What I had for dinner Monday night:
Call it joonghan-shik: the joong from joong-dong (Middle East), the han from hanguk (Korea), and the shik that means food.
What you're looking at is my Middle Eastern-style chicken on a bed of couscous with homemade oi-kimchi (cucumber kimchi) and store-bought mak-kimchi, along with more than a drizzle of sriracha.
This was my second night of playing with chicken breasts and spice/seasoning combinations; it turned out great. The spices and seasonings in question: salt, pepper, cumin, onion powder, Korean chili pepper flakes, paprika, and powdered garlic. The breasts got rubbed in that combination, then were placed in the skillet on medium-high heat with some olive oil and butter. Once the bird was mostly cooked, I scissored the meat into large chunks and cooked the exposed sides in the very fragrant liquid that was forming in the skillet. The result was perfectly tender chicken that smelled and tasted awesome. In fact, I'm thinking of using that spice combo to make chicken shawarmas next.
Oh, yeah: the couscous was made with a stock of boiling water and Korean beef-flavored dashida, along with some olive oil, butter, and a very tiny sprinkling of dried basil mixed in.
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Looks good! How did you manage to think up that combination?
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought upon seeing 중한식 was Chinese-Korean... this is not helped by the fact that the 중 character would be same, and 중식 invariably refers to Chinese food. Hmm... come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard Middle Eastern cuisine referenced in Korean. I guess it would just be 중동요리 (as opposed to 중화요리, heh).
Say... why do we still use the term "Middle East" anyway? "Far East" has largely been abandoned in favor of "Asia," so why haven't we come up with anything suitable for "Middle East"?
(Wikipedia has a section in the "Middle East" entry on "Criticism and usage," but apparently the only other option is "Near East.")
Yeah, I thought about that confusion, too, and briefly wondered whether it might be better to throw a curve and write this as han-joong shik instead. But upon further reflection, I decided that confusion would still prevail, so I left the expression as it was.
ReplyDeleteNo idea why we still say "Middle East," unless it's because the British Empire still rawks da fuckin' house. Wasn't it the British military that instituted those designations to begin with? Near East, Middle East, Far East-- all in relation to the Greenwich meridian.
I'd like to know when Koreans (and other East Asians?) adopted the designations "dong-yang" and "seo-yang" to refer to themselves and Western civilization, respectively. This is an implicit acknowledgment of the Eurocentric point of view. It brings up the further question of why "dong/seo-yang" is tolerable whereas non-Korean designations for the bodies of water around the peninsula are not.
(I'm sure the answer is Japan-related, at least for the Eastern Sea: whereas "dong/seo-yang" is large and abstract, East Sea/Sea of Japan is much more immediate. My guess, anyway.)
As to how I thought up the combination: well, I was a bit worried about kimchi and couscous, but was pretty confident that kimchi would go fine with the chicken. Kimchi goes well with a surprising number of non-Korean foods, especially meats. Being a distant cousin to sauerkraut, kimchi would, in my opinion, pair up nicely with any sort of German wurst, for example. And every expat in Korea knows that kimchi is awesome with eggs.
ReplyDeleteThe couscous was done up in my usual way; had I taken a more Middle Eastern route, I'd have topped the couscous with diced raw tomatoes and cooked squash, plus a sprinkling of feta. With kimchi, though, I'd never include feta. Can't imagine that tasting very good.
I'd like to know when Koreans (and other East Asians?) adopted the designations "dong-yang" and "seo-yang" to refer to themselves and Western civilization, respectively. This is an implicit acknowledgment of the Eurocentric point of view.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. I would imagine that it originated during the Enlightenment/opening of ports period, but I have no historical evidence to back up that suspicion, just hunches and what I know of Korean history in general. This is the sort of thing I think would be nifty to research in a Korean Studies sense after the diss--how Korea has related to the rest of the world, specifically the West, throughout history.
It brings up the further question of why "dong/seo-yang" is tolerable whereas non-Korean designations for the bodies of water around the peninsula are not.
(I'm sure the answer is Japan-related, at least for the Eastern Sea: whereas "dong/seo-yang" is large and abstract, East Sea/Sea of Japan is much more immediate. My guess, anyway.)
That would be my guess, too. It's one thing to have your place defined by a dominant empire halfway around the world. It's quite another thing to have your place defined by Japan of all nations.
Kimchi goes well with a surprising number of non-Korean foods, especially meats. Being a distant cousin to sauerkraut, kimchi would, in my opinion, pair up nicely with any sort of German wurst, for example. And every expat in Korea knows that kimchi is awesome with eggs.
A lot of Koreans know about the eggs, too--they don't put fried eggs in 비빔밥 for nothing! And a most definite yes on the kimchi-wurst combination... like a high-class 부대찌개, maybe? My experience, though, is that kimchi goes really well with pork, but not as well with beef (kimchi and steak, for example). Chicken, I'm not sure.