Kimbap - Korean Food

Are you a fan of KPop? Perhaps of Koreanovelas? If so, this food must be familiar to you! And, you will know that this is different from the Japanese makisushi or California maki. This is Kimbap 김밥 - one of the most popular traditional Korean dish. Yes, it sure does resemble the aforementioned but both actually have distinct tastes! :)

For other Korean dish, here's the link to Japchae:
http://kharensarroza.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post.html

Kimbap: Kim (seaweed sheets; this is called 'nori' in the Japanese sushi) + bap (rice).

It's basically rice roll with vegetables and meat or ham or kimchi - depends on what kind of kimbap you are making. Kimbap is a favored choice for picnics and lunch packs!

But, until now it still sounds like 'sushi' right? So, what's the difference between the two? Sushi is flavored rice - flavored with 'dashi' which is a seafood stock plus rice vinegar and a bit of sugar and salt. In kimbap, however, the rice is usually plain steamed rice which, once cooked, is usually blended with a dash of sesame oil and salt.

*Dashi is staple in Japanese dishes as sesame oil is in Korean dishes.

Anyways, here's how I made it:

Carrots and cucumber cut lengthwise.
Vegetables can either be pickled or not.
Spinach is also a good addition!

On top (L-R):Kimbap ham which can be substituted with Spam ,
Fish cake or 'Omu' which  will be sliced lengthwise too.
Bottom (L-R): Crab meat and pickled radish (yellow)
which can be bought at Oriental stores and Spinneys

Short grain steamed rice blended with sesame oil and salt.
*For Japanese sushi rice, it is said that it's better to use wooden bowl and
spoon so as not to break the rice grains.

Ready to roll! ..Spread the rice and place the ingredients! Sounds easy?

Sounds easy but it actually isn't! X)
It's something that takes a lot of getting used to!
If the kids' moms would grade me on this, I'd get failing marks!
Why? It's supposed to be intact and very very compact!
And, excuse me for the bare hands here.

Yeah, something's missing.. I forgot the egg!!!
Oh well, there's always next time!
*For Koreans, the color of the food actually matters.