Friday, March 5, 2010

You Are What You Eat

A while ago Sophia at Burp and Slurp announced the You Are What You Cook Challenge. The challenge is to cook a dish that defines who you are. When I first read about the challenge, a simple, pretty much “no cook” meal popped into my head right away. In our house we call the dish Bap Egg on Top. In a way this dish probably defines hubby, growing up in a mainly Korean-speaking family in the U.S., more than me. Bap is the Korean word for rice. So the dish is pretty much seasoned rice with an egg on top. I know, it doesn’t get much easier than that…

While the basic “recipe,” is from hubby’s childhood, I have put my own twists on the dish over the years. It’s my go-to meal any time of the day. It’s what I crave when I come back from a trip and want something that tastes like home. The dish brings back wonderful memories to when hubby and I first met, and it’s actually pretty much the only dish hubby has “cooked” a few times over the years… (Sorry for throwing you under the bus here hubby!).

Ingredients (Flavored Rice)
  • Cooked brown rice
  • Soy sauce
  • Brown rice vinegar
  • Sesame oil
  • Gochujang (Korean spicy red pepper paste)
  • Organic ketchup
  • Sesame seeds


Mix all the ingredients together and make sure they are mixed well. I’m not including measurements as I’m constantly changing the proportions of the ingredients. And I think that’s the beauty of this dish. You can make it taste different every single time you make it. And it has changed and evolved over the years. I can make it as spicy or as mild as I like. And I guess my spiciness varies day to day as well… :-)

Top the rice with two over-easy eggs
 

I like my yolks nice and runny…



So why does this dish represent me? Well, first of all, I love that it represents hubby’s childhood and that his childhood and his memories are living on through this dish in our family. It also has a few Korean ingredients, and Korean food is my favorite cuisine. I love the complexity of the flavors, despite the dish being so simple. Often the simple things in life are the best, and I’d like to think of myself as simple yet complex. Finally, this dish, while being really simple, can easily change and evolve – just like me! :-) Thanks Sophia for a great challenge. It’s been fun!

Question: What dish or ingredient defines you? Are you sweet, sour, bitter, salty, or spicy? Or a combination of some or all of them?
 
Be well,
Andrea