Kimbap

I am not a fan of sushi. Most of it has crab, which I am allergic to in all forms, real and imitation. Plus it's raw fish and I'm just not that into eating things that could possibly give me tapeworm. And I'm definitely not into biting into something as bad as that raw pork stuff that I didn't want to try on food challenge of the SeoulMazing Race back in May. (Those of you who were there, you know exactly what I mean. Vomit.)

I will probably be shunned for saying this by those of you who love sushi, but kimbap is kind of the same thing, except dry. Incredibly dry. The seaweed (kim, in Korean) is so dry it's flaky, the rice inside is sticky white rice, and even though it's cooked and not crunchy, it's still very dry. The vegetables inside are raw and very un-moist, and again, most of it is filled with imitation crab or some kind of raw and foul-smelling seafood that I don't want to pay for just to throw away.

But last weekend, I was introduced to a kimbap that I actually like: don kka sa kimbap. Don kka sa is fried pork cutlet - think frozen pork patty, not USDA choice pork. A thin pork cutlet is wrapped up in kim and sticky rice along side a thin slice of yellow raddish (which I don't like on it's own, but in this kimbap it actually isn't bad) and rolled into kimbap form. It is very yummy.

This particular roll of kimbap came from the kimbap shop that I pass on the way to work. It is not my favorite shop - as soon as I enter this shop, the ladies there seem to not be able to wait until I leave - but they are the only shop within walking distance of me that has don kka sa kimbop. (My favorite kimbap shop deserves a blog of it's own. The lady who cooks there is probably my most favorite Korean in the entire world. I absolutely LOVE her. I thought she had don kka sa kimbap, but it was a miscommunication and I left with crab-stuffed kimbap, instead.)

This roll is stuffed with the pork cutlet and a few other things. The white/yellow stuff on top of the pork is egg, the yellow stuff to the left of that is the yellow radish, the orange stuff under that is carrot, and the green stuff under that is some type of garden vegetable that resembles raw zucchini. This was the literal translation of 'garden vegetable variety' don kka sa kimbap, and it was either this or kimchi kimbap. I wasn't in the mood for kimchi, so garden variety it was. It was pretty tasty, but the best by far was the roll I had in Daejeon last weekend with just the pork and raddish.