Salvaging the Japchae

The MIL packed a box of japchae for us. I sighed. I'm not keen on packing food from her kitchen because it doesn't suit our tastebuds. If I'm visiting, it's only polite to eat whatever's on the table. But I'd rather not tapau. The food is cooked to the in-laws' preferences (not so much of dietary restrictions); our tastebuds are on the other end of the spectrum.

The ingredients in the japchae were plentiful. But it was missing loads of flavors because the helper had to cook it without black bean sauce and sesame oil. She only put honey, a little garlic and onions. What I couldn't salvage, was the tasteless beef. If those pieces were marinated, it was not discernible. There wasn't any hint of Shaoxing wine or soy! Ugh. I'm not the biggest fan of Korean food, generally. But it's food, so don't waste right? This box of japchae was salvageable. I could toss it in a bit of black bean sauce, sesame oil and soy and such. It wouldn't be difficult to plan out an easy menu to complement it.

Just so you know, I checked out 'Kingdom S1+S2'. I HIGHLY REGRETTED IT. The acting is not that bad, but script and storyline are terrible. I even hated the zombies. Ugh. 'Parasite' is a lot better. It's a wonderful effort, and I'm glad it reached out to closeted Hollywood. 'Crash Landing on You' belongs to a genre that I'll never watch. So I won't annoy myself beyond watching snippets on youtube, and the various commentary about it. Those are enough to make me roll eyes already. YUCKS. Korean dramas and its associated actors and celebrities, fashion and trends are totally not my cup of tea coffee.

We ate in for dinner the other night, and a few more dishes were added to the japchae. Ended up with a somewhat Korean meal with sticky brown rice. Hahaha. Made broccolini crisps with anchovies, black pepper and salt, and fried up pork bulgogi. Opened up a small tub of kimchi for the man. Our pseudo Korean menu turned out rather edible.