[cooking] Tteokbokki and Bibimbap

Made my semi-annual pilgrimage to Hmart with my mom this past weekend. Usually we go to the food court for lunch and then do our grocery shopping. This time, I wanted to stop by the liquor store next to Hmart first, to pick up soju which I haven't had since I visited Korea years ago and haven't been able to get in the states since. I think this liquor store must have started carrying it once they built Hmart and every Korean person in New England started going there to shop. This place had a good selection of different types of Korean spirits (and a excellent beer selection- will need to browse longer next time). My mom and I bought a healthy variety.

Then on to Hmart. Food court for lunch (#kimchijjigae4life). Then shopping. I did not buy any Vermont Curry:



Vermont. Curry. I've seen it at Hmart before but this was an impressive end-of-aisle display. Vermont Curry in three levels of spiciness. Just Hungry has a very erudite explanation on why this popular Japanese curry is called what it is. I've not ever had a desire to try it- sweet and mild curries are not for me.

I made sure to buy all the fixings to make tteokbokki at home. These spicy rice cakes are actually not one of my most favorite Korean dishes to eat but I wanted to make it for a friend. She's just joined Blue Apron and after I checked out the menus online, I was surprised to see two weeks of tteok recipes (BA must have gotten a great deal on wholesale rice cakes!). Here's what I made at home for us to try:



We picked at it as an appetizer but I still feel "meh" about it. I love bibimbap more and it takes virtually zero effort to make at home when I buy all the pickled vegetables premade at Hmart. All I had to do was cook the rice and fry some eggs. Then put it all in a dish:



By this time I was three sheets to the wind and was just impressed everything made it into the bowl.