팥빙수 patbingsu and stew 찌개

Now that it's nice and hot out, I'm incredibly thankful I have an air conditioner and decided today to give patbingsu another go. I don't really like it that much. Usually it brings back bad memories of my old middle school's lunches. Every time patbingsu was served, it meant we were having seafood salad sandwiches. And for me, that meant I would be having a stale bun, radish chunks and patbingsu. Not the most enjoyable lunch.

And here it is in all of its take away glory. Sweet beans on top of canned and jellied fruit, on top of shaved ice and frozen strawberry milk. This is a much more appetizing version compared to what my old school cafeteria produced. They liked to serve it in a frozen, mini, strawberry milk box, topped with jellied fruit, cornflakes and powder. Even though it's a much more appealing version than what I'm used to, I still didn't manage to finish it. I like frozen red bean bars on their own, but the patbingsu combination of ingredients just doesn't work for me.

 And because I know I won't feel like eating it for awhile since summer is here, I decided to make chunggookjang, fermented bean soup. I used a nice Korean bowl that is used to both cook and serve the soup in. Makes for less dishes used and keeps the soup boiling hot.

And then kimchi jjigae, with lots of tofu. Normally I don't go for this in restaurants because it always comes with meat, nor do I usually make it at home because: 1) I don't really like soup. 2) Chunggookjang and dwaenjang jjigae win out on the rare occasion I feel like soup/stew. But I had some kimchi going sour and that's when it's time to make kimchi jjigae.