Staying home is extremely important right now.  I’m sure a lot of you have been bored being stuck in your houses, but there are still a lot of things to do.  Finding new hobbies, being creative, and even cooking are all great ideas to keep yourself occupied during this period of social distancing.  I have been trying to stay creative in a lot of ways myself, and one of my favorite things to do when I’m home is cooking!  

I love cooking all kinds of food, but I recently decided to give Korean food a shot.  I went to Seoul a few years back, and while I didn’t have much time to explore or experience much Korean culture, I did get to enjoy quite a bit of the delicious food.  I LOVE spicy food and Korea does that very well.  Since Japanese food doesn’t offer much in the way of heat, when I’m craving something spicy, I have to make it myself.

For the past week I have been experimenting a lot with Korean food.  I started off simple with some beef bowls using a gochujang-based marinade.  Once I got comfortable with flavors, I moved on to my two favorite dishes from my trip to Korea – dakgalbi and budae jjigae.  The budae jjigae I had in Seoul was one of the spiciest things I’ve ever eaten.  So when I made it the other day, I wanted it to have that same heat.  It didn’t end up being quite as hot, but it was still pretty spicy!  I’ve had a lot of fun cooking Korean food and I’ve already started to think about what my next quarantine cooking adventure will be!

Here’s a picture of my budae jjigae.  In Korea, I feel like it has a bit more of a red color, but mine turned out kind of orange.  It still tasted great!