Shin Ramen (Instant Ramen)

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Spicy Shredded Dried Squid

This is another great Korean side dish you have probably encountered at a Korean restaurant. Basically, it's shredded dried squid jerky mixed with hot sauce and sesame oil. Although the hot sauce used for mixing fresh vegetables may include vinegar and excludes sesame oil, this one excludes vinegar and includes sesame oil. It has a very mature and spicy flavor that goes well with the fishy flavor coming from the squid. Whenever I make this side dish, I make my bowl of steamed rice disappear pretty quickly.

1. First, you will need the shredded dried squids from a Korean market. Usually they're already shredded before you buy but make sure you shred some of the bigger and thicker pieces one more time. Thinner they are, easier it is to eat and more flavor of the sauce will be worn on greater surfaces of the shredded squid.



2. This hot sauce contains following ingredients: 1 1/2 tbsp red pepper paste, 1 tbsp corn syrup (or sugar), 1/2 tsp finely minced garlic (or grated), and 1 tbsp of sesame oil.

3. When mixing, sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds as well for better flavor.

It gets a little messy when you mix them. It's better if you use a deeper salad bowl or some sort.

Now you have a bowl of steamed rice ready? Watch it quickly devoured with this spicy shredded dried squid banchan!

Spicy Cucumber Salad

You probably had this if you had gone to a Korean restaurant before. This is one of the banchans (side dish) that they give you as soon as you sit down and order your food. This is somewhat spicy, sweet and sour. It goes very well with steamed rice and any other Korean food or teriyaki chicken or beef as a side dish. It's very easy to make.

1. Cut up a cucumber. Slice them diagonally so you get long eclipse shaped slices.


Cut the eclipses in half. Then pickle them in salt water for 20 minutes.

Cut very thin slices of a red onion.

Below is all I am going to use.

And also little bit of chopped green onion.

2. Now it's the sauce. It's a typical mix of Korean spicy sauce without the sesame oil. You can still use sesame oil but I thought the flavor of sesame oil hides the fresh and spicy flavor that goes so well with the cucumbers. Mixture contains 1 1/2 tbsp red pepper paste, 1/2 tsp finely minced (or better grated) garlic, 1 tbsp of apple juice, and 1 tbsp corn syrup (or sugar).


3. Pour the sauce over your vegetables and then add the following additional condiments as mixing: toasted sesame seeds, red pepper powders, and 1 tbsp of vinegar.


There is the final product. Enjoy!

Baked File Fish Jerky

Late at night, you want to eat something but you're not really hungry. Or, you're drinking with a friend at home and you don't have anything else for munches except for some lousy pop corns. Try this stuff! This stuff is probably nothing you tried before. Although this is not exactly a typical side dish with a meal like banchan, I still put this under banchan category just because this still is and can be used as a side dish. Anyways, it's very fishy! So, what is file fish? I don't know. But according to my internet image search, this is what it looks like. Ok, now that's weird. Can we eat that? Obvious yes. Geez, I didn't even know it had some weird horn on its head.
Fortunately, you would not need to deal with the ugliness of the fish when you're cooking the jerky because they are all nicely sliced up for you looking like a real jerky. Well it is a jerky. Just bake it on your stove. Flip to the other side after like 6 seconds of cooking one side.




So that's when it's nicely cooked on both sides.

You can cut them up into pieces to make it easier to eat.

And here goes the killer sauce. How about a mix of mayo and sweet and sour red pepper paste (cho gochujang)? You can make it in a separate bowl if you don't have this already made bottle of sweet and spicy red pepper paste. For making the sauce from scratch, use red pepper paste (original), vinegar, sugar, and optionally a touch of 7-up for a little citrus kick to it.

Enjoy!