One of my favorite places to NOM NOM NOM.

Shabu shabu is probably on my top 10 list of favorite foods.  Burritos and cheese being at the top, obvs.  It's actually a 3-course meal of delight.  Each course is better than the last and the owners of our local shabu restaurant will often prepare our table with extra pineapples (for moi) and 2 bottles of sprite- on the house.  This is one restaurant that I'll miss when we leave Korea... and it's not even Korean food.

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Our Weekend. In Pictures.

This weekend the boy and I headed to Seoul for our good friend Corey's birthday.  We indulged in Mexican and Thai food, yummy adult beverages, a wee bit of shopping, a picnic and some quality time at the zoo.  I'm exhausted and have hapkido in the morning so I'll probably post only a few pictures tonight and follow up over the next few days.  Hope everyone's weekend was just as special.

P.S.  The weather was beautiful!  I swear it was 70 degrees when we got back into Pohang this evening.  Nice weather makes for a very happy Captain and Clark!

Haejang Guk. Nom nom nom.

I'm going to be completely honest with you.  Before we came to Korea, I didn't really enjoy Korean food.  I mean, I liked kimchi only because my Hawaiian family eats it at almost every meal.  I liked galbi because, well, it's delicious.  That was about the extent of my taste for Korean dishes.

I distinctly remember having a talk with the boy one night after one too many shots of soju.  He wondered aloud if I would ever learn to enjoy Korean food.  I had tried samgyupsal but didn't find it too pleasing.  I'm not a fan of shellfish or seafood in general (I've just started to enjoy canned tuna again).  I wasn't a fan of being given raw pieces of meat that you had to stare at while you cooked it's counterparts.  I did like ramen.  And I lurve shabu... but that's Vietnamese.

Well ladies and gentlemen, after approximately 22 months of Korean living my body (and taste buds) have finally welcomed Korean food with open arms.  Seriously.  I love samgyupsal (albeit a certain type).  I'm a huge fan of galbi- even more so than before.  I've found that kimbap is the new burrito.  I'll have intense cravings for kimchi mandu, and I'll never, ever pass up the opportunity to enjoy a hearty helping of haejang guk.

Of all of the aforementioned culinary delights, haejang guk is probably the most repulsive peculiar.
Haejang guk is called "hangover soup".  It's the food that you're supposed to eat to cure and/or prevent a hangover.  It's really tasty and has a homemade, hearty feel to it.  My co-workers and I often find ourselves eating hangover soup a few times a week.  There's just something so relaxing about enjoying a good helping of the stuff.

Maybe it's the ox spine?  Or perhaps the coagulated blood?  Or the way you have to carefully pluck the steaming meat from the rib bones? 

What do you mean it doesn't sound appetizing?  

Here's how it works.  Your bowl of haejang guk is served to you while it's still boiling.  You then fish around and pull out the chunks of ox spine that have been simmering within.  This is where you get to peel off the meat (it actually pretty much falls off the bone).

 

See that white bowl that's holding the chunks of rib/spine above?  I prefer to put all my chunks of meat in that bowl, throw in some hot rice, and pour some soup over it all.  That way I can clearly and easily scoop the appropriate amount of meat, rice, and soup onto my spoon, thus concocting the perfect bite. 

 

Apparently the rest of the world just dumps their rice and meat back into their big black pot of simmering soup so they can blindly swirl around in search of the perfect harmony of the two.  To each their own.

Take it from me, the girl who doesn't usually eat anything with the words raw, blood, or bones in its title; Haejang guk may sound disgusting, but it's actually deliriously delicious.

Chewing Live Octopus.

Chris has been filming a short series about teachers in Korea that become super heroes.  Last week they filmed a scene in which the boy and his fellow actors had to eat 산낙지 (san nak ji) also known as live octopus.  He was able to document it all for your... viewing pleasure. 

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Seoul Food.

Well we're back from our mini vacation to Seoul.  We had a blast and are so grateful for this time away from work.  I'll have to write about our trip in sections since we were able to do so much.


One of the highlights of our trip was when we stumbled upon a foreign goods store.  You always see the foreigner's markets back in the States.  The ones where you can buy all different varieties of Asian spices and goodies that are not as easy to access in the U.S.  I thought the role-reversal was pretty hilarious.  Here was a shop where we could buy all of the yummy western goodies that are so hard to find in Korea. 

Before Korea I would have thought someone was batsheet crazy if they told me that the highlight of their day was stumbling upon a packet of gravy and a can of refried beans, but that was exactly the case for this girl.  I might have even gotten a little teary eyed when I spotted a lone Butterball turkey in the freezer at the market.  A TURKEY people, a turkey.  I probably would've bought it too, you know, if it wasn't a hundred dollars and if I had an actual oven that it could fit inside. 

We walked out of the store with a packet of Haribo gummi bears, a can of refried beans, a packet of gravy mix, and one box of peaches and cream Quaker oatmeal.  The grand total was about $18 USD.  And yes, I'm well aware that back home it probably would have cost us under $5 for everything, but sacrifices had to be made.  I came this close to buying a box of strawberry Poptarts for $6 and a bottle of ranch dressing for about the same price.  So all of you out there with easy access to any of these items, enjoy them.  Thoroughly enjoy them for me. 

I amazes me the things that one misses when they're away from home.  I miss my mother's home cooking no doubt, but I also miss silly things like oatmeal, sour cream, cheese (oh cheese), sourpatch kids, and limes.  Korea has made me appreciate the little things in life in so many ways, and western food is just one of them. 

A Culinary Milestone

Something very exciting happened today.  The day that I never thought would come actually arrived and it took me completely by surprise.  Ladies and Gentlemen after 25 years of walking this Earth, I finally ate a whole bowl of cereal...

...with milk.

Now I'm sure a lot of you are confused.  But, don't you always eat your cereal with milk Tawny?

The answer is no.  Not ever.  I don't even really like milk.  The only person in my immediate family who can drink milk straight is my brother- and he's lactose intolerant.  My mom, dad, and I don't really enjoy it.  So instead of eating our cereal with milk, my dad and I would always pour some orange juice over the top.  Nom nom nom delicious. 

I love cereal.  I love orange juice.  Mix the two together and it's pure perfection.  I once shared my culinary concoction with my best friend in junior high.  She told me that she tried cereal with juice and absolutely hated it. When I asked what kind of juice she used she replied, "Capri Sun".  No no no.  For me, it has to be orange juice. 

This morning the boy went out to fetch something to eat for breakfast.  He came back and prepared his bowl of cereal and for the first time in my life, it looked delicious with the milk in it.  I decided that I would be adventurous and go in for a bite and hot damn!  Cereal with milk is where it's at. I can't believe that it took me so long.

The veil has been lifted people.  No cereal is safe.  I'm yearning to go out and buy a box of Lucky Charms to see how those crunchy, stale marshmallows taste with the sweet, white nectar that I've just become acquainted with. 

While I'm not sure that I'm willing to give up on my orange juice just yet, you best believe that milk will become a frequent supplement to my breakfast.  Three cheers for milk!

Manila. Day 1.

Manila was nothing like I expected it to be.  To be fair, I didn't really have to time to even fantasize about our time in the Philippines since I was so sure that something was going to go wrong and we wouldn't even make it there.  I guess that I kind of expected the Philippines to be a lot like Hawaii.  I expected that it would also be pretty similar to Korea, but maybe even more developed.  I was wrong.  Flying over the landing strip should have been a pretty good indicator over what we were about to experience over the next 20 hours that we had in Manila.  It was hazy and I could clearly see the rundown aluminum houses that were speckaled across the ground.  It was loud, gritty, and pretty chaotic.  I think the boy's face accurately sums up how we felt after touching down in Manila. 

I think we were both pretty shocked and just how undeveloped Manila is.  Don't get me wrong, the people are awesome and the whole place is pretty exotic, it just wasn't what we expected. 

Well, we got to our hotel and we were pleasantly surprised.  I booked our hotel through expedia.com and I wanted something close to the airport so that our 7 am departure to Dumaguete wouldn't be too rough.  I was especially interested in this hotel since one of the reviews stated this little gem...

"Ummm, I am a female who flew into Manila at 2am. My stupid taxi driver didn't know where the hotel was (in the ghetto, actually...that's probably why) and drover me around a neighboring ghetto for 30 minutes...meter running. :( Save yourself a lot of time and hassle and tell your taxi driver to go through the International Peace Gate or something like that--or--better yet, save yourself a lot of stress and don't stay at this place at all! My other female friend and I both agreed that even if we had arrived together, we would have been scared to death and her dummy taxi driver didn't know where the stupid hotel was, either. And, it's like, 10 minutes from the hotel but no one would ever imagine that there's a huge hotel/apartment complex where Filipinos LIVE on a DAILY basis (creepy?) in the middle of a slum. =/ Expedia SHOULD remove this hotel from their list. I only recommend it to male travelers. Not for families...Anyone from a Western, middle class lifestyle will NOT feel comfortable here."

Because God forbid that you actually have to see real life Filipinos when you're in the Philippines.  I pretty much died when I read this review and it kind of made me want to stay there even more.  To be completely honest and unbiased, the place was great.  It was pretty basic, but it was also clean and there was even air conditioning in the room.  Yeah, you're sharing space where "Filipinos live on a daily basis" but everyone was very friendly and it was super close to the airport.  In fact, we could see the airport from our floor.  It did take our taxi driver a few minutes to radio his buddies and ask where it was, but after that it wasn't a problem.  A few pictures that we took from the hotel...

After taking a quick nap (we were exhausted) we set off to walk around the hotel and explore our surroundings.  We eventually ended up hailing a tricycle (motorcycle with a little cab attached to the side) and heading of towards the Mall of Asia.  And what did we buy at one of the biggest mall in the world?  Mexican food (or something that somewhat resembled Mexican food), skittles, coconut wine, and fruit by the foot.  Yes, all of the things that we miss out on while living in Korea. 

We ended the night relatively early and indulged in the plethora of English speaking tv channels that were available.  I set our alarm for 4:40 am so that we'd be all ready for our 5 am taxi pick up.  We then slept.  And slept.  And slept some more.

 It wasn't until the boy decided to randomly check his watch that he realized we had overslept and it was 5:05.  Oopsies.  We rapidly packed all of our backpacks and made it out to the taxi by 5:15.  Not too bad if I say so myself.  We then hopped on a plane and headed to our next destination:  Dumaguete.

Our Weekend in Pictures.

We had yet another amazing weekend.  We spent the majority of our weekend hanging out with our amazeballs Korean friends.  We've been so blessed to meet the Korean friends that we have.   They're all extraordinary.  Seriously.  For example, on Friday night we met up with a young Korean man that we happened to encounter at our favorite local hof, Fish and Grill.  His name is MJ and he's a 27 year old physicist.  A PHYSICIST.  Um, the man is quite literally brilliant and he speaks amazing English.  We went out to our favorite samgyupsal restaurant and then fittingly ended the night over soju cocktails at Fish and Grill. 

Saturday was spent eating and drinking with our Hapkido Master (Master Sim), his wife Eri, our good friend Sarah Willey, and Master Sim's hapkido buddy, Mister Park.  We went to three different restaurants and just ate and drank and drank and ate and drank.  That's pretty much what happens every time we go out with Master Sim. 

Delicious and spicy dokbokgi

Everyone needs "goog frinds"!

Sarah Willey is a black belt now!

Round 2: chokchok galbi

Congratulatory shot for passing her black belt test!

Eri has such tiny hands!

Round 3: Wrapped fish (a Pohang specialty) and galbi burger.

So yeah.  We end up drinking quite a bit when we go out with Master Sim.  You know... the whole, "don't refuse a shot from your superior" can get you pret-ty drunk when your superior loves his soju. 

Today (Sunday) was pretty low-key.  We headed down town to try a new Italian restaurant that we've walked by a few times.  Pohang has a ton of Italian restaurants.  It's a little ridiculous.  We lack any Mexican, Thai, or Indian restaurants which happen to be my favorites, but we have Italian coming out of our ears!  The place was good and relatively inexpensive.  I can foresee many a meals being had at Mary's Italian.

He's a looker.

It was deeeelicious. Yummy yummy nom nom nom.

And I quote, "Lead a life full of tears and regrets"

Not really sure what my drink glass was supposed to mean.  I'm not too sure that I want to live a life full of tears and regrets.  Actually, I'm positive that I don't want to live a life full of tears and regrets.  Where do they get that shiz? Seriously.

After lunch I did a little shopping for an orphanage in Gumi.  Gumi is about 3 hours away from Pohang and the mister and I were asked if we'd like to sponser a few children for their annual Christmas party.  Um, duh.  We jumped at the chance.  We were asked to buy Christmas presents for a girl (age 16) and a boy (age 11).  It was actually a lot harder than I thought.  I wanted so desperately to give them both something amazing but there was a limit on what we could spend on each child.  We grappled with the idea of going over, but we didn't want any of the other children to feel left out.  In the end, we only went over a little (come on, how could you not?) and I think they'll enjoy their little gifts of love. 

Someone thought all the gifts were for him.

And yes, we ended the day with some delicious and easy ramen.  Mmm tastes like college.  Hope everyone had a great weekend as well.  Oh, and get ready... the boy and I want to have a little "giveaway" sometime soon!

Cheers!

A Typical Friday Night Meal.

Nom Nom Nom

In honor of Sarah Willey's black belt test, I decided to make a deeelicious black belt pasta bake.  Sarah Willey was the one that actually taught me how to make this scrumptious (and super easy) meal. 

You only need:

• Penne noodles (uncooked)
• Your favorite pasta sauce
• Ground beef or ground sausage
• Cheese
• Oven (remember that they're hard to come by in Korea)

First.  Grab a dish/pan and poor in your uncooked noodles. 

Second. Brown your meat and add some seasoning.  I pretty much put in everything that we have in our pantry... which isn't a lot.  After your meat is brown, pour it on top of the noodles. 

Third.  Pour in your sauce- right on top.  You need equal parts of sauce and water.  Whatever amount of sauce you use, you should also poor in the same amount of water.  The water will help cook your noodles in the oven. 

Let them bake for about 25 minutes at 325.  Check to see if the noodles are cooked.  If they're about ready you can go ahead and put a layer of cheese on top.  Let bake for another 5-10 minute and TA-DA you're yummy pasta bake is ready!