Tag: International Food

Taste Testing Korean Snacks with a Couple of Ringers! (Part One)

The Girl attends a school with kids from all corners of the globe. Actually, pretty much all schools in the greater Southern California area fit this description. For tonight’s new adventure, tasting Korean snack foods, we conscripted two great kids (I can call 18-year-olds “kids” since I have 30 years on them).IMG_6519 (1)

  • Joseph, from South Korea, classmate and friend of The Girl for several years, our native expert
  • The Boyfriend, who lived in Asia for four years, and totally on board with steering us toward his favorites

I bought five packages of snacks last week. It took the boys all of TWO seconds to take me up on my offer to drive back to our local H Mart to make sure we covered all of their favorites. Now we were up to over twenty, savory and sweet- not counting the soft drinks and ice cream the boys were excited for us to try.

The Summaries
The kids were fried after Week #1 of A.P. Exams, so we kept K-Pop going on Pandora and snacked away for three hours and came up with the following:

IMG_6527“Shrimp Crackers” from the boys: “Aaaaahhh!!! What did they do to our favorite childhood snack?!? Wait! By the 3rd bite it is starting to taste right.” We newbies thought they were pretty good.

IMG_6530“O!Karto” Italian Gratin flavor… we dug ’em. The favorite of The Boyfriend. good!

IMG_6532“Crab Chips” Meh. Unanimous. Tasted better than they smelled.

IMG_6534“Onion Rings” Like wheat based Funyons. Good, but not as good as King Funyuns.

IMG_6536“Tako Snacks” Thought I would slip octopus flavored chips past my son. The Boy resisted. Although they tasted better than they smelled, all these rated was another “meh.”

IMG_6539“Gg-Ggol-Corn” Joseph says this is his best attempt at Anglo spelling of Korean… A whole lot like Bugles, but WAY less salty. Very good!

Next post- Sweet snacks and beverages!! Holy cow, this was fun!

Be Flexible- It Could Mean You Get Korean BBQ!

Tonight I had The Family all ready to be forced to come along with me to eat at the vegan restaurant that I tried last month, The Loving Hut.

It was closed. The Boy fairly rejoiced.

He was positively elated when we decided to try the Korean BBQ place nearby. “Because, MEAT, Mom!” was his reason. Actually, this is a restaurant we had been wanting to try for about five years. Sometimes it is hard to get out of your sushi rut, you know?

Spicy salad dressing!
Spicy salad dressing!
About eight side dishes...
About eight side dishes…

Shozen Korean BBQ was really delicious, with very helpful servers who are ready to offer all the aid newbies like us need… so we understand what we are doing… so we don’t burn down the joint cooking the bacon. Yes, that is bacon on the meat platter!

The meats we had cooking were brisket, rib eye, tongue (delicious!), chicken, and uncured, unsmoked bacon… and maybe some more. I can’t remember. I’m still in a meat coma. Even though I ate all my salad, the rice, and nearly my entire bowl of Korean Miso soup, that was still a lot of meat. Korean Miso soup at Shozen has several vegetables, meat and large tofu chunks. The miso base was different than Japanese miso soup, too. I wonder if they use red miso? Or maybe miso without the dashi stock? I’ve got to ask someone now… I dig on international foods and their ingredients, if you can’t tell.

The other side dishes included a bean sprout salad, scallion pancakes, broccoli and tofu, kimchi, a cabbage and carrot salad, potato salad (that one surprised me), and a rocking green salad with a home made dressing- spicy, but incredibly delicious. Shozen also has a couple of dipping sauces for your meats, a soy sauce/jalepeño sauce and another of sesame oil with salt and pepper. Both added a nice dash of flavor to the meats that cook on the table top right in front of you.

Shozen Korean BBQ- I highly recommend it.