happy chuseok!

we had a 3 day chuseok holiday off from school this week. chuseok is a big celebration for koreans here. it’s like the american thanksgiving where family from all around get back together and share a huge feast! jonathan and i got invited to share the festive holiday from a couple of our generous friends but since jonathan has a lot of family here in korea he has never met we politely turned our friends down and couldn’t wait to meet the relatives!

procrastinators as we are, we went to buy a box of korean pears (these pears are huge compared to the ones in america and are one of the common things to give when visiting someone’s house. since they dont come cheap they are really appreciated!) at 11PM the night before chuseok. luckily, we caught our neighborhood grocery right before they closed and got a box already wrapped in yellow cloth (a lucky color in korea). i also discovered a little fact to never give things in multiples of four because four is an unlucky number here.

by the time we got to jonathan’s gommo’s (aunt) house, the food was already being placed on the table one after another until the two tables put together were completely filled. the tables were the traditional sitting on the floor tables which i realized makes you feel closer with your company. the table was filled with all sorts of dishes like bulgolgi (bbq beef), chapjiggae (korean noodle stir fry), egg fried fish and veggies, anchovies, korean pancake, and of course a couple of kimchis. jonathan forced a anchovy on my rice bowl. i did my best to avoid eye contact with it and i managed to CHEW it down. surprisingly it wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. afterwards was nothing but family time and the young ones including us went to check out the new time square near their house where we shopped, played at the arcade, and shared laughs over a smoothie.

when we all came back a couple of hours later all the young ones crashed in a bedroom while jonathan and i talked with the elders. even though i couldnt get all the recipes that i wanted, i got a lot of tips regarding what they enjoy to eat. jonathan’s gommo, kunabba(uncle), and halmoni(grandma), specifically enjoyed telling me about the crab soup that is in season now. they also mentioned something about boiling rice and water to wash down with after a big meal which im guessing is either rice wine or a rice dessert. we promised each other another day for them to show me how to cook some meals and share recipes so ill have a chance to clarify later ^^

dinner was spread out and had leftovers from lunch and a new addition of what jonathan thinks is bean curd stew. noticing it was our last chance for awhile to eat a korean home-cooked meal, jonathan took advantage of the opportunity by being the last to eat and CHOMPING down almost everything that was left from the rest of the family which was still quite a large amount. the spicy crab soup left an impression on me and sounds perfect if you want to warm yourself up or just do what the koreans do and beat the heat with heat. here’s the recipe below! a picture of the soup is above. another thing they mentioned about the soup is that when you get your crab shell, they mix their rice in the shell and gulp it all from there! give it a try ^^

꽃게탕 Koatgaetang- Spicy Korean Crab Soup

3-4 Servings

Ingrediants:

3-4 fresh blue crabs, scrubbed and cut into pieces. remove the gills, mouth, end tip of legs, and claws

6 cups of water

about a 1/4 of daikon radish, sliced

1 strip of sea kelp

1 green zucchini, sliced

1 small white onion, sliced

3 red chili peppers

3 green chili peppers

2-3 stems of green onion, sliced

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tblsp of red chili pepper flakes

about 1 tblsp of red chili pepper paste

chrysanthemum leaves

Cooking Procedure:

Place the 6 cups of water in a large saucepan or wok and put on high. Add the radish and sea kelp.

When boiling reduce to medium heat and add the red pepper flakes, red pepper paste, and garlic.

Add the crabs and cover. cook for ten minutes or until the crab shells turn orange.

Add green onion and red and green chili peppers.

Add the chrysanthemum leaves last and its ready to CHOMP down! serve with rice (try mixing it in the shell and eating out of the shell ^^)

stall food is in! x3

a lot of munching to catch up to! this past weekend, we were visiting jonggak station to catch the show JUMP, a martial arts comedy show (i recommend seeing it if anyone gets the chance ^^). i’ve been wanting to try this combo koreans seem to love: fried chicken and beer. we so happened to past by a cute one that even make their own potatoe chips (above)! its located to the right after you get off of jonggak station exit 4 where you’ll run into shops, karaoke, and restaurants. we skipped the beer and just got a refreshing bubbly sprite to cool us down but the combo was still delicious!

today we tried to find where my cooking classes are. we couldn’t find it and just found ourselves roaming around and getting distracted by random sights. for example, the changdeokgung palace and the changgyeonggung palace! after all they were right next to each other. unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the secret garden because you have to go on a tour to see it and when we got there, the tours were over but we decided to save it for another day along with the jongmyo palace shrine just down the street so it’s all good ^^. on our way back home around 6 PM we stopped by a shopping and eatery hot spot at station euljiro 1-ga station. even on a weekday, people filled the streets to browse and have a good time. we just walked into a restaurant that convinced our eyes with on-the-floor seating and big pots of boiling pork bone potato soup sitting on top of a burner in the middle of each table. the soup reminded me of mom’s filipino beef potato soup at home only this korean one was spicy and it had some noodles and some type of dumpling thrown in. as i felt my last sip of soup trickle down to my belly, it leaves a somewhat cleansing feeling ^^ after we payed our bill, we walked around the crowded walkways of shops and yes, stalls! these stalls in myeondong shopping area looked especially good so we couldn’t resist trying something and we ended up with our first CHOMP of spicy ddukbokki! jonathan also got some kind of seasoned fried fish cake smothered in their own spicy ketchup and a fried chicken stick covered in what else? spicy sauce! of course, after all these spicy foods in one go, jonathan felt a lil queezy but he felt that its worth it! to celebrate my first taste of ddukbokki here’s an easy recipe for it to try at home! CHEW your way into some spicy goodness~ xD

DDUKBBOKKI RECIPE

a famous spicy rice cake stall dish!

INGREDIENTS:

- a package of rice cake (dduk) fresh ones are best but frozen is fine too just make sure to thaw

- 7 good sized anchovies. remove the heads and the intestines

- about 3-4 cups of water

- 5-6 tablespoons of hot pepper paste

- 1 tblsp of sugar

- if you want you can add some hot pepper flakes to your liking

- chopped green onions to top it all off

(you can find ingredients at an asian supermarket or korean supermarket. try looking one up online near your neighborhood if you don’t know)

INSTRUCTIONS

boil the 3-4 cups of water in a large saucepan or wok and add the anchovies free of intestines or heads.

reduce heat to medium heat and let the flavors of the anchovies spread for about 8-10 minutes.

take the anchovies out of the water and add the rice cakes.

add the paste, sugar, and flakes (flakes are only if you want to add them)

stir until all the ingredients are mixed together

add the green onions

consistently stir until the dduk absorbs the flavors and the liquid has a smooth texture (pic of ddukbokki above)

plate it and serve! (if you want, eat it with toothpicks for fun just like they eat at the stalls in korea ^^)

yonsei yonsei yonsei yonsei~~~!!!

we’re getting ready for the big yonsei vs. korea university soccer game this friday! bought a couple of yonsei blue t-shirts to blend in with the other fans at the game or else im sure we’d stand out in a bad way. after my first week at yonsei i discovered that since the campus is so close to some mountains, it is very hilly! yet again i wonder how the ladies here handle heels in all hours of the day. i tried!…but i only lasted two minutes before switching back to flip flops again (-_-*) i at least  need to find some cute flats soon.

we went to see king sejong the great statue right outside gwanghwamun station exit 2 and Admiral Yi Sunshin’s statue just below from sejong. there were lots of kids playing in the interactive fountain surrounding Admiral Yi. the so-yummy picture above is from the japanese restaurant, so-yummy, that we randomly found just behind the big theatre next to sejong. we ordered classic udon soup, spicy pork cutlet with cheese, and pork cutlet with kimchi and egg on top. they truly lived up to their name! there was an italian restaurant next to it that had a huge line to get a table. now that i think about it, the koreans must love italian and japanese food because i see those kind of restaurants everywhere! anyway it was perfect to visit the king who invented Hangul (the korean alphabet) because that’s exactly what i have to memorize this weekend for my korean class ^^ we have a alphabet chart in our room so i went ahead and filled it out with the sounds (above).   go ahead and try it out!