Our family christmas feast seemed like a near carbon copy of our thanksgiving feast.
We had the kalbi stew, again.
We had chicken wings, again. But this time, they were a tiny bit burnt. Thanks toaster oven!
Yep, here’s the japchae, again. We’re like a broken record, right?
Kimchi, because no korean meal is ever complete without it.
Oh wait! Something different! Tempura shrimp! We did not have this at thanksgiving.
And more! Ddukpokki, which is one of my favorite korean foods, ever! My aunt’s friend A made it, and she makes some of the best darn ddukpokki this side of the east china sea.
And christmas cookies, courtesy of my cousin’s girl. We certainly did not have christmas cookies at thanksgiving. Hope everyone had a nice holiday season this year!

We didn’t have turkey and stuffing and all that jazz this year. We decided to have a korean thanksgiving, which just means that on thanksgiving day, we ate korean food. Like these chicken wings. But oh, wait, these aren’t particularly korean. Heck, who’s keeping score?
But these spicy pork baby back ribs are definitely korean!
And so is this kalbi stew. There’s nothing non-korean about this.
It wasn’t just a meat fest though, we even had some fish.
Don’t worry, we didn’t only just eat the flesh of beasts. My aunt also made some japchae. She claimed that it was the best japchae ever. And well, she was kind of right. It was pretty damn good. Oh, but there was meat in this, but only a little.
More flesh! It’s fish again, but it’s dried and flattened and cut into strips and marinated with spices.
Last of the flesh, I swear! There’s some fish cake type stuff on the right, and the ones on the left are zucchini. Finally, we get some darn vegetables in this meal! Man, I ate a lot of the fish ones. I don’t remember eating any of the zucchini ones. Oops.
Some more veggies. There’s absolutely no animal product in this, I promise. And I didn’t eat any of this either, I promise.
And well, you really can’t call a meal korean if there isn’t kimchi involved. So of course, we had plenty. I ate some of this, and it definitely has vegetables in it. So finally, proof that I ate vegetables on thanksgiving!

My uncle’s brother was in town, so we had a little bbq in Delaware. It’s usually my uncle’s job man the grill, but for whatever reason, my mom was womanning the grill this time.
Before we started cooking outside, earlier in the day, we had a little snack. It was fairly simple really, just some raw fish. I can’t really call it anything else, because that’s all it was, a plate of raw fish. There was some spicy kochujang to dip it in, some sliced raw garlic, and some red leaf lettuce or perilla leaves to roll it in. But any way you looked at it, it was just sliced raw fish on a plate. Delicious raw fish, at that.
Once we started our proper dinner, we kicked things off with a noodle dish. This isn’t the first time my aunt has made this. But what’s not to like? We have soba noodles as the main starch, and cucumbers, watercress, and shredded perilla leaves for veggies. Then we have squid, shrimp, and imitation crab meat for seafood.
Everything is mixed together with a spicy kochujang sauce, not unlike the dip that we were using for the raw fish earlier. That’s all there is to it! I hate perilla leave, with a passion, so I make sure to get a batch without it. It’s that gross to me. But without the perilla leaves, I just love this stuff. And for a hot summer day, cold noodles with veggies and seafood are perfect.
Here’s the galbi that my mom, the griller of the day, cooked up. I prefer pieces that are nearly, if not actually, burnt. I’m odd that way.
My mom also marinated up some dried file fish and grilled those up.
Here they are after they’ve been cooked. They were a bit too salty for my liking.
She also marinated some large pieces of squid. My mom always scores the flesh with crosshatches on one side, so they can curl. I’m not sure if it’s necessary, but it’s fun watching them curl up. It was another lovely, lazy, and food-filled day!