So far I have been good about navigating around Europe with Italy and Norway and even ventured a bit east to Turkey and Lebanon. To date, my food adventures have just required the plain old fork and knife—boring, right?
I think it’s time to exercise my hand muscles, and my appetite and venture forth—to South Korea. After all, who does not enjoy some good Seoul food in her life?
In comparison to Chinese and Japanese cuisine, Korean food is still carving its niche as a formidable global taste. Korea remains America’s closest Asian ally however our exchange of food is drastically one-sided. McDonalds, KFC, and even the California Pizza Kitchen flood the street signs of Seoul but I am willing to bet only so many Americans know what kimchi is, and an even fewer number have probably tried it.
Korean food though is actually delicious, one of the most surprising and exciting cuisine I have ever tasted. As Korea continues to gain huge international traction as an economic power, it has responded by implementing huge initiatives to share its food with the rest of the world. In 2009 the Minister of Agriculture launched the “Globalization Strategy of Korean Food,” with the strategy of pushing Korean cuisine to be ranked as one of the top 5 in the world by 2017. The charge is led by First Lady Kim Yoon-ok, and in this staycation, my goal is just to help her out a little.
In general, Korean food is boiled, broiled, steamed, or pan-fried. Since I am still a pure American at heart, I clearly went for the pan fried dish as my first foray into Korean cooking. I was in Korea this past summer and one of my favorite starter plates was pajeon, or a Korean fried pancake (jeon). I enjoyed seafood (pa) jeon, but this time around, I kept it easy with zucchini jeon.
For this food adventure, I am reaching out to some of my friends I met in Korea and will soon be stopping by to interview a chef at a Korean restaurant that opened up right down the street, but for now I am sticking with this cool Korean food recipe blog I highly recommend.
This recipe was mad easy, and very tasty with the included soy sauce recipe. I like using chopsticks to cut the pancake apart; it gives me a greater sense of power and found survival skills. Only word to the wise would be to use tongs to flip the pancake. I went with the spatula, and somewhat failed on a full, complete flip…hence the more oblong pictured pancake.
Five minutes to make and in no time you will enjoy! 
Recipe: Zucchini Pancake (from http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/hobakjeon)
Ingredients:
- Zucchini
- Salt
- Water
- Flour
- sesame oil
- vegetable oil.
Directions:
Pancake
-Julienne a small zucchini. Put 1½ cups of zucchini strips into a bowl.
-Add ½ cup flour, ½ ts salt, ½ cup water and mix it well with a spoon.
-On a heated pan, place about 2 tbs vegetable oil and put the batter on to the pan.
-Spread the batter evenly and thinly to make a large circular pancake.
-About 1 minute later, when the bottom part sets firm, add 1 tbs sesame oil on the pan, along the edge of the pancake.
-Tilt and shake the pan so that sesame oil spreads underneath the pancake.
-Cook another minute until the bottom turns light golden brown and crispy.
*tip: keep pressing it down with a spoon or spatula while cooking
-Turn over the pancake with a spatula, or flip it if you can (I COULDN’T!!)
-Add more vegetable oil if you want to make it more crispy. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
-Transfer the pancake to a large serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.
Dipping Sauce
In a small glass bowl add 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs vinegar, 1 tbs chopped onion, 1 clove of minced garlic, and 1 sliced green chili pepper. Mix it up with a spoon.
Food Staycation 
