Spicy Booty Chicks

It's actually Budae Jjigae, or "Budy Jigs" for short. Military Soup in English. All the same, when Daniel asked across the office if we wanted to pick up (what sounded a lot like) "Booty Chicks" after work, I didn't say no.

"It's like your college ramen grew up and got its life together."

Mmmmmmm.

No joke. This stuff was everything you wanted your college ramen to be, you just didn't know it. And being as most of my college ramen experiences were spent gnawing on squares of plain, dry noodles over the kitchen trashcan -- it was a definite upgrade.

I'm told that Budy Jigs is the product of the Korean war, when (mostly US) soldiers where trying to feed a lot of guys with whatever was on hand. Daniel has told me stories of soldiers going to to villages, picking up "whatever was red" and mixing it with their K-rations in water. The Koreans saw what they were doing, and thought it wise to perfect the dish and sell it. What you wind up with is pretty interesting.

Hot dogs, SPAM, bean sprouts, potato noodles, onions, pork dumplings, tofu, and a handful of other small veggies swim in a light, milky white starch broth made stain-your-shirt-forever red by chili sauce. You simmer all that over a burner on your table for a few minutes before you add the ramen. Stir. Then ladle the soup (I guess we'll call it soup) into bowls with rice in the bottom of them. It's hard for me to judge how that sounds to you, but I can tell you that the end result is filling and delicious. And cheap! For three of us to eat our fill it cost maybe $6 USD a person. The rice and ramen were free so when you finish one bowl you just re-up on rice and ladle out seconds -- family style. 

This place is right across the street from my apartment. I could literally hit it, along with a bakery, grocery store, and 10 other restaurants with a rock (or rocks). Growing up a 20 minute drive from town, this is a world apart. Some parts of city living still don't really appeal to me, but being able to walk to places like this is definitely awesome. 

And if I haven't made this clear enough already, I'm loving Korean food. It's cheap, filling, flavorful -- I'm all about it. Going to start fermenting Kimchi in the toilet cistern -- a la Korean prison (presumably).