Super quick and easy to make, too! And with the rise of Korean media, K-Pop, Korean Dramas, came a curiosity for Korean culture, with more and more exposure to Korean cuisine. I first encountered Joanne Molinaro on TikTok, where her voice cut through the cacophony of Doja Cat and Yung Skrrt samples, serenely sharing improbably intimate narratives in 60 seconds or less. I love her. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until they start to brown. Globalization is a tricky subject, though. There were traditional soups and stews, noodle dishes, and popular street foods, like Tteokbokki, which went viral on platforms like TikTok during the pandemic. 4 cups water. Even on TV, we were being introduced to more adventurous cuisines. Spicy, sweet, chewy and super easy! Looking back, I think that Korean fusion probably made it big first, thanks to chefs like Roy Choi. Ricecake and Dumpling Soup. And what happens is, they’re not only sharing factual information—“Oh, Joanne, doenjang is actually fermented soybean paste, this is the way it’s made, it’s usually stored in big jars,” but also they’ll tell me, “I remember when your grandmother made doenjang jjigae, she always added potatoes because you loved potatoes so much.” These are the types of stories that surface when you start asking questions about things that you have taken for granted your whole life. That was a real anxiety, because quite frankly, when I did a friggin’ google search for it, there were very few Korean vegans out there! I was like, “All right, I have a social media presence, maybe what I can do is give people a reason to see my side of the world.” I wanted them to think about my grandma and her story of becoming a U.S. citizen the next time they heard something about building a wall. Do you ever think about how much the way we eat has changed over the years? Oh, you can also use Korean veggie (vegan friendly) dumplings in this recipe because it really goes great with the soup! Food prep videos—frying vegetables for japchae, chopping onions for kimchi jjigae—are accompanied by Molinaro’s unhurried voiceover sharing, for example, an account of being body-shamed, or the misguided frustration her teenage self once felt about her dad’s heavy accent. A lawyer by day, long-distance runner by morning, and author-slash-blogger by night (her first, yet-to-be-titled cookbook is set for release by Avery in autumn 2021), Molinaro has a characteristic efficiency that made her a natural on the short-form video platform, where her followers currently exceed 818,000. Basic tteokbokki is made from rice cake (tteok), hot pepper paste (gochujang), soy sauce, garlic and sometimes onion and sesame oil. Can you share some of your favorite memories around food growing up? And sure, not everybody has changed their diets so dramatically over the past couple of decades. But then came kimchi, gochujang, Korean barbecue. Not only are we as a whole more focused on health, but more people are reducing their meat intake, and foreign foods that were once scary to most Americans are becoming the norm. I started sharing stories about my family on my blog (The Korean Vegan) because I was very upset with the 2016 election. I look at the foods I eat regularly, and how dramatically different they are from what I grew up eating. Mexican food has had a huge presence in some parts of the country for about a century. Get full on Kimchi Mandu. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Much slower to gain popularity, though, was Korean food. Add all remaining veggies and cook until they just start to … Our traveling duo consists of one … In Korean culture that’s very typical. While rice cakes are soaking, whisk together water, dashi powder, gochujang, gocharu, veg oyster sauce, garlic, and green onions. You can find Korean vegan-friendly dumplings usually in the freezer section of most Korean supermarkets. And how did it ultimately affect those relationships? At the same time, if I had not overcome some of my picky tendencies, if I had been closed-minded to trying new things, my life would be without color. Add back the tofu, together with 1/2 cup of … That’s how my recipes get born. In this formulation, it is vegetarian. I hope you’ll be inspired to try something new today- starting with this recipe! Comforting, quick and easy to make making it the perfect dish for lazy … I love food that has that mochi-like, chewy texture and tteokbokki looked like my new potential obsession. Method Heat a wok or large metal pot and bring 2 cups of vegan dash or water to a boil. My favorite brand, 80 Million Food, has started making a vegan one, and I’ve got a jar of it in my kitchen right now to make some kimchi pancakes. Some of my favorite memories are my grandmothers telling me, “Joanne, you’ve got to pick some chiles and bring them into the house,” or picking the fattest, reddest tomatoes, or a bushel of perilla leaves. Let simmer while waiting for rice cakes, at least 10 minutes. We’d have the Korean newspapers all laid out so we wouldn’t make a mess. There’s nothing more safe than being at home with the women who love you, prepping food that you grew in your backyard. I saw a video he did during the BLM movement that really moved me. Tteokbokki, in short, is term for Korean rice cakes, which are naturally bland but very chewy. I usually like to keep it pretty simple, cutting back the sweetness and adding some extra spice, and of course, you won’t find any animal products here. You can have them plain, covered in cheese, combined with ramen, you can truly make it your own. I grew up with my grandmothers, both of them. Yubuchobap. When they showed off a popular Korean street food, tteokbokki, my mouth was watering! Social media exploded, and it was game over- foods would go viral, from zero to a hundred overnight. Tteokbokki is a Korean dish traditionally made with rice cakes, fish cakes, and a sweet, spicy, thick sauce. 2 teaspoons soy sauce. Unless you were living in one of the major cities, there is a good chance you did not have a lot of exposure to many authentic and diverse foods from across the world. Because of the immigration laws in the ’70s, she was able to immigrate to the United States, and becoming a U.S. citizen was one of the last things she did before passing away—something she was intensely proud of. You … Add garlic. How to make vegan tteokbokki. It’s phenomenal. She fled North Korea with two babies and was a refugee in South Korea. His passion for social justice, intelligence, and ability to articulate things in such a clever and pointed way opened my eyes to what a powerful tool for activism TikTok could be. My cookbook is going to feature a ton of recipes that fall into two categories: veganized versions of traditional Korean recipes and fusion-y recipes, because my husband is Italian-American and we eat a very heady combination of Korean and Italian foods. Extra Hot Vegan Tteokbokki (Spicy Korean Rice Cakes, Gluten Free) We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. Vegetarian Tteokbokki. These pan fried version of Tteokbokki are crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and covered in a spicy, sweet sauce that is highly addicting. More tteokbokki variations. This dish is requested every week at my house and is becoming a permanent staple. Her account, @TheKoreanVegan, an extension of her four-year-old blog of the same name, has an immediately recognizable style. Before shutting the door on immigrants or putting up a wall to block them or viewing them as intruders, I want people to see the beautiful roots my parents and my grandparents were able to plant on U.S. soil and understand the hardships they went through to earn that. Cooked freshly in front of your eyes the streets literally smell of of food, a portion will probably set you back about 50p. “It’s amazing to know that I’m reaching people, and there are so many who relate to me because they’re the child of immigrants, or they had trouble with eating, or they had a fraught relationship with their parents,” she says. Sadly, it’s not vegetarian. My personal favourite is the Tteokkochi! Cook on medium-high heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the rice cakes from sticking to …