part of how I celebrated my Fourth

I fêted my Fourth by making a mess of budae-jjigae-- Komerican "boot camp" stew. Here are the phases.

First, there's the meat-- spam, hot dogs, and ground beef:



Second, there's the rest of the veggies and flavorings-- gochujang (red chili pepper paste), kimchi, squash, paengi-beoseot (enoki mushrooms), twisted chili pepper, pyogo (shiitake mushrooms), kong-namul (soy sprouts), gochu (chili peppers, lean and mean), white onion, tofu, green onion, and ssukggat (mugwort):



Next, the carbs. Sliced rice cake (ddeok) and ramyeon are late to the party:



The cooking begins:



Toward the end of the glorious process, the ramyeon gets tossed in:



End result:



My gullet was full this evening. Then I went out for a drive and watched the sporadic fireworks in the Shenandoah Valley from an overlook on Skyline Drive. Fireworks competed with heat lightning for dominance of the sky. It was an incredible display.

For previous budae-related posts, see here.


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