My all-time favorite food is kalbi, or Korean style marinated beef short ribs. There’s just something about the combination of tender beef with soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and sugar that makes my mouth water. And although my mom gave me a recipe for her own delicious marinade, I have yet to try it out to see if it will actually turn out just like hers. Upon my request, she even went through the trouble of measuring everything out in teaspoons and tablespoons, which is nearly impossible to get a Korean mom to do. So one day, I will gladly try it out for sure and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, if you have ever been inside of a Korean grocery store, you’ve probably seen those bottles of pre-made kalbi marinade sauces. Have you ever been curious to see if they actually taste good? Well, the truth is, I have and did. I’ve been through several different brands, but none of them really hit the mark in my opinion. But one day, I saw this bag of Sempio kalbi sauce sitting next to a sale sign and thought, what the heck… it’s on sale, it couldn’t hurt. [...]

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We haven’t had cable or TV in our place for months. And before you think it’s because we’re too sophisticated for it, you are wrong sir. I LOVE my reality shows, and I miss the Housewives and Kardashians more than you know. It was our attempt to save some money and it kinda works. But we will be moving soon, and we will be FORCED to have cable again in our new place. It comes sort of as a package deal with our rent… weird, huh? Oh wells, no one complaining over here. So in lieu of TV, I’ve been watching a lot of “Friends” that we have on our computer. So on that note, in regards to the blog, sorry about last week’s silence, but in the words of Ross to Rachael, “we were on a break!” [...]

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Long story short: buy frozen shrimp. I don’t really care what brand you get, it’s not really about the brand, but frozen shrimp is a must-have staple in your freezer, unless you’re allergic to shrimp or don’t like seafood, in which case… wow (awkward silence), I don’t really know what to say. But for those of you who like to eat shrimp, you don’t have to rely on buying it fresh from the seafood counter. And those of you who already have frozen shrimp in your freezer, you don’t have to hide it from people. You can say it loud and proud. Here’s why. [...]

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I currently live within walking distance to a Farmer’s Market that they set up every Saturday. But in the case that you don’t, you can always order a surprise box of goodies from Farm Fresh To You. My friend Janice had an extra account left with them, and forwarded it to me! She claimed that I’d make better use out of it than she could, and was happy to have them send me this gorgeous bursting box of seasonal surprise goodies. And you know what? She’s right, because at least I would be someone who would blog about it! [...]

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Once you get to know me and my recipes, you’ll soon find out that I am pretty predictable. I used to pride myself in using crazy ingredients and experimenting in the kitchen with avant-garde type of flavor combinations, but then I thought to myself, hey, who am I kidding? You can almost play “where’s waldo?” with my recipes and look out to see if you can spot certain ingredients over and over again. But as long as the food tastes good, what’s so wrong with that, right? Here are two of my personal favorite ingredients I always have on hand. [...]

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Of course I have soy sauce and sesame oil, amongst other go-to Asian ingredients, such as ginger and garlic, but when I’m feeling lazy, I rely on only 3 ingredients to whip up a quick and tasty stir-fry:

Oyster sauce: is this thick, sweet and salty sauce that doesn’t taste like oysters or seafood, in my opinion. It just tastes like someone whipped up a delicious medley of soy sauce, sugar, garlic and tastiness together, in one syrupy dark sauce. In other words, it adds most of the flavor you desire, just from one bottle.
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