I never thought I would say this...

... but I like cooking things. It is fun. And interesting. In my quest to acquire cooking skillz, I have already injured myself twice in a manner that has involved bandages and/or short-term scarring - once when I caught on fire by accident and another time when I was zesting with too much abandon and zested some of my pinky off. Anyway. Yesterday, it was kim-bap that had me braving mortal danger.

First, I drove into the suburbs (mmm... lawns...) to find an Asian foods store (oddly rare in D.C. proper) Look at my spoils (See the lovely smoked eel???) :

Then I came home and got down to kim-bap making. Kim-bap is a Korean picnic food that looks like a California roll ("kim," meaning dried seaweed sheets and "bap," meaning white rice).

Ingredients:
- dried, roasted seaweed sheets
- 2 c. white rice, cooked and cooled to room temperature

- Fillings, such as:
--- fried egg, cut into long strips
--- nova lox
--- pickled daikon, cut into long strips (That's that bright yellow stuff next to the carrots in the pic. Packaged, it looks like the scariest giant pickle you have ever seen.)
--- cucumber, peeled, de-seeded, and cut into long strips
--- shredded carrot
--- crabstick
--- spam, cut into long strips (I am not kidding. Korean moms love spam.)
--- leftover beef or pork
--- smoked eel (unagi) (Delicious!)

- sesame oil
- soy sauce for dipping, if you want

You will also need bamboo sushi-rolling mats.

<-- ingredients

First, place a sheet of dried seaweed on the bamboo mat and spread a thin layer of cooked rice, leaving a wee margin all the way around. Then, place whatever fillings you want in a strip across one end.

Now, you are ready to roll. Literally. This is sort of hard to explain. You fold over the end with the fillings along it (I prefer rolling from the bottom up), tucking the fillings in and use the mat to roll the seaweed sheet up tightly, squeezing as you go. (Video instructions here).

When you are all rolled up, use your fingers to brush a wee bit of sesame oil over the outside of the roll. Cut with a very sharp knife.