Thursday, January 29, 2009

When the Korean winterscape gets you down reach for your favorite comfort food

Julianne and I woke up this morning and went out to run some errands. After printing off maps of Busan (we're going there this weekend) in my office we headed to a Korean restaurant for lunch.

Dolsot Bibimbap (stone bowl rice mixed with vegetables and egg)

After a delicious lunch we walked home slowly. The weather was warmer but the grey, brown, and dull blues of the Korean winterscape we're kind of blah . . . even the mountains didn't do much to cheer me up.

So after a fantastic nap we decided to pull out some comfort food for dinner. There was only one problem--no can opener . . . lol.

For the past three and a half years in Korea I've pretty much been eating out at restaurants. After teaching all day and coming home tired, and sometimes exhausted, the last thing I'd want to do is cook. Korean restaurants have cheap, fast, and healthy food--and you don't have to do dishes after too! So . . . I never bought a can opener.

The solution? Use a large knife and a bottle as a hammer . . . LOL.

Julianne likes black beans--I'm NOT a fan . . . though it's been years, if not decades, since I tried them so maybe I'll try them again (she has 2 more in the cupboard). Me, I'm a die-hard fan of wieners and beans . . . yum!

Julianne had her beans with slices of cheese melted onto them and then used nacho chips to eat them with. Oh yeah, she also had a couple hot dogs with some cheese too.

Me, I went old school . . . I cut my wieners into small pieces and then mixed them into the beans . . . oh baby. And to take the carbo coma I would imminently fall into to a whole new Homer Simpson level I added slices of cheese . . . and . . .

. . . ketchup!

The blurring here is to help you, the reader, get a sense of the gastrointestinal ecstasy of the Homerian food philosophy . . . hmmmm, wieners and beans with cheese and ketchup . . . aughguughgughaughuagh!


J

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had me going there with the pork and beans, the hot dogs, the cheese -- but I'm not a fan of ketchup, so that last photo in the series left me drooling and taken aback at the same time. Nice series of photos though!

Out of curiosity, what cameras are you and Julianne using? I'm looking to move up from my Canon point-and-shoot and appreciate any feedback that you or she might have.

Jason said...

Not a fan of ketchup--I don't know if I can talk to someone who doesn't like ketchup, LOL.

Julianne has a Nikon D50,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D50

and I have a Canon EOS 400D, called Digital Rebel XTi in North America and EOS Kiss Digital X in Japan . . . you can check out the specs here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_400D

I'll post a link next week to Scribblings of the Metropolitican's blog posting about Digital SLRs--he has awesome advice about buying them and where to go in Yongsan.

J

Anonymous said...

When I was much younger it extended to pretty much any tomato product. I must have been one of the few American school kids who disliked pizza. I'll pretend to love ketchup in the future if that will make it easier for you to talk to me!

I remember reading the Metropolitician's post when it first came out - it included a reference to Canons being the most popular brand in Korea, right? - but it's always nice to get a feel for what other people are using. Iceberg just picked up a Nikon D40 and seems really happy with it, but I've heard good things about the Canon EOS 400D as well.

Thanks for the info, as well as for offering to post the link to the Metropolitician's entry on the subject. It's much appreciated!