APSA’s Amazing 2023 Asian Thanksgiving Cooking Event
Submitted by Michelle Ewton
Throughout the year, so many clubs have dozens of events each. Not many can stand out among the hundreds held during a single semester, but APSA definitely took on the challenge and scored an ace.
On November 16, 2023, APSA hosted a fun and engaging cooking event that anyone could enjoy, be it a person who had never cooked before or a pro chef. The recipes were simple, but they had enough ingredients that if you wanted to go off the cuff you could. Or if you didn’t know where to start, there were plenty of people there to help set you in the right direction. It was definitely an event where if you went with a group of friends it would have enhanced your experience. That is, as long as your friendship won’t break from having too many chefs in the kitchen. Even if you went alone, you were able to join others in a tasty journey.
The first thing that we made was something that any K-drama lover would recognize, tteokbokki. This is a rice cake dish typically simmered in a gochujang based sauce, and it’s typical to find some add-ins like fish cakes or cheese. APSA made it really easy for us, with already chopped garlic and all the sauce ingredients were already mixed together in a master mix. All we had to do was cook some garlic before adding the rice cakes and sauce, leaving it to simmer for a couple minutes before chowing down. The rice cakes were so soft, yet had a nice chew. The sauce turned into a shiny and thick glaze that had a nice soy sauce and pepper flavor with a little kick of spice.
Second on the menu was pajeon, a savory green onion pancake. For this one we had much more creative liberty. With great power comes great responsibility. We created the batter according to the instructions, and the plan was to make two of them. Things got a little out of hand though, and we instead made a big one. It was definitely too thick and didn’t have as much crunch as we wanted it to, but we were able to make it work with enough flipping and cooking oil. I think that APSA intended for us to eat the pajeon plain or with soy sauce, but my group wanted to make a sauce. We combined soy sauce, sugar, garlic, vinegar, and sesame oil to create a sweet and savory sauce that had a fragrant aroma.
Lastly, we made a sweet treat that became popular from the hit Netflix show Squid Game, dalgona. This was a fun one to make. We used a ladle to hold two tablespoons of sugar and we put it directly over a flame. It got a little hot sometimes, but as long as you didn’t keep your hands in the same spot and kept a medium flame it was fine. It took a while for the sugar to all melt, but after it did we added a pinch of baking soda and it completely changed the texture of the sugar. It created more air, so when we took a bite it fell apart easily in our mouths. There must be a sweet spot for when to stamp the dalgona, because one of the stamps stuck to the sticky sugar, leading to a deformed gingerbread man.
All in all, APSA hosted a fun event that had the perfect amount of interaction with others and activities that yielded delicious results. I would definitely do it again given the chance.
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