Amanda Takes Off...

Fatty White Ribbons of Pork

Crunchy, Slightly Sour Kimchi in Shades of White, Green, and Red

Black Rice Giving Brown Rice a Puple Hue

Dry, Shiny Green Seaweed

A Perfectly Ripe Orange-Pink Peach for Dessert...

I had a long, long day at work. I did not want to go to taekwondo but knew I "should." We were also set to have spicy pork for dinner. While I adore our table-top grill, it can be a time-consuming process to grill on it.

What to do...?

In the slow cooker I mixed three big spoonfuls of 고추장 (red pepper paste), several cloves of crushed and chopped garlic, a half an onion sitting in the fridge, a few carrots, a spoonful of sugar, soy sauce and water. (No mushrooms on hand.) I then dumped in more than three pounds of pork belly. I used a 4 qt crock and put it on high for about 1 1/2 hrs. Afraid that the pork wouldn't cook, I then set it to 6 qts (which makes it hotter) for another 1 1/2 hrs.

I threw brown and black rice (현미, 흑미) in my glorious rice cooker at a ratio of 11 parts brown to 1 part black.

After taekwondo, picking up Good Man from the subway station, and a shower... dinner was (basically) ready. All I needed to do was open up the container of kimchi and cut up some 김 (seaweed).

Now, the sauce didn't thicken up like it normally does. I probably added a smidge too much water because I was afraid of the pork not being covered. Next time I'll add corn starch, agar agar, or rice powder during the last half hour of cooking.

But damn. That was a good dinner.