When Jack and I first started dating, neither of us knew that the other was also part Korean. We are both, as one of our Korean friends lovingly calls us, “Hapa Babies.” This means to be of mixed ethnic ancestry. Jack and I have grown up with the awareness that our backgrounds were shocking to the people around us when they learned of our mixed ethnicities. For those who may not already know and probably couldn’t tell just from looking at me, I am Russian, German Korean, Japanese and African American. Jack is Irish and Korean. I think it might have been at least a couple months before it ever came up and it was amazing to know we shared more in common than we originally thought. Both of our mothers are Korean and because of that, we have grown up with fond memories relating to the culture and food even though both of our parents were raised here in America.
For this week’s patio date night, we decided to celebrate our Korean heritage and make Soondubu Jjigae which is a traditional spicy tofu stew. This is one of my absolute favorite dishes because it is so healthy, filling and easy to customize to your own taste. Jack’s office is in Korea Town (there is a big financial district there) and so occasionally he stops by the authentic Korean market on his way home to secure some amazing, exotic fruits and veggies that you really can’t find much of in American supermarkets. If you decide to make Soondubu soup yourselves, we highly recommend taking the trip to a Korean market. It is such an adventure and we are extremely partial to their produce. We find their fruits have so much more flavor and they are 4 times the size of the average produce you find elsewhere.
Something that we love to do before our date nights is to spend Thursday nights watching YouTube videos together learning how to make a dish or looking for ideas. Watching the videos on how to make Soondubu Jjigae was SO MUCH FUN! People are so incredibly creative, talented and funny and they really go all out with their tutorials. We have a tendency to fall in love with some of the characters on YouTube and it really feels like we have made a new friend that is sharing the experience with us. In a time like we are in now when we really can’t get out and be around people, this is the next best thing to socializing and it is such a mood booster. We simply could not recommend it more.
Jack brought home all of the necessities we needed this week which were hot pots, long metal spoons, all of the fresh produce we needed, Soon tofu (a very soft, melt in your mouth tofu that’s typically used in soups like this) and of course some Hite beer and rice wine. We prefer Saki over the traditional Soju. As is customary for our at home date nights, we both got dressed up as if we were going out to a nice restaurant. Yes, even shoes! To us, it is so important to not skimp on the details so that these evenings really feel like special occasions.
Just the act of making the soup together, following the instructions our YouTube friends gave us and customizing our bowls was so romantic. We loved being in the kitchen together and having some cold beer while taking in the smell of hot sesame oil and garlic frying up was magical. We put some rice in the instant pop while we cooked our soups and when everything was all finished, we took our gorgeous bubbling meal outside, sat down with our drinks, laughed and enjoyed how amazing these dishes were while blasting K-pop music on our patio. After all of the prep which is really just cutting up whatever veggies you would like, the soup only took about ten minutes to make and the clean up is SO easy. You eat out of the same bowl you cook in and there’s no mess! Let me know if you’re interested in making this soup for yourselves and I would be happy to write up our version of the recipe we used and post it for you under the nutrition section!
As always, I’m sending you all so much love and thank you for all of the continued encouragement and interest in our special evenings. If you have any suggestions for what we should do next, comment below! I always love hearing from you.
Lots of love,
Suni
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