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Since I'm taking the week off and thus can shop during the day, when the buses are running, I went to the Buford Highway Farmer's Market, which I've passed umpteen times while going to and from work but never gone inside. I could spend long paragraphs describing it, but I'll just sum up by saying it's part pan-Asian and part Mexican, and the hour between buses was nowhere near too much time for me to explore that huge place. Oh, and I got a new bento box, as you can see. 800 ml, it has a lock-down lid, and it's dishwasher and microwave safe - not bad for $8, eh?

Anyway! Most of today's lunch comes from the aforementioned market. It starts with jjol myeon, which is Korean spicy chewy noodles. As the directions on the package were in Korean, I Googled around, got some basic directions, and set to work.  Basically, I quickly stir-fried some carrot slivers, button mushrooms, and cabbage, then dumped them onto the drained-and-rinsed noodles before serving. The noodles came with a few packets of spicy sauce, and I don't do spicy, but I wanted to try it in its proper form, so I squeezed out a little onto a sample of noodles, and - OW! HOTHOTHOT!  Tongue burning! I thinned out the overspiced bit by mixing in more noodles and brought it down to a level I could enjoy. I think I ended up using the spicy sauce at about 3% of its intended concentration. I haven't posted a recipe entry yet, as I want to get a little more information on jjol myeon before telling others how to make it.

Above that there's stir-fried yellow squash and edamame, which are nice calm things to eat in between the doses of what-I-consider-to-be-spicy-food. On the side are blood orange segments and hoddeuk, the latter of which is Korean stuffed hotcake. While wandering dazedly through the market I saw a little stall with a woman making these super-thick hotcakes. Hmm? There was a plate of samples. I tried one... and another, just to be sure... and then walked out with the next batch she wrapped up. The label said "ho tuk," which according to Google doesn't exist, but I did find a recipe for "hoddeok" which matched this, and which will grace my recipe page as soon as I try it out in my own kitchen.

Wanna talk about it?