dalkgalbi

I love dalkgalbi. It is a spicy chicken dish that is cooked in the middle of the table in a large pan. It has cabbage and some other vegetables and lots of spice. Delicious!!!!!

Grape Juice

It says,
"NO ANTISEPTIC AND DIRECTION, DID NOT PUT
IN THE PIGMENT, THE SUGAR AND THE
ARTIFICIAL ADDITIVE"
It also says, "Yugi podo kwajeum (13Brix) 100%". Any ideas what 13 Brix might mean? On the back it also says that of the 13 Brix, 68 Brix is from America, which is about 19.2%.Tasted okay, but not great.

Mmmmm... Meat.

At Mapo Galbi in Hwajeong - they pour egg on kimchi and other stuff in a tray around the grill to cook. Yum.

Moroccan ? restaurant

There is a little restaurant in Apgujeong called Rabat. The writing on the outside is only in Korean. The decor inside is very cool with each table being in a little tent-like area, some with bench seating, some floor seating. The food isn't very Moroccan but the decor sort of is. We tried a 'couple' meal. Salad, pasta, pizza and wine. The salad was fantastic and perfect for our hungry stomachs. The pasta great. The pizza was a bit too much. It tasted good but the bread was a bit on the sweet side and I could only handle a couple of pieces. I think if the pizza bread weren't so sweet I would have really liked it.

galbi

This is how you eat galbi, or barbecued meat. It is cooked on a little grill in the middle of the table and cut up with scissors (you cook it yourself, obviously). You take a nice piece of lettuce, add rice, meat (dipped in a salt/sesame oil mixture or other type of sauce) and what ever else you like (onion, garlic, kimchi, etc), hen wrap it all up and pop it into your mouth. It's a bit of a mouthful, but definitely delicious.

Gyeongju part 1

For summer vacation I decided I should try to see more of Korea while I'm still here. After the mud festival we headed down to Gyeongju. Gyeongju was capital of Korea, during the Silla Kingdom in the 7th to 9th centuries. Though a lot has been destroyed, there is still much to see. The most prominent being the tombs that are scattered within and around the city. Some are small, but some are quite large. According to a poster near the tombs, Tumuli numbers 90-114, and 151-155 (numbered during Japanese occupation) are earthen mounds. Larger ones have wooden chambers covered in stone and then earth while smaller tombs don't have mounds. One of the tombs that has been excavated, the Cheonmachong, (Heavenly Horse Tomb, named after ) is open to the public. The parks containing the tombs are quite large. Near the tombs there is a small forest. Inside used to be Banwolseong (Castle of the Crescent Moon). The only thing left is the Seokbinggo (a stone ice house) which has been rebuilt. Nearby is Cheomseongdae, which is the oldest astrological observatory in East Asia. Across from the main road we went to Anapji pond. It was made in 674 by King Munmu. The buildings burnt down in 935. The pond and 3 of the buildings were repaired and rebuilt in 1975 and many relics were found buried in the pond. From there we headed over to the Gyeongju National Museum. I love museums. I hated studying modern history in high school but I do love ancient and archaeological history.I think I started to make Zak crazy as every time I saw lotus flower pondseverywhere (lotus crops?) I would have to stop to take pictures. ESPECIALLY when a crane (the national animal of Korea) landed in one.Once back in the downtown area it was already well past lunch time and we were starving. We found an excessively cute (just my style) sandwich shop just off the main shopping street. It wasn't too expensive and the food and drinks were great. :) Definitely a possibility for another lunch. For dinner we found a nice little (sort of) Italian restaurant (also excessively cutesy) near the main shopping street near our hotel. Not too bad. The food was good but the house wine was one that I would probably use in cooking rather than drinking if I ever opened it at home.

a wig from the brest bakery?

I bought a lovely red wig at a little street vendor in Myungdong a while back to wear when ever another wig party happens. This is the bag that the guy put my wig in. Reusing bags, I see. Interesting bakery name. "BREST BAKERY"?? The Korean says "Beureiseuteu kwaja jeom" Basically breast snack (kwaja) shop.

strawberries!!!

Friday was field trip day at my kindy. We went to a strawberry farm.It took more than an hour to get there. Apparently there was an accident between a small bus and a car on the way but I didn't see it. Turns out that the accident was one of the buses from another branch. The front was smashed in and the car was very damaged. The bus driver was a little bit hurt but is okay. The kids are all okay (they all wear seatbelts), but were quite shaken up.Once at the farm we went into a large building full of picnic tables to wait for the little tour.Along one wall was a long table of strawberry, lettuce and other plants grown by hydroponics.The kids got a little antsy, of course, but were quite well behaved. The tour began with a little introduction. I can't tell you what was said since it was all in Korean. After the introduction we went into one of the very long greenhouses.It was a bit of a pick and eat tour. Yum! Fresh strawberries! They were so sweet and juicy.[Another picture here]
Some of the kids ended up covered in strawberry from head to toe. Too funny. Then it was back to the other building where the kids got to take turns mashing strawberries to make jam.After they each got their turn, it was lunch time. The kids all brought lunches and the school provided the teachers' lunches - kimbap. It would have been okay but it was fancy kimbap with sesame leaves in them and half of them had fish or fish eggs or little dried shrimp in them. Yuck! I had plenty to eat, though, as the kids had lots off great food to mooch. :D I even got a fruit by the foot!! (Can't easily get things like that here.)After lunch the kids had play time with bubbles and balls to kick around in a little yard. There were a few Jindo puppies in a cage to the side. I went over and ended up getting a lot of the kids interested in having their hands licked. At one point the adult Jindo at the other end of the yard ended up with one of the balls. It's the dog's ball now. A few puncture holes rendered it quite useless. There was a snack of bread with fresh warm strawberry jam. It was so delicious! The kids each got to take home one jar of freshly made jam and I will get a couple that I ordered on Monday. The teachers all got to take a container of strawberries for free. :) Then it was time to head back to Seoul where the parents would pick the kids up at pre-chosen spots. I got to go home a little early. What a great way to end a nice field trip day.

salad

Yesterday since I only taught for an hour (but had to be at work the full day), I went out for a nice lunch. I tried to go to Le Alaska, a little bakery cafe right beside where I used to live, but it was out of the panini bread so couldn't make the sandwich I wanted. I'll have to go back next time another time as I really want to try their sandwiches!!! Instead, I went to the Paris Croissant Kitchen. The menu there isn't great (for me) because almost everything had fish or seafood in it.The few things that weren't fishy, though, sounded great. I got the beef and mushroom salad.It was fantastic!

Mmmmm Cinnamon Latte

Last year I bought myself a Mukka Express.It is a stove top latte maker made by Bialetti, an Italian company. It is fantastic. Water goes in the bottom, coffee grind in the middle, and milk in the top. It takes less than 5 minutes to get a 2 shot latte. The company has many different kinds of stove top espresso pots (2, 4, 6, etc shot pots) but this is the only one that does the latte (only one that you can put milk in). A couple of the higher end department stores here have them and Starbucks has one kind of pot - a 6 shot pot, which is too big for my liking. Right now I'd have no use for 6 shots of espresso. You can't adjust how much it makes. Too bad because it's cheaper than in the department store.After I got back from a long walk with Hopie, my friend's dog that I'm taking care of (check links to see pics and a video of Hopie if you like), I made myself a nice cinnamon latte (in one of my Starbucks mugs). One of the things I got for Christmas was a cinnamon sugar grinder (like a pepper grinder only with cinnamon sugar in it). I love it!! It's great for so many things. For my latte, I put some in the bottom of the cup before pouring and then some sprinkled on top.Yum!!!

Les Baux again. :)

On Friday Danielle and I had lunch at Les Baux again. I love that place! She had her spicy Arrabiata pasta that she had the previous time. I decided to try another dish. I had the Pomodoro Mozzarella pasta. Soooooo delicious!! The pickles.We both decided to try the rouge lemonade (red wine lemon ade).
I love the ades there as they are always freshly made.

Les Baux for lunch

My friend Danielle and I went for lunch at one of my favorite Apgujeong restaurants, Les Baux.
(Lemonade and orangeade)Always good food.(My chicken and mushroom pasta with an olive oil sauce)

Yummm... Pizza.

Dinner at Nilli, an "Italian Bistro" in Apgujeong.
Caesar SaladFunghi Pizza
So delicious!!!
I love thin crust pizza!
*^^*