Why do Koreans slurp seaweed soup on birthdays?

Seaweed soup in Korean is called Mi-yeok Guk - 

'Mi-yeok'  meaning seaweed and 'Guk'  meaning soup.  

Seaweed soup is made from a sea vegetable known as 'wakame'  

or sometimes called sea mustard.  Seaweed contains a super

high concentration of iodine and calcium which are super important

especially to nursing mothers. Many Korean women consume

seaweed soup during pregnancy so that their newborn receives

the nutrition through breastfeeding.... 

AND that's why Koreans prepare and eat seaweed soup

on birthdays. It's a reminder of the first food they consumed

through their mothers, thus bringing good fortune for the rest

of the year.  

It's not too difficult to make either. (As long as you can get to 

an Asian supermarket) Seaweed is sold dried so you will have to 

soak it in water first so it bloats up. 

Make sure you rinse it several times because it does 

come from the sea and even though it's dried- often times 

it's actually dried by the sand area.

You can use anchovies for the broth or I actually prefer beef. 

Any cut of beef is ok to use in making the broth. 

I often dice up or give the beef a rough chop

so it's a little tender and in smaller pieces.

I take a TBSP of sesame oil and 3 TBSP of soy sauce and saute the beef first. 

Then I add one whole onion (medium size) sliced up to give it more flavor. 

Once the onion has cooked a little (5-7 minutes) I add water and fill the pot. 

I then add the bloated and already wet seaweed into the pot.

Let it come to a boil and then turn it to a medium low and let it simmer

for a bit. (minimum 30 minutes) The broth will turn into a yellowy-greenish

hue from the seaweed. That's when you know it's ready and it will 

taste good. You can add a little more salt & pepper at the table. 

Seaweed soup is more often than not eaten with a small bowl of rice.

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 10 of 31 days

Sesame Spinach Tofu

Having vegetables can be super simple or super hard.

It's really how to go about it.  Yesterday for lunch I had some 

sesame spinach with tofu as a side dish.  

It's a no brain-er.   First, wash your spinach because there

is often soil around the stems. Boil some water and once the

water boils- turn the stove off and toss your spinach in the pot.

The spinach will wilt right before your eyes. It takes about 1 minute.

Strain it and add 1-2 teaspoons of sesame oil.  

Take firm tofu (about 2 X 2" cube) and squeeze it over the sink

with a disposable glove or a cheese cloth. Once the excess water 

is out of the tofu, simply add the tofu to the spinach.

For the seasonings- add a drizzle of soy sauce or a sprinkle of salt.

One or the other not both. I like to add a minimal about of red pepper

flakes (cayenne or spicy paprika is ok too)

That's it. Spinach is a common side dish in Korean cuisine plain

by itself but adding the tofu makes it a little bit heartier.

If you REALLY wanted to cultivate it and put a twist on it...

you could add some grated parmesan cheese on it also!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 9 of 31 days

Have you ever wondered where the name came from?

As you are driving to work or commuting on the train
have you ever pasted a restaurant and wondered...

I wonder how the food is there... or
have you ever wondered where that name came from...

Is it simply the owner's name or something else!?

Here are a few I wanted to share with you today before
the weekend!

Jimmy Johns - Is it 2 peoples names?
One named James and the other John?
Did they discuss if it should be Jimmy & Johns or Johnny Jim's
or some other combination of their name?
Jimmy Johns simply came from the founder's first and
middle name.  ----- Jimmy John Liautaud


P.F. Changs - What does the P.F. stand for?  Ping and Foo?
Pan-seared and Fried or just Pan Fried? hmmm
The P & F stand for Paul Fleming who partnered with a
Chinese chef with the last name Chiang but they dropped
the letter "I" thinking it would be difficult to pronounce
so P.F. Changs stands for Paul Fleming Changs.


Denny's - Was it someone named Denny..?... nope!
but good obvious guess. Denny's was originally Danny's donuts.
Owner Harold Butler and his wife moved closer to Harold's wife's
uncle Danny (who owned Danny's coffee shops) and at the time
Harold didn't have any money to create the now Denny's so
his wife's uncle helped him with running a Danny's Coffee shop
that they later  just changed the name from Danny's to Denny's
for corporate franchising reasons. I wonder why they just didn't
call it Harold's?  Interesting huh?!

One last one for you today is:

Red Robin - Red Robin was first called Sam's Tavern.  hmmm.
The owner- Sam sang in a barbershop quartet and their go-to
song was "When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin along"
He enjoyed that song SO much that he later changed the place
to Sam's Red Robin.  Two decades later, Gerry Kingen bought
the restaurant and as he expanded it- he decided to drop the Sam's
and the rest is history as simply: Red Robin.


The history of how things started is always fascinating to me.



Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 8 of 31 days

Buffalo Fried Rice

When you are making fried rice- it's  best to use day old rice
especially if you have left over take out rice.
Most fried rices are made with day old rice simply because it is
not as sticky and once rice becomes cold, all the moisture is gone and
for a fried rice stir-fry texture... you want it to be not as moist or
too sticky.  For- who wants fried rice that is porridge like?

I love fried rice and I also delight all things Buffalo especially when made
with Frank's Hot sauce. For this super easy way of making Buffalo fried rice-

I diced up one small onion and  rough chopped already shredded carrots.
I also sliced 2 hot dogs as well. I scrambled 2 eggs in the pan first and then
took the eggs and put them in a bowl (to be added at the end)

I sauteed the onions first and then added the carrots then the hotdogs
with 1 TBSP of soy sauce for the salt, a teaspoon of garlic powder,
a teaspoon of mustard powder and a teaspoon of sugar along with
about 5 TBSP of Frank's Hot sauce.
I then added the rice and stirred everything together.
Lastly, add your already scrambled eggs and stir-in.
I added some parsley flakes at the end as well. (optional)

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 7 of 31 days

Personal Chef Dinner with SPIN Inc.

I love churning menus for not just cooking classes but also for
Personal Chef Dinners.  I was recently invited again by SPIN Inc.
for a Personal Chef Dinner. It's pretty awesome what they do.

The reason I was there was for a 'winners' dinner' which is
exactly what it sounds like. A dinner for the 15 winners.

Spin runs fitness challenges and contests for their employees
every few weeks and the winners received a Personal Chef Dinner
along with their certificates!  How cool is that at a work place?!!

I think it's a win, win, win!  It's a great way to motivate your employees
along with building stronger bonds and team work within your co-workers.

Receiving a Personal Chef Dinner after your hard work is cool too!

Their winners dinner was in their work cafeteria. It's a great space with 

a kitchen attached to it which helps tremendously in preparing the food, 

obviously.  I wanted to dress up the table a little bit even though it's a 

work lunch area with a green table cloth (their logo color) and a few 

tissue paper pom poms... which is always an easy way to dress up the table.

The winners participated in a taste test also. For this group- 

the item was cheese.  Each participant was able to taste 4 different cheeses 

and decide from which it came.

Did it come from a  cow,  goat,  sheep or buffalo?  

The results weren't half bad! I think a few people answered a few correctly.  

More often than not...  people guess completely wrong 

but have so much fun guessing!

The menu started with watermelon lemonade with frozen 

watermelon cubes in place of ice and with strawberry basil crostinis 

with garlic and goat cheese.  The strawberries and basil were marinaded 

in balsamic vinegar.  There were also  Vietnamese summer rolls (not pictured)

The main entree was Soba Noodles (gluten-free) mixed with 

shredded carrots,  sauteed garlic mushrooms and cabbage with 

a side salad of tomatoes and spring mix.

As far as the dessert, it was something not too heavy but dessert is dessert
so I cultivated my own banana split and made them into banana split kebabs.

I baked a super moist brownie and a vanilla cake and cut them into
large bite-size cubes.  I skewered a mixture of strawberries, bananas,
brownie and vanilla cake pieces and a pineapple just to freshen it up.
I received many compliments even without the ice cream.
Being it was a hot summer day and it was at a company cafeteria-
I decided to 86 the ice cream and it still worked out well!
Plus, it was a winners dinner from a fitness challenge y'all!

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 6 of 31 days

Beef and Radish Soup

Soup is a very common side dish to eat along with your rice
and  'banchan' (side dishes) in Korean cuisine.

This morning, I wanted to share a very go-to soup called
beef and radish soup.  Radish is a bit spicy at times and very crisp
when it is raw but in this soup-
you will cook the radish so that is super soft and ever so tender.

The ingredients for this soup are: 

~ 1 pound of Korean radish (which is a large white radish)

    (sliced it into rectangle bite sizes)

~ 4-6 oz of beef (any type of chuck works well for this soup---

   you want to mince it into small pieces)

~ sprouts (a large handful which is about 1/2 a cup)

~ 2 scallions chopped

~ radish stems from smaller radish (optional)

~ 3 TBSP of soy sauce 

~ 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

~ 1/2 a pot of water (about 5 cups)

Start with taking your beef and sauteing it in the sesame oil and when 

the beef has cooked (is a brown color and not the original pinkish color)

you can add all but the sprouts to your pot.

Once your radish has cooked down and is tender-

you can lastly add your sprouts in, turn the stove off 

and add a lid to your pot.

Beef and radish soup is best eaten with a bowl of rice.

You can add a little bit of hot pepper flakes as well if you want to add 

a little spice but this soup is typically enjoyed as a milder beef broth soup.

Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 5 of 31 days

Watermelon lemonade!

Watermelon is perfect for summer.
Everything about this drink screams out.... summer!

From the color to the refreshing watermelon to the chilled
sweetness of the watermelon and slight tartness of the
lemonade combination- you can't go wrong with this drink.

Again, it's SO easy to make.  Your family and friends will be
so impressed that they'll look at you twice!

Let me share with you not only how easy it is to make watermelon lemonade
but a few simple tricks that will really WOW your family and friends as well.

First start off with some cut watermelon.
You can purchase a whole watermelon or you can purchase already cut
watermelon in a clear container from the supermarket.
There's always a debate which is cheaper...
whether to buy the whole watermelon or to buy it already cut.

If you were to literally analyze the weight of the inside, red, edible portion
of the watermelon compared to the price per pound of a whole watermelon...

THEN.... buying already cut watermelon is more often than not cheaper
simply because most people are going to throw away the whites
and rind of the watermelon which is a huge portion of the watermelon
that accounts for the extra $ per pound.

Anyways,  take some cut watermelon cubes and throw it into your blender
and blend it for about 30 seconds. Yup, that's all it takes. Make sure you
add a little bit of water, maybe about a 1/4 cup - otherwise it will not blend.

If you wish to have the watermelon not as pulpy- feel free to run the
blended watermelon through a strainer.  Otherwise, just add your blended
watermelon to your choice of lemonade.  I often prefer
Crystal Light lemonade but feel free to use any kind that floats your boat!

Before you blend all your watermelon cubes, take some of it
(depends on how many people you will be "chilling" with)
and place the cubes into a cup or bowl and throw it into the freezer.

As you serve your summer watermelon lemonade--
you can drop some of the now frozen watermelon cubes and use it
in place of ice cubes. Using the actual watermelon as frozen cubes
will not only keep it more flavorful and enjoyable but it will also
not water your drink down!  Your friends will truly be impressed!

If you add a little wedge of watermelon or lemon or even mint as
a garnish... it looks really nice as well.

Cheers to day 4 of August!


Zestfully,  Let's Cultivate Food.........  day 4 of 31 days