Sikhye [식헤] and Samgyetang [ 삼계탕]

For this blog post I have done a bit of research ans came up with two things that are popular with Koreans in the summer, and this is also because it is summer there right now. So the two dishes are called Sikhye and Samgaetang.


Have you ever tried sickhye? Sickhye is Korean traditional beverage. It's cool to drink in hot summer and warm to drink in cold winter, too. It's sweet and really delicious. Here's some information of Sikhye

Sikhye (also spelled shikhye or shikeh; also occasionally termed dansul or gamju) is a traditional sweet Korean rice beverage, usually served as a dessert. In addition to its liquid ingredients, sikhye also contains grains of cooked rice, and in some cases pine nuts.

Preparations

Sikhye is made by pouring malt water onto cooked rice. The malt water steeps in the rice at typically 150 degrees Fahrenheit until grains of rice appear on the surface. The liquid is then carefully poured out, leaving the rougher parts, and boiled with sugar. Ginger or jujube are often added for additional flavor. It is served chilled. In South Korea and in Korean grocery stores wherever Korean communities are found, sikhye is readily available in cans or plastic bottles. One of the largest South Korean producers of sikhye is the Vilac company of Busan. Atypical of most canned beverages, each can has a residue of cooked rice at the bottom. Homemade sikhye is often served after a meal in a Korean restaurant.



Have you ever heard of Samgyetang? Koreans enjoy Sangyetang in the hot summer, because it gives people energy. It's said to be very delicious and very good for health [ I think it is becasue ginseng is added]

Samgyetang, or chicken stew, is favorite food for Koreans in the summer. An entire chicken is stuffed with garlic, ginseng, rice, and jujubes, and then boiled to make a hot delicious stew. Samgyetang is said to be a good remedy for fatigue, which is why Koreans like to eat it in the summer. Of course, Koreans aren't the only people who eat chicken stew. In the West, they eat chicken soup, which is a little different from samgaetang. The chicken is not put in whole, but in slices. Sometimes noodles and rice are also added to the soup. This chicken soup has been considered to be the perfect food that would energize them and help then bear the freezing cold.

I hope that you guys enjoyed that and I will try to come back and post soon.
BYEE

i knew this would happen

So, in my first post I said that I would try to focus on food in this blog, but there would be a possibility of me changing the topic of my blog...well the day has already come. I know that it has only been like 2[?] days since that first post, but I have already decided to abandon that idea. Well, maybe not entirely abandon but maybe step away from it and re-visit it when I feel like it.

I'm not much of a person to blog on only one certain topic so, I guess this really shouldn't come as a surprise to me.....

Now that I think about it maybe it would be OK for me to blog about food today. This is going to relate back to somethings which had happened yesterday, it is not all that significant but it got me thinking.....I'll tell you about what I'm talking about

Yesterday I went to a friends house for a welcome back party for a friend that unfortunately had to leave Australia and go to China for school. Now, this friend of mine, Daisy, had come back to Australia for a week during HER summer holidays. So we had gone to my friends house and for lunch it turned out that we were going to eat potato and pasta bake with spaghetti bolognaise.

I'm not saying that there was anything wrong with the food, it was delicious. But my friend's mum is Asian, yet she was able to produce such a wonderful dish that wasn't from her culture. I'm not saying that Asians aren't allowed to cook other foods if that is what you are thinking, but what I am trying to say that it is really wonderful that food from different cultures are finding there way into the kitchens of everyone, with no barriers or stoppages.

I think that might as well conclude this blogpost, but I would like to say one more thing.....This morning I had made pancakes for breakfast, but I has decided to change the batter a bit. Usually I add butter into the batter but this time I has left it out and I think that the pancakes turned out nicer than they normally do. The recipe I use now, well that one that I came up with is

1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cups sugar
1 cups milk

You combine the flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. You then add the eggs and vanilla essence. You combine that together a bit, and then you gradually begin to add in the milk. You may not need all the milk so, you only add as much as you need. The batter is really if it is kind of heavy and thick. When you lift a spoon out of the batter there should be a thick layer of batter on it. Also make sure that the batter looks shiny and silky, make sure that there are no clumps of flour left in the batter. You can now start to cook the pancakes, you add a bit of oil to a non-stick pan on a medium heat and then you can ladle some of the batter onto the pan. When there are bubbles all over the top you turn the pancake and let the other side cook for about 30 seconds. Repeat with the rest of the remaining batter.

You are done, a quick and yummy breakfast all ready. Some people like pancakes with golden syrup, so you can add that if you like, but I'm fine with out it, so just enjoy your breakfast

Bye for now guys, I'll blog again in a couple of days!!

Hi!

So, this is going to be my first blog post on my new blog, I've had some fun messing around with blogs before on sites such as tumblr, vox and wordpress. So this time I've decided to try and have a more serious blog......and this time I think that I am going to have a theme...FOOD!

This is going to be pretty interesting seeing as I live in Australia and even though we are a very multicultural country - the population has a very large non-Anglo background, we don't seem to be all that willing to accept new foods from cultures that easily.

I'll be getting a lot of info and stuff from newspapers, the Internet, and magazines because I'm pretty limited with what I can do......[I'm just a high school student- so there are quite a lot of things that I can't do]

I guess that my main focus will be on Asian food.......I'm from an Asian background so I guess that that will be able to assist me, but I would like to be able to focus on a particular area within that and that is KOREAN. I'm pretty much very into Korean food, especially how a lot of the food tends to be a bit spicy.

I think that is enough for an introduction, don't you think so? I'll try to blog often about food...but I do have to say that you shouldn't be too surprised if I go from blogging about food to some other topic......I'm just like that

BYEE