Check out 1f...
It is even highlighted in red so you can't miss it.

Maybe she works here?

And wow, just wow.
I found this little guy on pet ally for all the world to see.

                                                              It's the most wonderful time of the year!

If you have been around for a while then you know how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the flower market at the Express Bus Terminal.  I just love filling my house with beautiful (and super cheap) fresh flowers. The flower market was one of the things I was most excited about when moving back to Korea!  I mean where else can you get 10 roses for 2-3,000 won - or lilies for 3-5,000 won - or gladiolas for 3 - 5,000 won....I could go on and on, but you have heard it all from me before.  

But what you may not have heard as much about is the 'other side' of the flower market. I refer to the 'other side' as 'Michaels on Steroids'. Seriously.  You can get almost anything there from candles, amazing fake fruit, arts and craft stuff, fake flowers, baskets, wrapping paper, ribbon, boxes, bags and SO MUCH more (imagine me saying that super fast without taking a breath....)  Just typing about it makes me smile from ear to ear.   I am in love with the flower market on a normal day, but then when fall is over and winter is on the way the flower markets turns into a magical place of Christmas, Christmas and MORE CHRISTMAS!  There is a different feeling in the air - an almost magical feeling....

So if you are new to Seoul (or not) and you didn't (or did) bring all your Christmas treasures with you, hop on a bus, or take the subway to the Express Bus Terminal, head up to the 3rd floor and enter a winter wonderland......

(Just a reminder - the flower market sides opens about 1AM and closes about 1PM - I know the 'Michaels on Steroids' side opens later, around 9AM and I'm not sure what time it closes.)

Happy shopping & Merry Christmas!!

Baby it is COLD OUTSIDE!  As I am typing it is 16 degrees and it has warmed up a bit already!  To me cold means soup & lots of soup!   I have 3 different soups on our menu for this week alone!  Good thing it is so versatile!  This week we have Beef Stew, a Chicken Chili Soup & a version of Fisherman's Stew! 

But one of my favorite soups (I tend to say that A LOT) is a classic French Onion Soup.   AND I couldn't believe that HALF of my children liked this too.  (The other half only ate the bread, cheese and broth, but I'm good with that.)

French Onion Soup (adapted from the Cooking Goddess herself, Ree Drummond)

4 yellow onions- sliced thin
1 stick of butter
1 1/4 cup dry white wine
4 cups of chicken broth
4 cups of beef broth
4 garlic cloves minced
Dash of Worcestershire Sauce
French bread or baguette cut into thick slices & toasted
Swiss or Gruyere Cheese - grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Melt butter in a Dutch oven (I don't have a Dutch oven so I used a sauté pan.  Dutch oven is on my Christmas wish list!)
Add onions and cooked covered for 20 min. 

Place Dutch oven in the oven with lid slightly ajar - this will ensure onions will brown.  (Again, I have no Dutch oven so I used my crock pot insert thingie.) 
Cook onions for 1 hour stirring once during cooking to prevent sticking or burning.

If you are using your crock pot insert when you check on your onions at that 1/2 way point to stir them you will find that crock pot lid handles were NOT made to go in an oven set at 400 degrees F and you will find this:

That is right, a nicely melted handle. 
Once your onions have cooked the complete hour take the pot out (whatever you are using) and return it to the stovetop cooking at medium heat. 
Stir the onions scraping all the little brown bits of heavenly flavor. 
Add wine.  (Drinking a glass about now is a good idea too, I mean you opened a bottle....)
Cook wine down for about 5 minutes.
Add broths, Worcestershire and garlic. 
Reduce heat to low.
Simmer for 30 - 45 minutes.

While the soup is simmering toast bread slices under the broiler, turning them once to toast both sides. 
Watch them closely, they tend to burn FAST under the broiler.
I caught mine in time, but they are a tad bit over toasted.

Once the soup is ready ladle into a bowl or ramekin.  Place toast on top and sprinkle generously with cheese.  (Once you do this no one will even notice that your bread was over toasted!)

And stick under the broiler and broil until cheese has melted and is a little bubbly.  Serve with a side salad and warm your soul from the inside... 

Cheers! :o)
Trish

If you don't know what you are looking for you will walk right past it.
Like we did - and we knew what we were looking for.

When I stepped into the Jazz Story almost 4 years ago I instantly fell in love.  A classy dive bar - there IS such a thing   and they do it so well here at the Jazz Story!  The creativity of the owners amazes me.  When they took us to our table I almost  felt like I was on the set of Dexter, I mean check this out... a claw foot tub with stains in the tub and something that looks like bloody gloves (although Dexter ALWAYS cleans up his mess)!  You've got to love it!!

And check out our seats.
That is right - AIRPLANE CHAIRS!

This place is a mixture of a bomb shelter, antique store, thrift store and an album collectors dream!

If these bathroom signs don't make you giggle, you should have your funny bone checked! 

The urinal from the men's bathroom upstairs.
I have no words.

A view from upstairs.  Notice the hanging airplane? You can see the wing in the middle of the picture.

There is so much going on in this place if my friend K hadn't pointed it out I would have totally miss 'Big Brother' watching us!

I want a window like this in my future house.

There were candles burning everywhere.
I dig the crazy amounts of wax falling.

Upstairs seating.

Lovely décor.

The owners.
You will always see them here.

Remember I mentioned 'album collectors dream'?  Here are a few of the albums:
AND - they are in alphabetical order!!
Alphabetical order - that makes my heart skip a beat!

OH MY GOSH....
Don't you just LOVERBOY it?!?!

S channeling his inner rock star!

Here at the Jazz Story you can eat, drink AND listen to LIVE MUSIC!  However if you are expecting Jazz you have come to the wrong place.  They play a great collection of 70's, 80's and 90's music AND they sing in English.  Go figure!

This guy was a guest singer - I thought I might be able to add him to my "famous" Korean list, but alas, it seems he is not famous after all.  Everyone was just excited that he was singing Gangnam Style. 

Upon arriving to the Jazz Story you are given a bowl of peanuts to snack on - we were so excited to see a full bowl!  The last time we were here each person got about 5 peanuts each - they have totally stepped it up a notch. 

We opted to eat someplace else but just so you know you can get food here:

And the drinks are plentiful!
(and PRICY!)

If you go with a large group I recommend going with an entire bottle of "Vodca" for 170,000 won.  Then you can get some side to go with it, like glasses, lemons and maybe a bottle of juice if you choose. 

Broken down for you = 1 bottle of Absolute vodka for roughly $158 USD.  No Joke.  But it is a better deal than purchasing all those drinks individually.

Good times, good friends, good drinks, good music, big price tag.  That's what Seoul is all about!  :o)

I'm not sure what he said to me!

The band plays 3 sets every night with the first one starting at 8:30PM.  Get there early to get a good seat!  We arrived just after 8PM and took the last table on the ground floor.

To get there: Take the Jungangseon Line – LIGHT BLUE - Exit HyeHwa (just one exit PAST Dongdaemun Station) take exit 2. Walk about 70  feet, turn left and then walk through a little ‘park type area’.  Walk towards Pops Video,
past the GS25 Convenience store and turn right at the next street (in front of Cafe Marion).  Walk about 100 feet down the street and you will see the Jazz Story on your right.  

T-shirts that make you go Hummm......

You guys got the memo a long time ago.  We LIKE birthdays in our house.  One could even say we LOVE birthdays in our house - heck one could even go as far as saying we are cuckoo for birthdays in our house!    Girl's 11th birthday was no different.  From the moment she heard that Hubby and I stumbled upon a Cat Café she knew this is where she wanted to spend her 11th birthday and who am I to say no?  (Plus it is WAY EASIER than some of the home parties we throw!) Girl was allowed to bring 4 friends with her on this adventure as I wasn't sure I could handle more than 5 of them on the streets of Seoul.

The girls arrived to our house at 9AM on a Sunday morning back in October.  I had a plan.  Cat Café, lunch, a little shopping, doctor fish and then back home for a little birthday cake!  Sounds like a good plan - right?  Well it is good until you arrive at the Cat Café & realize they are CLOSED on Sundays!!  (Yes, I checked before we went, I knew they opened at 10AM, but I guess my Konglish isn't as good as I thought because I didn't get the "we are closed on Sunday" memo.) 

So THIS is as close as my girl got to playing with the sweet little kitties. 
But don't worry, this EPIC FAIL is going to be restored....we still have doctor fish, lunch and maybe one of the other 5 Cat Cafés in Myeongdong will be open.  Failure is NOT an option.
Plus, the stop at Dunkin' Donuts helped ease the pain a *tiny* bit.

On our quest to find another Doctor Fish these sweet young Korean college students wanted us to take a survey for their English class.  

Now, I had read in multiple blogs about the Dr. Fish in Myeongdong - the only problem I ran into was that NOT ONE single person could give the location of this mysterious Dr. Fish.  Many places said to look up and you will find it...it is on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a building.  I was confidant in my ability to find it - maybe a little too confident.  Finally we stopped at the Global Center to ask for directions.  This is where we were informed that the Doctor Fish I was looking for closed a few months ago, (EPIC FAIL #2 of the day) but not to worry there were a couple of other locations in Myeongdong for Dr. Fish.  At that point I ask if any of the Cat Cafés were open on Sunday - the answer was shocking - out of the 5 Cat Cafés in Myeongdong NONE of them open on Sunday.  I guess cat's need their rest.   I was informed that the Dog Café opens at noon. You should have heard the squeals that came from the 5 girls in my group. (Epic fail restored!)

Since we had a little time to kill and the girls were hungry they decided they wanted to eat street food instead of going to a sit down restaurant.  French fry corn dogs on a stick it is!    

As we were walking and eating we stumbled upon The Foot Shop and there was a sign that said "Dr. Fish" - we went in.  The girls were SO EXCITED until the guy told me it was going to be 20,000 won PER PERSON!!    WHAT?!?!  It is typically 2 or 3,000 won per person.  That is when I realized he was going to give them all foot massages & Dr. Fish.  This is a POSH place, not a place to bring five 11 year old squealing girls. This could have been Epic fail #3, but  I pleaded and bargained with him and finally got them all in for 20,000 won but he said they need to be 'quiet' - BAHAHAHAHA!! Did he not see that there are 5 young girls chomping at the bit to stick their feet in a tub of little fishies nibbling at their feet?!?!  I mean this tickles like you cannot believe - So like any good mom would do, I agreed anyway knowing I could not hold up to my end of the bargain.  I mean come on this was for the greater good of birthday girls everywhere!

And as you can see - the 'quiet' part really worked:

Next up, Dog Café!

So the dog café is pretty similar to the Cat Café except MUCH louder and much more stinky. 
The entry fee is an 8,000 won drink.
The girls had hot chocolate and I had a latte.
The girls had a ball playing with the dogs.
I personally didn't even want to sit down because I saw a dog pee on the leg of a table, another one pee on the leg of a chair, I saw a dog poop on the floor.  I was gagging!  Now the staff was amazing and had very sharp eyes because each time a dog went potty there was a staff member cleaning it up within seconds, but really, this place wasn't for me.  However I endured it since the girls were having SO MUCH fun. 

By this time the streets of Myeongdong were getting pretty crowded so I had the girls form a human chain where we walked and sang to our next destination.  SO MUCH FUN.

Hello ice cream!  Yes we will have a foot long ice cream thank you!

These little characters were all over the place!  I'm not sure what this one was advertising.

But this one is advertising a Nintendo gaming room!!  How fun is that, I was up for it, but the girls decided against it - they thought this would be better for one of the boys birthday parties. 

Finally after several hours 5 happy girls are back on the subway heading home to have a little birthday cake. 

OH BUT WAIT...Girl wanted to stop at 7-11 and have her friends try one of our favorite Korean snacks - rice triangles filled with bulgogi and wrapped in seaweed.  As you can see a couple of them were not thrilled with our favorite Korean snack, but all agree that the cider is good. 

Back at home we all put on our new socks....

And sang Happy Birthday to one special girl!

So even though this party could have been a complete failure, we persevered and we ended up having a total ball! 
Happy 11th birthday my sweet angel!

GYEONGNAM, that's the name of the team they played back on October 7th when we attended this game! (Thank you Google!)  How could I forget that?  And I think FC Seoul won, don't quote me on that, but I think it is true - there was lots of smoke in the stadium that day, so I'm pretty sure it was a winner!

As with many great adventures in Seoul this one started with a subway ride where you really get to know the person standing next to you.....

Hop on subway line 6 and get off at Seoul World Cup!  It is THAT easy!  Once you get off the subway just follow the signs to Seoul World Cup Stadium!  Go up this super high escalator...

And when you get off you will be here:

I mean how cool is it to be in Seoul World Cup Stadium which was built for the 2002 FIFA World Cup?!?!

You can buy tickets in advance or you can just purchase them at the window. 

Ticket prices are start as high as ￦20,000 for reserved seats in the West Stands but also go for as low as ￦10,000 in the North stands and only ￦3,000 for kids.  They didn't charge for Boy 3 who is 7 years old....I'm not sure this is normal, and we did tell them several times his age - so maybe children 7 and under are free?  I have no idea and just went with it after they gave us the little 'x' with their fingers several times.

I just ask Boy 3 what his favorite part of soccer games are and he answered  "When they make a goal, they make fire!"
It is true, when they make a goal here they shoot off flares in the stands.  The first time I saw this it freaked me out a little, but now it is just SUPER COOL! 

OH, and check out the cheerleader...
More specifically, check out her shoes.

Time for chow....this is the closest thing they have to hot dogs.
The great thing about professional games in Korea - you can bring in your own food and drinks.

Unfortunately I blogged about this a few days late.  It appears the last game of the season was just 3 days ago.  But don't worry, they start back up in March!  So start making plans for the spring to attend your first FC Seoul game - you won't be disappointed! 

Really in the end it is all about good fun, great memories and happy kids.
FC SEOUL! 

Life is NEVER boring here.

Who doesn't love a nice light and fluffy warm scone - I'm not a fan of the dense ones - but give me a light and fluffy scone with a nice cup of java and I am a happy girl!  Cranberry-walnut are my favorite although the cherry with dark chocolate chunks are pretty good too.  It's been at least a year since I made these bad boys and I wonder to myself why I don't make them more often.  If you want to have these fresh for breakfast you have to do a little advance planning OR you can make them the night before and heat them up in the morning.  These guys also freeze very well - before eating just pull out of the freezer let them thaw on the counter top and then heat in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds or wrap them in loose fitting foil and pop in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 5-10 minutes.

2 3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 TBL baking powder
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped walnuts
zest of 1/2 an orange
2 large eggs
juice from 1/2 an orange
1/2 a cup of milk

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. 
Using a pastry cutter cut butter into flour mixture just until the mixture is crumbly. 
Stir in cranberries, walnuts & orange zest.
Add wet ingredients & mix well.

Line your counter (or cookie sheet) with parchment paper and dust parchment paper with flour.
Divide dough in half.  Round each half into a circle - your circles should be between 5 & 6 inches round and 3/4 of an inch thick:

Slice circles into 8 pieces with a sharp knife dipped in flour and genlty pull them away from each other leaving about 1/2 an inch space in between each scone. 
Brush the scones with milk and sprinkle with course sugar.
If you were working on the counter move the parchemnt paper with the scones on it to a cookie sheet.
Place scones on the cookie sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes. (This step is important in helping get the light and fluffy texture and a higher rise.)
While scones are chilling heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Bake scones for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Remove scones from the oven and brush with melted butter. 
Eat warm!

The original recipe came from King Authur's flour - I modified it just a tad. 
Happy baking!