It has been a long break for my posts, while Sara has been cooking and writing away! As an update, I am currently living in Miami for the summer and working for Burger King Corporation. This means that I live in an Extended Stay hotel and have my own room and mini kitchen. Although it’s great that they provided some basic cooking utensils, I have limited resources and therefore have limited cooking abilities here. Nevertheless, I am doing the best I can to bring a little home-cooking to Miami.
Before I left home, one of the restaurants that I knew I had to visit was the Tofu House. This Korean restaurant specializes in making Soon Du Bu, a spicy tofu soup laden with seafood, meat, vegetables, or my personal favorite, oysters. It is served in a piping hot bowl to keep the soup nice and sizzling.
One of the best parts about eating Soon Du Bu is that it is often topped with a raw egg. Once you crack and drop the egg into the hot soup it immediately drops to the bottom and cooks to an almost soft-boiled consistency.
Korean dishes are nearly always served with a plethora of small sides including veggies, salad, pickles, fish cakes, bean sprouts and kimchee, and this restaurant was no exception.
Luckily for me, Asian grocery stores such as H Mart have capitalized on the demand for home cooked Soon Du Bu. Normally, the process is time consuming considering that the tofu is made fresh- which is a cooking skill far above my head! Instead, I was able to purchase an instant kit complete with a seasoning packet, tofu, and seasoning oil. The tofu comes compacted tightly in a tube that is easily cut open and added to the seasoned soup.
It boils for only 4-5 minutes…
And voila! The tableware here at the Extended Stay is a little sad and limited, unideal for the presentation of this dish. However, the soup was extremely good and fortunately spicy enough for my taste. I had worried that it wouldn’t be hot enough, but I was not disappointed. After I finished eating I realized that I really should have put an egg inside while the soup was still on the stove, but I will just have to save that for next time!