Pa-jeon 파전

It only took eleven months, but I'm proud to say that I finally braved a Korean recipe on my own. After sampling a delicious fried mushroom-cake at Emart, I was determined to recreate the tasty treat in our own kitchen. I tried to ask questions about whatever it was that we had eaten, but the sweet ajuma (a middle-aged Korean woman) preparing and serving the dish spoke lightning-speed Korean and zero English. The only thing I gained from the conversation was "use water" and "stir". I did some googling and decided that the closest food to what we had had was Pa-jeon, a Korean scallion pancake. I chose to follow this recipe and just add sauteed shiitake mushrooms. Luckily we already had most of the ingredients, aside from a few needed for the spicy dipping sauce. The friendly employee at our normal grocery store helped me find the needed items despite my atrocious accent. After some short prep and cook time, Christopher and I enjoyed the appetizer but it wasn't nearly as good as the sample. I think my downfall was making them too thick. I'm glad to have started with probably the simplest Korean dish possible but I hope to try two Korean dishes a month...we'll see how difficult it gets.