Hungry? Try some Korean classics

It’s that time of year again. You trudge into the new semester, lugging boxes of clothes, furniture, stationery and assorted Old Navy flip-flops into a bare room, excited or not to start unpacking and decorating your new home.

Whether or not you call yourself a foodie, a more pressing matter is at hand — stocking the pantry and fridge. After all, one can’t survive on Subway sandwiches alone, no matter what Jared might say. For some of us, that means bulking up on boxes of ramen noodles and canned soups from Costco. For others, it could mean picking fresh heirloom tomatoes and five different kinds of cheeses from the farmers market. Whatever your choice of store, it’s time to go shopping.

Perhaps you are bored with buying the same items over and over. It’s a brand new year after all, so that calls for something more adventurous in the food department, and I don’t mean switching from chicken ramen to seafood ramen.

USC might not be located in a swanky neighborhood, but there are definite perks to living in an area of ethnic communities where certain ingredients are easier to procure. Consider Koreatown, just a 15-minute Metro bus ride away.

If you can’t read or speak Korean, it might seem intimidating to visit a Korean supermarket. But some of its traditional Korean ingredients can actually be easily incorporated into daily college cooking.

Take for example gochujang. Gochujang is a fermented red chili pepper paste, a ubiquitous condiment in Korean foods. In other words, it’s the ketchup of Korean cooking, and most meals contain gochujang in some form. It doesn’t matter if you butcher the pronunciation so long as you learn to appreciate the versatility of this red paste.

Gochujang has an intense, earthy and complex flavor — savory and spicy, yet slightly sweet, with a distinct pungency. It is certainly not for the faint of heart, but it also has an irresistible quality that leaves a lingering impression long after.

Think outside the box and you can use it as a flavoring agent to give your favorite dish a curiously hot kick. Use it as dressing for salads, marinade for grilled or barbecued meats and fish, dipping sauce for crudités, last-minute seasoning for soups, spreads for sandwiches and sauces for everything from potatoes to pasta to even pizza.

A little goes a long way, so don’t overdo it. Gochujang is best thinned out with liquids like soy sauce, broth, vinegar, sesame oil or even orange juice, and perhaps balanced with a little sweetness from honey or mellowed out with mayonnaise. It all depends on how sweet, salty or spicy you want it. You can also just eat it as is, mixed into rice or spread on raw vegetables. The best thing about gochujang is that it can last for an entire school year, so a small jar is a good investment.

The next ingredient is something most Americans are now familiar with: nori (or kim in Korean), those thin toasted seaweed sheets that wrap around your sushi. If gochujang is the Korean ketchup, nori is the Korean bacon. It’s crackly, it’s crispy and, despite being seaweed, it’s delicious, whether by itself or as part of a dish.

Nori comes in different forms, including dry-toasted, roasted with sesame oil, olive oil or grape seed oil, salted, unsalted or even coated with a sweet and salty teriyaki glaze. For everyday cooking purposes, stick to the plain dry-toasted type. That way, instead of dominating the dish, it accents it with a nutty, umami-rich flavor.

Just tear it up into little strips and toss it onto soups or noodle dishes. Use it as a base for wraps or topping for creative fusion pizzas. Roll it up with omelettes or sprinkle onto scrambled eggs. Toss it over salads and roasted vegetables. If you’re too hungry to get creative, just mix it up with cooked rice, a splash of sesame oil, soy sauce and a fried egg. Remember that nori can soak up moisture, so pair it with a bit of liquid, otherwise the dish can become too dry.

And finally, who can forget about kimchi? Certainly not the Koreans, who eat kimchi with practically every meal (I eat it with spaghetti). A college student of any cultural background can benefit from kimchi’s superb health and gastronomical benefits too.

Kimchi, of course, is what makes Korean food famous. It’s sauerkraut with an attitude—fermented, probiotic-rich vegetables, usually cabbage, seasoned with red pepper flakes, fish sauce, salt, garlic and more. Kimchi, like gochujang, is an intricate blend of sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavors, but with more substance and texture. Though they are raw, the vegetables have been softened by salt, which makes them soft yet refreshingly crunchy. Vegetarians and vegans, however, should take note that kimchi usually contains fish sauce or shrimp paste.

Kimchi can be used in a myriad combinations. You can pop it on a burger, scramble it with eggs, stick it into a quesadilla, fry it with rice, puree into risotto and curries, boil it into stew or melt it into a grilled cheese sandwich.

But do yourself a favor and try sautéing it with bacon. The marriage of warm, flavorful bacon fat and crunchy, spicy kimchi is all you need to convince yourself that  you need to buy a bigger jar of this Korean pickle.

Don’t let these foreign products intimidate you. All it takes is a bit of imagination and the courage to try something new. As you go shopping, remember to leave a little space next to your usual pantry items for a new culinary adventure.