More Korea

The following day we went out to lunch with some really old friends.  The restaurant was in this modern building nestled in a traditional neighborhood.  You can see all the old style rooftops from the pictures.  The pasta was really good and it really brought back a lot of childhood memories. 

Then we went to visit my grandpa at the restaurant.  It used to be my grandfather's house when he was little and later converted into a restaurant. 

my dad did a lot of work and even built a deck

 The back of the restaurant.  View from the top.

My dad's dog had 4 puppies on Christmas Eve.  So my dad named then  Mary Chris Mas Eve.

Someone is ready to take one back to the states.

Dinner!

My Gramps loves dancing.  He knows the salsa, chacha, waltz...and many more.  He took many years of dance lessons.

Grandpa and me.  This is how I remember him either dancing or smoking :)

Valentine's Day crafts and Korea

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and there are so many blogs with great ideas.

http://www.twigandthistle.com/

Have your kids make their own cards.

http://mermag.blogspot.com/

http://inchmark.squarespace.com/

Korea continued..

My grandmother's sister took us out to lunch.  Seeing her younger sisters brought back a lot of memories.

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.  But I couldn't get over how great they both looked!

Later that evening we went out to dinner and stopped by  UNIQLO. 

Buldak....fire chicken!

After dinner headed back on the subway to spend time with my gomers aka my aunt.

My sister and gomers.  Sister#2 is goofing off and wearing a hairpiece that was in my gomers hair for the wedding.  

More of Korea

After I went to the morning market with my dad we ate lunch (sorry no pictures, but I had Korean cold noodles). My mom wanted to take me to this bakery/patisserie.

We went to Myung Dong.  We also stopped by Shinsaegae dept. store, but they wouldn't let me take any pictures :(

Outside street vendor.

Passion 5

Lovely macaroons...right after I took this they told me no more pictures.  Thank goodness my sister had already taken a ton!

Selection of what we ate.  Vanilla bean gelato and yuzu gelato.  Cheesecake, mushroom on focaccia bread, and UFO bread (yes that is what it was called).   My favorite was the cheesecake.  Korean cheesecake is different then in the states.  It's not as dense and there is no graham cracker crust rather a nice thin layer of sponge cake.  Also the yuzu gelato.  I love yuzu...sweet yet tangy.

In honor of my Motherland and because I miss Korea....

Recipe for mandoo aka Korean dumplings. 

List #1
1 pound of ground beef
1 block of extra firm tofu (squeeze as much water as you can out of the tofu)
1/2 medium onion minced
2 medium sized zucchini julienned
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 bunch of Korean chives (buchu) or you can use green onions

List # 2
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
1 Tablespoon of sesame seed oil
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
pepper

List #3
1 package of wonton wrappers
water in a small bowl to seal the wrappers

Put all the ingredients in list #1 a bowl.  Mix well.  Then add the ingredients from list #2 mix well.  Then place a Tablespoon (possibly more depending on what brand of wonton you buy) of the filling in the middle of the wonton wrapper.  Using your fingers wet and seal the edge of the wrapper, fold and press to seal the wonton wrapper.

These freeze well.  I sprinkled flour on a sheet pan (see above picture) and froze them.  Once they were frozen I threw them into a ziplock bag.

I took a trip to the motherland last week.  Where is the motherland?  Korea.  I was there for one week.  It was too short.  But I had a great time seeing my relatives, hanging out with my family, and seeing old friends.

Layover in SFO.  If I had one more hour there I would have gone to the Ferry Building.

My dad picked me up at the airport.  Can I say weather shock?!  I went from a zip up sweatshirt to full length wool coat in 12 hours. 

The next morning, I followed my dad on his early morning market run.  My gramps has a restaurant in Korea and my parents help him run it.  Food it's in the blood :)

 Onions, onions and more onions.

 Yes, those are gallon bags of garlic.

See that man on the right in blue?  This was a fruit auction.  It was quite interesting even though I didn't understand a word he was saying.  

Strawberries, the sweetest I've had in a long time! 

yummmmm

My dad walking back home with a case of strawberries.  The rest of the produce was sent to the restaurant.

More to come....