Kimbap Recipe: A College Try

For the record this was done a while ago, and poorly. I'm hoping to get my vacation blogs up by the middle of the week or possibly tomorrow on my billionth train ride to Seoul. 

Anyways, I really like wraps and the Korean version of a wrap is kimbab (김밥). At first glance it looks like sushi and justifiably so since it's rice (bab) and other things (NOT raw fish) wrapped in seaweed (kim). Typical fillers include spam, (artificial) crab, these brown stick things, thinly sliced vegetables, pickled things and egg. Not knowing what some of these lip-curling fillers are made me want to try and make my own. I started by making a 춤치 김밥 (Tuna Kimbab). If you live in Korea it's really easy to find all of these ingredients and pretty cost effective too. On the Western side of the world somethings might be a little tougher to find especially considering kimbab is "exclusive" to Korea. 

     

Behold my ingredients and supplies: (clockwise from the left) match stick carrots, yellow pickled stuff, stick things (not used), plastic wrap, all beef salami, tuna mix, and kim. Rice, pickles and lettuce not pictured. 

The all-beef salami comes in a loaf (it happened to be on sale) so I just cut it up length wise. The tuna mix has a little bit of mayo, pepper and Sriracha sauce in it for a little bit of a kick. Before putting the tuna into the kimbab I was advised to wrap in something so the rice doesn't get soggy. Here's how my first on looked before I rolled it up.  

*It's important not to cover the kim entirely with rice. You'll need so use an edible/tasty adhesive to hold the roll together. Sesame oil or water are both good choices. 

I made this after dinner and stored them in saran for my lunch the following day.  

This one has a pickle in the wrap too. Yes, a homemade pickle.

My desk-warming snack the following day accompanied by yet another narrow Leafs win.

Cooking has always been a really adventurous interest of mine ever since I started watching the food network. Travelling to another country with a completely different diet is really awesome and I hope to try more variations of kimbab and also other neat and original takes on Korean recipes.

Bon apetit!