I totally love working out.

Confession: I was supposed to go to the gym after work today, but I didn't.  I even changed into my "workout clothes" (my raggedy law school tshirt and non-Lululemon pants) before I left the office so that I would have no excuses.  No excuses!  But I totally found an excuse.  So now I'm sitting here with a glass of Shiraz and updating my blog.  A much nobler objective, no?

This post is dedicated to my cousin, Paul.

That's him - in his '88 Seoul Olympics t-shirt.  If you can't tell, he's from the Republic of Korea.  And that's me next to him, with a wonky left eye, swollen from a bee sting.  The rest of this picture is actually pretty awesome.  And by the rest of this picture, I mean our other cousin (strategically cropped out to maintain his dignity) who is wearing his ultra cool overalls with an ultra huge pee stain.  Our cousin Boo who stands like Mama Bear behind us is the only normal person in the picture. This picture pretty much sums it up: We. Are. Awesome.

Paul and I live on opposite ends of the West coast but we make an effort to talk to each other regularly and keep each other posted on our culinary adventures.  His most recent culinary adventure involved ramen powder and a big slab of pork belly.  Intrigued, yes?  The deal was that he would try this recipe out and make his grand appearance on this blog as a guest blogger.  Oh so where can you find this amazing ramen powder and pork belly recipe?  Right here as soon as he sends it!  Yea that's right - I'm calling you out!  WHERE'S MY GUEST BLOGGER ENTRY, PAUL??

But in the meantime, here's what I've been cooking/ eating.

I love cookbooks.  Especially if the book has an equal ratio of photos to recipes.  David Chang's Momofuku cookbook falls into this category.  It goes without saying that both Chang and his recipes are amazing.  In fact, for Paul's birthday this year, after much pondering and consultation with his better half, I decided to get Paul the Momofuku cookbook and 4 lbs. of Benton's bacon.  He and his better half read Chang's beautiful prose on torching pig head hair before they go to bed at night.  Take notes, kids.  This is the key to an everlasting marriage.

Anyways, one weekend, I decided that I was going to try out a couple of his recipes.  I would start with a couple of the tamer recipes.  There would be no removing of animal hair or shaving of foie gras.  I decided on "Roasted Rice Cakes", made with his "Korean Red Dragon Sauce" and "Pan-roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS".  To my fellow Koreans and dduk-bok-gi (Korean rice cakes boiled in a bath of red pepper sauce) eaters in general, you will never be able to eat regular dduk-bok-gi again.

It was delicious and for the most part, I think it came out the way it was supposed to.  I definitely reduced the amount of sugar used for the Korean Red Dragon Sauce.  No disrespect, Mr. Chang, but no one needs to be eating that much sugar.

I know I said this was a dedication, but really, it was more of my unapologetic campaign to shame my cousin into sending his blog entry.  I hope it works.  But let me be sincere for a moment and say how thankful I am to have a cousin who shares my love for everything delicious and has a guest room for me in Seattle.  There is not enough Benton's bacon in this world to express how lucky I am to call you my cousin.  And as you guys begin this new chapter of your life, I know that you'll be fine.  And any time you feel like you're not, I want you to look at that picture and know that you're a bad ass mf.