K-Pop Academy [Week 3]

I've been so busy with university that I haven't done a review of my third week at the K-Pop Academy. Sorry guys.

 

 
So last week was based on Korean food and as I absolutely love Korean food I was really excited to see what we'd be making. We were told prior to the lesson that it would not be held in the Korean Culture Centre but at Dongsan, a Korean restaurant that I'd visited a couple of months ago.

The Korean Culture had put in a lot of effort transforming the restaurant to a K-Pop Academy Masterchef room which was really impressive.

When I first sat down I didn't realise that the class was dividing into groups depending on what table you were sat at. I was in Team Big Bang. =B Woohoo. *Fantastic Baby* We had to cook well to make Big Band proud. Haha. =)

On our tables there was a mini gas cooker and two plates of ingredients as well as a recipe for ddeokbokki (떡뽁이). I was happy to see we were making ddeokbokki as it is one of my favourite Korean dishes. I've attempted to make it a couple times at home so I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem.

Gas cookee, recipe for ddeokbokki and Big Bang watching over us.. =P

Ingredients for ddeokbokki

Ingredients for kimbap

We were given a  brief lecture about Korean food and the mixtures of flavours in Korean food that makes it so mouthwatching but at the same time being very nutritous.

 

Then we were introduced to Kie-Jo Sarsfiel, a Korean chef who teaches people and even has her own blog who gives tips on how to cook Korean food. She gave us a demonstration on how to make kimbap. I've never attempted to make kimbap so it was interesting watching someone make it for the first time. I didn't know that it was so simple to make so I'll definitely try making it at home.

Ms Sarsfiel making kimbap

 The next dish she made was ddeokbokki. While she was making it she was interacting with the class and making jokes which made it more engaging.

Our cooking skills were then put to the test when we were told we had 40 minutes within out groups to make both kimbap and ddeokbokki and Ms Sarsfiel would pick the winner. We split the tasks up in our groups so I helped make the ddeokbokki. At the end of the 40 minutes, I was pretty impressed with the final outcome.

Team Big Bang's dish

 Ms Sarsfiel went around each table and tasted the food before she reached a verit that Team B2ST won. Congrats Team B2ST. =D

After the winner was announced, it was time to eat. We were given seafood Korean pancake (해물파전), Korean meat (갈비) and a selection of kimchi and beansprout. Thank you Korean Cultural Centre UK and DongSan.

Korean seafood pancake

Kimchi, beansprouts and more

Our table filled with deliciour food

The food was scrumptious. As Koreans would say '잘 먹었습니다' (I ate well). I'll be getting my cooking apron on and trying to make Korean food~.. Haha..

-Tamanna