Mandu, the Korean dumplings

There is a new Korean place in Korea Town on 32St, New York City. It is called Mandu, which means Korean dumpling. On its window, you can see two ajumma wrapping mixed meat into wrappers and it only means that the place serve only freshly made dumplings. The best ones are either cooked in delicious broth made from simmered meat and meat bones or you can have the steamed or fried ones. I usually cook my dumplings the Chinese way. And my dumplings are usually frozen, that is why you need to cook in small amount of water for few minutes and then later fried to give you the crispy dumpling skin. The Japanese version, the gyoza is cooked the same way. The Korean mandu is fried fresh and has the crispy skin on both sides. Both ways are good to me. I always enjoy my dumplings (cooked either mandu style or gyoza style).

Summer Fruits.

The only reason why I like summer, would be the fruits that are abundant at the market. We can enjoy all of these summer fruits which may also be imported from Mexico or Chile. Anyway, these imports bring down the price and everyone gets to enjoy these sweet and delicious summer fruits

Kale salad

Summertime means light meals. I found this recipe and I liked it right away. The ingredients are kale, dried cranberries, cooked bacon, any nuts (I used cashew nuts, as that is what I have in my pantry) and dressing made from olive oil, mustard, cider vinegar. brown sugar and salt and pepper.

Kimbap or Korean rice roll

When I found my sushi mat, I was motivated to make some kimbap. When we were in Korea, kimbap was one of the cheapest snacks you could buy. It is a favorite also for breakfast. Ingredients could include, spinach blanched and mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil, julliened carrots, sliced cucumber, slice of fried egg, imitation crab legs, ham, tuna, marinated beef and the yellow pickled radish, the most important ingredient of them all.