And by home cooked I mean I went to the Asian grocery and bought pre-made ban chan (Korean side dishes). However, I did cook the brown rice at home.

Here’s what I had (clockwise):

Brown rice
Tofu with hot pepper sauce
Oden (spicy fish cake)
Spinach in sesame oil
Spicy pickles

And for dessert I had “margaret” cookies from Lotte. The Koreans pronounce it mah-gah-reh-tuh. They are soft, butter cookies that are as light as air. I would eat the whole box if I weren’t concerned about things like…I don’t know…cholesterol and obesity.

Lotte is like the Nabisco of Korea and produces some of my favorite childhood snacks and beverages. The classic Lotte snack is “choco-pie”. Koreans love choco pie. It’s a mix between a mallomar and a chocolate cake. I think it came out after the Korean War when Koreans were so poor all they had to eat were shin ramen, dog, and choco pie.

Now Korea is the 11th largest economy in the world and Koreans still eat shin ramen, dog*, and choco pie.

Sometimes there is nothing like Korean comfort food. I took all these things for granted growing up and now I miss coming home to a table crowded with weird looking and funny smelling food.

But at least I can buy choco pies in my neighborhood.

(photo courtesy of flickr)

*The line about the consumption of dog meat is intended to be a joke. I don’t need any hate mail from Peta thankyou very much.