Travel along the southwest coast in summer and you may come across a bright green, succulent-like plant stretching upwards like a tiny tree from the mudflat. This is hamcho (함초, samphire or glasswort, Salicornia herbacea),
Recipe: Yeolmu kimchi, young radish greens kimchi
Go to any restaurant in Korea during our hot and sweaty summers, and you’re likely to find these lovely greens stems of kimchi on your table.
Recipe: Gang doenjang, doenjang stew reduction
Gang doenjang (강된장) is a kind of reduced bean paste stew that we often eat in summer with steamed summer greens like squash leaves.
Cooking Class at Mangwon Market
As you’ve probably guessed by now, we’re kind of obsessed with ingredients.
Six Korean spring clams
Spring brings all kinds of good things to the fish market, and one of these is the bounty of fresh clams.
Dureup, the king of spring: Aralia elata shoots
One of the last spring greens to grace the markets each year is dureup (두릅, Aralia elata shoots), a mildly bitter and fragrant vegetable.
Recipe: Dureup sukhoe, blanched Aralia shoots
A simple and delicious way to eat dureup (두릅, Aralia shoots) is sukhoe (숙회, blanching or parboiling, pronounced “sook-hwae”).
Recipe: Meonggae bibimbap
There are all kinds of bibimbap, but meonggae (멍게, sea pineapple) bibimbap in particular makes a great lunch for sleepy spring days.
Meonggae: Sea pineapple
You may have seen this grenade-shaped creature, a fiery-red sunset color, floating around in tanks at seafood restaurants and fish markets starting in spring.