Dinner by me. Yes, me!

I don't cook. I just don't. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to food -- if it isn't made for me by someone else, then I'll just take the path of least resistance (and least effort) in order to get some nutrients shovelled into my body. Though I do draw the line at most fast foods -- anything that makes me feel like regurgitating the food that I've just swallowed (ugh, McDonald's) doesn't count as a normal meal for me.

Why don't I cook? The simplest explanation would probably be that, before I got married to the most wonderful Chinese-Canadian woman (heck, most wonderful woman period) in the world, it was usually my parents who cooked for me. Not just my mother, which is traditional among most Korean families, but my dad was also very good at whipping up stuff like den-jang jiggeh (bean curd stew) or his own version of kimchi-bokkum-bahb (kimchi fried rice).

After I married my gorgeous and talented wife (no, she isn't reading this over my shoulder, it just sounds like she is), she took over most of the cooking duties. I try to help out wherever I can -- I call myself her "sous-chef" -- by cooking veggies in the frying pan or mixing up stews. But I still don't really cook.

Until tonight! Check out this masterpiece on the right. My wife was busy working late, so I whipped up this culinary tour de force on my own.

All right, I'll admit, most of it is just re-heated dishes or stuff I pulled out of the fridge. The den-jang jiggeh in the top left was made by my mother when she came over to visit a few days ago. She also helped us to make the kimchi you see roughly in the middle. That's gim (dried kelp) you see in the tupperware container near the top.

But sitting on the floral design plate near the bottom left of the photo is my masterpiece: Pan friend Korean dumplings! Cooked by me! Yes, really and truly! Here's a closeup on the right. I cooked up these puppies all on my own, and damn they were good. Sure, it's pretty simplistic, just take 'em out of the bag, throw them onto an oiled frying pan, and try not to burn them. But for me, it was quite an accomplishment.

And for some reason, they were the best dumplings I've ever tasted.