Scone saga

I love baking. Baking is my favorite thing to do in the kitchen. Looove it.  Unfortunately, most Korean apartments and houses do not have ovens. This meant that even though I know how to make wonderfully delicious baked things, I was not able to.

Until now.

My parents decided to be awesome and get me a toaster oven for Christmas. A large one. My mother also included my pastry mixer and scraper along with some measuring spoons in my Christmas box, which made me feel much more at home in my kitchen. Since then, I have been on a search for all the necessary ingredients for scones. Baking soda and baking powder were a bit of an adventure, and buttermilk was all but impossible. White vinegar to add to milk for a buttermilk substitute was also a pain, but eventually Costco came to the rescue. Today the final piece came together: baking sheets.  The trip out to a supposed "baking street" was a bit frustrating at times, but eventually very rewarding.  I now know of multiple stores with baking supplies, from cookie cutters and loaf pans to melting chocolate and food coloring.  On the way back to the subway, I even ran across at least a dozen shops selling yarn - talk about a bonus!

Immediately upon returning home, I began my endeavor of making delicious little treats with (mostly) unfamiliar equipment.  Preparing the dough was reasonably easy, except for the part where my mixing bowl was too small so I spilled flour all over myself. I always spill flour on my shirt. Always. This time, however, it got on my shirt, pants, floor, and counter. Whoops.

Unfamiliar ovens are always scary. There is no way of knowing if you'll accidentally overcook or undercook your food because it could be finnicky. Also, Fahrenheit to Celsius is a problem. So is the fact that my oven's instruction manual was all in Korean. 

MY SCONELESSNESS IS FINALLY OVER!!!!

 

The only casualty of the evening was the oven mitt that came with my oven. All I did was try to grab the baking sheet that the scones were on, and this happened. Apparently this oven mitt was not designed to be used with hot things, which begs the question of what exactly it was designed to do. Look pretty hanging on a hook? Thanks, I'll get a functional one that does the same thing.  Luckily I had a clean hand towel, so I was able to use that to handle the baking sheet.

My scones ended up darker on the outside than I typically make them, but the inside was perfect. I'm really looking forward to learning more about this oven's nuances and trying some new things~

Boo cold :(

I hate cold. Hate hate hate. If hell exists, it is not fire; it is ice. I spend most of my evenings wearing the warm pj pants and socks my grandma made for me and drinking tea. Going outside is kept to a minimum.  It doesn't help that my hat, which is super warm, is also kinda tight on my head and therefore irritates my cartilage piercing. Those suckers take for-freaking-ever to fully heal, and mine is at the point where I forget about it except when I have to put on a shirt with a tight collar, accidentally get too close with the hairdryer, or some idiot at the club isn't looking where he's throwing his arms and elbows me right in the ear. That last one really did happen a couple weeks ago and it made my ear bleed a bit. Grumble grumble. I had plans to change my earring the next day, but NOPE. Not gonna happen when it's sore.

Ahem. Anyway. Cold.

I've also been getting the sniffles, which I've been keeping largely at bay with vitamin C supplements and a number of cups of tea per day that I would rather not disclose out of possible-though-unconfirmed embarrassment. I will, however, say that I might need to order tea again sooner than I expected, even though I steep my loose tea 2 or 3 times per portion. I will also admit that the (partially-used) box of fillable tea bags that my mother included in my first care package has been entirely used up. Whoops. I am now down to my reusable infusers and the full box of bags I brought with me. No comment on how much tea is left.

Today was the first sticking snow in my part of Seoul. I think I remember hearing something about snow in other parts before now and there were definitely flurries sometime last week, but the snow today actually turned things white. It was a dusting, but it turned to ice once the sun set and I nearly slipped and fell when I went out to get my pizza from the delivery guy.  My current shoe options are heels or old and worn-out Converse. Tomorrow I have a haircut in the morning and a birthday event in the evening, so I plan on getting myself some fur-lined snow boots sometime in between. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some HeatTech as well. I already have hot packs at the ready. I DON'T PLAY AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO COLD, GUYS.

I also have been wanting to go geocaching lately but haven't been able to because screw going out in the cold and wind by myself to search for itty bitty microcaches. I do think I converted one of the Korean teachers by accident, though - she seemed utterly fascinated when I was explaining the concept after she overheard me talking about why I wanted a trackable something-or-other to one of the other English teachers. I might have to brave the cold just so I can take her out to find a couple caches and show her how much fun it can be.

More food~

I love food. A lot.  Which is why the majority of these pictures are not of the food as pretty as it is when it comes out.  They're from the middle of the meal when I go "oh crap, I should have taken a picture of this to show people back home."  Food pictures and selfies do not come naturally to me.  Nor do hashtags. This is probably why my Instagram has practically nothing on it.  #failing

Anyway, food!

Spicy seafood soup with tofu. Don't know what it was called, but it tasted good even though I had to eat around the shellfish and little bits of octopus/squid tentacle in it.

Barbecue may or may not be my weakness. Pork belly, rice, and side dishes? Yes please.

 

Mix it up on occasion and go with beef...

I also went to a barbecue buffet - all you can grill and eat in an hour in a half, but don't leave leftovers or you get charged - and it was wonderful.  Didn't think to take pictures until the meal was pretty much over :(

Kimbap, a wonderful picnic food or snack.

 

부대찌개/budaejjigae, roughly translated as "army stew." So delicious.

  

닭갈비/chicken galbi, with added rice and 떡/ddeok

라볶이/rabokki, ramen plus 떡볶이/ddeokbokki (떡/ddeok in a special spicy sauce)

 

See all the red/orange in the last few pictures?  That's because a lot of Korean food is spicy and it's awesome. Spicy food for life.  (Though people who hate spicy food can definitely survive here - there are options for you.  I just usually don't choose them.)

This next one I made in my itty bitty kitchen using my new not-crappy, nonstick skillet~  Kitchen sink rice is my go-to meal.  What's in it?  Some kimchi, some veggies, some sausage...everything but the kitchen sink.  I really should start taking more pictures of my home-cooked meals to prove that yes, I can survive with one burner, no microwave, no oven, no toaster oven, a mini fridge, and no dishwasher.

 

I also made macaroni and cheese. It wasn't anything particularly delightful, but I used sliced American cheese and a couple slices of Gouda and it tasted almost exactly like I made it with Velveeta. It wasn't super-pretty, so no pictures of that one.  Same goes for my chicken and rice soup and my potato soup. The soups were pretty fantastic, but I'm not a food photographer so I couldn't capture the deliciousness of them. 

I can make Korean food too! This one is 된장찌개/bean paste stew, which I actually made for the first time back in the States. It tastes much better here, though. Also, the bowl of rice makes every single Korean soup I ever attempt taste better. Korean soups need rice with them. Fact of life. 

 

Caramel popcorn and vanilla soft-serve. Don't know why. Tasted pretty good, though.

 

Hehehe...back to barbecue. This restaurant has the best kimchi I've found anywhere...so far.

Strictly speaking this next one isn't food, it's tea. 오미자차/omijacha, 5-taste berry tea~ It has a bit of a strange taste, but I love it.  It's fantastic cold or hot and I need to get my hands on it so I can make it at home.

I've also finally branched out into delivery food.  There's an app - all in Korean - that lets me order without having to pick up the phone and call a restaurant. Score. I hate talking on the phone in any language. Text? Sure. Email? Sure. Skype? Sure! But phone? No thanks. I put off my hair appointments because it involves calling the salon on the phone.

So this is my first adventure into the life of "it's too cold to go out and I don't feel like washing the pot so I can cook":

It was actually really delicious. I ordered a preset pizza - I didn't pick my toppings - and got potato slices, bacon, corn, onion, and mushroom.  I picked the onion off for the most part, but I did eat some of it.

More food to come! (Eventually)