The History & Tribute to Cheke&Bake

It comes as a surprise to no one that I love to cook. I always have. There is just something about the whole experience. Taking a few ingredients and putting them together in one way to form something unique and then taking those exact same ingredients and making something completely different. That’s always been one thing I’ve loved about food. Even more so the experience of cooking the food itself is obviously the eating. Sitting down and watching people eat your food and looking at the expression on their face can be either daunting or fulfilling. No words need to be spoken. Just a simple grin with their eyes half closed and you know you have a winner dish right there.

After arriving in Korea the first thing I did was look for an oven so that I could continue making the food I enjoyed to eat and not just rice and kimchi everyday. It started becoming a tradition with some of my very good friends; Ana, Jemma & Mairead, to come to my tiny apartment on Sunday for a “Come Dine with Che” experience. Jemma’s first request was Shepherds Pie. Well I had never made it before and to be honest I didn’t reli have much of an opinion about it but I tried it out anyway. Finding Lamb was the hard part. It’s not a very popular meat here. After much exploring and food adventures I finally found the holy grail of Lamb. Right nearby my apartment. It ended up turning out great and I’d just discovered my favorite comfort food in Korea. Shepherds pie became probably the only thing I cooked at these Sunday lunches. It was a real hit. I even managed to get my vegetarian friend to finally try it and she ended up eating 2 bowls worth. Now if that isn’t a success I dunno what is.

The best purchase in Korea

After some time and through the encouragement of a good friend Lumantha. I decided to open up my own home cooking business supplying great homemade dishes that most expats cannot find in Korea. Living in Daegu was great because of the niche market that I could expose myself to. Seoul or even in Busan the streets and downtown areas are riddled with International restaurants and delis. Daegu was an untouched market at the time with only a few if not any of these kinds of places. And hell if I could convert a veggie, maybe I could convert the whole of Daegu.

I started in very humble beginnings. A kitchen the size of most peoples cupboards. Measuring about 2x2metres. I had no idea what the hell I had signed myself up for so I decided to just overplan it all. Story of my life lol. I got one of my amazing friends Loops to even design me a logo for the business. It was perfect. Exactly what I had pictured in my head.

The Cheke&Bake Logo designed by Loops

So Cheke&Bake started to come to life. I found the amazing Baking Shop near Daegu Station where I was planning on buying most of the packaging and materials I needed for my food. Now if you think I love cooking you must know how much I love buying everything for the cooking. I’m literally like a kid in a candy store. Grabbing big bottles of cinnamon, baking pans, cake boxes, chocolate chips. Basically everything and anything I could find that I “might” need. Once I’d paid and headed to find a taxi I looked down at the 2 massive bags I was carrying and it dawned on me. What have I done? Do I really need all this stuff? OMG How much money did I just spend? What if people don’t like what I have to sell? What if I actually can’t do it? What if I fail? It would have all been a complete waste of time and money.

The birthplace of Cheke&Bake

It was a lot to process in the first few weeks but I knew that if I persevered I could do it and I could do it right. The first few weeks were the hardest. Getting recommendations for recipes and ideas and relearning how to make certain things. Trying to figure out how the hell I was gonna cook in bulk in the tiniest kitchen in the world. How I was going to fit everything into the worlds tiniest fridge and how the hell I could run a functioning business while being employed full time and away for 12 hours a day. Compiling a menu that wouldn’t burn me out was the hardest. I just wanted to make everything and at the time I truly believed I could. I even got my good friend John to come and take some beautiful pictures of everything I had made. They turned out stunning and so the visual side of Cheke&Bake had finally been established. I needed my business to be well structured and advertised, but not THAT well advertised. Lol.

After the first few months of Cheke&Bake being opened I started realizing that hey this is actually working. Yes I’ve made a few stuff ups but for the most part it was a success. I had people in Gumi, Gyeongju, Pohang and Busan asking how they could get their hands on my food. I was overwhelmed. News spread and it spread fast. I was getting friend requests from complete strangers asking for massive orders of Shepherds Pies, Vetkoek, Hummus, Pita Bread and my Heart Attack Bread. It was great and then BOOM I hit a wall. I was tired, time was a killer and people started ordering more and more food that required  “Puff Pastry”. My arch enemy haha. Now puff pastry is not a very easy thing to come by in Korea. Especially in Daegu. If u do find it you’ll probably be paying out of your ears for it. So the only solution here was to make it myself from scratch.

Now I’m not a trained pastry chef but hey the people want the pastry so I gotta give them the pastry. I’m sure there are many people who enjoy making pastry so hats off to you. I wish I had your patience. If you have ever made puff pastry you’ll know it’s quite an arduous task. The folding of butter into freshly made pastry and then rolling and folding and rolling and folding, leaving in the fridge for a few hours and then folding and rolling and folding and rolling, going back in the fridge and folding and rolling and folding and rolling until you get to a point where you actually couldn’t be bothered anymore and end up calling your chicken pot pie a chicken pot. My weekends and weekdays were overloaded with everything Cheke&Bake. I was constantly planning my life around when I was going to go to the shops, printing out a schedule of what I needed to make and when I had to send it. I was burnt out. I just couldn’t anymore. Luckily at the time other things were going on in Korea and so Cheke&Bake closed her doors. I was really sad in a way to close that chapter of my life but it had, had a good run.

During the close I got a lot of people begging me to please still cook for them and so I did but very little and in moderation. I was sitting at 2 or 3 orders a week sometimes none at all. I started appreciating my cooking more. It became simplistic and in a way more sophisticated than before. I started trying different techniques and at the time I had also moved into a bigger apartment so I had more space to play. My head was cleared of the rush and panic around pleasing other people and I started to really enjoy cooking again. It was fantastic.

I realized at this point that after all the hard work and craziness that I put myself through I was more determined and focused as ever to make it work this time. And make it work right. So I opened up again. It was one of the best decisions I’d made in those last 2 months of 2012 because I finally got my fire back.

I also decided to attempt posting my orders. Madre was the first person I ever posted a delivery to and if it wasn’t for her asking me to please please send those Vetkoeke and Quiches I don’t know if I would have ever risked it. And so Cheke&Bake expanded. I was posting between 5-10 orders a week as well as keeping up with my Daegu orders. It was great. I was absolutely loving it. Cheke&Bake was back and baby she was back with a vengeance.

Then one beautiful day in June I saw a Facebook posting from a Café downtown talking about a Market Day. I was very intrigued. As some of you know I used to work at the Stellenbosch Organic Food Market in my final year at University and it was some of the best months of my life. The whole vibe that surrounds an outdoor market is difficult to describe in words it is something you need to experience. I was so excited so I immediately emailed the owner Sandy Lee and asked if I could have a table for the market day.

My first market day

Then my head started going crazy mad. Now I’ve signed myself up for more work? I thought I was trying to calm my life down. But hey I always seem to enjoy the pressure. I decided my menu would host the star of Cheke&Bake, The Shepherds Pie as well as a few quiches and some South African goodies. Well the first market day was an absolute success. Even friends from the outskirts of Daegu came to buy my food. I sold out by 2pm. I didn’t know what to feel. I felt numb from happiness. I had no idea it would go off so well. I knew at this point I had to cultivate this new market and keep the awesomeness coming.

Sold OUT!

Through suggestions from friends I decided to attempt making pies. No not Shepherds Pies. But good old fashioned pasty pies. In Korea pies are very hard to come by. And even if u can find a place that does pies; for example Jesters, they just are not up to scratch. They might fill you up and settle the savory dream you were having but they won’t ever truly hit the spot. This is where I decided to come in. Now pies require puff pastry. We all know how I feel about good old pastry but I was willing to just give it a try and see what the demand was like.

After missing the second bake sale due to traveling I knew I had to come back and be remembered. Luckily there were a few customers from Buy the Book who had. I decided to go all out. Guinness & Beef Steak Pie, Chicken & Mushroom Pie and my exciting new creation Kimchi Roast Chicken Pie. The dreaded puff pastry mission had started and I was popping the pies out that oven like nobodys business. The nights leading up to every bake sale were stressful and exciting. I might have been covered in flour all night everyday but I had one hell of a smile on my face. I could do it and I did.

All my love and hardwork

I was also lucky enough to try my hand at making Koeksisters (South African Donuts) as a request from a highly respected South African chef up in Seoul. It was another very exciting time learning new techniques and making dreaded dough but I had already pushed the band wagon so why not keep pushing on?

Koeksister production line. I once made 120 Koeksisters in this little Kitchen

As the successful market days kept rolling on I was asked by Sandy the owner of Buy the Book Cafe If I would like to be a feature chef and run my own menu through the restaurant for a weekend. I was beside myself! I would finally have an opportunity to run my very own restaurant with my very own menu! Absolute dream come true! I immediately started constructing a one of a kind menu and sourcing all my ingredients. Then the next step of figuring out how much of each thing I needed started.

My Menu for the Guest Chef Wknd

Then my brain exploded. How on earth do people run restaurants! It is such a time consuming, ever changing, unpredictable line of work to expose yourself to. Its people with that real passion for it, the real love for all the hardwork that make places like Buy The Book Cafe stay open month after month and year after year. Sandy taught me so much. So many big and small things and the support I was given was astounding. The customers really enjoyed the food and I loved making it. I could barely walk for the next week and my back was in such pain from the constant bending to get things out the oven, the fridge and making my plates look fantastic. I don’t remember a time before that where I’ve ever been so tired. But I was never happier. It was one of the best weekends of my entire life and it opened up my eyes to the kind of world I want to get into. I finally had a taste of what my future could be. Thank you again Sandy & Yatren for that amazing opportunity!

My Number 1 Seller – Shepherds Pie

Dark Choc Mousse with Persimmon

Earl Grey Creme Brulee

Cheke&Bake has been my baby for the last 2 years. It has brought me tears of both happiness and frustration. It’s brought me new friends and business partners. It’s brought me satisfaction and joy. It’s taught me that no matter how small your ideas may be if you try hard and work at them you can turn those ideas into something great, something successful and something meaningful.

It breaks my heart to tell you now that Cheke&Bakes time in Korea has come to an end 😦 My good friend David Mansell with his company Bouche Delivery will be continuing the awesome food dream that I had. So never fear, the pies will still be here 😀

It’s been an absolute honor cooking for you all. If it wasn’t for all of you amazing people my dream would have never taken flight. So thank you from my whole heart. I hope that one day you will come visit me in South Africa where I will have hopefully opened up my very own Café and we can reminisce over our awesome time together.

Keep Happy and Keep Hungry Cheke&Bakers, it’s been wild. Much Love ❤

My Food Heroes – Stef’s Gnocchi

When I had returned to Johannesburg after studying in Stellenbosch for 4 years my good friends and I all started a book club together. It was such fun and we did end up dubbing it the wine club as everyone always forgot about the books. Each person would host the dinner and the others would bring the wine. So many amazing recipes passed my lips but it was my stunning friend Stef’s Gnocchi at her first book club that stood out.

She had a whole menu full of Italian inspiration and I couldn’t wait to stuff my face. The one thing that stood out was Gnocchi. Little delicious potato globes smothered in a rich bolognaise sauce. The first time I had ever eaten it I was at some or other health restaurant with my Mom in Stellenbosch. It was stodgy and stuck together and the sauce was waaaay too healthy with zero meat. I was unimpressed but I just knew that my little Italian firecracker of a friend was gonna blow me away with her version.

We all sat around her kitchen table which I absolutely love. A kitchen to me is the absolute heart of any home and there is nothing better than sitting with my friends, sipping on some Merlot, while Stef stood at the stove and boiled the freshly made Gnocchi then lathered it in ladel fulls of sauce.  All I was waiting for now was some Italian granny to pop out the cupboard like in the Fatti’s & Moni’s ads. It was immaculate. Such an amazing meal with such amazing friends.

Now getting this recipe from her a week or so ago was insanely amusing and I had a good chuckle at the detailed description she gave me. I haven’t had a chance to practice the recipe myself due to some other cooking commitments but once I have the free time I’m gonna be Gnocchifying all of Korea. Try the recipe yourself and let me know how it goes!

My Stef’s Spectacular Gnocchi Recipe

Ingredients

4 Potatoes

4 Cups Flour

1 Egg

Pinch of Salt

Instructions

1. Peel & boil the potatoes until there is no resistance when you poke with a knife (To cut down on cooking time cut potatoes into chunks)

2. Mash the potatoes  well, if you want to be fancy you can pass them through a sieve (or even fancier a potato ricer)

3.  Allow the potatoes to cool but not completely as they will partially cook the flour when added.

4. Add 2 cups of flour first and work into the potatoes with your hands mashing up any stray lumps with your fingers.

5. Add the egg, the rest of the flour and salt to create a dough that doesn’t stick to your fingers when kneading.

6. Cut the dough into easy to manage sections and roll out to the thickness of your thumb. Cut into pieces roughly an inch.

7. Then get a fork and gently roll the Gnocchi over the back of the fork to make ridges. This is so the Gnocchi catches the sauce you make it with.

8. When all your Gnocchi is in pieces dust lightly with flour and let it rest for about 30 minutes. This will let the Gnocchi absorb any flour as it is still moist.

9. Boil some water in a deep pot till It starts bubbling rapidly and then add handfuls of Gnocchi at a time.

10. Let the Gnocchi float to the top (this should tell you that it’s ready) scoop it up and place in a colander and serve with a delicious bolognaise or creamy sauce.

Chef Stef’s TIPS:

1. For a healthier version replace 2 potatoes with butternut and follow the same process.

2. You can also add some parmesan cheese and parsley when you add your flour to the potatoes.

3. Don’t worry about making too much the Gnocchi can be frozen and reused at your next dinner party.

My Korean Kitchen SPECIAL – Kimchi Roast Chicken

Yes you did read that right, Kimchi roasted in Chicken. It might seem like a rather odd combination but oh me oh my does it knock your socks off.

I got the idea one night while watching Masterchef Australia. Literally thee best show ever. They have this challenge called an Invention Challenge where a bunch of amateur cooks get given a box full of ingredients that they need to use to invent some new kind of dish. This particular episode was about Korean food. I was so excited. I recognized almost every ingredient and just pictured myself standing there rocking the hell outta that challenge and winning the Title! haha. Big dreams!  Most of the people in the challenge had no idea what anything was, unlucky for them the ingredients were in their original packaging covered in Korean writing so they couldn’t even read what it was. Which is funny because when I first went to a Korean store I was absolutely petrified to buy anything that didn’t have english writing on it. They just had to go by taste and smell. It was really amusing watching them dash around figuring out what to make with all this weird stuff. But then I stood back and thought to myself wow. It must be so tough to invent something with ingredients you can’t even pronounce.

I decided to take upon my own personal invention test with my delicious homemade Kimchi fermenting away in the fridge and a whole chicken in the freezer. This was either going to turn out to be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten or one of the best.

Once the chicken was defrosted all the way through I trimmed away all the nasty extra bits of fat. I cut the chicken down the middle between the breast bones and split it open. I then flipped it breast side down and started to lift the skin up over the thighs and all the way down to the neck to make a little pocket that I could stuff my Kimchi into.

I took about 1 cup of Kimchi and chopped it up. I added 2Tbs of Fish Sauce and 1 Tbs of Kimchi juice from the container. I then took this mixture and started stuffing my chicken under its skin. I pushed the Kimchi in between the skin and meat of the thighs, legs, breast and even wings. It was completely stuffed lol. I then drizzled over some more kimchi juice as well as 1Tbs of Hot Pepper Flakes, covered it with foil and cooked at 200 degrees for 1 hour.

After the hour was up I removed the foil and cooked for a further 30 mins so the skin could crisp up and the juices intensify.

Well it turned out amazingly. It was such an interesting flavor, surprising yet delicious. After I carved the chicken I made a small gravy with it and served it up with some roasted veggies. For lunch that week I added the Kimchi Roast Chicken to a Caesar Salad and for my cooking business Cheke&Bake I even made a Kimchi Roast Chicken Pie. This style of chicken is great and so refreshing after eating a usual roast every week. You know what they say. A hundred ways with a dead chicken and I think I just discovered a really amazing one! So go ahead and give it a try!  Kimchi Roast on Sunday? Why not!

Cheke&Bake’s Kimchi Roast Chicken Pie

My Korean Kitchen – Kimchi Pancake (김치 천)

There is nothing better than having a good old swig of Makkeoli on a cold evening accompanied with Kimchi Jeon or a Kimchi Pancake. A Kimchi Pancake is exactly what it says it is. It’s a type of pancake batter mixed with cut up Kimchi fried and then sliced into pieces which are then dipped into Soy Sauce.

I used my fresh tasty amazing Kimchi alongside Maangchi’s Kimchi Jeon Recipe to develop this creation.

Ingredients

4 Tbs of cut up Kimchi

3 Tbs of Kimchi juice (from the same container)

1/2 minced Onion

1/2 Cup Flour

1/4 Cup Water

Oil for frying

1. Mix all the ingredients above together in a large bowl. I added a touch more Fish Sauce and another Tablespoon of Hot Pepper Flakes for a bit more of a kick.

2. Heat a pan with some oil and when ready add a 5mm layer of your batter and fry on both sides till its brown.

Be careful as the pancake can be very flimsy when u flip it over. Your layer of batter should be thick enough so that it won’t break and thin enough so it will cook through.

Kimchi Jeon made with my fresh homemade Kimchi

My Korean Food Adventures – Belly Up on The Blowfish

Nothing is really more exciting than getting a bit risky with your dinner and by risk I don’t mean trying out a new recipe. I mean knowingly eating something that could cause potential death. Why the hell not right? You only live once.

This particular death trap is what we like to call Blowfish or Fugu (Japan) or Bo Go 복어 (Korea) a Japanese delicacy that has migrated over to Korea where they have added their own twist. Blowfish is the most lethally poisonous fish in the world and a small dose of its death inducing tetrodoxin and your well, pretty screwed. Death by asphyxiation, while you are still fully conscious, with no known antidote? Sounds like a fun dinner right? Luckily every single Fugu Chef in the world has to have a certificate to be able to prepare Fugu. These Chefs go through a grilling process of over a few years where they ultimately have to prepare and eat their own dish. Pass = Live, Fail = Death and this system has been strictly enforced in Korea. It’s pretty safe to say that no matter what Blowfish restaurant you end up in, you’ll still be alive by the second course.

We headed to a great Blowfish restaurant out in Sangin. Take Exit 4 from the subway. Walk straight for about ten minutes and it will be on your right hand side on the second floor. The name of the restaurant is 복어마을 and there is a picture of a happy blowfish with a chef hat on. You can’t miss it.

 

Being the first time anyone of us has ever tried it we decided to go all out and try everything. We had the set menu which costs us each 13 500W. One set can easily serve 4 people. First on the menu was blowfish skin salad. The spikes had been removed and the skin sliced into small pieces mixed with spicy red sauce, onions, carrots and cabbage. To be honest it didn’t really have much flavor as the sauce was quite overpowering. The skin was chewy and soft and tasted like nothing. I was just snacking on the side dishes of fried fish, cucumbers, dried fish and japchae (noodles). At this point I was starting to get more excited waiting in anticipation for my mouth to start tingling and my breath to quicken, with my life flashing before my eyes as my body falls into paralyses. Well…..clearly that never happened. Guess our chef was really good. No tetrodoxin for us.

Blowfish Skin Salad

 Second on the menu came a big steaming plate of blowfish flesh and bean sprouts in yet another spicy red sauce. This we cooked over the gas stove on our table. The fish was delicious and melted in my mouth. There were a lot of bones and the strong flavor of the bean sprouts was a little overwhelming. Nevertheless, the meat was juicy and tasty.

Blowfish Skin

Dried Fish in a Spicy Red Sauce

Fried Blowfish Deliciousness

While we were nibbling on that THE BEST course arrived. Fried Bok!! (Fried Blowfish) hell anything fried is delicious but this was pretty darn good. The batter was crispy and thick and the meat inside was tender and cooked to perfection. It also came with fried green peppers which was a great addition.

Blowfish Soup

The final course was blowfish soup. Just a few chunks of meat, some bean sprouts and a little garlic. At this point the waitress also took our second course plate and filled it with rice which we put back onto the heat to create some kind of ricey pudding with the leftover juices. Always got to have rice.

Dancing with the devil at dinner was quite an exciting experience and is definitely a must while you are in Korea.

My Korean Food Adventures – Galbi Tang in Suwon

During the long weekend I was lucky enough to head up to Seoul for quite the adventure. I had heard of an area to the north of Seoul called Suwon and have been planning a rather interesting itinerary around it. This long weekend was gonna be the chance that I would tackle yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site and eat on some delicious local food.

Suwon is famous for a dish known as Galbi Tang (Meaty bones In a broth) (Galbi – Meat on bone a.k.a Rib, Tang- Soup) and after the long ass day my friend Melissa and I had it was more than deserved. We got hopelessly lost and confused when we arrived but eventually got helped out by a local pharmacist who guided a taxi to our hostel. We stayed in the Hwa Seong Guesthouse which after swearing at for about an hour or two because of lack of good directions or anyone answering the phone; we settled in. First order of business was finding food. As Suwon is so famous for its Galbi we were sure to find one on every street corner.

Luckily reading Korean has gotten a lot easier these days when u know what ur looking for however as we sat down the owner knew exactly what we wanted to order. Boo, I couldn’t practice my ordering skills in Korean, ohwell will just have to order a beer later and see if she understands haha. Obviously 2 waygooks in the city of Suwon, in a restaurant right next to the famous Hwaseong Palace in a place famous for Galbi Tang are gonna order…..yep u guessed it Galbi Tang hahaha.

 

A waitress then brought over some banchan (side dishes). The traditional cabbage kimchi, some radish kimchi, diced spring onions and some onion dipping sauce.  At this point of most Korean Meals I’ve had u never really know what to expect after this point. But ooooh was I expecting!! I wanted meat in my belleehh and I wanted it now! We then got served 2 steaming bowls of broth filled with big hunky chunky beef short ribs. I could have honestly just eaten the meat and left the greens for the rabbits but it was time to be traditional and do it the way it should be done. We weren’t reli sure what to do next so we started staring at the couple next to us and came to the conclusion that u just chuck everything in the pot???

 

Haha The lovely owner could tell that these waygooks were damn useless so she came over and helped us out. First she took the meat out of the bowl and started cutting the meat off the bone with the scissors. This concept of cutting meat with scissors has honestly been the most interesting and intriguing thing I have experienced since being here. Once the meat was off the bones she cut them into smaller chunks and popped them back into the broth. Now time to add the spring onions and a small bowl of rice.

I wasn’t sure if we should put the kimchi into the bowl so she showed us. U take a scoop of the brothy mixture withurspoon, then pop on a piece of radish kimchi and BOOM inurbelleeehh!!!

 

WOWSA is all I can say!! The meat was soooo tender and juicy, the broth had the perfect amount of flavor which was sucked up by the glutinous rice and the cold chunky sour and spicy radish finished it off perfectly. It was an absolute winning combination and slightly strange at the same time! But hey this isKoreahaha. There were also a few noodles in the mixture too which was fun slurping up with every bite. One bowl is quite a generous portion for one person and we were stuffed afterwards.

The traditional Suwon Galbi is also served BBQ style but we never tried that. Next time for sure. Suwon Galbi is very famous because it is marinated in unique flavors such as sesame oil, garlic, toasted sesame seeds and pears. It is characterized as being much larger and having a much more specialized taste than any other districts serving a similar dish.

To get to Suwon is pretty darn simple. U can catch the KTX there or even a bus. From Seoul Station its around an hour so rather take the KTX there directly. If u need a place to stay I’d definitely suggest the Hwa Seong Guesthouse. It’s a fantastic base to experience the Hwaseong Fortress UNESCO World Heritage Site and Hwaseong Palace, sample some Galbi Tang and head to the Korean Folk Village about 50 mins away. It’s a pity we didn’t have more time in Suwon but I’ll definitely be heading back to take in more of what it has to offer.

My Korean Food Adventures – Mandu in Seongju & Daegu

Before I even came to Korea I had heard about dumplings/won tons/dim sum/steamed balls of yummy goodness. Or as they actually call them in Korea, Mandu (만두). Mandu are a staple snack diet for most Koreans and they were the only things I ate for the first 3 days I was here. I was too petrified to venture out of my little shoebox apartment that all I bought was 2 packets of frozen Mandu and a steamer haha lol!!

Dumplings in a bag

My Korean Food Adventures – Samarkand Uzbeki Lamb in Daegu

Coming from South Africa, the frequent lamb agasm happens to the best of us around a hot fire with some ice cold bevi’s most weekends. The juicy texture, the wild flavours, the perfect spices, the perfect combination of meat and fat. HELLO!!! Lamb agasm baby. However since being inKorea, this utopic experience has been cut short by the lack of good proper meat. For a country that eats a bucket load of meat they don’t necessarily have the best variety. Beef and Chicken? Pork or Fish? Laaaaammmeee!! I want some sheep in my beellleeh! Well thank goodness for the insane amounts of foreigners that are slowly and most definitely surely taking over the Korean cuisine, lamb agasms have now become a reality for everyone.

It’s been 8 months almost to the day that I have had lamb. I’m not talking about those flakes of lame broiled lamb they sell at the Turkish kebab shops. I’m talking about a lamb chop. Meat on bone. Lamb on bone. Lamb meat on bone in my face. You can understand my feelings about lamb at this point. I want to eat you and I want to eat you now.

I discovered a Russian/Uzbekistan = Uzbekussian Restaurant while reading The Daegu Compass in the first month I was here but just never had the desire to actually go and check it out as I didn’t really know much about Russian food?? Vodka laced mutton?? Hmm maybe?  Russian/Uzbekistan food basically defines lamb as an overall experience and not just a meal. Very similar to how we love and cherish our skaap tjoppies (lamb chops) back home. They do anything and everything with sheep/lamb/mutton. Mostly mutton but hey who is getting technical now? They are also big on their bread, which is quite dense and heavy. I’m assuming to be dipped into mutton stews to lap up all the sauces. One other dish, something that didn’t even register with me at first was Shish Kebabs. Shish Kebabs originate fromTurkey and through the years they have made their way around the world, even back to South Africa where we call them Sosaties. The term derives from sate (“skewered meat”) and saus (spicy sauce). BOOM!! In Saffa land we usually marinade our lamb skewers in a curry like sauce with dried apricots and onions and then we “gooi it on the braai” (throw it on the barbeque) Yumdelicious.

The name of the restaurant is Samarkand. Samarkand is the second largest city in Uzbekistan and the perfect place for a melting pot of the worlds cultures in Korea. Pot? Melting? I’m hungry! On to the menu!!

The menu consists of all the best that Uzbekussian has to offer. Note at this point I had absolutely no clue what to expect all I knew was there was lamb. We got a divine starter of burnt croutons placed on the table which we obviously ate, I mean who doesn’t like burnt croutons? We also got a few sauces, kinda like that Spaghetti sauce you can buy in a jar and then good old ketchup, some pickles, some marinated julienne carrots and some pickled chilli’s.

I love me some burnt croutons

Some thing quite traditional which is stuffed cabbages (Golubsky) was recommended to us by the ever so young, waitress (who was probably about 14 years old and still in her school uniform, child labour much?). As adventurous as we were by being in an Uzbekussian restaurant I didn’t think any of us wanted to spoil the evening with anything remotely similar to Kimchi. Be gone cabbage, be gone!! Next time most definitely. We decided to order some Samsas, which are flaky pastries stuffed with meat and served with a spicy sauce. Think of a Cornish pasty or any kind of pasty and it comes very close to this. It was divine!! You could easily share one Samsa as it’s quite big, probably the size of your hand. We all ended up ordering the same basic thing – Chizbif. What a cool name!! What was even cooler, was that it was a stack of proper cut chips piled with lamb! And not just lame broiled lamb but roasted perfectly yummily prepared lamb. Yep just chips and hulks of lamb. I could not have been happier. 1, 2, 3, and Lamb-agasm. I was in my element.

Chizbif and Samsa (top right corner)

The next course of Shish Kebabs arrived on long metal skewers and was just as amazing as the lamb in the Chizbif. Clearly from all the pictures you can see how happy I was in my little lamb kinda world.

Lamb Agasm FOSHO!!

Lamb Duel!!!!

To drown it all, they have a good selection of vodkas and strong Russian beers. I had a beer called Baltika No. 7. It was delish, the first real tasting beer I’ve had since being inKorea. A lot better than Hite or Cass. It also had this cool bottle top that u kinda popped off! That was more entertaining than the actual beer drinking.

Popping the bottle

Overall the night was lovely I just wish I had actually tried more of the traditional foods, especially after doing a bit more research and inspecting the menu a bit more.

Clearly the food was good

Definitely on the to try list is;

Shurpa – Lamb and Potato soup

Borsch – Sour Beetroot Soup

Manty – Uzbekussian dumplings with meat, onions and spices

Golubtsy – Cabbage filled with ground lamb

Plov (Rice Pilaf)– Meat and carrots with rice

Have a look see at the menu. Yes I took pictures of each page in the menu. Its a pleasure.

 

The meal cost us each about 17 000W. That was after 2 beers, a plate of Chizbif, one Shishkebab and some Samsa. Not too bad me thinks?? Check out the prices on the menu pictures.

Words of wisdom

1. It takes really long for them to prepare the kebabs, about 20 minutes and you only get one skewer (not four like in the picture). So skip right to that part of the menu and order those bad boys first.

2. Spend some time looking through the menu and looking at the pictures. They are pretty self explanatory.

3. If you order anything with lamb you are guaranteed a lamb agasm.

4. Definitely try ordering more of the traditional foods without lamb; it will give you an overall experience for sure.

The Map in Korean

Directions

Samarkand is located in the downtown area of Daegu. The best and easiest way to get there is to take the subway to Jungangro Exit 2. Get out turn around and cross the road and walk towards the entrance of Lotte Young Plaza and CGV on the main street. Now turn your body so that Lotte Young Plaza and CGV are on your left. Now walk down the main street towards Novotel. Take your first left down a pedestrian walking street. It’s full of shops and has a cobbled like road.Samarkand will be on your left on the third floor of the building after about a 30 metre walk. Yes my directions are quite detailed and possibly slightly confusing, that’s because we all got lost for about 30 mins looking for it haha.

Happy Lamb Agasaming Peeps^^

My Korean Food Adventures – Ducky Pumpkin in Daegu

What better way to start my first foodie post than to write about one of the most deliciously divine meals I’ve ever eaten since my time in Korea. Duck in Pumpkin or  오리호박   in Korean. Someone posted about it on the In Daegu Facebook group about 2 months ago and since then I have been on the hunt to find a Duck in Pumpkin restaurant in Daegu. My new co-teacher Jessi was kind enough to find out all the information and I was more than happy to have her come along and help me experience this meal first hand. Duck in Pumpkin is apparently not a typical kind of Korean meal. Some call it Korean Fusion food. I just call it amazingly delicious. My co-teachers Jessi, Mrs Lee and Jessi’s friend Pico all joined me for the feast.

At first we were given pumpkin soup which was amazingly divine. I haven’t eaten pumpkin since my time in Korea so it was pure bliss. Then the banchan (Korean traditional side dishes) arrived. There was the traditional Kimchi which happened to be a little sour than usual. Jessi suggested that it had possibly been fermented for too long. Then there were marinated mushrooms (Think I ate all of them), cabbage salad, chilli peppers, onions, garlic, lettuce leaf salad,, some kind of marinated vegetables, sesame leaves, lettuce leaves and we also had a small bowl of seaweed soup – 미역국.

Pumpkin Soup on the left - Wasabi Soy Sauce mixture on the right

 We dug in straight away and I was sooo excited to see the main event I couldn’t contain myself. Then BOOM!!! There it was!! A big burst of pumpkiny goodness with a roasted ducky mountain bang in the centre. My heart start doing flickflacks!! The waitress each gave us a section of the pumpkin as we weren’t really sure how to begin. I just placed a piece of the duck with some Doenjang and some onions onto a lettuce leaf and wolfed it down! Jessi asked the lady manager how we should eat it and she just said take a piece of the duck dip it into the sauce (kinda like a mix of soy sauce and wasabi) add on a piece of pumpkin and boom into your belly. Absolute perfection. I was in pumpkin ducky heaven and could have honestly ordered another one. The pumpkin was perfectly roasted and the section of pumpkin underneath the duck had absorbed all the delicious juices and tasted even more unbelievable then my first bite. Duck in pumpkin had certainly lived up to its name.

Ducky Pumpkin Heaven

My piece of heaven

I want you in my belly!!

What was left

Mrs Lee and I

Kimchi Style Smile 🙂

We then ordered some  칼국수, which is flour noodles in a kind of a vegetable broth. I was quite surprised that we didn’t also order rice as it’s a staple meal here in Korea. I guess the noodles could be a substitute. I had a similar type of noodle meal in Gyeongju when I went on a field trip with the teachers last year November. It reminds me of the Vietnamese Pho minus the beef and coriander.

Hello blogging world!

So I have finally decided to put my foodie travel thoughts and experiences down on a public forum just to share a piece of what amazing things I have seen done and eaten since I decided to hit the travelling world 2 years ago 🙂 Enjoy