Australian Baby Food VS Korean Baby Food

In this Emart collab video both Hugh and I make baby food for Yul. I made something Australian and Hugh made Korean baby food. We had to go to Emart to buy the ingredients and then we cooked at home. Yul tried both and he liked one better! Watch the video to find out what he liked!

Recipes:

Zucchini and carrot slice:

5 eggs
1 zucchini
1 carrot
1 onion
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup cheese (grated)
1/3 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 180°C
Grate zucchini and squeeze out excess liquid.
Grate carrot.
Finely chop onion.
In a bowl, whisk eggs. Add zucchini, onion, carrot, cheese, sifted flour, oil and mix together.
Grease baking tray with a bit of oil. Put into a baking tray or tin.
Bake in oven for 40 mins or until golden brown.

Hugh’s recipe: Beef and Seaweed rice porridge:

Rice 70g
beef 35g
seaweed 45g
sesame oil 1 spoon
280ml water

Cook together on stove for 15 mins and leave to cool for 5 mins.

Korean recipes are much more about ‘feeling’ what is the right measurement and how long to cook for. But for an Australian recipe like zucchini slice, exact measurements are pretty important.

The slice that I made is quite different from what Korean babies that age would eat. Rice porridge “juk” is the main thing babies and toddlers eat. It can have a huge range of ingredients so they are getting all their nutrients, but it is a mushy food fed with a spoon. When Yul eats something that isn’t baby food like that, we have him do ‘self feeding’ which is a style of feeding and parenting where he can touch and play with the food and also feed himself. He has been experimenting with spoons and chopsticks, even though he’ll resort to his fingers mostly. These days he eats a lot of the same things we eat as well.

It is Chuseok today. You can read about Chuseok here.

It’s a big holiday in Korea and there is a lot of preparation. A lot of food needs to be prepared and there is a lot of fried food. Before we eat it, some is used for ancestor rituals where we pay respects to deceased family members. While I was helping set this up, Mr Gwon was stuffing his face… and then hiding and stuffing his face!

Our tiny village is quite busy today as everyone comes back to their parents or grandparents’ houses. If you are a foreigner in Korea, never try to travel at this time of year! The roads and clogged and the public transport is booked out.

The main crops are strawberries and kiwi fruits, but those aren’t in season right now. These are all vegetables that we grow for ourselves, so most of what we eat is from the farm. Though one time Mr Gwon told me everything on the table was from our farm, but I held up part of an octopus and asked where the octopus plants were… We still need to buy things like meat.

Also, potatoes are really easy to grow. My mother in law always laughs in disdain when on TV there will be people selling and promoting “organic potatoes”. They are always organic because you don’t need to do anything with them here! They just pop out of the ground. Don’t believe anyone trying to sell you organic potatoes at a higher price.

Apparently Koreans eat chicken butts. Well he won. If I was going to force him to eat something that is eaten in my culture he could force me to eat something that is eaten in his culture.

Yesterday we went for a walk to the city because we planned on showing you guys a cheap but good place to get Taiwanese food. We have to cross Darling Harbour to get to where we want to go. From where we live it’s a quick walk and then down a lift to Darling Harbour.

My husband often tries to push lift buttons with his knees.

Stupid.

Okay, walk through Darling Harbour.

The train for tourists behind me. And the damn wind. Ahhh, not a good idea to wear my hair out.

There is usually a carousel at Darling Harbour but I never paid attention to it before because that was before Gangnam Style. Stopped to have a quick dance in front of it. With a random kid.

What’s wrong with my face there?

Anyway, then past the trendy restaurants and lovely outside areas. My husband stops for a rest in the deck chairs.

Okay so, if you are in Sydney and don’t want to spend much money but want a decent meal here is where you can go. Find China Town.

Then find Sussex Centre.

Okay so we are going up to the food court on the top floor! Ew Food Court? Yeah a lot of food courts suck but this one is good. No Macdonalds or other crap, just Asian food.

Inside: What the hell is this? An employee moving a giant stuffed toy from one store to another.

Oh, Big Bang! Yay.

Unfortunately, the Taiwanese place we wanted to show wasn’t open at the time we went there (but of course it’s open every other time we go with no intention of making a blog post!). It’s okay though because we’ll just get other stuff.

My husband was quick to get Chinese seafood soup.

And I got some Japanese curry.

Most meals are $10 or under here and all types of Asian food. Yay. If you are coming into the city for shopping or whatever- no need to waste money on over priced sandwiches or other expensive food.

Hopefully another time we can show you the food we actually wanted to show.

Anyway. That’s what we did yesterday afternoon!

He really does. He usually will take two and because I don’t usually want a sample he will make me go back and take two, pretending they are for me, and then make me give them to him. Greedy!

Anyway, I arrived in Sydney last night (what shocking weather there is at the moment!) so we are both now together. We are sharing an apartment with another Korean couple until we get our own apartment. Renting in Sydney is expensive! Especially the area we are in as it’s walking distance to the city. It is difficult for my husband, he is basically starting his life again in another country, so we are quite poor at the moment. Oh well at least we have our own bedroom and bathroom and we are together.

When I arrived last night these were waiting for me on the bed:

The bear has a cute hood on, and when trying to explain it, my husband said “You can take it’s head off!”

This was early in our relationship. While I had eaten a lot of Korean food I didn’t realise those flat yellow strips side dishes were called ‘fish cakes’. I was so happy that my husband (then boyfriend) was going to cook something for me that I didn’t stop to ask what he meant by ‘fish cakes’. Stupidly, I envisioned lovely golden fish cakes full of fresh fish and mashed potato like my grandmother used to make. Or at least something like thai fish cakes. I was very wrong. I was so preoccupied with making a salad that I didn’t realise what he actually meant by fish cakes until he had finished.

This is what he meant:

Not these:

Oops… I thought he was making the main dish, not just a little side dish with a few strips of the flat fish stuff. It was okay in the end, because I quite like that side dish. But I know for the future to quiz him when he offers to cook something (which isn’t often).

Can someone explain to readers how those sheets of Korean fish cake sheets are made? And what is the correct name for this side dish? There seems to be a few different types so I’m unsure of the correct name.

Confucianism again. In particular filial piety. The Korea Blog has a good article on filial piety in Korea HERE

This is something that comes up sometimes, especially when we are staying with my parents. My relationship with my parents seems too casual and not respectful enough to my husband. While the interactions with my parents are quite normal for an Australian family, it would be really unusual for a Korean family. Occasionally I get a lecture from him about how I don’t respect my parents enough. And just sometimes he guilt me enough…

My sister and I do most of the cooking when we are home. My dad is quite lazy about cooking but somehow he magically appears when my sister and I were making something for ourselves. Although the ingredients might be right there, he often can’t be bothered cooking it himself, so we quite often would tell him no when he asked for some of what we had just cooked. Doesn’t really bother him either way. Well… can’t say no if you are in Korea. Not just for parents but when anyone older asks for food you’ve just cooked. I’ll explore that topic in a later post though.

In the incident in the comic, I really did sit there thinking about it. I couldn’t enjoy my mango smoothie because of what my husband had said. Even though all the ingredients were right there and my dad could make one himself if he wanted I thought more about it and decided to make him and my mother one too. And then I felt better.

So most of us have probably eaten cold pizza for breakfast or something right? This is different to that. I have noticed Koreans don’t worry as much about food going cold. I’m always hesitant to make generalisations because some things, especially if I’m judging just from my husband, are just a personality quirk and not a cultural difference. Korea however, is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world. When there is not much diversity you do get a culture that really has a certain way of doing things. So there are some things we can say is the Korean way of doing it.

This is something I have noticed and I noticed it early on when I first made Korean friends. If hot food is made and cools down, reheating it isn’t a priority. Many times I witnessed a meal being made and the food that was made first (and that I thought should be eaten hot) was left on the table while other food is being made. That food is then eaten cold even though it was originally hot.

The difference to Western culture is that we usually want our food to stay hot or at least warm. Do you remember being yelled at when it’s dinner time because you haven’t come to the table yet and the food is getting cold? Think how often we use phrases like “come get it while it’s hot!”

Koreans, I’ve noticed, can put leftover cold fried chicken on the table and no one is like “You should reheat that!” Once food has cooled down there isn’t much desire for them to heat it up again.

When I was helping my husband’s mother cook dinner while we were in Korea I made a dish, but she still had to make some more so it was still going to be a while before we ate. I started to panic about my dish because I was worried about it getting cold and not tasting as good. I put foil over it trying to keep the warmth in. In the end when it was put on the table it was cold but it didn’t bother anyone.

You may know a Korean who always wants their food to stay hot, but in general not reheating seems to be the norm. Sometimes people who have stayed in Korea might say things like “I never noticed that” about whatever the issue may be. But I think living constantly with a Korean means you pick up on these little things.

Has anyone else experienced this?