After a long day of apartment searching on Saturday, I went over to Sean and Kia's place for an incredible vegan gogi dinner party! It was originally meant to be a rooftop bbq, but due to the rain, we had to bring things inside. No worries, it was still a fun time with lots of tasty eats and lively chatter! :)
I swear, Sean and Kia couldn't have done a more impressive job in creating a vegan version of the Korean gogi-cooking experience.
They ordered two types of veg meat, ssamgyupsal and bulgogi, from Vegeland. The bulgogi was pre-marinated, but for the ssamgyupsal, they marinated it with some soysauce and liquid smoke.
They also bought some Korean banchans like kimchi, dotori muk, beans, and lotus root (all vegan!), from a small neighborhood banchan shop.
Kia also did some Korean-cooking herself! She made this bean sprout banchan, which is an absolute must-have at any bbq. Delicious!
She also made Saucy Spicy-Sweet Tofu, using my recipe! :)
I can hardly believe this photo is for real, and that everything is vegan.
It had been sooo long since I had done the whole Korean-style bbq gogi thing, that I had almost forgotten how it was done. It definitely felt weird putting the strips of vegan bulgogi and ssamgyupsal on the hot pan, and then cutting the pieces up with scissors, and flipping them over half-way through,... just like I would do in the omni-days. The apartment even got all good 'n' smokey, and we had to open the windows so as to not set off any smoke detectors. Too bad, Kia & Sean don't have those smoke-vacuum pipes dangling above their dining table, like Korean bbq restaurants. haha.
composing the perfect mouthful
The whole dinner was seriously amazing, delicious, nostalgic, bizarre, and hilarious all at the same time. Omnivores might think that this proves that we vegans secretly want to eat meat, but I don't see it that way. It was really more for novelty's sake, and to prove that we can also enjoy this quintessential Korean cultural dining experience, minus the cruelty and suffering!
While the main meal was all-Korean food, for dessert, we had something very American... s'mores!
I contributed some homemade graham crackers and a bag of dandies marshmallows that came as part of a care package from Natalie earlier this year and had saved for this occasion. :)
For the graham crackers, I used this recipe from the PPK, which is really easy and quick.
Since we didn't have a real fire to toast the marshmallows, we popped them in the microwave for a few seconds until they puffed up like soft pillows~ Ahh, just like real marshmallows! Oh, and for the chocolate, we used some hazelnut chocolate spread that Kia had. Mmmm~
That's not a white dog hair stuck to the graham cracker-- it's stringy melted marshmallow!
The taste was good, but I definitely made the crackers too thick! They were a bit hard to bite into... haha. Oh well, it was a good first-attempt at making vegan s'mores. Next time, we'll definitely have to do it right with a real bonfire to get the burnt, crispy marshmallow edges, and with some dark chocolate, and thinner, crispier graham crackers. :)
Marcel and his adorable bat ears.
"Can I have some vegan bulgogi? Pweeeze?"
Once again, Sean and Kia were the most generous and gracious hosts, and I was completely stuffed to the brim by the end of the night. Next time, it will be my turn to host them- at my new apartment! :) Can't wait. Thanks S&K!