02CEA: Side Dish Experiments

Tuesday - Quick Lunch

This week is progressing along as busily as expected, and that is resulting in some interesting meal ideas. I've fallen back on things that are quicker to prepare as I don't have all that much time in-between meetings and other work obligations. But thankfully, this is coinciding with some of my other experiments.

Yesterday, I had been eager to make use of the Korean radish I had picked up as part of last week's groceries but hadn't come up with an idea. The last time I had gotten one of these, I used it as part of a kimchi soup. But yesterday, I really hoped to try making one of those side dishes. Tobie and I had watched a number of YouTube videos about various ban chan and how to prepare them. The most common preparation for radish is a vinegar-based salad or straight to pickling. And since most suggest preparing the dish at least two hours before eating, I ended up preparing something else while setting the radish mixture aside.

I'm glad that I still had pushed through with preparing the light pickling mixture (albeit without sugar) as today I only had time for a very quick lunch that was essentially breakfast fare. But with the addition of some of the pickled radish, even the simple fish sausages and eggs felt like a somewhat loftier meal. And I still have a fair amount of radish left for future meals. 

So for today's grocery, I picked up a few more items to try and work with for additional side dishes to have in stock for future meals. I don't have anything fancy in mind - I hope to prepare a quick spinach salad and maybe something with cucumbers as additional banchan to keep in the fridge for the next day or two. Not everything involves pickling but it does feel like a lot of it will. And even just one more side dish will help make even the most basic omelet feel a lot more interesting. 

I will have very little time to cook lunch tomorrow, so we'll see if I'll be able to add anything else to our meal mix. I still have meetings to get through along with related preparation work and I'm not sure if I'll have time for everything. But I'll try my best to do so because I'm stubborn that way. 

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