My Name is Kogi: Meals for Kids

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One of the things that I look forward to every month is volunteering at an orphanage. This month, we prepared a barbecue feast for the kids and they absolutely adored it. Every time an order of meat was ready the kids were quick to yell out for more, “Kogi, Kogi, Kogi.” Whoever was serving meat had their name changed to Kogi since that was all they kept asking for. Oh, that and sanchu, leaves for wrapping the meat. I thought this was quite interesting that the kids would ask for leaves. I don’t think any kids in the states would ask for greens.

Anyway, that day, I made some carrot kimchi. Although it was a bit too salty, they were really good in the beef and leaf wraps. It was very easy to make as well and I will probably end up doing it again. The carrots were just julienned and then I added salt to pull out the water for a while. Afterwards, I made a sauce with fish sauce, garlic, sugar, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes. I then rinsed off all the salt off the carrots and mixed in the sauce.

The other picture to the right that doesn’t look very appetizing is juk: beef porridge. I thought it was very interesting that Hoya (the fabulous chef and chief organizer) added soft tofu to the porridge. It was a texture match and the kids loved it.

Well, that’s it for now. Now back to work.

Dan

About the Author

Daniel

Daniel Gray is a Korean adoptee that returned to Korean in 2005 because he wanted to try and find his birth mother and to learn about Korean culture. He started a restaurant review blog in 2007, www.seouleats.com, that became a local and international hit. He and his blog has been featured in the New York Times, Monocle Magazine, The Kimchi Chronicles, Bizarre Foods, Rudy Maxa, Olive Magazine, Euronews and much more. He now is a partner at O’ngo Food Communications (www.ongofood.com), which is a culinary tourism and consulting company that offers Korean cooking classes and restaurant tours to travelers. Their food tours and cooking classes are ranked as one of the top attractions in Seoul according to tripadvisor.