Ladies who lunch

I, like many others, have to eat lunch in the middle of the workday, away from my home, and there's a lot of temptation out there--the biggest of which is right outside our front door.  A cute, mom and pop sandwich shop (literally owned by a mom and a pop) is right across the street from my office and they sell the most amazing soups, falafel wraps, specials of the day, and the best chicken caesar salad one could ever hope for. I like to grab a paper across the street and pop my head in to see the daily specials, which are usually some sort of tribute to Americana fare--my favorite and my vice.  The garde manger cook, Aldo, says hi and I say hi back.  He knows my vices, my orders, and my name because I go there a lot and that's the kind of place JB's is. 

Being dedicated to this new way of eating (notice how I am abstaining from using the word diet), I shop for lunch a lot less and haven't eaten at JB's since September.  And, at $8 a meal, I know it's for the better in more ways than one.

Korean food is nutrient dense and it's essentially more bang for your buck. Preparing it at home makes it that much more affordable to get through life, so bringing in the lunch from home is a daily must.  To get an idea of what Korean food is all about, I typed into Google "Korean Food 101" and found an eponymous blog that was pretty helpful. Also helpful is this terminology guide. Check them out!

Going back to the questions I asked my mom when I started this blog, here's how she answered question 3.

What do you typically eat during the week?

1. 보리밥, 현미밥
2. 된장찌개 (두부, 호박, 파, 양파), 김치 찌개
3. 닭 볶음 (닭, 감자, 간장으로 볶은것)
4. 돼지고기 볶음
5. 상추, 김
6. 생선 구이
Weekend lunch - 비빔 국수, 냉면, 짜장면, 짬뽕

--

1. Rice mixed with barley or brown rice

2. Deung jang jigae (tofu, squash, spring onion, onion) or kimchee jigae
3. Chicken fried rice (chicken, potato, sauteed with soy sauce)
4. Pork fried rice
5. Lettuce, nori
6. Grilled fish (mackerel, croaker - pan fry or grill with salt)

Weekend Lunch (spicy mixed cold noodles, cold buckwheat noodles, black bean noodles, spicy seafood noodles).

I realize that my mom's pattern is to eat rice during the week and noodles on the weekend. It makes sense--rice travels well and loves the microwave. She can make a large pot of rice that can be easily stored in the fridge or freezer and portioned out ahead of time for easy distribution.

Noodles, however, are finicky and require extra prep as well as extra steps to store them properly. As much as I love noodles, I have been using our new rice cooker to our advantage to eat more rice during the week.  

Fried rice is easy and goes a long way. But if we have meat, kimchee and other ban chans from the Korean grocery store, I can have an awesome lunch with a lot of variety. Here's a Sunday lunch Rion and I recently had. Deung jang jigae, short ribs, rice (using the last of the white rice), kimchee, anchovies, pickled seaweed, and black turtle beans.

And the leftovers? To the office Monday morning, of course.

Rice Rice Baby

It's been awhile and a lot has happened!

Rion's sister had a baby boy, my mother came for a visit, and the San Francisco Giants won the World Series!  It's been a good month but now it's back to the blog.

My mother surprised me and Rion with how well prepared she was for this visit.  She was on a mission--to save us from white rice and educate us on the many other grains that we should eat.  This was a coup for Rion, who has been trying to get me off white rice since we met.  I insisted that since that's what I ate as a child, that's what we should eat now.  My mom says that this is my dad's fault.  I guess he was the big fan of white rice in my household growing up, which is why it was what we ate.  I can't say that I blame him but after tasting the other options out there, I'm happy to let go of this childhood memory in the name of good health.

We started experimenting with black rice, sweet rice, whole barley, and brown rice.  We are using black turtle beans in the mix as well and have come up with some solid results.  The reason our rice is looking so good is that my mom also graced us with a new pressure rice cooker, which really makes the rice puff to a smoother texture than it normally would in our old, regular cooker.

Thanks, Umma!

To prepare a good mix, I am using 1 cup of brown rice with 1 cup of either the sweet, black, or barley.  The half and half mixture colors the whole pot of rice but it's a pretty, earthy, dark purple.  All of these grains are found at Rainbow Grocery, in organic and in bulk.  The result is a delicious pot of rice that is so tasty, it could be eaten on its own--and I just can't say that about plain white rice.

Now there's no turning back.