Baked Meatballs = AWESOME!

We recently had a hankerin for some spaghetti and meatballs. Being in a country that isn't known for it's variety of culinary tastes, we weren't sure if we would be able to pull this one off. However, a super easy recipe and a bit of ingenious "wingin it" and we managed to whip up a lovely dish. Here's the original recipe first;

1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 lb. ground lamb
1/2 lb. ground round (beef)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan, or if you want to go all fancy, Pecorino Romano
5 oz. of frozen Spinach
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. Basil
1 1/2 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Mix everything but 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs
Roll into golfball sized balls and roll the balls in the bread crumbs.
Bake in 400 F preheated oven for 20 min or until slightly browned.

Here's the modifications I made;

1 1/2 lbs. ground pork. Everything else is too freakin expensive in Korea.
1/2 cup of the cheap green bottle Parmesan
1 stock of leeks chopped and saute'd with 1 tsp of fresh garlic in olive oil with 1 1/2 tsp Basil and 1 1/2 tsp Oregano (I hate parsley)
Skipped the garlic powder
Kept everything else about the same.
Best meatballs I've ever had and soooo simple!

Orange candle

And yet another pinterest idea come to life is the orange candle.  In Korea, clementines are very popular during the winter season.  I thought oranges were in season in the summer in the states, but what do I know about growing produce; squat.
In the preschool, these tangerines are given often as gifts. They're a delightful snack, but I've found a new use for them in addition to a healthy treat, a candle.

I'm gonna give you the rundown without a picture tutorial, but if you'd like a picture tutorial, you can visit this site.

• Cut the orange in half (hamburger wise)
• Gently work your finger inbetween the skin and the pulp.
• Pull the skin away from the fruit, being careful not to tear the skin.
• One of the ends will have the wick (the white skin that goes in the middle of the orange)
• BE VERY CAREFUL not to break this wick.
• You should have two orange cups now. 
• In the cup with the "wick" pour olive oil, careful not to wet the entire wick.
• Cut a hole into the top of the second orange cup.
• Light the "wick"  (this takes patience, but as long as the olive oil isn't too high or the wick didn't get wet, it will light within a few times)  A lighter is better, but if all you have is matches, plan on using at least three.
• Put the orange cup with a hole on top and enjoy your natural candle.  It smells delightful and will last a couple of hours.

*Note: Don't leave completely unattended.  This only has happened once but the top of my orange caught on fire (a slow fire) after three hours of burning.

Fancy Grilled Cheese with Spicy Tomato Soup

I never like tomato soup with my grilled cheese as a kid.  It was GROSS in my opinion.  In fact, I never liked it until I tried an Italian recipe for tomato soup with chopped toasted almonds and no sugar. It was the sugar in the soup that I disagreed with I realized not the soup.  I don't remember the exact recipe, but at this point in my cooking life, I feel comfortable winging things so here it is:

Spicy Tomato soup

• 1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes (Italian seasoning)
• 1 small onion, coarsely chopped (2 1/4 cups)
• 1 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh jalapeño chile including seeds
• 1 teaspoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 small serving of yogurt (85g)
• 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 1/4 chopped toasted almonds

Directions: If almonds aren't toasted stick them in the oven on broil until brown.
Olive oil in the pan, saute onions, jalapenos, garlic and ginger until caramelized md. heat.  Add the seasonings stir for a few seconds.  Add tomatoes, broth.  Cook until warm.  Add almonds and yogurt and serve.  So simple and so delicious.

And tomato soup isn't complete without grilled cheese. And my husband, well, he might be simple in some aspects in his life, but when it comes to food, he's NO simpleton.  Even a grilled cheese sandwich has to be COMPLICATED!  So here is his FANCY SCHMANCY grilled cheese:

Fancy Schmancy Grilled Cheese

• bread
• butter
• cheeses (of your choice) we like munster cheese and pepper jack
• 1/4 of an onion
• jalepeno to taste
• pinch of garlic, cumin, chili powder
• deli slice of turkey

Sauteed onion, garlic, candied jalapenos, pinch of cumin, chili powder in skillet.  Remove and set aside.
On the skillet heat the turkey deli.  Remove and set aside.
Buttered bread toasted on both sides a little and add sauteed goodies, add the Munster cheese and possible other cheeses of your choice on top of that so that it will melt on top of all the goodies. The turkey slice comes next, followed by the bread.

Russian restaurant in Dongdamun

Unfortunately, the plans Kyle designed for our anniversary date were kicked into the gutters.  It wasn't fully explained to me, but we were left with having to search for something last minute. Our British friends suggested wandering around Dongdamun for the evening to see what we could find.  I agreed with the location, but instead of wandering frustratingly around an area hungrily looking for a decent restaurant, only to be disappointed, I took it upon myself to find a glittering gem in the stacks of concrete buildings which is Seoul.  You see, I'm adventurous to an extent. I enjoy discovering new places, foods and I'm not afraid to try things that might be considered bizarre by others, but I'm not much into wandering.  I don't care for the search.  If I'm in the rarely patient mood, I can appreciate the searching aspect, but generally searches come up dry too many times, and I'm left hungry, dissatisfied and disgruntled.  In this way, I'm not your average traveler.  I like to know what I'm getting into. So instead of just maundering, I scanned the internet and came across this foodie blog which described a Russian restaurant in Dongdamun.  Ecstatic to find something other than Korean food, we set out in search of this mysterious restaurant.

A pickled herring salad.  Very strange, but most of the table enjoyed it.

This beer was awesome.  Even I liked it, and I HATE beer.

Cabbage stuffed with pork- amazing- get this.

I don't remember what this was called, but it was like grapevine leaves wrapped around a rice meat mixture.  It was great.

the salmon dish, it was delicious.

Restaurant Kazakhstan
Address: Kyungsung Bldg, 4F, 76-2 Kwanghee-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul
Telephone: 02- 2269-7505
Directions: Line 2, 5, and 4 Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station (formerly Dongdaemun Stadium) exit 7 make an immediate right onto the small alley. You need to merge left a bit to keep going straight on the road. Restaurant Kazakhstan will be ahead on the 4th floor.


These directions were provided from the blog mentioned before, but what they didn't mention was that you had to walk blocks underground in the newly built subway addition.  The steamy air beneath stuck to our sweating skin like a fly on fly paper, and the design of the subway was reminiscent of a star-trek film. Walking through the station, we all felt a sense of science fiction surrealism.  We walked so long underground, I began to wonder whether we'd ever reach the surface and if we did surface, if it would we still be on planet Earth. Once we did reach the surface however, we found ourselves in the Russian part of town, in a strange alley.  The restaurant was located, oddly enough, in an apartment building.  Entering what looked like a renovated apartment, we sat down at the glass table observing our surroundings. The decorations were a mixture of grandma's house, and modern art.  A t.v. in the corner played entertaining Russian music videos as we scanned the extensive menu.


There was an added concern in our search, one of our friends was a vegetarian, and Russian foods are not well known for their vegetarian options.  However, this restaurant offered several fish options, including a lovely salmon dish.  The boys bought imported Russian beers, and we all split a bottle of wine for only 25,000 won.  Not only were all the dishes reasonably priced, but they were absolutely delicious.  Instead of purchasing a dish for each person, we ate family style, sharing each dish, which I highly recommend.  If you are an expat in Seoul and looking for a new restaurant to visit, try Restaurant Kazakhstan, you wont regret it!  It was a perfect anniversary evening with fantastic friends and delicious food.

Quick Cinnamon rolls

Brunch has to be my favorite meal of all time.  I love it.  A mixture of breakfast and lunch and typically an insane session of gluttony. This rainy monsoon weekend, we had a lovely brunch with friends.  Some time ago, I made a cake that called for cream cheese icing, so I've said for months that I wanted to make cinnamon rolls.  But cinnamon rolls seemed a daunting task, one that I stared straight in the face this weekend after coming upon a quick and easy cinnamon roll recipe. Evidently, cinnamon rolls typically take forever and a day to make because of the rising thats involved.  However, I found a recipe, that calls for NO yeast which means NO WAITING.  I didn't exactly have all of the ingredients.  I was lacking heavy cream, so being my grandmother's daughter, I found a substitute; a mixture of sour cream and yogurt.  I'm not sure I'd recommend that substitution as it made the dough extra sticky, but the end result was delish!  

Cinnamon Sugar Filling:
• 1/4 CUP BROWN SUGAR
• 2 TEASPOONS CINNAMON
• 1 TEASPOON NUTMEG

Biscuit Dough:
• 2 1/2 CUPS UNBLEACHED WHITE FLOUR
• 2 TABLESPOONS BROWN SUGAR, PACKED
• 2 TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 TEASPOON SALT
• 1 1/2 CUPS PLUS 1 TABLESPOON HEAVY CREAM

Icing:
• 6 TABLESPOONS CONFECTIONERS’ SUGAR
• 4 TO 6 TEASPOONS MILK OR HEAVY CREAM

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. For the Filling: In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. For the Dough: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups cream, and stir until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. With your hands, fold the dough over a few times in the bowl, until the dough is smooth
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour your hands, and pat the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick rectangle, about 9 X 13 inches. Brush the surface of the dough with the remaining tablespoon of cream. Sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar topping.
5. Starting from the long side, roll the dough into a cylinder. Slice into 9 equal rounds. Place the rounds, cut side down, into an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish or a pie plate. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the biscuits are lightly browned.
6. For the Icing: While the biscuits bake, mix together the confectioners’ sugar and milk or cream until smooth. When you remove the biscuits from the oven, immediately drizzle them with icing. Serve warm.

We'd already eat several before I forgot that we hadn't taken a picture of the final project

Red Curry

We've discovered something quite remarkable at our foreign food market.  It began with a simple glance across the aisle, a closer look, an impulsive buy, and it was love at first taste. These Asian Home Gourmet packets are a fantastic way to make a simple dinner into a gourmet meal!  We've tried both the Green Curry and the Red Curry.  The Green curry was our favorite, but the red curry was pretty darn good as well.  There are lots of different flavors, different strokes for different folks. I feel like an infomerical right now, but they really are worth a try.  If your looking for a yummy nutritious meal (well, in actuality you make it nutritious by adding veggies so the nutritious part is up to you) that is REALLY simple to make-like cut it up, and throw it in, and you like Asian food, pick one of these handy packets up today! (How am I doing as an advertisement? I agree. They should hire me) 

You also might have noticed the BRIGHT purple things in the pictures.  Those aren't altered.  Those are truly purple sweet potatoes.  No joke.  They taste pretty average, maybe a tad sweeter than your average sweet potato, but not by much.  I will miss these pretty sweet potatoes when we go back home.

Everything in, ready to stir.  We added faux crab as our meat.

Kyle's giving his thumbs up!  See the friendship bracelet he's wearing?  He's so funny.

A closer look at what the packet looks like without its head.

Italian food Korean style

 

In Korea, it can be expected, that an outing to a restaurant, will never, and I repeat NEVER, be like a meal at home, in America.  At the tail end of my birthday weekend, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  I'm always hesitant to go to an Italian restaurant in Korea, because they always Koreanize it and never for the better.  For one thing, instead of bread sticks before the meal, they provide something pickled.  Because its an Italian restaurant they don't give you kimchi which they would prefer, but as a substitute, they provide sweet pickles, because as we all know, that's very Italian.  Then, most of the time, their spaghetti dishes are sweet, sickly sweet.  This restaurant was better than most for which I was immensely grateful, although they did have some quirks.  The pizza, instead of being made on pizza dough was made on many layers of pastry sheets, and with a side of honey to dip the crust in.  Also, when they brought the salad which was meant for Mark only,  they set it out for the whole table to share.  Because it seemed that it was meant for the table, we assumed it was complimentary.  It turns out, our assumption was incorrect. And when Dee ordered her coke, they brought a tiny can and six straws in case we all wanted to share.  Fun times in Korea!

sweet pickles

If we all had shared this coke, I think we would have had one sip a piece.

the pizza with the honey

One night in Manila

The four hour layover in China wasn't too bad. In fact an upside was that we had made some new friends. This foreigner bond, this willingness to talk to anyone with a familiarly foreign face, one who speaks the same language is an interesting one. It is true anywhere you go, finding people who understand your situation, who are going through the same thing, makes life just seem more rich. Don't get me wrong, I love the aspect of learning about another's culture. I wouldn't be a travel bug if that wasn't the case. But sometimes it is so nice not to struggle to communicate. It's nice to speed up your English to a regular tempo, to use larger words that Koreans or Chinese people wouldn't understand, even when they are English speakers.

So while we waited, we made some new friends. Ate seaweed flavored Pringles, no I am not making that up, and yes, we all liked it.

We had been told to skip Manila entirely that it was a dangerous and dirty city. That there was nothing to see except crime and dirt. We choose the closest hostel to the airport as we had to spend the night in this city before flying out to our REAL destination- Boracay. However, close, was a relative term. We spent $15 on a 30 minute cab ride to our "close" hostel- The Green Mango. The hostel private room wasn't even $12.

While checking in, a familiar looking girl approached me.

"You were on the layover in China right?" she asked. I recognized her shoes. I had noticed them in the airport. I wanted to steal them, but as I can occasionally act like an adult, I peeled my eyes from her feet and said, "yes, we were."
"I wanted to chat with you guys but you looked like you had a big group." she confided.
"I'm sorry you didn't, non of us knew each other." I told her.

I told her that Kyle and I had planned to go try a local beer if she wanted to join us. Thats the greatest thing about hostels. You are always meeting new friendly folks. I still keep in touch with travelers we hung out with for only a few nights from years ago in a hostel meeting.

We made a date. After inspecting our hard mattress placed in a shoebox room with nothing but a sheet and a sad excuse for a towel we quickly exited.

A, her boyfriend met up with us at a bar they frequented.

"I grew up in this neighborhood. It is one of the safest neighborhoods in Manila. It has changed so much since I was a kid though." she offered.

She had been teaching English in China. Korea doesn't allow Philippinos to teach English, even though their official language is English.

"We want to try local dishes." Kyle exclaimed over enthusiastically as we choose our table.

"Alright. I'm not sure if you'll like it, but it's not expensive." Our new friend told me.

Ten minutes later, a hot skillet with some type of sizzling meat was placed in front of us. Kyle and I grabbed our forks and took a bite. It was interesting. It was ground, but had some harder chunks.

"Do you like it?" They asked timidly.

Kyle said he did. I hadn't made up my mind.

"It's fried pig face. Its a favorite local dish." they finally admitted.

I nodded knowingly. Of course I was eating pigs face. What else would people eat? No wonder it had strange cartilage pieces within.

The next dish was intestine on a stick. It was A's favorite. I took a bite, slowly chewed and swallowed diligently like a child trying something that her mother is making her eat. Ironically though, the spicy chicken wings, the most normal dish on the table was what made me feel nauseous after only one bite. Needless to say I didn't eat much that evening.

It was a fantastic evening, hanging out with bona fide Philippinos in a NON-tourist bar, eating real Philippino food. But not only that, they were people we enjoyed being with. They shared their culture, and we shared ours. Actually, random funny story, their friend had just gotten back from working abroad in none-other than our home town- good ole San Antonio, Texas. We were so taken aback at this we couldn't stop asking him questions about home. He confided that he was tired of everyone speaking Spanish to him because he was constantly mistaken for a Mexican.

As we sat out on the patio on the warm humid night, a few children approached us selling flowers. They were beautiful flowers and they didn't charge much, so we bought a few, and gave him a little tip. However before he left, our friends gave him a strong talking to in their other native language (Tagalog or now officially Filipino). Afterwards they told me that they made him promise to buy food and not the glue that the street children are so well known for being addicted to. They start at young ages because of its cost effectiveness and the lessening of appetites.

From a general article I found on the internet:

Glue sniffing is perceived as a cheaper and safer alternative to intravenous drug use among street children themselves. The ‘high’ occurs quickly, with effects similar to drunkenness, although glue sniffing can also induce sometimes hallucinations. Users do admit, however, that glue sniffing kills their appetite, its fumes burn their eyes and leave the body dry. Medical reports say that glue sniffing can cause damage to the brain, lever, kidneys, heart and myocardium. Daily use over a period of six months can cause permanent brain damage. Prolonged addiction also visibly impairs a glue sniffer’s comprehension and can lead to dangerous side effects on behaviour, such as psychosis.

The economy in the Philippines is improving, but it is still considered third world. At one time their economy was thriving. "We lent South Korea food and money when they were poor." Our diving instructor informed us. "At one point, we were well off." he said sadly and yet proud of his country's history.

Besides the depressing news about how their poverty affected the innocent of the country, we had a fabulous time. I even wished a little that we had opted to stay in Manila more than 12 hours, but our flights were booked, and we were ecstatic about our relaxing beach adventure awaiting us.

p.s. The Green Mango Hostel was very friendly and for the most part clean. Other than the disturbing water situation; we had brown water in the evening flowing out of the faucet I was about to brush my teeth with, and no water in the morning, it is a good place to stay. And I am pretty sure it is the city with the water issues, not just that hostel.

Korean Food

I promise we aren't through with the Philippine posts, they have just been delayed for a bit. Mostly because they require a good bit of concentration and writing, and I haven't had the energy for it this past few weeks. So I am instead going to provide you with some pictures of common Korean food. I realized that you may not have an idea of what we eat on a daily basis so I thought I would share it with you.

This is a cold soup with slimy seaweed. Soup just shouldn't ever be cold!

I think this is fried potatoes.

I don't know. It has a kimchi flavoring but I'm just not sure what else is in it.

This is flavorless eggs. No salt or seasonings are added to this steamed egg.

Sweet an salted fried seaweed. Pretty good.

"Do you like dofu?" the fellow Korean asked. "Dofu? What is that?" I asked. "It is bean." she answered. "Bean? like bean paste?" "yes, dofu." she answered. In the end I substituted the "d" with a" t". TOFU! Yes, I like tofu. This tofu is fried.

Pork with veggies. That looks familiar right?

A fresh tasting pepper.

I don't recall if this is cucumber of zucchini but either way it tastes like kimchi.

It's not worms. I think it is raddish (they have larger varieties) in kimchi sauce again. Are you starting to gather how much they love kimchi?

I normally love eggplant however this eggplant is served cold. I don't understand why they have to ruin dishes by serving them cold.

Seaweed or spinach in kimchi flavors.

This is not tofu. This is a jelly made from acorns. I didn't know you could make accorn jelly either. What does it taste like? Nothing. It tastes like nothing. Thats why you cover it in soy sauce, to give it flavor.

These are a kind of rice cake. There is a potato inside.

Here is a close up of it.

If you guys like this post, let me know, so I can get the camera out to take more pictures of the weird food they feed people in Korea.