Archive for the 'Food and Drink' Category

Nov

11-11-11

Happy Peppero Day all. I was wondering if there were going to be any super fun or weird pepperos floating around. I can say, I’ve seen the biggest boxes of them EVER.

I got about a half-dozen boxes from my students. One of my kindergarteners gave me a cell phone charm that is a little girl holding a giant peppero. Now that I love. It’s so cute.

Believe it or not, I didn’t eat any. Well, no, I take that back. I ate one and then gave the rest of the box to the two students in my class.

You can buy them year round, but people usually only eat them on 11-11. After 6 Peppero days, I can say I never want to see another one as long as I live. It was worse when I taught in a full kindergarten. I came home with a shopping bag full of them. Most of all, I think my palate has changed. I don’t crave sweets the way I used to.

I decided to go to Outback (what, did you think I was living in war-torn Korea?) for dinner. I decided to get the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under. Big mistake. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a scoop of whipped cream on top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of a warm brownie. My stomach is still yelling at me.

And thus so ends another Peppero Day. It’ll probably be back to the same old regular sized boxes. And for those who have no idea what I’m babbling on about, here a short history.

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Food and Drink,Holidays,Just Wow,Korea and have No Comments

Feb

Happy New Year!

Today is 설날 (Seolnal; Korean New Year). It’s the first day of the lunar calendar. Although Koreans do celebrate January 1st, 설날 is probably one of the most important holidays for Koreans. Traditionally, children wish their elders a happy new year with a deep bow called a sebae. It was interesting to watch the kids do it at school on Tuesday. This site has a nice illustrated guide on how the bow is done for boys and girls.

In our celebration at school, the kids also made a lucky pouch, which is used during the sebae bow. Elders typically give the children money. Upon asking some of my older students how much they typically get, my jaw about hit the floor. I’d say the average is between 150,000 ₩ and 200,000 ₩. I’ll let you do the currency conversion on that one.

On 설날 people traditionally eat 떡국 (Ddeok Gook) a soup made with rice cakes (the chewy kind from Korea, not the crunchy kind westerners think of).

There is a traditional song that children sing on New Years called 까치까치 설날은 which translates to Magpie, Magpie. New Years Day. Traditionally seeing a magpie is an indicator of luck.

Some excellent sources of material:

Teaching guide (pdf)

Culture

Overview

Another Overview

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Food and Drink,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Teaching Resources,Web sites and have No Comments

Jan

Jokbal

We, as a staff, went out to dinner last night. This was my first experience with Jokbal (족발). Simply put, it’s pig legs that are boiled in some spices and stuff, then deboned and sliced. I was skeptical when my boss told me what we’d be eating. I have to say, it was quite delicious. Apparently the collegen in the meat/fat is good for your skin. I think I’m still feeling the fat coursing through my cardiac arteries. But hey, it was something new and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think it’s anything I’d seek out on my own, but I had fun at dinner.

By ayustety

Not a picture of mine, but this is esentially what we ate. There was kimchi (2 kinds) plus a couple of other salads (one with onions and cucumbers and one with daikon). There were a couple dipping sauces and lettuce leaves to wrap the meat in.

posted by Kathryn in Daejeon,Food and Drink,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Maple Square,Off time and have No Comments

Dec

Old Downtown

A few weekends ago, I took a trip to Old Downtown (Eunheng-dong). It’s a neat area with good shopping and good food. If you wander over there, I definitely recommend “The Flying Pan” (yes, flying, not frying) an awesome Italian restaurant with pretty good prices. I got soup, risotto and a soda for 22,000 ₩, which I think is pretty darn good. I can definitely say the food is almost as good as what I used to eat in Little Italy in Cleveland. Enjoy the pics.

posted by Kathryn in Daejeon,Food and Drink,Fun things,Korea,Pictures and have No Comments

Sep

Pre-Chuseok Party

Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) is next week. Since we’re on vacation next week, we had our party today. Yay for parties!

The kids wore their hanbok (traditonal Korean clothing). We made songpyong (rice cakes stuffed with sesame seeds). We played yootnori (a game played with four sticks) and jaegi (kind of like hackysack). The kids did the ganggangsullae (a traditional dance).

The kids looked wonderful in their hanbok. The songpyong were delicious. I think a good time was had by all.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Celebrations,Food and Drink,Fun things,Games,Holidays,Korean Vocabulary,Maple Square,Pictures,Staff,Students and have No Comments

Jun

Cheese Rabokki

How to describe it? Cheesey. Noodley. Fishy. Chewy. Spicy. Yup. That pretty much sums it up. My version of this is a somewhat modified version of this recipe I found on the net.

It’s a pretty easy dish to make. One pot and a plate to serve is all it takes. Start by gathering your ingredients (the brown sugar is missing from this picture because I forgot about it).

Here are some better views of everything…

Odang in Bag

Odang

Dduk

Brown Sugar

Ramen Noodles

Mozzarella Cheese

Gochujang Container

[

Gochujang

Start by turning on the stove to low. Addi about 1.5 cups of water to a saucepan. To that, add about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and 3 tablespoons of gochujang. I also (sometimes, not always) add a bit of garlic and some salt. I use a whisk to mix it all together as the gochujang is kind of sticky.

Then add your noodles. Here in Korea we can buy raman noodles without any sort of seasoning packet. They’re about half the price of the other kind.

Cut your odang into bit size chunks.

And add it to the pot.

Stir and then add your dduk.

Let cook until the ramen is done. Stir every minute or so to keep it from sticking to the pot. The ramen cooks fast, this should only take a few minutes.

Then dump your cheese on top. This is completely optional, but ever so yummy.

Stir and dish out.

Believe me when I say it… This makes enough for 3-4 people/servings. It can be reheated. Don’t try to eat it cold. Cold dduk is like trying to eat a very gummy rock. The microwave works well to reheat. I’ve never tried to reheat on the stove. You could probably make a bit of just the sauce and then dump the leftover rabokki in to reheat.

posted by Kathryn in Food and Drink,Home Life,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Off time,Pictures and have Comments (2)

May

Mooga-dong

Moogadong is the area around Ulsan University. It has a much different feeling than the areas around where I live. It’s about a 15-20 minute cab ride from downtown (Samsangdong). I spent the afternoon on what’s called “Babo Street” (literally translated it means silly/crazy four way intersection).

We found there is a Cold Stone Creamery there. Ally was very excited to see they had cake batter icecream (*drool*). We didn’t stop for any because Ally and Richard had icecream earlier in the day and I had some cheesecake at the coffee shop.

We ended up stopping at an outdoor restaurant type place to have a few drinks before heading home for BBQ (yummy Korean BBQ….)

I happened to have my camera with me, so I took some pictures for fun. Enjoy!