The list of food I plan to master in this lifetime

I once read in a food magazine (probably Donna Hay) that if you master 10 of your favourite dishes, then you are set for life. So I thought about what to master in this lifetime. I have crossed out the food I mastered :p

1. chocolate chip cookies
(Dare I say I mastered it? Let's just say that as long as I stick to the recipe, I will be fine.)

I find it very hard to bake these seemingly simple chocolate chip cookies to perfection. I have wasted almost a kilogram of Valhorna chocolate.
(I shed tears every time I think of them)
Has anyone tried Millie's Cookies? You probably have if you have visited/lived in UK. You can find them in nearly every train station and even at Heathrow. They are not the best in the world, (too sweet for my taste) but I want to immitate the texture of miniature cookies. They seem soft and slightly chewy.
I want to make the ultimate dark chocolate chip cookies that are cripsy on the outside but chewy on the inside.

2. chocolate brownies

I wasted another kilogram of Valhonra chocolate. I despise almost all the brownies sold in Korea. Most of them do not deserve to be called 'brownies'. They are just chocolate sponge cakes with bits of nuts thrown in. Brownies should be gooey and slightly crispy on the edge.
The best chocolate brownie I tried till date comes from Chandos Deli in Bristol. It was my weekly treat. It was dense, gooey with chunks of white cholate, plain chocolate and brazil nuts here and there. I aim to recreate them.

3. pasta (one each of cream sauce , tomato sauce and olive oil base)

I don't want to sound smug, but I think I found one of the ultimate cream sauce pasta which will appear regularly when I invite guests over. It is prawn in parsley cream sauce. But for tomato sauce and olive oil base I haven't quite mastered.

4. Yukgaejang

It is a spicy Korean beef soup made of beef brisket, gosa-ri (bracken. Yes, we eat them), shitake mushrooms and leeks. My ex-maid used to make very very nice yukgaejang that I think of time to time. Whenever I come home for holidays, yukgaejang was the first dish I ate. It is hearty and spicy, just what I needed after 11 hours of flight.

5. Caramel à la Fleur de Sel

To be honest with you, I never had a real Fleur de Caramel à la Fleur de Sel. My favourite macaroon at Ladurée was Caramel à la Fleur de Sel variety. I tried once at home but it was hard to get them solid at room temprature. Perhaps the first thing I can do is to invest in a candy thermometer.

6. kimchi (baechu, kakdugi and pa)

Kimchi. One cannot talk bout Korean food without mentioning kimchi. The (usually) spicy preserved vegetables are staple of our daily life. Each household has its own unique recipe. There are actually various types of kimchi but I guess the most well known and hard-to-master one is baechu kimchi (Baechu is sold under the name Chinese cabage in supermarkets in the West). I also want to master kakdugi, a kimchi made of cubed radish pieces, and pa kimchi, made of spring onions and good fish sauce.

7. madeleine

These almondy cakes are simple yet elegant and delicate. And the shell-shaped curves are pretty to look at. A madeleine with a cup of lemon-verbena tea. Heaven.

8. Lemon tart

It is actually quite hard to find a nice lemon tart. They are often soggy or eggy (in an unpleasant way) or both.

9. omelette

Light-as-air omelette will make a perfect light meal any time of the day, whether served with green salad or smoked salmon.

10. Roast

Time to time, I get craving for roast, be it beef, chicken or pork. I miss pork cracklings, yorkshire pudding and buttery savoy cabbage. It is almost impossible (again) to get it in Korea, so why not cook my own? Mastering a roast would mean mastering roasting meat, potatoes, cooking vegetables and gravy. This will be a challenge.

Oz's Kitchen, pizza and pasta, Seoul

In my opinion, the last thing we need in Seoul is another pizza and pasta joint. Everwhere I go, whether a French restaurant or Italian restaurant, all I see on the menu are pasta. They are usually the predictable menu like carbonara, alio e olio, vongole, etc. I am honestly sick of them. I mean, I can cook them at home better than most of them. So I was a little skeptical about going to Oz's Kitchen, a pizza and pasta place in Samcheongdong. But since the review I read on the internet - "good food, but the portion is small for the price"-, I decided to give it a go. And I was surprised that the food was actually very good.

With my colleague - the other female in my office, my partner in crime-, we popped in there for lunch today. We ordered tomato and home-made ricotta salad, conchiglie in home-made pesto and musrhoom and ricotta calzone.

During lunch, a complimentary small salad and coffee are served.




A complimentary salad - romaine, cruton, parmagiano reggiano




Tomato was very sweet, ricottao so smooth and dressing was refreshing without being too sharp. Speckles of black pepper on the cheese were nice compliment. The portion is very small though. But I am glad it is, because I don't eat much. (I eat little but often)




I think it is one of the best pasta I ever had. It was very fragarant without overpowering bitterness which is a trap that a lot of pesto fall into. The conchiglie was cooked to perfection and just the right amount of pesto covered the pasta.






Mushroom calzone...the dough was so perfect. The best I had in Seoul. The filling was creamy. Although I would have liked more filling inside, the dough was thin enough. I think it would go very nice with wine.




The owner is a photographer/cook who also runs cookery classes. I am so happy to have found this place. The food was simple yet perfect. The only minus for some people is the portion. I have no problem with it, but some people may find it too small.

Tomato and ricotta salad: 9,500KRW (£4.75)
Conchiglie in pesto: 14,500 KRW (£7.25)
Mushroom calzone: 20,500KRW (£10.25)

75015. French Bistro, Seoul

I was toldby a girl with who I attend a cookery class with told me that her friend opened a bistro in Hongdae, so I decided to check it out.
The bistro is called "75015". Sounds familiar? Anyone who has been to Paris would know that it is area code/zip code for each arrondissement in Paris, and this case, the 15th arrondsement where Le Coron Bleu is. 75015 is run by three friends who studied at Le Cordon Bleu together.

Having studied at Le Cordon Bleu, making crêpe and gallette may sound like a waste, but I am glad that they are.

Everything on the menu is zipcoded like 75001 Gallete aux etc etc and I ordered 75003 which is gallete aux jambons, oeuf et fromage, a buckwheat pancake with ham, egg and cheese. On the top, a dollop each of pesto and tomato sauce are served.It is served with homefries/cubed potatoes cooked in rosemary and olive oil, green salad with olives and sliced almonds and a slice of bread.



I was advised to mix egg yolk, pesto and tomatoe sauce to achieve a gooey sauce to dip in. It went very nicely with gallete.



I wanted to try their crêpe, caramelized banana crêpe to be exact, but the waiter said that it may be too much after a gallete. He advised me to try their fondant au chocolat.




It was not bad. I would have gone gaga over this 10 years ago, but I think I tried something better over the years. This one definitely reminds me that what I had at Jean-George Shanghai was a good one, though a bit boring. (I mean, it was as good as it can be, and like crème brûlée, I am sick of it. Yes, I should really stop eating it. )




It is a bit of a walk to find the place. FYI, this is what the bistro looks like.






Tel) (02)332 1113