신문각 I love the signage. I don't know why, but sometimes I just get a craving for Chinese food. Growing up, Saturday was Chinese Food day. We would head over every week and put in our take-out order at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant. When I was a boy in Delaware (now I'm going to make myself sound like a dinosaur), Chinese food was just getting popular and the Great Wall was the hottest spot in town. In my family, we all had our favorites. Mom liked the Lomein, Jill liked the General Tso's Chicken, I liked the Beef and Broccoli, and Dad liked the pork fried rice. We would always get the sweet and sour soup, an extra box of rice, fortune cookies, and the fried dough things they served with peach colored "duck" sauce. In Korea, I get cravings for American Chinese food, but it's hard to find. I mean there is Ho Lee Chow, but it's not the same. I am developing a taste for Korean Chinese food and I found this great little hole in the wall by Gwanghwanmun...

It must be the Korean way of *hinting* the need to marry you off soon. Well regardless of hidden meanings or codes, I'm just happy to be spending an afternoon with my grandmother learning how to make banchan(반찬), side dishes that accompany the main meal. Today she taught me how to make black bean in soy sauce banchan (콩자반) Ingredients (it seems that Koreans cook in ratios, so that's how I'm listing it here) - Dry black beans (the ratio is 2:2 beans to water) - Water - Salt (literally a pinch with your fingers) - Soy sauce (2:2.5 beans to soy sauce) - Dark brown sugar (2:0.75 beans to sugar) - Option: Sprinkle sesame seeds to garnish [1] 2 cups of dried black beans [2] Wash them clean [3] Add 2 cups of water to the beans [4] Add 2-1/2 cups soy sauce to the water + bean mix [5] Shut the pressure cooker and on high heat let it cook for 10 minutes [6] Open the pressure cooker, take it off the heat and add 3/4cup of dark brown sugar to the mix [7] Bring back to a boil with the l...