Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 

When this book was chosen as the current selection for Cook the Books I was curious but wasn't sure what to expect. After all, I had no idea who Michelle Zauner is, let alone what a H Mart is! So first things first, Michelle Zauner is an indie musician who is part of a band called Japanese Breakfast. She originally published an essay called Crying in H Mart. That essay in effect became the first chapter of this book, which is an examination of grief following the loss of her Korean mother. Other topics covered include her search for her own Korean identity given that her mother is Korean and her father is white American.

As for a H Mart, that is a Korean supermarket, usually located on the outskirts of towns, where there  are often restaurants. The supermarkets are filled with the ingredients that remind immigrants of home.

Michelle had a very interesting relationship with her mother. Whilst she hated that her mother had very definite ideas of how she should behave and dress, what she should do with her life, and she rebelled against it, she also looked for validation from her. They were sufficiently close that when her mother became ill Michelle dropped everything to go and look after her. The devastation that the aggressive cancer diagnosis for Michelle's mother, and Michelle watching the decline of her mother was very clear.  I wouldn't be able to do this with my mother, both because of our distant relationship (physical and emotional) and not being able to deal with the physical aspects of such a diagnosis and treatment.

When she was younger, Michelle and her mother used to travel to Korea on holidays, and part of the question for Michelle is how does she maintain those relationships. I have gotten this far in my review and realised that I have not once referred to Michelle's mother by her name, Chongmi, which seems a bit of an oversight. And to be honest, it feels a lot like this in the book too. There were times when I was emotionally affected by the book but there were other times when I found Michelle to be a bit juvenile.

I did find the search for a sense of identity quite interesting, especially given that my own son's heritage is part Afro-Caribbean and part Australian. As far as I know he isn't particularly interested in that side of his identity, but I am also aware that could change at some point.

I was also saddened by the strained relationship with her father. Even watching her mother die did not bring them closer together. Given that I was in Perth just last week spreading my father's ashes after her passed away last year, I did feel that. Then again, I am always emotionally affected by father daughter stories because of the relationship that we had.

One of the things that I enjoyed was when Michelle Zauner started trying to learn to cook more Korean food by watching Youtube videos from a person called Maangchi. I have now gone down a bit of a rabbit hole watching Maangchi's videos. We are heading to Japan and Korea next year on a cruise and I am enjoying seeing some of the foods that we might be able to explore while we are there.  Between the Youtube channel and all the food references in the book, there is plenty for us to explore.

When it came to choosing a recipe, I have a Korean cookbook called Rice Table: Korean Recipes and Stories to Feed the Soul which I bought last year. Interestingly this book is the author trying to find her Korean identity through the exploration of Korean food after living in the UK away from her family for 20 years. She then becomes the mother of a Korean/British child and is trying to share her heritage, so there are definitely some differences but yet some similarities between the themes of the two books.

We have tried a couple of recipes from this book, including a delicious roasted baby potato with soy sauce and cheese recipe. I really need to make those again. 

However, this time I chose to take inspiration from a very popular Korean dish, Kimchi, to make a version of fried rice. This does feel as though it could be a great recipe to adapt, either by adding tuna as suggested, or adding in some chicken or some other protein.

I did have a Korean workmate who suggested that this recipe was overly complicating things and all you really needed was some rice, some kimchi and some tuna and you had a delicious lunch, but we definitely enjoyed this when we made it, and it is an easy mid-week meal. I could have been a bit braver when it comes to creating the crust, but I am also aware that our non stick frying pan is not as non stick as it used to be and I need to be a bit careful with it

I didn't have any Gochujang so I subbed in a small amount of Sriracha. We have also run out of nduja paste. I only know of one place where we can get it so next time I am in the area I will drop in and get more.

Midnight Kimchi Fried Rice 

Serves 2

1½ tbsp vegetable oil
200g (7oz) kimchi, roughly chopped
1 tsp golden granulated sugar
70g (2½oz) ’nduja (cured pork spread)
1 tbsp mirin
300g (10½oz/2½ cups) cooked white short-grain rice
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp gochujang (Korean red chilli paste)
1 tsp oyster sauce
¼ tsp freshly cracked black pepper

To finish

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 eggs
2 tbsp gim jaban (crumbled toasted seasoned seaweed)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil



Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat. Add the kimchi and sugar and sauté for 3 minutes to soften the kimchi. Stir in the ’nduja and mirin and cook for 1 minute to incorporate. Stir in the rice followed by the soy sauce, gochujang, oyster sauce and black pepper. Continue frying for 3–5 minutes.

Reduce the heat and, using the back of a spatula or a large wooden spoon, spread the rice thinly and evenly around the pan, while pressing down quite firmly. Let it sit over a low heat for 3 minutes without disturbing the pan to form a light crust. Remove the pan from the heat after 3 minutes. Let it sit for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, to fry the eggs, heat the olive oil in a frying panfor a couple of minutes over a medium heat. You want the oil to get nice and hot but not smoking, so that when you crack the eggs in they sizzle. Crack the eggs in, ensuring they are not too close together. Let them fry for 2 minutes without touching. After 2 minutes, tilt the pan slightly away from you to pool the oil and carefully baste around any whites that still appear raw. Keep the yolk nice and runny. You should have perfectly fried eggs with a crispy edge. Remove from the heat.

Serve the rice immediately, topped with the eggs and crumbled seaweed and drizzled with the sesame oil. Eat straight from the pan to scrape off the caramelized rice at the bottom.

I am also counting this book for Non Fiction November, and will be sharing the link with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story.  This book also fits the theme for my read on a theme book club. This time the theme is food/cooking 

The next selection for Cook the Books will be Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang. This sounds like it is going to be another book where I am going to be a bit outside my comfort zone, but that's okay. Hopefully I will get that review up a bit before the last possible day! Today is the last day for the contributions for this selection!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Away
Sunday - Away
Monday - Pork chops, mash, broccoli and gravy
Tuesday - Beef and beans stir fry
Wednesday - Kimchi Fried Rice
Thursday -
Friday -

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

This week...

 I'm reading

There's nothing like a bit of plane time to help get through some reading! This week I had two four hour flights where the in flight entertainment was only available on your own device, so I decided to read for a fair portion of that time!

First up, I finished reading Crying at the H Mart by Michelle Zauner, which is the current Cook the Books selection. I will have my review up for that one on the weekend.

I felt like a change of pace was in order so I read the new festive short story from Jenny Colgan called The Christmas Book Hunt, which was available as an Amazon First Reads this month. It was a bit of fun. It has been an age since I read a Jenny Colgan book and I am not really sure why given that I do like them. 

The next book I read was Casa Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra. This was an interesting read. It's the fourth book in a series that starts in WWII, but this book is actually the history of the house that features in the story starting a couple of hundred years earlier. I need to write the review for this one for Wednesday.

I then went back and finished The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kasiwai. I had started it a few weeks ago but had to put it down to read some other things, so it was good to be able to finish it. It did have me wishing that I could google a few things while I was reading it but I wasn't going to pay for plane wi-fi for that. 

And then, in a case of mistaken book identity, I intended to start reading a Madeline Martin book but instead started The Last Night in London by Karen White. I am really enjoying it so I am definitely going to keep going with it and hopefully get to Madeline Martin in due course.

I've also decided to join in on the 12 Books of Christmas Challenge hosted by Katie at Just Another Girl and her Books. I have read quite a few Christmassy books already and I am sure I can find some more without trying too hard.

Last week I mentioned that I have set up a specific Insta account for my book stuff. You can find me @intrepidreaderandbaker and I would love it if you added it, and I will follow back!

I'm watching


Being away for most of the week meant I didn't really get to watch much this week. I will need to catch up on the finales for both Great Australian Bake Off and Dessert Masters. I know who won one of those and I think I can guess who one the second but hopefully I will get to watch them both soon.

We did watch Greg Wallace's Christmas Escapes, where he spends a weekend in both Copenhagen and Vienna, visiting a few different places, but focusing mainly on Christmas Markets. We have watched them before but they are still lovely to watch and brought back memories of our own visits to Christmas markets a couple of years ago.

One thing we did do in Perth was go to the movies. My sister, my cousin and I went to see Wicked, which was fab. It was a bit long, but other than that I thought they did a great job. We now have a year long intermission to see the second half. 

Life


We went to Perth last week to spend some time with family and spread my Dad's ashes. He died just over a year ago, but with my sister and I living in a different state we needed to go back over there just to do this one final goodbye. I don't remember going to the place he had chosen before, but it was a lovely spot and very fitting for my dad who loved the land in WA and also loved water.

We visit Perth quite regularly, but I still like to find new things to do. I had not intended to visit Fremantle this time, although it is one of my favourite places, but in the end we went down there to see a digital exhibition that they have on called Empress Josephine's Garden. It was very interesting in that it spoke about the French exploration of Australia, including sending lots of plant and animal specimens back to Empress Josephine's chateau at Malmaison. She was a serious collector, and I was surprised by a couple of things I learned such as the fact that she had correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks for some time, until France (under Napoleon) and England went to war.

Given we we were in Fremantle I had to do my customary visit to the wreck of the Batavia, which is part of the Dutch related history of Australia, and then have some fish and chips.

Another highlight is that we did the Rio Tinto Christmas Lights Trail through Perth. We had dinner at a very cool Asian restaurant, and then we walked from one end of Perth to the other visiting 20 Christmas lights installations around the city. It was great to be able to do this with my cousin and her family, my aunt and sister. We definitely got our steps in. Now I need to find something Christmassy to do here in Melbourne

I will do a bigger post about this at some point in the next couple of weeks, but here was my favourite video which I managed to get completely by coincidence. I love that you can see that I am walking through the bubbles. It's very short at only 4 seconds! 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Not New!

Weekend Cooking: A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This week...

Blogging

Raise a glass! My blog can legally drink in Australia! I started this blog 18 years ago, which is pretty amazing to me. I did have a gap for a while, but I am still here.

You'd think I would be better at it by now, right??

To celebrate, I finally decided what I am going to do about Instagram and now I have an Insta account specifically for bookish goodness. Yes, I am committing to Bookstagram. I am always very late for any trends but better late than never!

You can find me @intrepidreaderandbaker and I would love it if you added it, and I will follow back!

I'm reading

Last week I finished reading Someone Like You, which is the fourth book in the Ever After Agency series by Aussie author Sandy Barker. The review can be found here.

I also then read A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorcroft, the second book in the Skye Sisters trilogy, and I reviewed that here.

I then started Crying at the H Mart by Michelle Zauner. I had never heard of the author before, but I am still finding it an interesting read. This is the current Cook the Books selection and will also work for my read on a theme book club as well. I will also need to find something to cook to tie in with this book, and get it all posted by 30 November!

I went to the library last week and noticed something that I had never seen before, or at least paid any attention to. There is a selection of books by the door which they are calling Express Reads. You can't request them, you can't extend them, and they have to be returned within a week. Now, even though I knew I wouldn't get it read, I couldn't resist picking up The Sea Captain's Wife by Jackie French. She is a prolific Australian writer across a number of genres, including historical fiction. I have started the book, but there is no way I am going to get it finished, so maybe I will have to return it and then borrow it again to finish it. We'll see how far I get today or tomorrow.

Speaking of Australian historical fiction authors, I went to see Tea Cooper at an author event and heard her speak about the inspiration for her latest book, The Golden Thread. I have to say the story behind the story was fascinating!!


I'm watching

Before the Tea Cooper event, I went to the see the movie Lee, starring Kate Winslet. This tells the story of the first female war photographer, Lee Miller. She took some iconic pictures during WWII, despite initially being told that she could not go to the front lines because she was a woman. It was a very, very good movie.

Here's the trailer:

I also started my Christmas movie viewing with Hot Frosty. A woman puts a magical scarf around the neck of a carved snowman and he magically came to life! It sounds really naff, but it was actually a lot of fun, with some great nods to other movies like Pretty Woman and Mean Girls.

Life


Yesterday we went to the One Electric Day music festival which is held in the grounds of a historic home not too far from us. The weather threw everything at us, from strong winds, rain, being cold, to quite sunny and warm. Ah Melbourne weather at it's best. I somehow also managed to get sunburnt in a 2cm strip on my wrists, which is a bit odd!

It was a great show featuring the bands Chocolate Starfish, Killing Heidi, Baby Animals, Wolfmother, Birds of Tokyo and finishing with Noiseworks. Birds of Tokyo is one of our favourites so we love seeing them. Chocolate Starfish are always a lot of fun and draw the crowd in, which is a bit tricky seeing as there are so many people just arriving when they are on. It was our first time seeing Wolfmother and Killing Heidi.

Last week was the hardest week so far of the not working thing goes. There were a couple of days where I was struggling for motivation to do some of the things that I know need to be done. I am definitely not missing being stressed all the time, but my brain does have a habit of finding things for me to stress about. For example, I have a blog post due in a couple of weeks and I couldn't sleep the other night because I was thinking about the content. No idea why that was important at that time but apparently it was.

Max


Max is feeling much better than he has been. He wants to play, to be chased, to climb up on us, which he hadn't for a while now. In the picture you can see him being a lap dog again! lol

His fur is starting to grow back again in all the places that he was shaved but it is a slow process! 

He will go back to the vet again on Wednesday.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: A New Start
Blog Tour: Someone Like You by Sandy Barker

Blog Tour: A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorhouse

Weekend Cooking: Sift by Nicola Lamb

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Spring 2024 To-Read List

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books on My Fall 2024 To-Read List. And because we are in opposite seasons, my list is my Spring reads

I've had a few weeks off from Top Ten Tuesday, mainly because I was on holidays. What that means is that I have a few half written posts that I might roll out at some point this year. However I am here for this one!

So, let's get started. 

A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont - I really liked The Paris Cooking School by this author so I am hoping to get to this one as soon as it comes out.

The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson - I just read my first Laura Pearson and I Loved it! Even before I finished that book I had bought three more.

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin - Christmas, Paris, and books. Check, check, check. I am there.

The Little Provence Book Shop by Gillian Harvey - Gillian Harvey has become a must read author for me!

Crying at H Mart by Michelle Zauner - This is the next Cook the Books selection.

At the Stroke of Midnight by Jenni Keer - According to Goodreads I am already reading this one, but in reality I think I shelved it unintentionally. I now fully intend to actually read it

The Venice Hotel by Tess Woods - See, I can do Italy as well as France!

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - This is getting a bit of buzz in a book group I am in.

What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci - pre-ordered on audio. Can't wait for Stanley to be talking just to me. Or at least that is what listening to his last book on audio felt like

Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - also pre-ordered on audio. This is the next book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.

What books are you looking forward to?