On next week's episode...

TV listings and previews should always include mentions of any food items that may feature prominently. That way I won't have to run all the way out to H-Mart to get ingredients in order to make it. I was watching "Heroes," which, unlike the American show of the same name, is a show that involves getting a bunch of female idols together, then putting them on teams based on a survey of their popularity, then having the unpopular team and the popular team compete against each other in various challenges. It's freaking fantastic. Also it's full of some pretty hot women, and last week they cooked. Dduk bbok gi is simple, street-foodish, and satisfying. It's got chewy rice cakes simmered in a spicy sauce with some other stuff. I like fish cake and ramen noodles, the addition of which make it Ra-bok-gi. One of the super-hot idols who is a crazy good dancer was able to make dduk bok gi pretty impressively. If only her recipe didn't contain so much corn syrup, she'd be my ideal woman. An emergent trip to H-mart became necessary, as nothing else would've done the trick for dinner.

One thing I noticed when I got to H-Mart was that it's become overrun with white people. There's always the odd non-minority shopping in H-Mart, but this was the first time the ratio was actually skewing toward the pigment-challenged. I actually overheard the following:
"Why are there so many Mexican items in a Chinese grocery?" This was said in a tone of voice that revealed the strain to politically correcticize her underlying question which I imagine was something along the lines of "I wonder if all these Mexicans were hired to shop for stuff in this ching-chong slanty-eyed people store?" Dammit white people! Y'all got Whole Foods and the Oriental Food shelf at Kroger. Let us Koreans (and Mexicans) shop in peace!

I picked up everything I needed and got to work cooking up some anchovy broth. The dduk was fresh...and this can lead to mushy meltdown, so I oven toasted it briefly (plus that makes it delicious).


The other stuff that goes in:


I'm an anti-breaker when it comes to ramen noodles. There's absolutely no reason to do it, except when making ra-bok-gi, so that the noodles distribute a bit more evenly. Some people put the soup powder packet in their sauce, but I didn't need the MSG. I used soy sauce, mirin, sugar, korean red pepper powder, and red chili paste.


In case you can't read Korean. I got level 4 spicy chili paste. But it bothers me, knowing that there's a higher spice level out there that I couldn't get my hands on. Once the sauce is ready it's pretty much a matter of just mixing everything else (boil the noodles first) in, letting it cook down for a bit, and eating it.


It was spicy enough to make me cough on the first few bites, was probably like a billion carbs, and completely devoid of any nutritional value...in other words delicious. I'm sure it would be much more delicious if I had a better camera to take pictures of it with...Samsung NX10 or Sony alpha Nex 5? Decisions decisions, and I'd only have to sell my body on the street about 12-15 times in order to afford one.