Did you know that the life span of a tongue cell is two weeks?
That's almost the life span of a craving, or a phase of wanting to eat one food. Weird, no?
Some weeks I will crave a smokey pad see iew. Some weeks I will crave green tea ice cream. Sometimes - like today - I will have a MAD honkering for something salty, fatty, and mildly bad for me - in this case, a chock full of buta kimchi.
Buta kimchi, or 'pork and kimchi stir fry' in English, is the love child of Chinese and Korean food that was born in Japan. It's really a simple dish, but its simplicity allows room for customization. You can find tons of variations through out the izakaya community, with different sauce recipes, some with gochujang, some with oyster sauce, some with even mayonnaise.
There is a problem with the current craving though: the best buta kimchi I've ever had was at Hoshi, in Santa Clara... Unfortunately, that's a little too far. And my favorite down here is from Kairaku-tei, in Tustin... But it is before pay day. Plus, Don just picked up a bucket of kimchi at the Japanese market.
So it's time to bust out the wok and turn the electric burners on high.
Buta Kimchi - serves 2
1/2 cup raw sliced pork (we want fatty. but not pork belly fatty)
1 clove garlic, chopped
A. 1 tbsp sake
A. 1 tsp oyster sauce
A. 2 tsp gochujang (Korean hot bean paste)
A. a dribble of sesame oil
A. 1/2 tsp mirin
2/3 cup kimchi
some oil
some chopped scallions.
1. Mix A together.
2. Heat the wok on high. When hot, pour some oil, throw in the garlic. Let it fry till it starts to smell good.
3. Throw in the pork, and stir fry so that the meat doesn't clump. When it changed color, throw in kimchi.
4. Stir fry until the pork looks fully cooked, and you see some brown.
5. Move all contents to one side, and then pour mix A into the empty side of the wok. Let it make a szzzzzz sound, and then stir fry to mix. Take off of heat.
6. Fill a bowl with rice till half full. Then dump on pork kimchi. Then nom vigorously, let's say, in five minutes.
Why is bad food sooooo delicious and tongue-happiness inducing??
But it's okay, I make up for it by eating (or attempting to) healthy while the sun is out.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my Gosh, it’s got gochujang AND fatty pork in it! I think i’m in love.
Nice blog you’ve got!
aw, thanks!
fatty pork in spicy rendition = t3h awesome.
heart buta kimchee
kat>> its sooooo good! so comforting.
i wish you were my mommy and made me bento everyday!
jenn> i wish MY mommy made me bento everyday! but alas, she's 300 miles away.
This is awesome! I love kimchi and it can't get better than when stirfried with pork. (I don't think it's that healthy – it's only a little bit of meat
)
In fact I liked it so much I linked to it as a recipe suggestion http://tellmewhatsfordinner.com/idea/puta-kimchi/
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