Sushi Bowl with Tilapia (Hwe Dup Bap)

This sushi bowl is a very healthy dish composed of fresh vegetables and raw tilapia sashimi also known as "izumi dai" in Japanese. A substitute for tilapia would be red snapper, tuna, yellow tail, or other whitish or reddish colored fish, but probably not salmon. Also a little touch of flying fish roe known as "tobiko" adds extra freshness and vibrance to the dish. When I go to a Korean restaurant or a casual Korean restaurant, I often get this dish when I crave for something fresh. I think a dish similar to this is probably also available at Japanese restaurant but not with the sweet and spicy dressing to mix the bowl with. I don't know the origin of this dish. Apparently, both Koreans and Japanese eat raw fish and due to the fact that overall flavor of this dish is more Korean and how it resembles "bibimbap", I would say that this dish is 100% Korean. But yeah, there are many gray areas between Korean and Japanese food when it comes to certain types of food. Anyways, this dish is something you might want to try because it's yummy.

Ingredients: tilapia fillet, mixed garden vegetables, alfalfa sprouts, tobiko (flying fish roe), carrot, cucumber, dried nori strips, toasted sesame seeds

Spicy dressing ingredients: Korean red pepper paste (2 tablespoons), sesame seeds (1 teaspoon), apple juice (1 tablespoon), vinegar (1 teaspoon), soy sauce (1 teaspoon), sugar (2 teaspoons)
Refer to this direction on my other page but forget garlic, sesame oil, and red pepper powder mentioned on that page for our purpose. Sesame oil will be added separately later.


1. The easy step would be to prepare a bowl of rice first.


2. Then prepare vegetables. Peel and slice carrots, cucumbers, and wash the mixed green vegetables.

3. spread out the greens on top of the rice in the bowl.

4. Place sliced carrots, cucumbers, and alfalfa sprouts.

5. Cut the tilapia sashimi fillet and place them on your bowl.


6. Add a spoonful of tobiko.

7. Add a final touch of dried nori strips and toasted sesame seeds.

Add the spicy dressing. I add a lot of them. Also add a table spoon of sesame oil. It helps the flavor and mixing.

Totally destroy it! Enjoy.

Spicy Cucumber Salad

You probably had this if you had gone to a Korean restaurant before. This is one of the banchans (side dish) that they give you as soon as you sit down and order your food. This is somewhat spicy, sweet and sour. It goes very well with steamed rice and any other Korean food or teriyaki chicken or beef as a side dish. It's very easy to make.

1. Cut up a cucumber. Slice them diagonally so you get long eclipse shaped slices.


Cut the eclipses in half. Then pickle them in salt water for 20 minutes.

Cut very thin slices of a red onion.

Below is all I am going to use.

And also little bit of chopped green onion.

2. Now it's the sauce. It's a typical mix of Korean spicy sauce without the sesame oil. You can still use sesame oil but I thought the flavor of sesame oil hides the fresh and spicy flavor that goes so well with the cucumbers. Mixture contains 1 1/2 tbsp red pepper paste, 1/2 tsp finely minced (or better grated) garlic, 1 tbsp of apple juice, and 1 tbsp corn syrup (or sugar).


3. Pour the sauce over your vegetables and then add the following additional condiments as mixing: toasted sesame seeds, red pepper powders, and 1 tbsp of vinegar.


There is the final product. Enjoy!

Mandarin Chicken Salad

Mandarin chicken salad was one of the best sellers at our family owned deli store. It is very popular and almost irresistible when you see a great sample like the picture above.  BTW, I took the photo for my parents with my Nikon D60.  Although I don’t know all the photography tricks, the colorfulness of the dish pretty spoke itself and made this a great photo.  All the ingredients you see in the photo all went into the actual dish I used to prepare for our customers.  I remember the smiles and excitement on our customers’ face getting this mouth-watering salad.

Ingredients: Lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, mandarin orange slices, pine apple slices, Chinese (chowmein) noodle crackers, sesame seeds, raisins, and chicken breast.

Dressing: Oriental sesame dressing. I think any dressing that is sesame based will be fine.

It’s really easy to make this at home. The only drawback is the cost of red cabbage. It is expensive and does not come in smaller pieces other than this big cannon ball size.  They cost around $4 per ball. I guess you can always turn the rest into coleslaw or something if you are into that.  Maybe you don’t have to use the red cabbage at all. It is more for a decorative purpose anyway.

Today is Friday so I will be adding some more recipes this weekend. Final exams are just around the corner so I’m afraid I might not update the blog as frequently for next 3 weeks. On a final note, I appreciate you for visiting my blog. I hope you rock your kitchen this weekend!

Oriental Grape Salad

After working at our family owned deli shop for many years during college, I experimented with various fruits on a salad and found out that green grapes go really well with salads. So I created this Asian grape salad. I must say that this was pretty good.  The sweetness and freshness of the green grapes definitely added to the salad.

1. Cut Lettuce.

2. Tomatoes (optional)



3. Carrots (optional)



4. Grapes (a must!)



5. For salad dressing, there are a few choices you can use depending on what the store has. I used this Japanese Traditional Vinaigrette. You can also use oriental sesame dressing, or Japanese miso dressing.


6. Mix them up!


7. Put the sliced grapes and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top. You can also add sliced chicken breasts, and Chinese noodle crackers on top if you have them.

Green Onion Salad (Pah Juh Ri)

Green onion salad? Better not be for breakfast or lunch. It does actually goes really well with Korean barbecues though. In fact, you will always get this dish in one form or another at a Korean barbecue joint.  So you wanna make some Korean barbecue at home?  Why not add this as a side dish.  It’s very simple to make.

1. First, clean some green onions with water. You will need to chop off the heads.



2. Cut them. Using a sharp knife tip, slice the leaf vertically and chop them off horizontally into three sections like the picture below.


3. So in the end, it will look like this.


4. You need thinly ground Korean chili powder (how much is enough for you?), sesame oil (2 tsp), a pinch of sugar, and a drizzle of vinegar. I would use either rice wine vinegar or apple vinegar to augment the fresh flavors. I’ve also used lemon vinegar and worked like a charm.


5. Mix them all up.


Ready to eat!