Kimchi Bokumbop

아주 맛있었어요. (a-ju ma-si-sseo-sseo-yo).

It was delicious!

(The image is not mine.) 

Kimchi fried rice is my standard order when I eat at the Japanese-Korean stall in the UP Shopping Center.  It's one of the places in the campus which is vegetarian-friendly.

To be vegetarian in the Philippines can simplify one's life because usually you only have very few choices if you eat out.  If you cook your own food, you have to be creative otherwise you'll end up getting sick of what you eat.

I had dinner with two UP Filipiniana alumni friends and one commented that being vegetarian is boring.  I begged to disagree of course.  We were in the produce section of the supermarket when he said that.

"Look at all these vegetables," I said while pointing to all the fresh produce.  I get excited whenever I'm in Hong Kong because of the abundance of fresh vegetables and the wide variety of seasonings available in the market.  Unfortunately, one week is the longest time that I've stayed here so buying big bottles of vegetarian stir fry and chilli-garlic sauces is unwise.
So back to the kimchi fried rice, I liked it because it's easy to make and can be nutritious if you add more fresh vegetables in it.  Because I ran out of other fresh ingredients, I only had the simple kimchi fried rice for lunch.

I sauteed minced garlic (2 cloves) in 1 tbsp vegetable oil, added about a 3/4 cup of cabbage kimchi, and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Then I added the rice and mixed it thoroughly.  Seasoned it with salt.  I topped it with one sunny side up egg prepared previously, and added two dashes of sesame oil on the egg.  It was good.

I took a long nap after lunch and decided to go to Sham Shui Po to upgrade the RAM of my HP-mini to 2gigs.  After the new memory card was installed, I walked a little bit and explored the street market.  Didn't find anything I really need so I decided to head back to Tung Chung.  I passed by the supermarket before heading home to buy vegetables and I thought I'd cook the rest of the kimchi for dinner.

It was like a Korean version of the tofu bokchoy fried rice.  The ingredients were the same but with the addition of the kimchi.  That was dinner and it was delicious!  I had one and half bowls!  Oh, and I bought crispy nori sheets for garnish.  The seaweed taste really made the dish distinct.

I wonder if there's a good Asian store in  Jyväskylä.  I searched on google and found this Asian Food website.  It's about about 15 minutes from my soon-to-be apartment so I guess it won't be that difficult to visit the place.  I'm thinking of bringing some Chinese essential ingredients though like vegetarian stir fry sauce, sesame oil and nori sheets.

Here's the map from the apartment to that Asian food store.


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