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A Flop and a Flip

Here’s an email I sent recently about a cooking failure and a big success: Hello there cooks, Have you had any triumphs in the kitchen lately? Or perhaps a terrific flop? I’ve had both in the last month or so. On December 30 I undertook to make apple butter. We had ordered a box from a farm about a month earlier and time was running out to make good use of them.

두부고추장찌개 (tofu and red pepper paste stew)

Dinner last night. The funniest part of this is the shaker of black pepper they provide: So you’re telling me this soup which is made out of red pepper might be a little bland, and to season according to my taste? I’ve seen peppercorns here, and I’ve seen shakers of ground black pepper, but I have not seen a pepper mill. In the kitchens I frequent we gave up pre-ground black pepper for the pepper mills a while ago, because it’s bland.


The Original "Hai Nik"

That’s from an orphanage outside Seoul in 2009. The hedge reads ㅎhㅏaㅣi (the ㅇ is silent), so it’s actually saying “hi” in phonetic Korean.