From one of my favorite restaurants here in Seoul, Yum Thai.
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Last weekend Hubby and I attended the Army Ball with a few of our Air Force friends. Yeah, you read that right. Air Force at the Army Ball. 238 years of Army colors: Happy 238th Birthday to the Army! As with tradition the oldest and youngest soldier in the room cut the birthday cake! Hubby with General Paik - He served with McArthur! When we ask him if we could get a picture with him he mumbled "Sure, why not?" These two handsome men served together at Fort Hood, in Diyala Province, Iraq and now at Yongsan, South Korea! One of my favorite Army couples of all times! Hubby brought a little CAV to Korea. :o) The backdrop for the band was AMAZING.... Traditional Korean entertainment! Me & my prince charming.
I love that we have lived here so long and we are still experiencing new things. This past weekend our hike took us to Cheonggyesan Mountain. It is in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul. Cheonggyesan and Gwanaksan are two of the most popular mountains (so I have read) in Seoul area and they are known as 'guardians of Seoul." Cheonggyesan is 620 meters (2,034 feet) above sea level and Gwanaksan is 631 meters above sea level. Gwanaksan didn't seem as hard, but we didn't go the entire way up - we took a more scenic path. We drove to Cheonggyesan - in fact Hubby ROCKED it getting there. I knew how to get to the Yangjae subway station by car and then he winged it from there and he drove STRAIGHT to the mountain. (I'm sorry I ever doubted him! :) This is the route you will go when driving or by subway - Walk straight, turn right when you get to this underpass. We bought a couple of cups of cherries for 2,000 won each before heading up the mountain. Cross a small street right after exiting the underpass. Take a right at the 1st alley. (Just follow all the hikers!) And you are there! There are tons of trails to choose from.... We picked Maebong trail. And we stretched it out before we started! (These signs crack me up. I can't help but to laugh and take a picture each time I see them!) What we are learning about Boy 3 is that about 10 steps in he is tired. (Maybe he needs to stretch more!) But then after about 20 minutes he has a burst of energy and is good to go! We had no idea what to expect with this hike.... And a little ways in we started to see a pattern. Stairs... stairs... and MORE STAIRS!! Break #1 of 262. They are still smiling... About a 1/3 of the way up Boy 3 started counting the stairs (I encouraged this to help get his mind off his aching calves) ....he counted over 3,000 uneven sometimes seriously steep stairs. Once we realized the entire hike was stairs we thought for sure someone would quit at some point along the way..... But they kept going..... And going! This hike was super crowded as we continued to go up, up, up.... It was actually pretty hard to stop and look at all the pretty things around us because it was so busy. And we forgo finding our 'cool things'. These cool caterpillars were EVERYWHERE! Still going up. I was so proud of the kids! Sometimes finding a spot to break was tough. And a few times we just pulled over to the side. In just over 2 hours later we finally made it to the top! Our GPS told us our stopping time was a little more than our hiking time. But we didn't care, everyone made it! I couldn't have been more proud of these kids. This was their toughest hike to date! And they are STILL SMILING! The view was amazing. Proud boys! (As they should be!) I DID IT! We were thrilled to see the ice cream man at the top of the mountain! Asian Pear ice cream chillers never tasted so good! The hike down was a little harder than anticipated. The kids (and I) were all experiencing 'wobbly legs'! And now 3 days later my calves are still aching a bit... As with all hikes, we ended with a yummy lunch. This time we took the kids somewhere they have been wanting to go for a while....Brooklyn Burgers! I really cannot tell you how proud I am of these kids. There was minimal complaining and they just kept on trekking! The hike was 'easy' as it was all stairs, but then again it was 'hard' because it was all stairs. We did a little over a 5K up and down the mountain and these kids ROCKED IT! Way to go my awesomely adventurous children! This momma is proud!
To get there by subway: Line 3 to Yangjae Station from there get on the newly opened Shinbundang Line and go to Cheonggyesan Station. Go out exit 2 and follow it to the underpass (in the top picture!) A few weeks ago the girls and I tried out Butterfinger Pancake! Everyone RAVES about this place so I had to get in on the action. The only problem - no one could give me directions, so I devised a plan. One that has worked well for me all these years I have lived in Korea. We took a cab to Butterfinger Pancake so I could figure out how to drive here. That plan failed when the cab driver got lost. True Story. Our cab driver GOT LOST. What I can do is tell you what I thought of Butterfinger Pancake and give you the addresses of the numerous Butterfinger Pancake joints around Seoul. First off, it was kind of hidden, tucked away in little alley like streets. We went to the one in Gangnam. At first I was excited... And then this came out: Really? I thought.. This is what everyone is raving about? I can make breakfast WAY better looking than this. But I gave it a try. Seriously...not good. OK, but not good. I would definitely NOT come back for this meal. Way to expensive and basically just B.O.R.I.N.G. Then came the cream cheese and mozzarella pancakes. I wasn't expecting much. BUT HOLY GOODNESS. These were divine! Melt in your mouth cheesy goodness! But not too cheesy...just the right amount! I was in heaven. They didn't even need syrup, however it did work well with them! Yes, yes, I will go back for these pancakes. I'll just skip the sausage and the rest of the breakfast. I found 3 locations:
85-6 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 02-3448-1070 1317 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 02-532-5740 9 Jeongja-1-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam 031-785-9994 And make sure you are prepared, Butterfinger Pancake is not cheap! I got this recipe many, many years ago when I lived in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. We had this A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. little cooking club going on. I only had to cook 1 time a week, but when I cooked I cooked for 5 families and I delivered their meals to them by 5:30PM each Monday. The rest of the week Tuesday - Friday we had some of the best meals ever delivered to our house by 5:30PM. Our cooking club was so good & competitive that we all started getting fat and had to ban desserts! I left that post with my recipe binder & my hips a little bit thicker. This recipe for Herb Italian Vinaigrette has been a staple in our house ever since. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. OH, and it is Whole 30 compliant! Enjoy! :o)
1/2 cup olive oil 4 TBL red wine vinegar 2 clove minced garlic 2 TBL chopped oregano 1 1/2 TBL chopped rosemary 2 tsp spicy brown mustard Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Mix it up! Will keep in the fridge for about a week. We got the OK - 8th Army Spouses were to shoot a "Welcome to Korea" commercial! So what did we do? That's right, we added a little BLING with these super cool matchy, matchy t-shirts! I'm afraid the poor soldiers that came out to film the commercial had no idea what they had signed up for as we all had a case of the giggles, couldn't get our lines right and really just enjoyed giving these young guys a bit of a hard time! Hey, it's all about the fun right? OK...getting back to business. All the giggles are gone... (maybe) "Ladies, what do you not understand about this?! You all speak together when I do my hands like this! And NO, please don't bounce when you speak. No, no singing either. Just.speak.clearly." OK...Take 143..... Finally we move on to the 'signs' portion of the commercial..... I'm sure the poor soldiers were scratching their heads and thinking "For the love of God ladies....stop giggling, don't forget your lines...you are each only saying ONE word...let's get it together...." Take 263.... And I won't mention any names, but there were a couple of ladies that just would NOT behave. All in all it was a super fun morning. It really only took us an hour and the AFN guys were fabulous. They were very patient and I think they had way more fun with us than they let on!
You can look for our commercial to start airing on AFN Korea next week around the 13th or 14th of June! Since living here I have not made curry. We love all kinds of curry around here, but mostly we love Thai style curries. One would think that finding curry paste while living in Asia would be a simple task -right? WRONG. I have yet to find curry paste in Korea. Sure I know I can make it, but really I'm just far too busy (lazy) to do that. Plus there is no shortage of good Thai food here. HOWEVER being on the Whole 30 has made me rethink eating out - first I can't read the menu and second Korean's don't like to tell you no (cultural thing) so I never really know if what I am hearing is the gospel or just them being nice and me not reading between the lines, SO I finally broke down and ordered some Mae Ploy Curry pastes (in all flavors!) from Amazon as I know the Mae Ploy brand is 'clean' and so I was finally I was able to kick our craving for curry without worrying that there might be some palm sugar lurking somewhere behind the kaffir leaves in our curry..... So without further ado, here is my first attempt at a clean version of Green Curry. What you need: 2 1/2 TBL Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste. (I have to order it on Amazon.) 1 can coconut milk 1 1/2 - 3 cups chicken broth 2.5 lbs thinly sliced pork (and of course you can be creative and use chicken, shrimp or just veggies!) 1 -2 tsp fish sauce 3-4 Kaffir lime leaves - if you can find them! 2 Japanese eggplants 1 1/2 cups snap peas 1 -2 cups of mushrooms - I have NO IDEA what type I used. (See picture.) To get this done: Pour coconut milk in a large dutch oven Add the green curry (more or less to your liking) mix well. Add 1 1/2 cup of chicken broth cooking till nice and fragrant (almost a boil). Add pork cook for about 3-5 minutes . Add peas and eggplant. Cook till all pork is cooked through. Add more chicken broth (as needed). Add mushrooms & kaffir lime leaves. Add fish sauce to taste. Simmer for 10 -15 minutes. I served this with mashed cauliflower. :o)
I didn't think to take a picture of just the sweet potatoes.... The duck in the picture was bought from EMart - the sweet little ladies cook it and cut it up for you on site. Talk about YUM! Here is the link to the Tomato Avocado Salad And now on to the Smashed Sweet Potatoes... Mashed sweet potatoes:
Bake 5 sweet potatoes for about 60 minutes at 400 (For baked sweet potatoes stop here, cut them open like you would a regular ol' baked potato and STUFF YOUR FACE!) Remove skins In a large bowl combine: Sweet potatoes insides 2 TBL ghee 1/4-1/2 cups coconut milk Nutmeg and cinnamon to taste Mash with an immersion blender (or stand up whatever works for you) until totally smooth & creamy! Kids and adults love them! Tomato - avocado salad:
2 large tomatoes 1 large avocado 1/4 cup olive oil 3 TBL white balsamic vinegar 2 minced garlic cloves A handful of fresh basil leaves (I used about 10) salt and pepper to taste Mix all together and let sit in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. You see these all over the place!
I would love to go to a school where the exit was a slide! How fun is that?!?! |
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you
did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ― Maya Angelou AuthorHi, I'm Trish, the writer, creator and photographer of this blog. I started this blog for 2 reasons, 1 - When I found out we were moving to Korea back in 2008 I was a little freaked out and started scouring the internet for information on Korea. At that time there wasn't much out there so I am doing my part in helping families across the world not be so freaked out when it comes time to move to Korea. The 2nd reason I started this blog was to help stay connected to family members back in the states. Today it is so much more that. Are you moving to Korea? Do you have questions, concerns? Are you freaking out? Freak out no further - click the button to ask a question. I'll do my best to answer open and honestly.
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