOTAL: $0
Day 3: Friday
6:30AM-7:02AM: All the alarms again. Scroll through social media a bit.
7:15AM: Normal getting ready routine (black and white A-line skirt, coral T shirt, white Nike sneakers because it’s too hot to think about commuting in anything else), pack my lunch, and I’m out listening to an old episode of My Favorite Murder.
8:00AM: Bad coffee, water, and char sui bao (roast pork bun) this morning! It’s Friday and I need to change it up. Also PAYDAY.
8:30AM: Work. Thrilling.
10:15AM: Grapes again. I try to switch up my snacking fruit every week so I don’t get bored.
12:15PM: My last meeting went over and I am HUNGRY. Eat lunch of an Asian slaw with tuna (I meal prepped this earlier this week) and my breakfast egg muffins with all the Tapatio. Do a little bit of contract work on my lunch break.
2:45PM: Another quick break to look up more trails for my Labor Day trip! I successfully convince my friends we should do the longest hike in Arches NP.
3:15PM: Mid-afternoon snack of blackberry greek yogurt with chocolate chips from my desk drawer and another cup of bad office coffee. I drink bad office coffee pretty much all day long because I don’t like spending money on coffee during the week.
4:30PM: C picks me up from work because he’s the best (and has every other Friday off) and we discuss what we want to do for the weekend. I want to take it easy-ish since I’ll be out of town for the next 3 weekends and C’s cousin is coming to visit the weekend after that. We swing by my house so I can change (black crop tank top, girlfriend jeans, white slip on sneakers), grab some clothes C left at my place, the dumplings I got him, and head back to his place.
5:00PM: We laze around the apt for a bit. I drink an orange La Croix (do not recommend) and have some Cheez-Its. At some point, C sneaks some vodka into my water and I’m not mad about it. C texts his friend that just moved here to see if him and his gf want to come up to the city (they’re in the ‘burbs) and they decline. We decide to walk to a bar for dinner.
7:00PM: Dinner at a meh bar. I get a Hazy IPA and a meatball sub (on an Amoroso roll!). C pays (we usually switch off paying when we go out to eat/drink and that works well for us).
8:30PM: Decide to go to another bar near C’s place. I order beers for us (grapefruit IPA for me) while C goes to the bathroom and I receive a panic text from C about there being no tp in the bathroom and to tell a bartender. I feel weird about this but I do it. We finally get to our beers and discuss checking public bathrooms for tp before using them (this somewhat turns into a funny argument and we poll all our friends about what they would do). $17.12.
9:30PM: Another bar down the street. It’s pretty empty but we stay for two drinks (I get two pineapple blonde beers). C and I discuss random things - our friends’ relationships, finances, the colleges we went to, diet and exercise, etc. C pays and we walk home.
11:00PM: I’m pretty beat but C grabs two Naturdays (these are actually amazing for a “shit” beer) for us from the fridge and makes bagel bites! Drunk food is the best. I don’t finish my beer, but eat all the bagel bites, swipe off my eyeliner, and head to bed.
TOTAL: $17.12
Day 4: Saturday
Sometime in the middle of the night: I wake up with really bad dry mouth and get a glass of water. I try to go back to bed but am tossing and turning and decide to sleep on the couch so I don’t wake C up.
10:00AMish: I am somewhat up and not feeling 100% (slightly hungover lol I need to remind myself I’m in my late 20s now). Scroll through social media a bit. C eventually joins me in the living room and we put on HIMYM and talk about what we’re each doing today.
12:00PM: I convince C to go to McDonald’s on the way to drive me home (he lives next to one and I’m weak). I get two breakfast burritos and a black iced coffee and C gets an egg mcmuffin and unsweetened iced tea. I pay ($10.55) and I’m finally home and collapse into bed eating my breakfast burritos with another HIMYM episode on in the background. Feel a lot better now.
2:30PM: Finally get up (lol), take a body shower, quickly wash the dishes (my house doesn’t have a dishwasher and we’re all usually pretty good about washing our stuff, but the sink was getting full), then I’m out the door. Head to REI to pick up my shorts (they fit! Will wait to receive the OV ones and compare, but will probably return those since the cost for one pair was almost as much as the cost for these two) and then head to the outlet mall near me. I don’t really need anything, but I rarely go shopping and figure if I see a dress I like for a wedding I have in two weeks, I’ll get it.
7:00PM: Finally home and exhausted and hungry. I end up purchasing two sweaters ($15.24), some baking pans and a food storage container ($17.41), and an iced coffee ($3.21). I also get groceries to meal prep this week and a few last minute travel toiletries - romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, a cantaloupe, eggs, frozen spinach, mushrooms, deli meat, olive oil, Dunkin’ coffee (thank god actual Dunkin’ just came to Colorado!), toothpaste, hair conditioner (to shave my legs lol I don’t use conditioner in my hair), and a toothbrush ($36.86). I eat another char sui bao and text C to see what he wants to do for dinner.
8:00PM: C comes over and I order an Uber to a food hall ($5.96). I order al pastor tacos ($8.64) and get drinks for C and I (watermelon sour for me) ($19.28). C gets a banh mi sandwich and pays for himself. We decide to go to a rooftop bar and C gets drinks this time (I get a mexican lager). We go to another bar and I get two rounds of drinks for us (I get two hazy IPAs) ($23.00).
TOTAL: $140.15
Day 5: Sunday
12:00AM: Open Uber and Lyft apps to compare prices. Ouch. I forget it’s Saturday night and quickly contemplate walking home since we’re not that far, but that thought quickly flies out the window. I order an Uber back to my house ($20.21) and I grab us a bed beer to share (Hemporer HPA) and we fall asleep to HIMYM.
10:30AM: C leaves and I go downstairs to scrounge around for food. I heat up the leftover falafel and sweet potato fries and a lonely egg muffin and douse everything with sriracha. I keep checking the weather to see if I should go to the park to play volleyball or stay home and catch up on some things (like folding the laundry that I did over a week ago… Adulting is hard).
2:00PM: Finally start the day? I’m glad I decided not to go to the park because it’s now raining. I meal prep egg muffins for breakfast for the week and take a cooking break with some contract work. Shower and finally clean my room (and fold that laundry!). I also make a list of things to pack for my trip(s) (I’ll be back on the East Coast for almost two weeks and then leaving for Moab a day after I get back to Denver).
5:00PM: I text C to see if he can quickly help put air in my tires. I drive over to pick him up and we go to the gas station. I don’t have any quarters so I have to make change with cash I already have. I drop C back home and he gives me a new Hydro Flask as a belated gift!
5:30PM: I make an “Indian” stir fry for dinner (chicken and all the vegetables left in my fridge + leftover TJ’s tikka masala sauce over rice) and do the dishes. I attempted to take out our garbage and recycling, but when I opened our back door, our landlord was right there fixing a fence and I’m super awkward and just quietly shut the door before he noticed I was there. What’s wrong with me? Head upstairs to veg out for a bit because I am not ready to tackle my salad meal prep.
9:45PM: Yikes, watched two episodes of Handmaid’s Tale and placed an Amazon Prime order for last minute travel things - A headlamp and mesh laundry bags ($13.91). I go downstairs to cut up my cantaloupe for my fruit this week (I’ll meal prep my salads tomorrow night, since I have a lunch to bring for tomorrow), brush my teeth, wash my face, moisturize, vitamins and meds, Kiehl’s lip mask, and another episode of Handmaid’s Tale and fall asleep around midnight.
TOTAL: $34.12
Day 6: Monday
6:30AM-7:02AM: Alarms. Scroll through emails and social media.
7:10AM: Morning routine (girlfriend jeans, geometric print blouse, white slip on sneakers). One of my contacts is being very stubborn this morning (this is where I wish I qualified for Lasik). Pack gym clothes, lunch, and I’m out the door a little later than normal . I listen to Chicks in the Office podcast because this is how I keep up with pop culture (ugh, Portnoy tho).
8:05AM: Bad coffee, water, egg muffins, emails.
10:00AM: I’m going on hour 2 of a 3 hour customer training WebEx and I have to pee. I take this time to refill my coffee, water, and get some cantaloupe from the fridge that I brought from home.
11:30AM: Training is over a little early, thank god. The hosts were struggling with audio issues real bad and I couldn’t take it anymore. I head to the break room to eat my lunch (double “portion” of the Asian slaw from last week but it’s basically just vegetables so kinda healthy (obligatory ‾\_(ツ)_/‾) and do more work.
12:40PM: My friend texts our group chat about the new Natty Seltzers. I immediately text C about this because we are both obsessed with Naturdays. Am I really 28?
1:00PM: Meetings. Lots of arguments about internal policies. I also have my biweekly 1:1 with my boss, which goes better than my past ones - I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask for more work or how to get more involved in my department since my small team is pretty siloed and he suggests I join a particular committee to give the current members a different perspective.
3:00PM: Meetings over. I eat a mango greek yogurt with chocolate chips and catch up with a coworker about a cool hike she did yesterday.
4:50PM: I leave the office to head to a HIIT class a few blocks away.
6:05PM: I walk home and make a lazy version of bibimbap (ground turkey with gochujang, brown sugar, and soy sauce, quick pickled julienned cucumber and carrots, kimchi, rice, runny egg, all topped with sriracha. I make two servings and an extra serving of rice for fried rice tomorrow. Start BIP!
9:00PM: Fuck, I like the OV shorts that came in the mail today. They seem like they would hold up on longer hikes more since they have a weightier fabric than the North Face ones. I decide to keep these and return one of the North Face ones. I am normally not a big spender on clothes, so this stings a little. I’ll go to REI on Wednesday when I have to run a bunch of other errands. I show one of my roommates all the shorts and she agrees with me (done talking about shorts now). Shower, body lotion, face moisturizer, and head downstairs to meal prep those salads (romaine lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, turkey deli meat). I also make hard boiled eggs for each salad and I have dressing at work.
10:15PM: Put on lip mask and another episode of Handmaid’s Tale. Goodnight.
TOTAL: $0
Day 7: Tuesday
6:15-6:30AM: Earlier alarms this morning, since I have a short standing call with the company I contract for. I scroll through social media and emails for 5 minutes and go downstairs to put on a small pot of coffee. Morning routine (Banana Republic black cotton pencil skirt, my favorite Oakland T shirt, black nike sneakers) and head downstairs for my call. Pack my lunch afterwards and out the door by 7:35.
8:00AM: Bad coffee, water, egg muffins, work. I also book a workout class on ClassPass for later today that I’ve never done before and I’m nervous, but the studio is right down the street from my house.
10:00AM: Grab cantaloupe from the fridge that I brought from home. Also receive an email from a coworker who’s organizing a work softball team that I signed up for and then IM another coworker and text some other friends about signing up for a volleyball league. Both will start in about a month.
11:35AM: I cannot put off lunch any longer. I go to the break room to have my sad desk salad topped with crispy red peppers for dat texture while going through emails. Also do a little bit of contract work.
12:30PM: Back to work. It is freezing in the office.
1:50PM: Sad desk salad is not cutting it. I snack on some almonds from my desk drawer.
3:30PM: Blood orange greek yogurt with chocolate chips. I am constantly eating.
4:45PM: Leave. Take off all my clothes when I get home because I’m sweaty af and laze in my bed for a bit before stuffing some turkey slices in my mouth and heading to the studio for my workout.
7:00PM: It was a good workout! Much more like the group fitness classes I used to take back home. I talk with the instructor for a bit and race home to start BIP and make a quick kimchi fried rice. I also receive my contracting work check from last month and deposit that.
9:00PM: Shower and try on my swimsuits for the beach next week. God damn hip dips. I google “best swimsuit bottoms for hip dips” and decide a) I don’t want to spend money on new swimsuits since I don’t wear the six that I have very often and b) I’m not trying to impress anyone, so fuck it. I head downstairs to do some contract work. No Handmaid’s Tale tonight, as I try to sleep earlier on Tuesdays since I have a 6:30AM call with my contracting company every Wednesday morning. I fall asleep browsing Reddit and playing solitaire on my phone.
TOTAL: $0
TOTAL: $355.99
Food + Drink: $159.94
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $31.32
Clothes + Beauty: $138.56
Transport: $26.17
Other: $0
Lastly, reflect on your diary! I think this is somewhat normal-ish, but since I rarely buy clothes, I think the spread over the categories is unusual (I would normally spend more on food lol). Writing out the beginning part made me realize I maybe need a more active role in my finances instead of letting my Dad completely handle everything, although I do check in with him about once a month to see how everything’s doing. When I first started working (at a lower salary with debt), I had a pretty strict budget (I tracked every single expense and broke it down by category), but I really haven’t had one in the last couple of years. Perhaps it’s time to start again, but I’m pretty comfortable in my spending/saving ratio. Anyone in Denver wanna grab a beer?

My new favorite make-it-a-meal method 😍

Difference between Korean gochujang and the red Korean sauce served with bibimbap?

The Green Chef Meal Kit welcomes those with specialty diets

Green Chef offers a variety of specialty menus but are these organic meal kits for everyone?

Green Chef Meal Kits

4out of 5Price: From $10 per serving
Bottom line: Green Chef Meal Kits are the best option for dieters with special needs but the recipes and ingredients don't justify the higher price
See at Green Chef

The Good

Unparalleled specialization
Best gluten-free options
Very fresh fish and meats

The Bad

Vegetables arrive pre-cut
Sauces mostly pre-made
Recipes boring and repetitive

With So Many Options

Among the growing number of meal kit companies, Green Chef has long distinguished itself on the bona fides of its ingredients. Everything is organic. Gluten-free recipes come with the approval of the Gluten Intolerance Group, and Green Chef is the only meal kit with such designation. Keto fans can find Keto plans; vegans can eat without remorse. While competitors fight with lower prices and celebrity food partnerships, Green Chef is the best service to find a menu that caters to a highly-specialized, restrictive diet.

I've been using a variety of meal kit services for the last 5 years and I was excited to try the all-organic Green Chef menu. I expected a focus on fresh produce to show off the organic label, as well as a nice variety of impressive menu options befitting the higher price. After all, a Green Chef box for a week of recipes can cost about $20 more than a box from a lower-priced competitor.
I expected a focus on fresh produce to show off the organic label
I cooked three weeks' worth of recipes across the spectrum of Green Chef offerings. I cooked Keto and Paleo recipes, gluten-free and vegan recipes, as well as every protein Green Chef offers and two cuts of fresh fish. I cooked nine meals with two servings each, and I tried to stretch a few meals to feed drop-in guests where I could.

What I Like

Meal Kits got me back into the kitchen after I transitioned from Freewheeling Bohemian to Adult-With-Responsibilities, but cooking lavish meals three times a week comes with a price, and that price is calories, salt, and fat. Meal kits ask for a dollop of oil and a sprinkling of salt with every step, and calorie counts reach four-figures often. Green Chef doesn't even brag about its low-calorie options, which is too bad because it offers an astonishing array of dishes that are 400-500 calories per serving across every menu, not just the low-carb Keto and Paleo plans. The recipes don't recommend excessive amounts of extra salt or require sugary sauces, either.
I don't usually order fish with my meal kits because my palate is sensitive to aging seafood's funk. I tried barramundi and sole recipes, and I waited a few days before I cooked them just to test the fish's freshness. In both cases, I was delighted with the results: light, flaky filets with no funkiness at all. I'll definitely be going back for more, probably branching into shrimp and salmon.

While I'll take issue below with some of Green Chef's shortcuts, I appreciate that recipes were snappy to prepare and usually took less time than Green Chef proscribed, a rarity among meal kits. Other services will promise 35 minutes for a meal that needs an hour or more, but most Green Chef meals could easily reach the table within 30-40 minutes flat.
I love the dedication to specialized diet needs
Finally, I love the dedication to specialized diet needs that Green Chef takes so seriously. The Gluten Intolerance Group hasn't bothered to certify any meal kits after Green Chef, so for some, this is the only meal kit option. Vegan and vegetarian eaters get individual respect, and vegans can filter for recipes that omit animal products completely. If you're keeping a ketogenic diet, the Green Chef Keto plan is one of the only meal kits that restricts carbs so completely, but the food is tasty and satisfying enough to order even if you usually frequent the Balanced Living menu.

What Needs to Improve

Green Chef has the specialization aspects down cold, but the 'meal kit' part of the meal kit service needs to improve significantly. If Green Chef weren't organic, with so many options for gluten-free, Keto, vegans, low-calorie dieters, etc., I would have rated them lower on the weakness of the recipes and ingredients alone. The service gets a better grade because of all of its extra credit work, which is still a respectable way to win.

For an organic service with "Green" in the name, I expected more ... green? I wanted an array of fresh and seasonal vegetables. Instead, I mostly got peppers, onions, and scallions. Rather, I got part of a pepper, a bag of chopped onions, and a scallion. I don't mind Green Chef being strict on portions, but sending a pre-cut green pepper, with a slime coating from oxidizing on the journey, is very unappealing. So are sweaty onions in a bag. So is wilted kale, or browning cabbage with "rainbow" carrots. The ingredients tasted fine, but they were on the far edge of fresh and some wouldn't last a whole week.

Equally unappealing was squeezing out sriracha aioli from a plastic bag on top of my bibimbap. Or squeezing lemon-pepper dressing out of a bag onto my salad. Or squeezing a glop of chopped, roasted red peppers into my pan of vegetables. Too many recipes ask you to cook the meat and veg, then dump whatever sauce or seasoning was provided, no more effort from you.

Ask What You Should Do For Your Meal Kit

The cooking styles were also bland. Meat is seared, or rubbed then seared. Vegetables are sauteed. A promising flatbread arrived with two naan in a bag, a far stretch from the raw dough that Blue Apron will send. Perhaps Green Fresh is aiming for cooks who want to do less cooking, but I would have liked a bit more creativity, and more of a challenge. I don't mind putting in more effort for a meal if it pays off in the eating.

A meal kit should require I chop my own vegetables because the sacrifice in freshness of pre-chopped vegetables is not worth the convenience. A meal kit should teach me to make my own sauces and salad dressings because it's easy and good technique and tastes vastly better than the plastic packet. A meal kit should have me roast my own red peppers because that is crazy delicious and makes my house smell like roasted red peppers.
A meal kit should require I chop my own vegetables
A great meal kit service that charges more than all the others should do all of that and more with great recipes that are unique and varied and fun. Green Chef gets the technical award for being the only service to offer recipes to eaters who need serious restriction, but misses the artistic award for lack of inspiration.

Should You Buy It?

4out of 5If you suffer from Celiac Disease, absolutely. If you need to eat low-carb to remain in ketosis for your Keto diet, definitely. If those don't apply to you, maybe not. Passionate organic-only eaters and Paleo fans may enjoy the comparatively large selection, but other services like Sun Basket also offer organic ingredients and a Paleo plan. Meat and fish were exceptionally fresh, so protein-forward folks will appreciate the menu, but if you want real variety in the recipes and concepts you should look elsewhere.
I would keep subscribing to Green Fresh for it's low-calorie options. There are other services that aim for low-cal eaters, but I like that Green Fresh just keeps its normal recipes at a reasonable calorie level without sacrificing flavors. Still, it is an expensive option if low-calorie is my only priority, so I'd also try other services before I commit long term.

* More Details Here

Korean Fatlogic 1 - "Diets"

I've lived in Korea for a few years now. I love living here but sometimes the way the culture is progressing makes me scratch my head. Remember, there was a war here only a couple generations ago (technically still "at war" but there's been a ceasefire since the 50's) and this country has existed for much longer than my native US, so it's interesting to see how quickly it has progressed in some ways while holding onto some stubborn traditional thought.
Like with any developed nation, obesity is on the rise in Korea. It's no where near countries like the US, Australia, or England, but it is on the rise all the same. Even from my perspective, having lived here a few years I've seen the subway hamplanets rise from one every 20 rides to one to three every two rides, with multiple additional mini-moons.
For this reason, the fatlogic seems really strange because the people here aren't what I would consider fat (hamplanets and mini-moons aside). I suppose a good example would be to compare clothing models:
Normal Korean Model Page w/Full Body
Korean Plus-Sized Model Page w/o Full Body
Example Full-Body from That Page
Victoria's Secret 2013 Runway
Supermodel Gisele Bundchen
Plus-Sized Models From Pulp Fashion Week 2013
While things like the Special K diet are sold here, the fatlogic that spurs these weird fad diets is really strange to me. It starts off with one fatlogic concept:
All Korean food is inherently healthy
I know that sounds a little strange to hear, but they believe it. This isn't just everyday fatlogic, either; a buddy of mine talked to his doctor about weight loss and asked for his help in choosing which foods to avoid (other than the obvious fried food).

Doctor: All Korean food is healthy.
Friend: Uh...no, it isn't.
Doctor: Yes, it is.
Friend: So you're telling me things like twi-gim (fried food), sam-gyeop-sal (a thickly-cut slab of pork belly, similar to bacon but much thicker and not smoked), and bibimbap (it looks healthy but it's literally just a big bowl of rice with some veggies that clocks in at 600 calories or more...the one pictured is 607 calories and something like this is closer to 800 calories...it's just that much rice) are all foods I should eat if I'm trying to lose weight?
Doctor: Yes.

My friend, a med student himself, was not only unimpressed but utterly confused at this "advice". Koreans have this idea that it's only western food that's fattening. Here's some stuff I've seen from friends-of-friends and co-workers.
Not All Fried Food is Created Equal The office ordered some fast food from Lotteria. I had nothing else to eat and didn't want to be rude, so I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, no fries or drink.

Male Co-Worker (MCW): It's good you didn't order the fries.
Me: Yeah, I'm good with the chicken burger.
MCW: They're so unhealthy. Western food is really fattening.
Me: Well, fried food in general is not good for you. Even twi-gim is unhealthy.
MCW: No, it isn't.
Me: Yes, it is.
MCW: It isn't unhealthy. Korean food is healthy.
Me: So you're telling me that a fried potato in the USA is less healthy than a fried potato in Korea?
MCW: ...uh...yes...?
Me: Look it up.

No Eating After X Time... I'm sure some of you have at least heard of, if not tried, the "No eating after X time" diet "trick". If not, you basically stop eating after a certain time to avoid over-eating. Simple enough. People typically set the time for after dinner, around 7:00pm. My female co-worker, on the other hand, set this time for 4:00pm. She immediately dropped weight (no shit) and complained of feeling weak (no shit), but she stuck with it. It's been a few months now, actually. This isn't the "fatlogic", though. The fatlogic here is she'll allow herself to eat unhealthy Korean food if she's feeling hungry. I get it, sometimes you feel hungry and sometimes you don't, that happens. But when she feels too hungry (missed lunch, for example, or she just wants to eat), she'll choose some unhealthy Korean food. The worst times this has happened:

We receive "office meals" at work, which is a standard Korean meal of a broth-based soup, some side dishes, and a bowl of rice. This is delivered to us. She stopped eating this because she doesn't eat after 4:00pm and the meal is served close to 7:00pm. One week, we didn't receive these meals because it was a special off week for the food company, so that's when our bosses ordered us Lotteria I mentioned above, as a replacement for our undelivered meal. She decided to partake in this and ordered the same sandwich I did, but as a set (fries + full-sugar cola). Again: she skips the normal work meal because of her diet, but when they were ordering us fast food she got herself a meal set.
She missed lunch one day so she grabbed a bowl of instant ramen (they call it "rameyon" here but you would likely know it as ramen, it's the same thing). Please keep in mind that low-calorie cup ramen exists here (it's about 120 calories per cup). Please keep in mind that there's a difference between cup ramen and bowl ramen in terms of size. Please keep in mind that there are other convenience foods available. Please keep in mind that most ramen is fried, but there are non-fried versions that also come in the cup-ramen variety. Korean food can't possibly be unhealthy so it's all the same...apparently.

Please keep in mind I have offered that she try some of my foods that I bring in from home, like a really tasty "hummus" I made using soaked walnuts that I offered a cucumber slice to consume together, but she refused because "I'm on a diet, I don't eat after 4:00pm, sorry." That is to say, a bite of raw veggies is off-limits, but a full meal from a fast food restaurant is not.
The One-Food Diet While this is a stupid diet seen in multiple countries, I'm surprised at what Koreans will use. Sure, you get the "only apples" or "only lemon water" people, but others will just consume any of the following:

Sugary coffee drinks
Any of the various cafe "toast" snack creations
Baskin Robbins ice cream
Donuts from Dunkin Donuts
Ramen
Cola (full-sugar, not diet)

Then they wonder why they're not losing weight. I'm sure there are others, but these are ones I've personally witnessed.
Starvation Just...fuckin' straight up no eating. Not a "starvation diet" of eating something like 500 calories. Just straight up not eating anything at all.
Save It Up About two weeks before a holiday, some people will go on a diet so they can pig out on said holiday. I've always seen it the other way around: do the damage, assess damage, fix damage, but here some people "save up" the calories. Because you can totally do that.
Rice Doesn't Count This is a more specific version of "All Korean food is healthy", but simply allows the person to just eat rice all the time. Small amount of meat, any amount of rice. Small amount of vegetables, any amount of rice. On top of this, Rice Doesn't Count dieters apply this to any incarnation of rice, such as: 1. Ddeok, which is a chewy rice snack, usually with a tasty filling such as red bean or honey. 2. Cake made with rice flour, which comes in any size (cupcake to full-sized cake). 3. Ddeok-bokk-i, a spicy-sweet food that is famous among Koreans. It can be found as a street food or in quick meal restaurant. The sauce is made with spicy pepper paste, water, and sugar. The ingredients include plain ddeok, and usually include fish cake, eggs, and can also include instant noodles (called ra-bokk-i). 100g of this is about 217 calories, but that's only with the ddeok and I've never seen a Korean eat this on its own (it's always with other items). Also, 217 calories isn't terrible for a meal, but to pretend it has zero calories is ridiculous.
That's all I can think of for now.

Schönhauser Allee Restaurant Guide

Hey all, I am an American who has been living in Schönhauser Allee for a year (and I love it, and the food). After eating at most restaurants in the area and many close by I wrote up a food guide of my favorite nearby places (prompted by feeling a little home-sick as I was traveling away from Berlin). Let me know if you guys have any recommendations of places I should try or want to add to the list! (Also I'm including some Rosenthaler Platz stuff as it's a short tram ride away, and has great food, I'll mark it down.)
However, this isn't a super foodie-list because it is mostly close by cheap restaurants, all but 2-3 are below 15 euro per meal. So I encourage all to try these places!

Mexican-

Maria Bonita: Probably my favorite go-to on this list, large portions of good flavorful food at relatively cheap prices (<10 euro). As an American mexican food is close to my heart and this satisfies that craving with delicious guac, huge burritos, and great chips. Just as good if not better than all burritos I've had in LA. One of the first places I hit when coming back from travel.
Recommended menu item: Pork Belly Burrito

Sushi-

Sasaya: Best sushi restaurant in the city. Floor and bar seating and outdoor seating in the summer this place has awesome atmosphere and good food. The best tuna Nigiri I've ever had and while pricey compared to most Berlin spots it is worth. Need reservation.
Recommended: Tuna Nigiri (& Chef Set)
Omoni: This restaurant serves both korean food and sushi, but I think the sushi and sashimi are better, with some solid options. I wouldn't recommend the salmon as I've been disappointed by this but they have good rolls and a good mix of other nigiri. This place is a tad overpriced in my eyes, but it is up there in quality (also best to get a reservation, although not as hard to get one as Sasaya).
Recommended: Kopenhagner roll. Don't get salmon nigiri, the below restaurant has it 2x better for .5 the price
Best Friends Sushi: This restaurant is not as expensive as the above two, but is pretty close in quality (surpasses them with their awesome salmon Nigiri, especially Omoni). This is my go-to take away sushi place (although a tad expensive for that), and has some great special rolls. Also open late (12 am IIRC).
Recommended: Best Friends Special Roll

Ramen-

Cocolo [Rosenthaler Platz]: This ramen-bar in Rosenthaler is tight but delicious, with lines going out the door every time I've been it might be worth going to their larger location in X-Berg, but the quality difference is apparent in this one (namely the broth). This place has good ramen overall but is really known for their Tonkatsu and for good reason, it is super flavorful and I love it.
Recommended: Tonkatsu ramen with pork belly starter or gyoza
Takumi Nine: This recently-opened ramen shop has solid Miso ramen options, with tons of toppings if you are into that. Less awesome to cocolo but much closer to shonhauser makes it a good option, although it's in a really tiny place as it took over for an Okonomiyaki shop (that was pretty bad).
Recommended: Miso ramen w/ egg (non-Deluxe, too much toppings for me)

Other Asian food-

Kochu-Karu: Korean-Spanish fusion restaurant this place serves really solid food. Best bibimbap I've had in berlin (with hot stone bowl!) with some super good sharing appetizers. The spanish-korean fusion works well and this is definitely a sit-down fancyish place but is totally worth.
Recommended: Bibimbap, Kimchi pancakes with cheese (amazing), not desert :(.
Onkel Ho: Decent vietnamese place (sister restaurant of Best Friends Sushi) this place has good 'curry' dishes listed as specials on their chalkboard with sizable portions, good quality, and decent prices. Good takeaway place or good place to stay in, sit on the ground, and enjoy some teas. Pho was disappointing though, would definitely go with the special menu.
Recommended: Special #2 (they are always roughly the same)
Royals & Rice [Rosenthaler Platz]: Solid vietnamese place that has a better set up menu than Onkel Ho (but farther away T_T). Bao burger is hyped if you are into that, has some decent cocktails and a back porch making it pretty cool for summer hangouts.
Recommended: Salmon & Wok Vegetables
Yum Cha Heroes [Rosenthaler Platz]: Dumpling place that serves authentic dumplings as well as their own brand of Yum Cha dumplings. I prefer the non-authentic ones as they have some interesting meat-spice combinations. Overall a little pricey vs amount of food (most dumpling places are), but the best place if I am looking for dumplings.
Recommended: Colored Yum Cha dumpings (except the prawns one, disappointing :)

European-

Der Fischladen: Probably my 2nd favorite restaurant on this list, this fish place has a counter you can buy fish for home, you can get the best fish n chips I've ever had (for pretty cheap), or get some really nice sit-down restaurant food with great seafood pasta. This is my go-to place to show visitors my neighborhood.
Recommended: Fish n Chips (small, better batter-to-fish ratio)
Asteria: Greek place that is perfect for large parties. They serve you Ouzo when you arrive and keep refilling, with large portions of food and great service for pretty cheap this place is the best to go with a large group for cheap (also big dining room). This place was under construction last time I passed it though, so may be temporarily closed.
Recommended: Shredded lamb meat with sauce (Forget what it's called)
Suppe & Salat: A great lunch place I would go to more if it wasn't so far away from me, this place has tasty salads that are more than just lettuce, and a cafe-style atmosphere that I could see just chilling here for hours.
Recommended: Pick a salad with fruit and nuts !
Mauerpark: Not the best or most elegant food, but if I'm craving sausages or belgian fries or other hand-held food there's a sunday market at Mauerpark that fills that street-food craving.
(note: havn't really found good german food in this area, let me know if you know something I don't)

Breakfast/Brunch-

Le Midi: A super cute small place with delightful outdoor seating in the summer this place is my favorite breakfast place. The fruits are super fresh, the meats and cheeses are strong, the bread is warm, the egg is soft, and the jams are the best part. This place made me fall in love with european breakfast. Also while I don't drink coffee people have loved it here.
Recommended: the Le Midi, meat/cheese/fruit platter (it's awesome).
Cafe Krone: While the menu isn't as minimalist as Le Midi, this place has unique options that have been delicious. Pancakes and egg dishes for those who want hot-food, this place has a wider selection as Le Midi, but I don't favor the cheese or fruit selection as much.
Recommended: The pancakes
(some other quick options, Butter is a good place for larger parties, but not as good as le midi. My favorite bakery has been: Konditorei Krautzig, though it still leaves me with some left to be desired. If you know good bakeries throughout berlin LMK)

Burgers-

The Bird: You can't talk burgers without this renown "NY style" burger joint near Mauer Park. With a ton of "Steak Quality" beef, english muffin style buns, american beers, and really spicy wings this place is definitely worth a visit. While as an american I question it's 'authenticity' it is still delicious. Reservation helpful.
Recommended: Da Birdhouse is large but my favorite by far. Their 1-patty burgers don't get enough browning.
MaMF: There are a lot of other burger places in this area (Yellow Burgermanufaktur, Spreegold, Stargarder Burger, etc.) and I've been to all of them and this little stall under the U-Bahn is my favorite, with what I think is the best burgers (under 10 euro), and cheaper than most. However, their fries are the real killer, with belgian-style fries with 20 different homemade sauces, they are worth the visit alone.
Recommended: MaMF Cheeseburger, Fries with Gorgonzola sauce.
Note: when I first moved here I hated the burgers here. But I have been coming around to them, idk if my tastes have changed or they got better. Probably the former.

Pizza-

Rocca Pizza: I miss American pizza a lot, however it isn’t as bitter with Rocca pizza, a thin-crust by the slice (or whole pizza) place, this place is the identity of European pizza to me. 1000x better than call-a-pizza, the Margherita pizza alone is worth your time with loads of cheese, a crisp thin crust, and light sauce.
Recommended: Prosciutto & Ricola slices, pretty salty but it is amazing with the crispy Prosciutto, thin crust, and Ricola to add some balance.
Standard Serious Pizza: A bit far from shonhauser this place serves Neapolitan style pizza, with puffy crust around the edges and blotches of mozzarella cheese. This place is super hipster and always crowded. Best Neapolitan pizza I’ve had in Berlin, but it doesn’t have much competition. Reservation Helpful
Recommended: Margherita
If you guys know of any American style pizza (thicker crust, extra cheesy with real PEPPERONI), let me know

American Food-

Salt and Bone: A nice gastro-pub style restaurant this place has good beers and rich food (a bit confused of a menu imo, with things like pumpkin potato-skins and some odd tacos) however it turned out well and would be a great place to go if you want that mix of beers and food.
Recommended: Ribs or some over the top meat dish
Mogg & Melzer [Rosenthaler Platz]: A Jewish deli style restaurant I’m not in love with this place but have gotten good reception from the people I’ve taken there, and there isn’t many places like this in Berlin. Great place for lunch.
Recommended: Pastrami sandwich, PICKLES (they were awesome).

Eis-

Out of all the things here one of the things I love most about Berlin is the eis. There are ice cream stands every 2 blocks and they are super cheap making a night stroll in the summer feel so nice. As such I'm pretty stringent on this list as I hold it dear to my identity of Berlin.
Hokey Pokey Patisserie: this is my favorite ice cream shop in the world. I went back to one of my favorites recently (bi-rite creamery in SF) and it didn't compare at all. I've had some better ice cream but not at a stand and not as consistent as this place. The lines get sometimes crazy but this place is worth it! I kinda doubt that this is the best Berlin has to offer, but I haven't found a better one yet (especially in this neighborhood).
Recommended: chocolate (as boring as it sounds it is my favorite), hokey pokey (sweet and soft), pistachio, or the combo of mango and raspberry scoops.
Georgio Lombardi [Rosenthaler Platz]: this is gelato not ice cream but it is great and another place I'll always hit if i have the time / room. Great inside location if it is cold out too (and doesn't get too busy). My favorite gelato I've had outside my trip to Italy.
Recommended: fruit flavored, melon, mango, strawberry. In combination they are amazing!

Travel ranking:

Now, most people don't live in Schönhauser alle and thus this food guide can be misleading, so if you want to travel to this neighborhood to enjoy some of the great food I've created ones that are best worth traveling from other parts of the city for (this skews towards sit-down type restaurants, as it would be kinda silly to travel 30 min for take-away type food)
Top Tier Travel Destinations: Kochu-Karu, The Bird, Sasaya (these are best with reservations and are a bit pricier) Second Tier: Maria Bonita, Cocolo, Hokey Pokey, Le Midi (or Cafe Krone on a Sunday because it's next to Mauer Park) Third Tier: Der Fischladen, Asteria, Standard Pizza.
Please let me know if you think anything is missing or if you have recommendations for me :D - obviously always looking to try different places!
Edit I made a google map here of all these locations: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sw_o2pX7uvT8uUyCjDVUoxGMVQE&usp=sharing .. This isn't as good as the map making tech... but alas.

A Comprehensive Review of the Reverse-Sear Technique for Steaks

Hi, I wrote a thing that encompasses almost everything I know about reverse-searing. I hope someone finds it helpful! Apologies for the academic style of writing. It is, unfortunately, my default.

It is widely regarded that reverse-searing steaks is a fantastic method of cooking steaks. This methods consists of two steps: bringing the steak up to the desired level of doneness at low temperature in the oven and then searing on a ripping hot cast-iron pan. This is in contrast to the traditional method of searing the steak in the pan first and finishing in the oven.
This article has several goals. The first of which is to synthezise all I have read about reverse searing steaks, which is largely derived from Serious Eat’s excellent article on the subject. Second, I will give a step-by-step guide on what I consider to be the ideal way to reverse-sear steaks. Third, I will attempt to explain the science and reasoning behind each step. Finally, I will identify areas where my knowledge is insufficient and expose unresolved questions in the field.
1) 12–24 hrs before cooking — season steaks on all sides with more salt than you think you need and a light coating of baking soda on all sides. Leave uncovered in the fridge.
When you salt a steak, you draw tasty juices out of the steak via osmotic pressure. To keep the juices in the final dish, you therefore either need to salt immediately before cooking (so that the juices don’t have time to diffuse out), or well before cooking (so that the juices have time to diffuse out and then be reabsorbed). It is in general true in cooking that when you salt something, you dry it out.
Baking soda is added because it is alkaline, the opposite of acidic. This will make the crust on the steak form faster when searing via the Maillard reaction. Every cuisine in the world has incorporated techniques to maximize the amount of stuff that undergoes the Maillard reaction, because the products of the Maillard reaction taste so good (think: the effect of egg wash on pastry, the dolsat in dolsat bibimbap, crispy fish skin in Japanese breakfast). Good conditions for the Maillard reaction are: a hot, dry, and alkaline environment in the presence of fat. The baking soda creates an alkaline environment (but don’t go overboard as baking soda is bitter). Oil in the pan and on the steaks provides the fat. Leaving the steak in the fridge uncovered overnight makes it very dry. Our ripping hot skillet at the end of this makes it hot. Therefore, a lot of the steps we take are to make the Maillard reaction happen as fast as possible.
Do not worry about taking the steak out of the refrigerator hours in advance of cooking. You will never get the steak up to room temperature in a reasonable amount of time. If you took a steak out of the fridge 5 hours in advance of cooking, the center of the steak likely will have risen only by ~2 degrees F, hardly worth the time.
2) Preheat oven to 200–250 degrees.
The ideal steak is a uniform temperature to done-ness in the middle, with as thin of a crust as possible on the outside. We’ve broken our cooking method into 2 different pieces each with a different goal:
a) to bring the whole steak up to doneness with as little of a temperature gradient as possible
b) create the crust on the steak via the Maillard reaction with as little heat as possible transferring to the center.
(a) is accomplished by cooking the steak on as gentle a heat as possible to minimize temperature gradients and maximize control over the done-ness of the steak.
(b) is accomplished with a ripping hot, oiled skillet
Final internal temperatures for doneness:
Rare: 120 F
Medium rare: 130 F
Medium: 140 F
Medium well: 150 F
Well: 160 F
The only acceptable done-nesses are rare, medium rare, and on rare occasions (e.g. extremely fatty steaks like wagyu), medium. Otherwise, at higher temperatures the parts of the steak that have the beef-y flavor break down. The reason that it’s okay to go to medium for fatty steaks is that it’s more important to render all the fat properly so there are no chewy bits. Also, the fat itself will impart tons of flavor. The risk of food poisoning is very, very low because the bad stuff only exists on the outside of the steak, and not the inside. The bad stuff will be killed in the sear.
To understand why low temperatures are necessary, we need to go into the science of heat transfer. What physical mechanisms transfer energy from the oven to food to raise its temperature, and what influences how long they take? Fortunately for you, there is only one mechanism that is important for reverse searing steaks: conduction. Don’t turn on your convection oven otherwise there will be 2 mechanisms. I also think that convection ovens are the wrong choice for this method because they transfer heat differently, in a way I’m guessing is disadvantageous for steaks.
Conduction is also the simplest mechanism to understand: when something hot touches something cold, the hot thing transfers energy to the cold thing. The next question is how long does the hot thing raise the temperature of the cold thing? The answer to this question depends on:
a) how much hotter the hot thing is than the cold thing
b) how dense the hot thing is relative to the cold thing
c) how big the hot thing and the cold thing are
d) how much contact the hot thing and the cold thing have
e) what the thermal diffusivity of each material is (some materials are better at transferring heat than others)
A bit more detail:
a) When your hand touches the burning hot stove, your hand gets real hot real quickly and it hurts. But, when something that’s room temperature is left in a room at the same temperature, it does not heat up or cool down.
b) Water is about 1000x as dense as air, and thus transfers heat much more efficiently than air. This is why you can run all day in 55 F weather, but when swimming in 55 F water, you have to worry about hypothermia: the water cools down your body temperature much faster than your body can create heat. This is also why when you boil things they cook much quicker than when you bake them.
c) One ice cube will not lower the temperature of a big bowl of water very much, but one ice cube will have a significant effect on the temperature of a teaspoon of water.
d) If there is not much surface contact between the hot thing and the cold thing, not as much energy will diffuse from the hot thing to the cold thing. Think pan-frying vs baking. You generally don’t need to flip things when you bake them, because the whole surface of the thing being baked is the same temperature. However, when pan frying, if you did not move the food around, it would take a really long time for the food to be fully cooked and one side would burn.
e) Some materials are better at transferring heat than others. You insulate your house with a material that does not conduct heat very well, keeping the outside cold and the inside warm. However, metal is very good at transferring heat. This is why when you have a pot with a metal handle, you generally need to increase its surface area so that it can cool faster (see (d)) and not burn your hand when you touch it.
When bringing our steak up to temperature, we are going to think about all of these factors in order to achieve as small of a temperature gradient inside the steak as possible in the baking stage.
Armed with our knowledge of conduction, we need to consider the different mediums through which heat is transferred to our steak:
i) The hot air inside the oven
ii) The surface that the steak is sitting on
iii) The steak itself
More detail:
i) The air inside the oven is not very dense, and it only has access to the outside of the steak. It is going to be the most important factor in determining the temperature of the outer parts of the steak.
ii) In general, objects that you put in the oven to cook with are metal, which is a very good conductor of heat. This is bad, because if too much of the steak has contact with metal, that will be the most important factor in determining the temperature of the bottom of the steak. It will raise the temperature of the bottom of the steak much faster than the rest of the steak, creating a large temperature gradient, the opposite of what we want.
We can minimize the effect of the surface the steak is placed on by minimizing the amount of metal that it is touching and by insulating the steak from the metal. This means placing it on a wire cooling rack, with parchment paper in between the steak and the cooling rack. While metal is a very good conductor of heat, parchment paper is not. If we take these steps, the temperature of the air is now the most important thing in determining the temperature of the bottom of the steak.
iii) While the air in the oven cooks the outside of the steak, the outside of the steak is what cooks the inside of the steak. Therefore, in order to produce a uniform temperature within the steak after baking, the rate of heat transferred by the air to the outside of the steak needs to be the same as the rate of heat transferred from the outside of the steak to the inside of the steak. This is achieved at low temperatures. If the temperature is too high, the outside’s temperature will rise much faster than the temperature of the middle of the steak, creating a large temperature gradient which we’ve already said is bad. However, given a large amount of time, it is not possible for the temperature to be too low (as long as the oven temperature is above the target internal temperature of the steak). This is also why sous vide is a good method for cooking steaks. However, sous vide introduces moisture to the surface of the steaks, which makes it harder for the Maillard reaction to occur, which is why I think reverse searing is better.
This is also the reason why reverse searing works best for thick steaks, and is more difficult for thin steaks. The oven makes it easy to regulate the flow of heat from the environment (the air in the oven) to the outside of the steak and match it to the rate of heat transfer from the outside of the steak to the inside of the steak.
You’re going to need a longer cooking time to get the middle of a thick steak up to temperature no matter what you do. But, if you cook a thick steak in a pan or grill instead of the oven, you’re going to overcook the outside. However, for a thin steak there is not as big of a boundary between the outside of the steak and the inside of the steak, so you are more free to apply high heat to the outside from the get-go and it will diffuse to the middle in a much shorter amount of time. I find that at ~1" thick is about where reverse searing starts to become advantageous.
3) Place parchment paper on a metal cooling rack. Place steaks on the parchment paper. Place cooling rack with parchment paper and steaks into the oven.
See the explanation of (ii) for why we are doing this step. Through testing with a thermometer, I have found that the metal cooling rack and parchment paper are not sufficient in reducing the importance of the thing the steak is placed on. The bottom of the steak still gets hotter than the top a bit quicker. So every once in a while, I’ll flip the steaks while they’re in the oven (when I see a temperature gradient forming).
Cook the steaks until the middle is ~5 degrees below your target internal temperature. Personally, I like to air on the side of caution and do more like 10 degrees below target since I’m more okay with a rare steak than a medium steak and I don’t completely understand the transfer of heat after this step.
4) Pull the steaks out of the oven when the middle has reached the proper temperature and let them rest until the whole steak is below 120 F.
Resting meat is important to retain the juices of the meat inside the meat when you cut it open. Serious eats has a great article about this that I am not going to do better than.
In summary:
120 F is the magic temperature at which the meat can hold on to its juices when you cut it open. The juices are tasty and we like them. Therefore, before serving, the whole steak should be below 120 F.
There is also the question of whether to rest the meat before or after searing. I prefer to rest before searing, partially for the reasons outlined below, and partially because it’s the consensus of the reverse searing community. However, I don’t think resting before or after searing makes a huge difference. I prefer to rest before searing because:
i) I like to eat a steak when the outside is hot. Even though the middle will be <120 F, I like the mouthfeel of a hot steak. So, I don’t really want to give the steak a lot of time to cool down after searing.
ii) Not enough heat is transferred to the middle during searing the justify a second rest, so you’re not doubling your work.
iii) You give carry-over cooking enough time to raise the internal temperature of the steak to the target temperature.
To expand on this last point, we need to think about heat transfer again. The reason we took the steak out of the oven before it reached its target temperature is because there are two more steps where steak has the potential to have its temperature raised: searing (for rare steaks) and carry-over cooking during resting.
Carry-over cooking happens when the outside of the steak is at a higher temperature than the inside of the steak. The heat from the outside of the steak diffuses to the inside of the steak and raises its temperature, even though you’ve already removed it from the oven! Therefore, the inside of your steak can still cook even while its resting. This is why you pull it out before it reaches the target temperature.
Or so the theory goes. I have found that my method (parchment paper + flipping are my innovations) of reverse searing is so successful in cooking the meat evenly that carry-over cooking is not significant. I have monitored the temperature of my steaks extensively while resting and have not seen a significant increase in temperature of the middle while resting. However, more data is needed to confirm this result.
5) Season the steak with a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper
First, freshly ground pepper is essential. It has a far superior taste to pre-ground pepper.
There is some debate within the community about when to add pepper. Some claim that it is best to add pepper after searing, as subjecting the pepper to such high heat can cause it to burn and produce bitter flavors. However, steak au poivre exploits the high heat from the sear to toast the pepper and accentuate its flavor. Personally, I have never had problems with pepper burning so I opt to add it now and serve the steak as quickly as possible after searing. I do not add it before the rest because I find pepper to be messy and don’t want to deal with it before now.
6) Think about searing the steak while heating up a cast iron pan to ~500 F (at least 20 minutes) with a high smoke point oil inside. Can be done in advance.
Before actually searing the steak, it is important to prepare yourself for what is about to happen. It will happen very quickly and you will need to react fast.
We have already achieved goal (a): to bring the whole steak up to doneness with as little of a temperature gradient as possible.
Now we need goal (b): create the crust on the steak via the Maillard reaction with as little heat as possible transferring to the center.
I have already explained how we have created the perfect environment for the Maillard reaction to occur: baking soda for an alkaline environment, we dried it out in the fridge, we are cooking the steak in its own fat and another oil, and we are cooking it in a ripping hot pan.
What I have not explained is the transfer of heat in this step. Remember, our goal is the char the outside without cooking the middle.
First, we need a very long time to heat up the pan because even though cast iron is made of metal which should be a very good conductor of heat, but it’s not that great relative to other metals. Furthermore, cast iron pans are thick, which means there is a lot more mass that needs to be heated up. This all translates to needing a long time to get cast iron to temperature. I recommend bringing it to temperature gradually: to a medium heat first, and then slowly to ripping hot. By bringing the pan to a medium heat first, this allows you to control when the pan gets up to temperature. It will be much easier to bring it up to high heat exactly when you want to. This can be done while the steak is in the oven and resting. Right before you start searing, you want the oil to be close to, but slightly below, its smoke point. A little bit of smoke from the oil is okay, but too much and your pan is too hot and when you put the steak in your house will get INCREDIBLY smoky).
We need a very high heat to sear not only for the Maillard reaction, but (counter-intuitively) also to avoid cooking the middle. Cooking at a high heat allows the Maillard reaction to happen quickly, which reduces the total time we need to sear, which means that heat does not have time to transfer from the outside of the steak to the middle of the steak.
However, there will always be a (hopefully) small part of the outside of the steak that is well-done. We want this band of well-done to be as small and even as possible. To achieve even-ness, we need to move the steak a lot: flipping every 10–20 seconds until the entire outside of the steak looks like this.
Do not forget about the sides of the steak. To maximize the amount of Maillard-y goodness, you want ALL sides undergo the Maillard reaction. This is the reason that cast iron is superior to the grill. On the grill, only the part that touches the grate undergoes the Maillard reaction. Also, on many cuts of steak there is a band of fat on one side. Searing this side well will render the fat on this side and make it tasty, not chewy. I recommend starting the sear with the sides so that you can properly render this piece of fat and so that you don’t forget about them.
Now we need to talk about the choice of oil we are cooking our steak in. I specified earlier to use a high smoke point oil (ideally avocado). Here is a list of oils and their smoke points. The smoke point of the oil you use sets the upper limit of how hot your pan can get. We want our pan as hot as possible (at least, as hot as can be produced in an average kitchen) in order get the thinnest band of well-done as possible. Therefore, we want to choose the oil with the highest smoke point possible.
There is the potential that your humble abode will get very smoky when you add the steak. The best way to prevent this is to not use oil. However, I have not completely characterized the effect of oil vs cooking it in its own fat. I have achieved a good sear with a fatty cut of steak (ribeye cap) without oil, but I am not sure if this result can be generalized to leaner cuts. Further study is required.
7) Sear ALL sides of the steak, flipping every 10–20 seconds until a sufficient Maillard reaction has occurred.
You know the oil is at sufficient temperature when you see a little bit of smoke. If you do not use oil, you know you have the right temperature when you feel a large amount of heat radiating from the pan when you place your hand near it.
You read and understand the previous section and are ready to execute the plan. Good luck.
8) Serve & enjoy the steak!
You should now have a wonderful steak! Serve immediately and feast like royalty.
9) Future Work
It is popular to baste steaks with butter and herbs to impart their flavor to the steaks. I have not had much success in achieving the butter and herb flavor, but do not doubt that it is possible. It is also said that butter helps promote the Maillard reaction, but I find that the steps we have taken already to be sufficient. Butter should be added close to the end of searing so that it does not burn before the steak is done. Unclarified butter has a much, much lower smoke point than the temperature of the pan and will burn very quickly.
Sauce can enhance and compliment the flavor of steaks. A discussion of sauces on steak is beyond the scope of this work.
I think it is worth experimenting with how important oil is for the Maillard reaction in steaks. If it is important, we must ask the question about whether it is only important for certain cuts. It is possible that it is more important for leaner cuts than fattier cuts.
There is also the question on when to add pepper. It would be interesting to know how long it takes for pepper to become bitter at different temperatures, and how to accentuate its flavors through searing.
This work has raised questions about the importance of carry-over cooking and at what temperature to pull your steak out of the oven. A well designed experiment connecting the size of the temperature gradient from the outside of the steak to the inside of the steak to the final internal temperature of the steak that can be explained predicted with a model of heat transfer would be ideal.

what is bibimbap sauce made of video

Bibimbap is a traditional Korean dish comprised of rice, a mixture of vegetables, an egg, and sometimes meat, often served in a hot stone bowl. It’s typically served with sauce, my favorite being Gochujang. Bibimbap is a bowl of steamed rice served with various vegetables (fresh or sautéed), some protein (red meat, chicken, tuna or tofu) and the sauce. To eat, you first mix all the ingredients with a spoon thoroughly. I have two bibimbap recipes here if you want to see them visually. Bibimbap and Dolsot bibimbap The essential ingredient in Bibimbap Sauce is Gochujang, an intense flavoured spicy miso paste that’s key to Korean cooking. Find it at Asian grocery stores (it’s cheap, ~$2.50, and lasts for ages), at some Woolworths stores (Australia), and here it is on Amazon Australia, US, Canada and UK. Skip to the recipe Bibimbap - Korean mixed rice. Can be made in just 20-30 minutes using simple components. Variety of components to choose from to prepare bibimbap, from traditional to simply tasty that work well, with detailed instructions and explanations. For the bibimbap sauce: Mix together all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl until smooth and set aside. For the toppings: Mix together the first 6 ingredients in a small bowl to make the seasoning sauce. Set aside by the stove. Use this recipe to make arguably the best known Korean dish around the world: bibimbap. What makes this meal stand out? Not only is it a Korean classic, but it's also delicious, gorgeous on the plate, and easily tweaked for different palates and spice levels.That means if you're a typical American or Westerner who can't handle foods that are extremely spicy, homemade bibimbap is the dish for ... The main ingredient is gochujang (or kochujang) fermented red pepper paste, a staple in Korean cooking. This only takes a couple of minutes to make. It's simply a matter of whisking together the ingredients, and it's ready to serve. Skip the photos - Go straight to the recipe Bibimbap (비빔밥) which translates to "mixed rice" is a Korean dish that consist of white rice, raw egg, sautéed seasoned vegetables, sliced meat, chili pepper paste, and soy sauce or salty bean paste. Bibimbap is also really easy to make and looks pretty cool when you're done - you might want to take a picture! Bibimbap sauce. The main ingredient for the sauce is gochujang, Korean fermented red pepper paste, a staple in Korean cooking. My delicious bibimbap sauce only takes a minute to make by simply mixing together gochujang, sesame oil, water and sugar. More bibimbap recipes. Tofu Bibimbap – vegan Spring Bibimbap with Canned Tuna Bibimbap – it’s one of Korea’s most iconic dishes! And one of my top-3, all-time favorite foods (healthy, filling but light-on-the-stomach). Before we start, let’s start with the pronunciation of bibimbap. I hear too many TV personalities from the West butchering the word. It’s pronounced bee-beem-bap. (Say it three times aloud - so you can order it confidently in Korean and get ...

Biggest and Best Bibimbap Recipe Judy Joo Cooking Channel

what is bibimbap sauce made of

what is bibimbap sauce made of - win

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