One night I was struggling for what to make for dinner. I wanted quick and easy. My friend Amber texted this recipe to me. I've loved her even more since that day. 3 chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
2 sweet potatoes cut into bite size pieces 2 -3 apples cut up into bite size pieces 1 red onion chopped up 6 slices of sugar free bacon (if you can find it...if not leave it out) salt & pepper to taste oregano - maybe 1 or 2 tsps? thyme - maybe 1 or 2 tsps? Bake in the oven at 350 for about 30 - 40 minutes cut the bacon up, mix everything together and serve. YUM-O!! It was on my Korea bucket list - but Hubby isn't a fan of tours. And I get it, some tours BLOW. Especially when they are too big and you feel like you are just a number. Most of the time we feel like we NEVER get our moneys worth on tours. But Daniel Gray. He's kind of cool. I use his blog Seoul Eats for date nights ALL.THE.TIME! Plus, he has been on the Kimchi Chronicles! Like I said, he is cool. And this tour did NOT BLOW. It was all kinds of AWESOME. I mean check it out....here I am with him and a couple of my girlfriend! (Not all tours get Daniel....don't hate.) Our tour was private. The 6 of us + Daniel. I was a bit disappointed when I found out we were going out in Insadong. I thought "really, Insadong? He is taking us to a freaking tourist area...I've been to Insadong many times." I wasn't a happy camper. UNTIL He started weaving in and out of alleys and we landed here: WHAT?!?! How on earth have I missed this? I've spent time in Insadong. This little lesson taught me to EXPLORE a little more! These alleys were packed with locals drinking and eating! And how fun is this? I have NEVER experienced a coat check quite like this before! After Daniel ordered the best pork I have ever eaten at this litte Korean BBQ joint he proceeded to teach us a drinking game. Beer in a glass, slip a shot glass in and take turns pouring soju in the shot glass, little bits at a time. The person to sink the shot glass has to down the drink. Have I mentioned that Koreans drink the most 'Spirits' per capita than any other country? And apparently, so does Betty. Just kidding. She doesn't really drink that much. But when in Korea..... You know the drill. Shannon's turn! I love the look on her Hubby's face.... This is a serious game. And because one of the guys sank the shot glass they all decided to take a drink. This is where I do a break in my regular blogging to tell you about Daniels Bar, Brew 3.14 I only spent a few moments in the bar as Daniel had called ahead and ordered a 'to go cocktail' for me since my friends were all drinking and didn't bother to pick anything up for me. That my friends is service. TOTALLY NOT feeling like a number on this tour. Plus, I LOVE 'to go cocktail bags'! Find out more about his bar here: Brew 3.14 Directions to 3.14: From Anguk Station: Exit 4 walk straight until you see Samil Daero 30-gil and make a left (you’ll see 낙원떡집 and Pizza Haven in the building on the corner). Walk Down the road past the crown hotel and Ibis Ambassador Hotel. You’ll see Proto on the corner, make a left down the alley. You’ll see a sign for Brew 3.14. From Jongno 3-ga Exit 6,7,8 go up Donghwanmunro road. Walk until you see Secret Garden Cafe on the Right side. Cross the road and walk down the road until you pass an empty lot and before a building that reads Proto make a right. Next up on our tour I mentioned that another thing on my bucket list was to eat live octopus. Shut the front door, Daniel was happy to oblige...he weaved in and out of some alleys, opened a back door and took us in for shasami, beondegi (silkworm larva), and LIVE OCTOPUS! As you all know I have tried this bowl of nastiness before, but Daniel insisted that they taste different in the restaurant than they do on the streets. Can you believe I tried them again? Guess what...this time they weren't so bad. I even ate a few. Don't get me wrong, I won't go ordering them anytime soon, but it was nice to find out they are not as bad in the restaurant as they are on the street. Next up, slimy, slippery, moving octopus. This really wasn't what I was expecting...I was expecting a whole baby octopus. This guy was cut up, sesame oil poured on him and all his parts were wiggling around. That plate was MOVING! Here is a piece on my chopsticks....getting ready to dive in. Seriously, not bad AT ALL! In fact we ate the entire plate of octopus. Just make sure you chew those little suckers up so they don't stick to your throat... Like they are sticking to Hubby's tongue. Next up on our adventure was Gwangjang Market. We have been here a couple of times, but one of the couples had never been. However I had never seen this stall....check out all that foil. Mung bean pancakes. YUM-O! This picture makes me laugh! As if all the food we had already consumed wasn't enough Daniel took us to yet ANOTHER restaurant. All I remember is that it was amazing... I've never had it before in Korea. And before you ask, not it is not Samgyetang. And there was more soju. Flavored soju. There was a good one.... But for the life of me I can't remember which one it was. At this point our tour was over. BUT...we didn't stop there. We invited Daniel to come with us to OB's Cabin. A place for live music, beer and fried chicken. Yes, we ate again. If you are looking for a place to kick back, relax listen to music and possibly do a little dancing in the aisles OB's is the place to go. I apologize as I cannot tell you how to get there....you are going to need to google this one! Here's one last picture of the group with a new friend we found on the dance floor....or aisle. SO in review....
We had a GREAT time! We didn't feel like a number. We felt like our tour was worth EVERY PENNY and possibly more! If you are new to Seoul or have lived here for years you should look up O'ngo Tours and book one today. And by the way there are NON-alcoholic tours as well. They also have cooking classes! I'm trying to collect a few friends to join me for a cooking class in February. O'ngo Tours is offereing 15% off cooking classes in the months of Jan/Feb if you mention you saw the ad on their website! (You must mention the word "snowfall"!) Happy Eating! I previously wrote about Gwangjang Market here. We knew Grammy would love this place when she came to visit! (She visited back in October.) Here we go Gwangjang Market with Grammy: Shopping in the market: These are Korean Wedding Ducks. Wedding ducks are a pair of duck carvings, traditionally Mandarin ducks. They are used in Korean wedding ceremonies and often giving as marriage gifts. Mandarin ducks are used because it is believed that unlike any other types of ducks Mandarins mate for life and if one of them dies the other will mourn. I'm not sure for how long, but they mourn. :) Korean believe the Mandarin ducks represent peace, fidelity and lots of kids. Female ducks are red, males are green or blue. The craziness of the market. Motorcycles in the aisle, no rhyme or reason. Blanket stall right next to a food stall. I'm not sure if this is plastic food molded to look like fish or rice cakes molded to look like fish. A common site all over Korea. The nucleus of the market - the FOOD STALLS! Where Koreans from all over come to eat some of the best and oldest style of street food available in Korea! Hubby made sure his momma had food... I made sure she had makkoli! She had no desire to eat some of the cuisine here: But she did enjoy the mung bean pancakes! All in all a great trip to the Gwangjang Market!
To get there: Jongno-3-ga Station Exit 12. Walk straight for a few blocks, you will come to a bigger intersection, look to your right and you will see the entrance to the Gwangjang Market. Enter and walk down the alley for quite a while...you will start seeing food stalls, but don't stop until you hit the mother load and start seeing places to sit and eat. You will know when you have arrived. Good luck and happy eating!! :) LAUGHING OUT LOUD.... Sometimes I write blog post that don't make the cut. This was one of them. I don't even know when I wrote this - maybe a year or so ago. However I just cracked up reading it. I woke up this morning CRAVING steel cut oats and I was so mad at myself when I realized I didn't have a crock pot of them going! Then I realized that crock pot cooking steel cut oats is not the ONLY way to cook them. So I read the directions on the back of the packaged and decided to just go for it. Now you are more than welcome to make these as directed on the package with no goodness in them - you know, if you are into that sort of things. Bland, total good for you nastiness. Did I just type that out loud? Oops. OR, you could mix it up and have a little fun!
Let's get started.... 1 cup steel cut oats 2 cups water 1 cup almond milk 4 TBL brown sugar 1 TBL flax seed 12 oz frozen cherries STOP.....DON'T do it. STOVE TOP STEEL CUT OATS SUCK! They NEVER soften like they do in the crockpot. After 45 minutes of cooking (like the directions say) they have a serious crunch to them. So I kept cooking, adding a little more liquid at a time when needed - every time I tried them still crunchy.... And still after 2 hours of cooking they STILL have a crunch to them! Grrrrr.... Stupid steel cut oats. I didn't want to eat them anyway.... Haha! Cleaning out my blog drafts I found this....
If you think you can't do anything with white walls and cafeteria floors, I beg to differ. Blackhawk Housing area, Yongsan, South Korea. How many times have I blogged about this place? FOUR. This makes five. This means you should go. If I write about a place 5 times, you know it is good. Consistently good. To get there: From post Go out the Itaewon Gate Cross into Itaewon Walk on the left side of the street Pass the Hamilton Hotel The very next alley turn LEFT Right past my Thai This is what it looks like: As I have said before, this place is a bit pricy, but totally worth it - especially for Korea! Chicken & avocado salad with toast Poached chicken breast mixed with nuts, dried fruit and sour cream 17,000 won Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, sauteed spinach and potatoes Around 18,000 won (I don't remember the exact price) Sweet potato, fig & bacon sandwich Sweet potatoes, cinnamon caramelized fig, bacon, mixed cheese It also comes with a small side salad I'm drooling writing about it - I LOVED every little bite of this sandwich 15,000 won And we can't forget the caramel macchiato Oh how I LOVE their caramel macchiato... Around 6,000 won It was a heavenly dessert and we should have stopped there..... But we didn't. Next up: Blueberry crepes ...and then we dove fork first into the banana bread. This bread doesn't look like much, but I have to tell you somehow they mastered the homemade banana bread - yes, in Korea. I would have never ordered it, but they put 3 loaves at the end of our table to cool and I just couldn't get over the smell. I had to have some. And boy was it worth it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it, and we ate here months ago. It's obvious by these plates that we thought dessert was well worth it.... ...and this was before someone licked the plates clean. Not really. OK, maybe. A great lunch with great friends.
It is true. I'm back on the Whole 30. After 2 weeks in the Philippines, consuming WAY too much MSG and not having a great selection of fresh veggies (and really, let's be honest, I just wanted to eat whatever I wanted to eat) I'm back on the Whole 30. I need to clean out my insides and get back on track. That's right. 30 days of REAL FOOD Meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed. That's what I'm doing in a nutshell. Some think I'm crazy others think I'm awesome. Either way, they are right. ;) So, if you are drooling, here is the recipe:
3 -5 pound Chuck Roast HERBS --- I just sprinkle...I'll guesstimate for you on how much I used. Feel free to use more or less depending on how you feel about that spice. 2 tsp Garlic powder 1 TBL thyme 1 TBL fennel 1 tsp dill weed 2 TBL oregano 1 TBL kosher salt 1-2 TBL fresh crushed pepper Sprinkle all those herbs all over your roast. Toss that bad boy in a crock pot. Then throw in: 1 bag of baby carrots and 1 diced onion Along with 1/2 a cup of beef broth - homemade is best, if you don't have homemade, toss in 1/2 a cup of water. That's right. PLAIN ol' water. Oh and then toss 2 sprigs of rosemary on top of everything. Put the lid on an cook on low for 7-8 hours. Your roast will fall apart. Your people will love it. Then they will tell you how much better it would be with potatoes. So, if you are not on the Whole 30 toss in some potatoes to make them happy. Serve with a yummy green salad. Go to bed happy. |
“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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