K-Recipe: For Your Picnic Days Out in the Sun 🌸

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Folded Kimbaps (aka. Kim-dwich) are the easy version of our normal round Kimbaps, that don't require much cooking skills. Depends on what you want inside your rolled rice but usually in the original version, you need to prepare more than five ingredients: yellow radish, carrots, spinach, egg, crab stick or fish cakes, and meat. These all have to be cut into juliennes, cooked, marinated… You get the idea of how much work it calls for. Nonetheless, Kimbap is one of the most loved dishes in Korea that people crave once in a while. Hence why there are simpler versions of it like the convenience store triangular kimbaps (samgak-kimbap). The folded Kimbap that we’ll be talking about today has been trending among people in their early 20s, who want good food done easily.

MBC | I Live Alone

As the recipe for this new style of Kimbap started spreading on the web, the singer Son Dam-Bi tried it out in the TV Show I Live Alone (also mentioned in the Lemon Dill Butter recipe). In this show where celebrities share their personal life at home, Dam-Bi was known for her lack of cooking skills 😂 So when she stepped up to the kitchen saying that she found an easy sandwich-like recipe, it was the panel's main interest of whether this was a recipe that she’d really be able to pull. A round of applause burst out when she created her delicious masterpiece all by herself! This episode of I Live Alone tripled the trend of Kim-dwiches and proved that this is indeed for all cooking beginners.

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As mentioned above, the ingredients you put in your kimbaps are entirely up to you. The most popular would be ham kimbap, bulgogi kimbap, and tuna kimbap - refer to TMI Vol. 024 for different kimbap recipes! The dish itself is already very healthy with a good balance of protein and veggies, but even healthier diets tend to hold everyone’s attention these days. Kim-dwich and healthy eating trends came together and led to a variety of vegan options for Kim-dwiches. For example, whole grain rice, fresh veggies, and marinated tofu in your kimbap would be a wonderful vegan meal, and also for some calorie cuts! Here’s a vegan Kim-dwich recipe video for those of you who are interested. Are there others who would like to see the most common Kim-dwich trends on IG, Facebook, and Twitter? Keep scrolling for the full recipe of the Spam Kimchi ver. and the Tuna Mayo ver. of Folded Kimbaps below!

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Ingredients

1) Let’s begin with preparing the ingredients! For a bowl of steamed rice, season with a tsp of sesame oil and a pinch of salt.

2) For the Spam Kimchi Kim-dwich, slice up Spam in long-sides, and cook on a frying pan. After, cook Kimchi on the pan with some cooking oil and 1 tsp of sugar. Lastly, cook one fried or scrambled egg as well.

3) For the Tuna Mayo Kim-dwich, drain the tuna can and mix the tuna with 2 Tbsp of mayonnaise and some pepper. Chop a cucumber in half and slice up thinly. You can optionally pickle the cucumber in ½ cup of water, 1 Tbsp of vinegar and 1 tsp of salt.

4) Onto the Kimbap folding! Get some kitchen scissors to cut up the centre of the dried seaweed, only up to halfway.

5) Section the dried seaweed into four even sections, and place each ingredient in each section. (Tip: Keep the wet ingredients placed on top of another on the same section, so that they don’t wet the seaweed. For example, place the cooked kimchi on top of the steamed rice, and place the tuna mayo on top of your greens leaves.)

6) Fold the Kimbap clockwise, starting from the bottom left.

7) You can have it like a sandwich just like that, or wrapped up with glad wrap and cut into halves. Enjoy!

Youtube | Tango Kitchen

There are so many different recipes out there, that I couldn’t pick on one to be the standard! Hence why this recipe is actually my personal favourite, which I enjoy during my WFH lunch hours. When working in my room for too long, I feel like fixing myself some easy food and heading out to the backyard for some sunshine. With the new Alert Level 3 Phase 1 regulation, now two bubbles can meet up with a maximum of ten people for an outside gathering! Perhaps this can be your picnic food on your overdue meetups with your loved ones under the cherry blossoms 🌸 Here’s a recipe video for those who want some visual tutorial!