Oatmeal with fresh strawberries and "Brock Wurst"
Pretty basic. Boxed oatmeal with a little maple syrup (bought for $25) and butter and some fresh, cut strawberries thrown on top. Served with what I would call a basic sausage. The package says "brock wurst" which leads me to think it is an attempt at a bratwurst. With seasoning added, and crisping up in a pan, they aren't awful and are pretty quick to cook up.
Well-Balanced Breakfast
Again, not to special. Powdered coffee, Orange Juice, Special K, Mandarin Orange, and Scrambled Quail Eggs. Yep, quail eggs. I didn't use them in an attempt to be fancy. I swear. I had the option of buying 20 quail eggs or 24 full-sized eggs. I can't eat 24 full-sized eggs before they go bad, so I bought the tiny quail eggs. They cost the same. I added some green onions and pepper to the eggs.
Garlic Potatoes and Steak with Guacamole
I found some avocados and the local store and bought them (even thought they were a whopping $6 each) I attempted to make guacamole but I was unable to locate several key ingredients such as limes or fresh cilantro, so it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible either. When I put it on top of the steak I bought on super sale the day it "expired" it made the steak and the guacamole so much better. The garlic potatoes were just as yummy as always, though the butter was a bit odd so the flavor was a little different then I was used to. But, I pulled of a basic american staple, and cured a little home-missing blues I was feeling that night.
Spicy Mushroom and Beef Burger with Raw Onion, Garlic and Caramelized Onion Potatoes, and Fresh Strawberries
I found some ground beef on sale, almost expired, and decided to make a wonderful burger. A good burger is something I have been missing while here in korea. I chopped up some mushrooms and mixed them into the ground beef and added some spices and salt. Then I tossed it in a pan with some onions and let it cook nice and slow all the way through. I added a little red wine to the pan to give the burger and onions a little more flavor. Once the onions had caramelized I added them to the garlic potatoes I had cooked up. A slice of raw onion on top of the burger and some fresh strawberries on the side and the meal was pretty damn good if I say so myself.
Wine and Onion Pork
This was pretty basic. I put the pork in a plastic bag with some store bought marinade and some wine and then went to work. When I got home, I threw it in a pan with some onions and more wine and marinade. I put a lid on the pot and added some water to help the pork stay juicy and moist while it cooked on very low heat. After about an hour on the stove, I took the pork out and added a little flour to the leftover cooking juices and onions and viola! Wine and onion pork.
Sundae Guk -- Carly Style
About a year ago, my old job ordered this soup. It is made with Sundae, or korean blood sausage. I wanted it again really badly, but I don't trust my korean language skills to order it at a restaurant. So I decided to try to make it up myself. Oddly when I looked online for a recipe, I couldn't find one. So I decided to wing it. I knew the basic ingredients, the problem was the broth. The only directions I could find about it was that it was made by boiling pork bones. I could find pork bone at the local mart so I looked through the pre-made soups they sell. I found a powdered mixture for a thick beef soup and a pre-made beef knuckle soup. beef knuckles are not something many people like. they are many cartilage and cook up to a slimy-chewy texture. I happen to love it but I don't recommend it to careful eaters. I mixed the two, added water and green onions and the sundae and let it boil for awhile. Once the sausage was cooked, I tried it out. It wasn't as good as the restaurant stuff, but it was still pretty tasty!
Chicken Soup done Korean Style -- By Carly
Now, this isn't really korean-style chicken soup. It is my own combination of my chicken soup recipe and a few very korean ingredients. The white disk shapes you can see are Tteok, the most familiar use of this would be Tteokbokki. I have developed I deep love of this in my Mandu Guk at work each week. I decided to add it to the chicken soup in place of noodles. I also substituted Garlic tops for onions. I think it was great. Simple and fast and pretty cheap as well. just add some broccoli, celery, and chicken breast and you are good to go.
Soy and Wine Beef with Quail Eggs and Veggie Curry
I bought some sale/expired beef again and a packet of soy boiled beef. I threw it all in a pan with some red wine, garlic, green onions, and water and left it to boil until the beef was cooked through and tender. While it was cooking, I cut up some potatoes very small and put them in a pan with some green onions, olive oil, spicy curry powder, and water. I slowly added some finely chopped broccoli and zucchini as well as more curry and water. I put a lid on the pan and let it boil together and let the curry powder release all its flavor. When the beef was done, I took it out of the pan and cooked a few quail eggs in the juices left in the pan then added them to the beef. When the food was all done I mixed it together and enjoyed the awesomeness that is my cooking skills.
I am slowly getting around the confusion and fear of new foods here. my new approach has been to just buy it if it looks good and then play with different cooking methods and combinations until I find the best combo. I have also been very thrifty about buying the meat that is older and on sale. If I buy beef the day it expires, I can get it for as much as 50% off the original price. This may seem risky to some people, but I do look at it very carefully before I buy it and when I get it home and open it, I pay attention to the smell and fell of it. If I feel at all unsure of the safety of eating it, I don't. So far I haven't gotten sick. All this food talk and typing has made me starving so I am going to heat up some of that curry and beef, have a glass of wine, and then head downtown for this art and music show I heard about. Check back to a post about graffiti and another about the super cool stuff I have been adding to my apartment to make it more homey and more me.
 |
| UMMMMMM!!!! |
