It seems insane to me that I have never posted a spring roll recipe because I love those little suckers more than life itself. I would never have an order of Chinese food without them and a pack always makes its way into my basket when I’m shopping at home. But sadly they are not as popular in Korea as they are in the rest of Asia. You can find them in your local Thai restaurant, but when you enjoy eating them as much as I do you have to make them in bulk. They call be a a bit fiddly, but once you get in the zone you can churn them out by the dozen. Sit in your living room to roll them out while watching an episode of your favourite show and in no time you will have a pile of the little beauties. I got my spring roll wrappers from the foreign food market in Itaewon. They usually have 3 or 4 sizes. I chose the medium sized ones. Obviously the bigger the wrappers the bigger your rolls will be. I only used about half of the packet making these, so they go a long way and they only cost about 5,000. You can also use them to make samosas. Use whatever veg and meat you like, I just used up all my leftovers.

Ingredients

½ a packet spring roll wrappers

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

1/2 a carrot

A small wedge of cabbage

100g of shredded chicken

2 eggs beaten

1/2 an onion

2 inches of ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1 packet of instant noodles

A bunch of cilantro leaves

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of sesame seed oil

900ml of soy bean oil (for deep frying)

Directions

1. The first step is to finely slice your vegetables. Get them the peppers and cabbage as thinly as possible and grate the carrot.

2. Boil the noodles until soft then drain.

3. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a minute or two to soften, then add the rest of the vegetables. Fry on high for five minutes until softened. Add the drained noodles, chicken, cilantro, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and sesame oil, and mix. Turn off the heat and put into a large bowl.

4. Peel off one spring roll wrapper and put it out on the chopping board. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture into the middle of the wrapper. Like below. Fold the top edge up, then wash the three remaining sides with the beaten egg. Fold the two other sides in and roll until you have a neat little spring roll. Set on a clean plate and repeat until all your mixture has been used.

5. When all of the spring rolls have been made, heat the oil to 190 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer let it heat on medium for about five minutes. Carefully put a spring roll into the oil, if it sizzles and floats to the top then it’s hot enough, if it doesn’t, turn it up a little higher and wait until it reaches temperature. Cook them in batches of about 5 for a couple of minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from the pan when they are done and let them drain on kitchen paper. Serve with your favourite dipping sauce and enjoy!

After another afternoon browsing Pinterest I came across this recipe for a broccoli cheese bread. I instantly wanted it, and I am glad I did, because it tasted even better than I imagined. I made several changes to make it more suitable to what I could find easily here in Korea but the basic principle was still the same. After discovering how easy this is to make, I have thought of various other varieties I will be able to try in the near future.

Ingredients

250g of pizza dough(recipe here)

1 head of broccoli

100g of cream cheese

200g of grated cheese (I used a mix of mozzarella and cheddar)

Directions

Boil your broccoli for about 5-8 minutes so it’s softer, but still has a little crunch. Then leave to drain before chopping up into very small pieces. Roll out the pizza dough into a a large rectangle. Mine was roughly 35cm by 20cm. Then top with cream cheese or ricotta. Sprinkle on the grated cheese, then top with the broccoli.

Roll the bread up like a big sausage then cut into 7 pieces. Place the pieces into a round buttered tin.

Bake in the oven at  180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes until the dough has cooked and the cheese has melted and is golden brown. If the top is catching, then cover with foil after the first 15 minutes. Pull off each piece and serve. Voilà, broccoli cheese bread.

So a few weeks ago my lovely friend Susan asked me out to dinner. Never one to turn down a free meal, I quickly accepted her kind offer. The restaurant of choice was Aligato, a Sushi restaurant in the alley just behind the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon.

We arrived and started to peruse the menu thinking that it was looking rather on the expensive side. Luckily for us she had a voucher that she had to use as it expired the next day. We were recommended the set (35,000) which was very expensive considering that it only came with 12 pieces. However after investigating further we found that all the sushi rolls came with 8 pieces and they were very reasonably priced.

Susan was shocked when I said I don’t actually like fish and had wondered why the hell I had come. However even for the non fish eater like myself there are plenty of options. I love shellfish so I always go for the prawn or vegetarian options. There is a conveyor belt at Aligato but we decided to sit at a table instead and just order off the menu. The dishes on the belt ranged from 2,500 – 4,000.

My companions ordered the Beautiful Roll, 12,000 – Which was Prawn tempura, salmon, tuna and avocado. Sadly I couldn’t try any of them but they certainly didn’t stay on the plate too long.

They also ordered the spicy salmon rolls 12,000. Again I couldn’t partake of these but they seemed to go down well.

I ordered myself the Tempura Roll, 8000. Which was stuffed with prawn and avocado. Always a winning combination, they were truly a tasty delight. The prawn tempura was perfectly entwined with the avocado and encased in the rice and seaweed. It was great, I used to eat this a lot when I lived in Australia so it was great to have it again.

We also ordered Chicken Karake roll, 8,000. Filled with chicken, avocados, radish sprout and topped with a spicy sauce these were really nice too.  A definite must try for any fishists out there, you can still do sushi even if you don’t like fish!

The restaurant bar had a cool atmosphere. It got much busier as the night wore on, so try to get there early if you need to be served quickly. I certainly enjoyed my evening at Aligato. The sushi was good and the complimentary miso and tea  kept on coming. They have a bar and lounge upstairs which I would be keen to try next time as I hear they do great cocktails. They are open until very late on weekends and would make a welcome change to my usual late night kebab.

Aligato is located at 112-3 Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Take a train to Itaewon station (line 6) Come out of exit 2 and walk straight. Take your first left which passes by a clothing store, Thai restaurant and the Flying pan. As you reach the Alley behind the Hamilton Hotel take a right and keep walking straight for about 100 meters. Aligato is on your left just next to Bungalow. You can call them on 02-795-1533.

Last saturday we visited Porchetta, an amazing new sandwich place in Kyungridan. The second you step into this place you will see and smell the gorgeous joints of meat waiting to feature in the sandwich of your dreams. What I wouldn’t do to get hold of one of those babies to make sunday lunch! The sandwiches are the star attraction of the menu here but don’t come cheap, running between 7,300 – 10,900. I was a little worried about the cost but these beauties more than lived up to expectations.

I opted for the roast beef and boy was I not disappointed  The bread was pillow soft ciabatta  I didn’t have bread that good in Italy! The roast beef was intense. There was a flavor explosion the second the meat hit my tongue. The beef had been seared and it had that beautiful  barbecue taste. Every aspect of this sandwich had been planned meticulously. Even the accompanying sauces were insatiable. They were  fruity whole grain mustard, basil mayo or spicy sambal. The waitress told me they are hoping to sell these once things get off the ground.

Niall went for the ham. Personally I don’t like ham, but if I was ever to give it a go this would be the stuff to try. It was great to see some real ham as you don’t see it all that often in Korea. This sandwich contained real cheese, none of that plastic crap that features in far too many sandwiches these days. It was a joy to behold and just watching him tuck into the sandwich I knew it must be good.

As well as my roast beef sandwich I also ordered the porchetta to take away. The porchetta is roasted pork beautifully glazed with a swirl of herb stuffing inside. It certainly looked good and it more or less lived up to all my expectations, although I think for me it couldn’t quite take the top spot off the beef.

Wanting to do a thorough job I also ordered a portion of the dry rib appetizer. When I opened the lid on the box the aroma was intoxicating. Not the best ribs I have ever eaten but a good deep flavour. I think they would be improved if they were a rack of ribs rather than the short ones. It was a little hard to gnaw the meat from the bones because of their shape.

Porchetta is located in Kyungridan.  658 Itaewon 2 dong, Yongsan -Gu, Seoul. Take a train to Noksapyeong Station (Line 6) Come out of exit 2 and walk straight for about 200 meters. Go underneath the underpass to get to the other side of the road. Take the road leading right and walk about 50 yards, Porchetta is between Concorde and Toucan. Check out their facebook page, if you befriend them they will send you a coupon. http://www.facebook.com/porchettalove