After visiting Hyunsuk at the Art Gallery we were starving (surprise, surprise...by now I think you guys understand how much this family likes to eat) so we ventured out in search of food. The hardest part about eating is Seoul is picking where to eat! There are restaurants EVERYWHERE! We happened upon this place thinking it was regular Korean BBQ. Can you guess what we are going to eat by looking at the picture below? See the little duck in the chef hat in the picture above? That my friend is telling us that this is a duck restaurant! We were so excited when we figured this out because just a couple of days ago Hubby and I were talking about how we wanted to find a duck restaurant! It was YUM-O! | The little lady above cooked our entire meal for us (this practice is NOT common in Korea - you cook your own meal) and she was LOVING serving our kids. She would cut their meat and blow on their meat to cool it down. She also put their food together for them like in the picture below and made them eat it. AND they ate it (while gagging with a half smile on their faces) because they didn't want to be rude. I love these kids! :o) |
This past week as I was looking at my Facebook account one of my Korean friends (that I met in Texas) was posting quite a bit, however I can never read her wall because it is all in Hangul. It wasn't until she started posting pictures that I realized that she must be in Seoul! I sent her a note to see if they had moved back. They had not move back, however she is here visiting and having an art show in Insadong! So Hubby, (most of) the kids and I headed to Insadong for our weekend adventure! While waiting for the train Hubby *tries* to get a cup of 'ice coffee'. Instead he gets a cup of burning hot coffee....doesn't that snowflake on the machine make you think the coffee would be cold? Us too. For any of you newbies afraid of using the subway here in Seoul, don't be - most things are in Hangul and then in English. I just love this shot of my sweet boy in this alley near Insadong. Gives you a great idea of what Korea looks like. These are cookies!! They tasted kind of like sugarless Captain Crunch cereal! After a bit of searching we found where Hyunsuk's art show was being held! You can see her name on the colorful sigh on the left side of the picture! Us with Hyunsuk in front of one her pieces. After lunch the kids wanted ice cream so we stopped at this street vendor. He was very entertaining (but his ice cream - well - not so good, however the kids didn't seem to notice). While we were getting ice cream a bird pooped on a lady standing next to us, and then another bird pooped on Hubby. That is when the ice cream man gave Boy 2 a gun and told him to shoot the birds! :o) Insadong is filled with Koreans and foreigners from all over. Insadong has tons of art galleries and shops. This is a place we take all guest that come to visit, as you can buy all your Korean souvenirs here and there are many entertaining street vendors. Insadong host a ton of Tea houses, restaurants and pool halls. OH, and I saw a place for Doctor Fish here as well - SWEET! As we were heading back to the subway we stopped in a Chicken & Beer place to have a beer..... And snacks. Boy 2 said these taste like cheese-less Cheetos. Until next time.....
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Warning, if you have a week stomach and you don't like dirt and grime, don't look at these pictures. This might make your stomach turn more than the picture of Boy 3's broken arm. The car below is a hooptie - aka - 'old beat up car' - we bought this hooptie right after arriving in Korea and although it has only had 1 owner and it has less than 60,000 miles and we got a great deal on it - I don't think this bad boy has E-V-E-R been cleaned and it is 12 years old. When we told the lady we were going to buy the van and ask her when it would be available she said "now" and handed me the keys. Whoa....wait a minute...don't you want to clean it out? She looked in the glove box pulled a few things out and said 'OK, it's yours'. You can't imagine the crap we found in this car....a pair of shoes, TAX PAPERS from 2008, GPS, compass, poncho, lots of paperwork, big metal pole thing and TONS OF TRASH (not that the other things I listed weren't trash). IT WAS DISGUSTING, BUT CHEAP; plus it had low miles, a new battery, new tires & snow chains. However the steering wheel was so gross that we had to buy a steering wheel cover immediately just so we could drive the thing. Finally, after 4 magic erasers, 1/2 a bottle of bleach, armor all, windex 2 rolls of paper towels, shampooing the heck out of the seats, floors and ceiling, 8 hours of cleaning (all together) we can finally get in it without cringing. Everyone in the family pitched in to help. Girl said this is the natsiest car we have every owned. I'll give her that one. And here are a few before and after photos for your entertainment: (This is where you might want to stop looking if you have a weak stomach!) Now that she is clean, she is a pretty sweet ride. (You know, for a minivan.)
So I was trying to make a very festive martini for the 4th of July and I wanted something BLUE, I wanted to trim the glass with sugar and garnish with a strawberry with a little flag sticking out of the strawberry. That is when I had the great idea to use BLUEBERRIES! Yes, I'll make a blueberry-lemon drop martini. The only problem in all my excitement I forgot blueberries really aren't the blue in color when they are cooked down. I was looking to make a BLUE drink (and I waited till the day of) and blueberries when they are cooked down are NOT blue....they are more - well purple looking - almost like red, red wine (sing it with me, red, red wine you make me feel so fine...)... Even though the color was an EPIC fail, the recipe is a keeper! I'll be making these martinis again.
4 cups water 2 cups sugar 4 lemons 8 oz blueberries (fresh or frozen will work) 750 ML bottle of The Goose...Grey Goose that is. (Or whatever your vodka preference is) OR if you want to keep it NON Alcoholic grab some ginger-ale! ______________________________________________________________________________ Cook water & sugar on stove top until the sugar is melted and the mixture starts to thicken slightly. (Simple syrup) Zest the skin of one lemon into the simple syrup. Squeeze the juice from all 4 lemons into the simple syrup. Toss in the blueberries. Muddle (smash) the heck out of the blueberries. Let this mixture sit (heat off) and simmer for at least an hour, longer is fine. Strain blueberry simple syrup to get all the chunks out. Add the entire bottle of vodka (unless you are a wimp, then add less). Stick in the freezer. (This batch of martinis fit perfectly in a Simply Orange juice container.) Martinis will not freeze. Pour directly from freezer into martini glasses. If you can't wait till they are cold enough in the freezer, shake over ice in martini shaker. To keep it virgin, skip the Goose - put simple syrup in fridge and add ginger ale by the glass. No, you don't get a picture - it was WAY BAD. Although it is a bit challenging cooking with only a few things in my kitchen right now; we are TIRED of eating out. I made this for dinner last night and think it would be PERFECT for that 4th of July BBQ you are going to tomorrow (or today if you are in Korea)! I modified this recipe from Cooking Light Magazine July 2012 issue.
4 ears of corn 1/2 a bunch of green onions 1 avocado 1 red bell pepper 1 poblano chile 2 TBL olive oil __________________________________ 1 bunch of cilantro Juice from 2 limes 2 TBL olive oil 1 TBL cumin Salt to taste Pepper to taste 1 15 oz can of black beans (rinsed and drained) Turn on broiler. Line a cookie sheet with foil (to save on cleaning). Place corn, green onions, avocado, bell pepper and chile on cookie sheet. Brush vegetables with olive oil. (Times may vary as I don't time things, I just watch them.) Broil avocados about 2 minutes on each side. Green onions 3-5 minutes one Peppers 9-15 minutes on each side or until the skin is browned and bubbling a little. Corn 12-15 minutes one each side. Let all cool. Cut kernels from ears of corn and place in a large bowl. Chop onions, peppers (after you removed the charred skin) and cilantro and add to bowl. Add 2 TBL oil, lime juice cumin, salt, pepper and beans to bowl and toss. Cut avocado into thin slice and serve on top salad. After getting back to our Korean roots (aka- Blackhawk Village, mostly Americans) our kids realized that their 'dotchies' (a Korean game that no one really knows how to play) were RARE! They had ROUND dotchies and all the kids are now playing with SQUARE dotchies. So of course our kids have been dying to get to Toy Alley so they can buy some SQUARE dotchies. On Sunday morning the kids woke up, got dressed and brushed their teeth (without being ask I might add....miracles DO happen!) and we hit subway! Once we were in the subway we realized a few of us needed to visit the facilities.....however, we forgot about these: Actually I think it was a mental block. I didn't want to remember these. But there is good news - there was toilet paper IN the stall, not on the wall outside the stall. And I forgot about these: Soap on a stick. Reminder to self: ALWAYS, ALWAYS remember to carry hand sanitizer. After collecting ourselves we continued our journey. Toy alley is in the Dongdaemun area. You will find different ways to get there, but this is the way I like to go. Typically I hit 2 birds with 1 stone as 'the sock man' used to be at this exit too. I'm not sure if he is still here or not because my children were too busy in toy alley and then they were STARVING so the sock man will have to wait till next time to see my smiling face. To get to Toy Alley: Take line 6 to Dongmyo Exit, #636 and then exit out of Exit 6. Upon exiting the subway walk straight to the first alley, maybe 50 steps. You will see this store - this is a great stop for ice cream and drinks. Turn right down this alley and you are on Toy Alley! It took a few stores but in the end the kids found 'dotchies'! Pure joy. We didn't hear another word from them for the rest of the day! And that makes it all worth it. :o)
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“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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