Sponsored Post: K-Food & CN Blue Video Plus My Kimchi Ramyun Omelette

Are you a fan of Korean food? Do you remember your first Korean food experience? Mine sent me back years ago when I was studying in Sydney. I lived with Korean flatmates, and one of them is an amazing cook. She introduced me to homemade Korean food. I remember the flat always smelling of kimchi as my flatmates made a huge batch and we always had our fridges full of them. Interestingly, I was not in love with Korean food in the beginning, I was probably not as adventurous an eater as I am now. The thing that really got me hooked was… Shin Ramyun instant noodles (well, of course – isn’t it the official international student food?). We always had boxes of ramyun to survive on a student budget, and I still eat them often - up until now :)

I love Korean food a lot more now – thanks to my obsession with Kpop & Kdramas. Anyone with me on this? Tell me I am not the only mad and obsessed ahjumma here. Whenever I see my idols slurping a bowl of ramyun… (I don’t wanna finish this sentence, can you finish it for me?)

Here’s a video of one of my favorite Kpop groups, CN Blue – promoting Korean food. My bias is Jung YongHwa – liked him since You Are Beautiful (I love rooting for the underdogs), and he looks so charming in this video – especially on 00:47 mark where he’s promoting Citron tea. Cuteee! Are you a CN Blue fan? Who’s your bias?

Apart from enjoying my ramyun as per the cooking instructions with a lot of sinful toppings, I also love turning it into an omelette.

Very easy and tasty. Perfect for breakfasts or cut into smaller portion as a snack. I added kimchi, spam, and cheese too. My favorite combo!

The perfect snack for watching more Kshows and Kdramas 

A cup of citron tea would be lovely too.

Enjoy!

“This post has been sponsored by Korean Department for Agriculture and Trade, but all thoughts are my own"

Spam, Mayo, Seaweed, Caramelized Shallot with Sticky Teriyaki Sauce Sandwich

I don't think I need to say much about this sinful treat.
Junk sandwich at its best!


Thickly cut spam, pan fried until it's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside...thick slather of kewpie mayo, caramelized shallot glazed in teriyaki sauce mixed with a bit of sugar until thickened and sticky, thick slices of fluffy buttery and cheesy bread, topped with crispy seaweed.


It's pure porn.

Sinful English Muffins Breakfast

How do you like your breakfast?
Healthy? Tasty? Powerful?
For me...I like mine sinful.

This is how I like my English muffins...
The savory one...

Buttered toasted english muffins, slathered with mayo, ketchup and Indonesian chilli sauce, filled with the layers of sinful junk...pan fried spam (crispy on the outside, soft and tasty on the inside), cheese, and fried egg, over easy, with yolk that's still runny.
Oh my!

As for the sweet one...

Buttered, toasted English muffins, slathered with peanut butter, jam, and drizzled with sweet condensed milk.

Generously.

For me, if this is not a good morning, I don't know what is :D

Canned Food Party

Celebrating our love for canned food, a few close friends and I decided to have a canned food party, or was it actually my excuse for serving my guests with bad food? Ahem ahem ;)

Here are the easy breezy food I served that day...
Canned Fruit Salad

- 1 can of mandarin oranges, drained
- 1 can of peaches, drained
- 1 can of grapes, drained
Dressed with mango yoghurt, a bit of condensed milk, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Easy peasy. PS. You can also use a mixed fruit cocktail.

Corn Kernels with Bacon and Coriander

- 1 can of corn kernels, drained
- a few slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
- a sprig of coriander, chopped
- lemon juice, black pepper
Cook bacon pieces in a hot pan until they're browned and most of the fat has been rendered, add corn, let brown, add coriander at the end, add black pepper and squirt some lemon juice.
Done and done.

Indonesian Home Style Sop Ayam (Clear Chicken Soup)

- 1 small chicken, remove excess fat and most of skin
- 3 cloves of shallot, cut into sections
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 3mm thick chunks
- 1 small potato, cut into cubes
- a handful of macaroni (since I don't have them, I used fusili)
- half a can of hot dogs (cut into chunks)
- half a can of spam (cut into cubes)
- olive oil, ground nutmeg, hot water, salt, pepper, crispy shallot, spring onion/Indonesian celery/coriander

Saute shallot in hot olive oil, add chicken, add carrot and potato chunks, add hot water, bring to boil, cook until you have a nice chicken stock and the carrot and potato chunks are tender, add hot dog and spam chunks, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, garnish with crispy shallot and greens, serve.

Since back home we serve sop with perkedel (Indonesian potato cakes), I tried to make my own perkedels (again, after failing many times)...

Perkedel Kornet (Indonesian Potato Cakes with Corned Beef)
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- 2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced (about 2-3 mm thick)
- 3-4 tablespoon canned corned beef
- crispy shallot
- 1 egg, beaten
- ground nutmeg, salt, pepper, olive oil for frying and baking
I microwaved sliced potatoes on high for about 10 minutes, or until softened. They get a little watery after microwaving, thus, I drizzled a bit of olive oil and bake them in 200C oven until most of the liquid is gone (this way, it takes shorter time compared to baking the potatoes soft, and less greasy compared to deep frying the potatoes prior to mashing). Mash while the potato chunks are still warm (it's ok to leave a bit of chunks), add corned beef, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, crush some fried shallot into the mix (optional), and mix well. Roll about 1 tbsp of potato mix into a ball and flatten slightly. I refrigerated mine overnight, but if the potato balls are firm and dry enough, it is not necessary (I just couldn't risk another failure). Heat up oil for frying (medium heat), dip each potato cake into beaten egg and fry until golden brown. I've tried baking them, coating them in panko breadcrumbs etc, but nothing's as good as the authentic deep fried version ;)

My first successful perkedels! Yeahhhh~ it's a day to remember!

Baked Spam and Pineapple in Teriyaki Sauce

I've made this before...I liked it so much, I made it again! The recipe can be found here.

For dessert...I didn't wanna bake anything...I served a very summery Indonesian classic...
Iced Canned Fruit Mix

- 1 can of longan
- 1 can of lychee
- 1 can of rambutan
- ice, iced water
Mix the canned fruit with some of its syrup, add iced water and ice cubes until you achieve the desired level of sweetness, and serve ;)
Very very refreshing!

Could the above food (plus rice) serve 5 big eaters? Of course not! We also ordered 9 pieces of chicken from KFC with waffle fries ;) ...and we taught our Hong Kong friend to eat like a true Indonesian, i.e. plate instead of bowl, rice + corn + perkedel (carb+carb+carb), eat with your bare hand, shape rice and stuff into a small mountain, shove into mouth with your thumb...and don't forget...one leg up on the chair.

Too bad I didn't get a picture of that as my hand was dirty with food. The scene was priceless!

Baked Spam and Pineapple in Teriyaki Sauce

I should really call my blog "lazy cooking". Really.
It doesn't get any lazier than this.

This was what I prepared last night for today's lunch.

I still have leftover fresh sliced pineapple from the tea party, and a can of spam. Throw a little something something, and that could very well be a meal.

I thought of pan frying each element separately on a frying pan...crisp up the spam, caramelize the pineapples and onions, reduce and thicken the "glaze" and stuff...but oh wells, I couldn't be bothered. So, despite the heat, I cranked up my oven and decided to throw everything in and let it cook itself to perfection :D


Recipe
- 1 large can of spam (I used Tulip brand), cut into sizeable bite sized chunks
- half a pineapple, remove skin and core, cut into bite sized chunks
- half an onion, sliced thinly
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- teriyaki sauce, sugar, olive oil

Preheat oven to 200C. Lightly grease baking tray, throw all ingredients in, mix well, bake until the spam pieces are crisp on the outside, and pineapple chunks are caramelized. To bring this to another level, add freshly chopped coriander and chilli as garnish (which I didn't have on hand last nite. Oppps). Consume with a steamy bowl of rice.

Sweet, tangy, juicy pineapple; tasty, hearty, crispy but tender spam...savory garlic and sweet caramelized onion...plus teriyaki sauce? Oh, you knew it was gonna be good ^_^

Spam Love

In my previous salad post, I've mentioned that I had it with some SPAM.
You know I wasn't talking about eating junk mails for lunch.

I. Love. Spam.
Well, who doesn't?

Spam I love you "just the way you are".

I love seared Spam.

I love grilled Spam.
I love deep fried Spam.
I love sauteed Spam.
I love stewed Spam.

I love Spam in soups.
I love Spam in salads.
I love Spam in between bread.
I love Spam with pineapple.
I love Spam with chilli.
I love Spam with eggs.
I love Spam with noodles.
I love Spam with rice.

Spam, I love you in every way.
Even in cupcakes.

Can someone make me some Spam cupcakes?
Please?

Spam & Shrimps Virgin Colada for Dinner?!!

Where did the weird inspiration come from??!!

Based on transpacific discussion with my sis via yahoo messenger, there were some...

Dinner Ideas
1. Grilled Chicken in Sambal ABC Chilli Sauce
Brilliant idea, 100% yummy, but need to cook veggie separately

2. Long Beans and Tofu in Coconut Milk
Healthy, yummy, but my sis thought it's kinda blah

3. SPAM and Long Beans in Chilli and Coconut Milk
Sounded good in my head, but sounds like a lot of work, and Spam does not need a lot of work, it is superbly yummy as it is

4. SPAM and Beansprouts
Sis thought of this, sounds good, but I've tried it before and it was kinda blah

5. SPAM and Pineapples
Both of us went ...WHOA...this is it! Let's do it! (OK, I was gonna do it, and she's gonna get the report later to see if it sucked hehe)

6. SPAM + Shrimps + Pineapples + Coconut milk/cream + Lime Juice = My Mocktail Inspired Dinner LOL!!

Spam & Shrimps Virgin Colada

Recipe
- 1 large can of SPAM (luncheon meat), cut into cubes
- 0.5 lbs shrimps, remove shell and vein
- 1 canned pineapple (or you can use fresh)
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 small red chilli, remove core and seeds, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- lime juice
- 1/2 cup coconut milk/cream (or more if you want more sauce)
- fish sauce, pepper
- olive oil
- fried shallot and corriander (optional for garnish)

I like to crisp the Spam a little (you can skip this step) by frying it in a bit of olive oil, then set aside. Saute garlic, shallot, chilli and ginger in olive oil, add pineapple chunks, add spam, add shrimps, add some water from the canned pineapple (depends on how much sauce you want), add lime juice, drizzle some fish sauce, add pepper, add coconut milk, cook for a bit, garnish with fried shallot and corriander, serve with steamed rice

The only thing missing was the tiny little colorful umbrella...oh and maybe the rum and the irritating drunk who won't stop hitting on you? ^_*