The Food Addicts

Pictured here in front of the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center, ready to eat and judge!

A wonderful medley of Korean dishes were set-up for the cast and crew to enjoy before filming began. This was more like a buffet, really.

Daniel also accompanied me on our trip to San Diego for the taping, but he did not sit in as a guest judge. Instead, he pigged out on the Korean food for lunch. Who wouldn't?

This event was produced by Carma Media & Entertainment in cooperation with Korea Herald Business in Los Angeles. The crew was great!

The contestants consisted of 3 teams from 3 different restaurants: Villa Saverios (Tijuana MX), Bluewater Grill (Tustin/Redondo Beach) and Marine Room (La Jolla).

Here is a picture of Cathlyn Choi, host and producer of Cathlyn's Korean Kitchen. She is America's only Korean celebrity chef and television personality who is currently producing Season 3 of her cooking show called "Cathlyn's Korean Food Challenge." It is expected to premiere on KOCE/OC, the PBS Channel, in June.

The three main judges were Barbara Hansen, editor of LA Weekly, James Kyson Lee, best known for his role of Ando Masahashi on the NBC television series Heroes, and Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, author of Quick and Easy Korean Cooking.

I sat with my two fellow blogger judges: Jenn from Just Jenn Recipes and Fiona from Gourmet Pigs. We had a blast trying the chefs' unique creations of the classic Korean dishes.

The other guest bloggers included Lori Lynn from Taste of the Eyes, Veronica from Food Glorious Food OC, and Anita Lau from Diary of a Mad Hungry Woman.

The first team that went was the Red Team, which consisted of Chef Javier Plascencia and Chef Adria Montano from Villa Saverios in Tijuana, Mexico. They randomly selected these Korean dishes to prepare in 30 minutes: Dak Galbi and Kalbi jjhim.

This is the beautifully plated Dak Galbi, which is a Korean chicken stew. Chef Adria Montano put a very zesty Mexican spin on this Korean dish and made it look extra elegant.

Chef Javier Plascencia created Kalbi jjhim which is Korean braised short ribs. The sweet marinade of the meat was so tender and flavorful. It was actually one of my favorite dishes.

The main judges tasted the food on camera and provided their input and comments on the first team's dishes. Their feedback was very insightful.

Next up, the White Team prepared their selected Korean dishes: Bibimbap and Tteokbokki.

Chef Bernard Guillas whipped up an interesting version of Bibimbap that is plated in a way that probably none of us have ever seen before! Chef Bernard also presented the classic dish in a hot stone bowl, but we were presented with a small plated Bibimbap with an adorable fried quail egg. It's culinary genius!

Chef Ron Oliver from San Diego made this Tteokbokki dish. I don't know what's harder - to spell it or to pronounce it! Tteokbokki, also known as Ddeokbokki, or also Nyebokki, is a popular Korean snack food which is a braised dish of sliced rice cake, meat, eggs, and seasoning. The rice cakes had a nice chewy texture with a surprising kick of spiciness.

On our end of the judging table, we had to score each chef's dish from a scale of 1-5. We were also filmed eating, but did not have to speak our comments on camera. Whew!

And lastly, the final Blue Team from Orange County prepared probably the two most difficult dishes to do in 30 minutes: Kimchi and Gu Jeol Pan. Good luck fermenting Kimchi in half an hour!

In case you were wondering, we were drinking a variety of Korean alcoholic beverages and wine while we waited for the chefs to complete their cooking.

Chef Graham Norton made a unique interpretation of Kimchi. He created a Kimchi salad that had a lot of ingredients throughout the dish, including Asian pear, sardines, and raspberry vinegar. Quite an eclectic bunch of ingredients to say the least. I wasn't too fond of the flavors nor the plating, as it looked like a mess. But I do have to give him the Bravery Award for taking on this frightening and difficult task of making Kimchi in 30 minutes on camera. Bravo, bravo.

The last dish we got to try was Chef Brian Hirsty's Gujeolpan. This classic and elaborate Korean dish consists of nine different foods assorted by color and ingredients. It's bad enough trying to make one dish in 30 minutes, but to make this poor chef do nine dishes is beyond me! He managed to pull through with sweat and tears to get this accomplished. All I can say is that the Blue Team definitely got the short end of the stick when they randomly selected these choices for the competition.

After the cooking and judging was complete, Cathlyn announced the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Yes, that's right - everyone came home a winner with a nice prize. And of course, that's a wrap!

I took a picture with Executive Chef Bernard Guillas and Chef Ron Oliver after the taping. If you are in the San Diego area, make sure you check out their restaurant, Marine Room in La Jolla.

This is one of favorite ways to eat good quality balsamic vinegar. We drizzled some Saporoso Balsamic Vinegar over asparagus that we roasted in the oven at 450-degrees for about 10 minutes, along with some thinly sliced red onion. It was seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper. The results are superb!

Luckily we had some spicy Thai chilies growing in our garden, so we picked two of them for this dish. If you know your chilies are extremely spicy, just use one!

We used about 1 lb of flap meat, but use whatever stir-fry beef you prefer. Cut it into thin strips. Saute the meat for 3 minutes, then add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 3 shallots, and 2 chilies.

Since we had some mini bell peppers left in the fridge, we used this to add color and texture to the dish. Here we used about 1.5 cups of sliced bell peppers. Toss this together with the rest of the ingredients for another few minutes until the meat and peppers are just tender.

In a separate bowl, mix together these ingredients to create the sauce: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1.5 tsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp mirin, and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Mix it well and then pour it into the pan to coat the meat and vegetables. You will see the sauce thickening up. Add some cracked pepper.

Turn off the heat and toss in about 1 cup of Thai basil leaves. Don't cook the basil or it will turn black.

This is a great dish to serve with rice. Use this recipe as a template for your own stir fry adventures in the kitchen. You can change up the meat and use chicken or shrimp, and use broccoli and carrots instead of bell peppers. The cooking time is ridiculously fast so you can have dinner ready in no time. Hope our friends who likes fast and easy recipes enjoy this one!

Sift together 2 1/2 cups cake flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Gently mix together.

In a mixer, beat 1 1/2 sticks of softened unsalted butter, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup shredded coconut. Then add 3 large eggs, one at a time. With the mixer on low, gradually add 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk, and 1 vanilla bean (shown below). To get the batter looking a lovely red, add 2 tbsp of red food coloring.

Instead of vanilla extract, we scraped a vanilla bean instead. If you don't have this on hand, then use 1 tsp vanilla extract to be added to the wet ingredients.

We combined the dry ingredients with the red batter by hand instead of using the electric mixer. In a separate bowl, combine 1 tbsp white vinegar with 1 tsp baking soda and let it activate. Then add it to the batter.

Spray two 8-inch cake pans and divide the mixture into two. (Note: We didn't have two pans handy, so we just used one cake pan for the batter. This will have a longer baking time and we had to cut off the top of the cake after it baked to get it flat.) If you have the two cake pans, it should take about 25-30 minutes to bake or until toothpick comes out clean.

As you can see, we sliced off the top of our cake to give it a smooth texture to prepare for the icing.

We also cut the cake into 3 layers and added a thin layer of cream cheese frosting on each piece. Cream cheese frosting is prepared by mixing 1 package of softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup softened butter, 4 cups confectioner's sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. If the frosting is not as smooth, add 1 tsp of water to help the consistency be more spreadable.

Frost each layer of the cake and finish off with the entire outside of the cake. Don't worry if you get red velvet specks when you are icing because the coconut flakes will cover it.

Sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded coconut over the entire cake, making sure to cover all areas of the frosting. This was definitely the most enjoyable part! Maybe it's because we were at the finish line.

From the outside, it just looks like a white coconut cake, but once you slice into the cake, you get the beautiful red velvet color which is perfect to serve for a Valentine's Day dessert. So now you can have your cake... and eat it too!

The first thing I did was cook 1 lb. of ground beef in a skillet so that I can drain the fat. Yes, it's disgusting, so drain it!! Then set aside. (Optional: I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper).

I used 1 cup diced onions, 1 cup diced green bell peppers, 1/2 cup diced jalapeños, 1/2 cup diced celery, and 1 tbsp garlic. That's right - 1/2 cup of jalapeños, that is why it's so spicy! But it gives it a nice kick. If you can't handle the heat, then just reduce it to 1/4 cup.

Add the above ingredients in a pot and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You are sweating the veggies.

Now comes all of the flavor enhancers: 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Then add the ground beef into this pot and mix everything together for a couple of minutes.

Finally, add 8 oz. tomato sauce, 8 oz. beef broth, and 1 can (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 10 minutes to let all the flavors incorporate. Taste to adjust seasonings.

Top your bowl of Spicy Chili with some grated cheese, minced red onion, and cilantro. Then dig in! We really liked the freshness of the toppings because it went really well with the hot and spicy chili. You can really taste the cumin and the other spices that gives it that hearty chili flavor! And don't worry - just because we are on a low-carb diet does not mean we won't be making carbolicious foods for the blog... we will still make it, but won't eat too much of it!

This is our organic French sorrel from the garden, which is still alive and strong throughout these cold months. These acidic leaves are high in Vitamins A and C, as well as fiber. Remember - greens are good for you!

To the food processor, we made the pesto by combining 2 cups of fresh sorrel with the ribs removed,(The ribs are the part of the stem that goes through the leaf. It's very tough so it should be discarded), 1/4 cup of pine nuts that we toasted in a pan, 1/3 cup parsley, 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup olive oil.

The mixture is pureed and should look like this. Taste and adjust for seasonings. You will find that it has a distinct lemon flavor.

You can use this pesto sauce in any pasta you want. We went with a bow tie pasta and cooked up some chicken to go along with the dish. The nuttiness from the pine nuts and the tartness of the sorrel definitely makes the meal interesting. And just for fun, we bundled some French sorrel into a bouquet.

As mentioned, we took the remaining sorrel pesto and made a pizza with the store-bought dough we had on hand. We docked and par-baked the dough first in the oven at 400F for 7-10 minutes because we like our dough crispy. Then we took it out to spread the pesto sauce on top.

Then came the rest of the toppings - a ton of mozarella cheese and pancetta that we crisped up in the pan. Pancetta is a cured meat, similar to bacon. We popped it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so until the cheese was fully melted and the crust was browned.

We sprinkled a little bit of French sorrel chiffonade on top and this French sorrel pesto pizza was ready to be devoured. We really enjoyed utilizing the fresh sorrel from our garden to make these two simple meals, and we hope that you get a chance to try this lovely green herb if you ever come across it. Since we still have a bush of sorrel growing, our next meal will have to be the classic French sorrel soup! Stay tuned!

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