Hi, do you mind cooking dinner for me?

By CLAIRE OH, with contributions from TANIA KIM & Photographs by CLAIRE OH

“I mean, it’s all about how you wrap things up, isn’t it?” Tania remarks.

Kimbap is a Korean street food made from cooked rice, sheets of roasted seaweed, and a range of llings from honey glazed roasted pork to random le overs lying around in the fridge. But at its core, what is considered essential for a kimbap is just a sheet of seaweed – ‘kim’ – and rice – ‘bap’. Served in small slices, kimbp is the epitome of eat-as-you-go; just imagine – people in the streets of Seoul power walking with a bar of kimbap as their lifeline.

“Sad life of a corporate slave, soon to be me.” Tania adds as she puts down the dish on the table.

Tania’s version is a bit mushed, but still looks edible to a uni student standard. Eating means taking a short break from conversations. We rest our plates on stacked up bill envelopes and applications to be nished over the weekend.

New year’s resolutions is our chosen topic for the day. We talk in hopes and aspirations, gratitudes and regrets. Giving names to emotions and accepting them. Saying yes and lling the rest of the year with better memories.

“Probably our last homemade kimbap in this at” Tania says.

ere goes her go-to line of the year. As emotional as it is, everything she does could potentially become “the last xx as a uni student” – last Christmas as a uni student, last house party, last kimbap….

But back to the food. A note from my dear atmate Tania to the readers: rolling kimbap is an art in itself. Some use dedicated tools for perfection, but most of the time it’s just you and the ingredients. Inch by inch, pulling the llings inside to secure, and pushing the roll forward so that the surface remains clean without creases.

Whatever the llings are, the roll has to come to a full circle. anks for the meal!

Recipe: SPAM kimbap, for a single roll

Place a sheet of kim (seaweed paper), ideally roasted slightly. Mix a bowl of cooked rice with a splash of sesame oil and sprinkle of salt, and evenly spread out on the kim.

Place ½ can of roasted SPAM, one strip of danmuji (yellow pickled radish) or any pickles as an alternative, and some veggies of your choice (ideally cooked and mushy).

Roll the kim over the llings.

If you want to invite Claire for dinner as a part of the series, write to social. ipside@lsesu.com