Tag Archives: bbq

Weekday Dinner Spontaneity

Welcome to South Korea! We’re halfway through May and it’s practically Summer already. The the temperatures are holding steadily in the lower to mid 70’s. Hey, I’m not complaining about the gorgeous afternoons that I get to share with my bumblebee outside. Nope, I know that all to soon the monsoon season will be upon us. I know! I had to bring it up…complete BLASPHEMY! So you’ve got to squeeze every single sunray out of each day. We decided the other evening for dinner to “grill out” (funny little fact: we don’t own an actual grill, lol) with our neighbor was in order!

Hey, isn’t this is what life is all about!? Spontaneity!! Or at least it calls for homemade spirilized French fries, homemade burgers, homemade bread and butter pickles, and homemade pickled eggs and red beets. Hands down worth the effort in the end! Oh! Don’t forget the cutest little petite roses to set in the center of it all too.

Holy cow I just love our little life! (prepare yourself for food envy and a photo dump)

Backpackbees

Click, Ship & treat yourself!

Yammy & BarbeCooks

We’ve lived and traveled all over the US and have tasted many platters of BBQ. Pulled pork, beef brisket, chicken, homemade smoked sausage, southern style, northern style, mid-western style, heck even Korean style, we’ve sought after and love them all for different delicious reasons.

When I sit and think about the BBQ culture in America the thoughts that come to my mind immediately are that American-style BBQ isn’t just about chucking a hunk of meat on a grill, only then to remove a few moments later. No, American-style BBQ is a prideful, timely, and passionate involved cuisine. We will take the time to smoke our cuts of meats over heat from hand selected seasoned woods and special charcoals to creating a perfect fire for that perfect amount of time, all just to get that perfect end result of BBQ. And when all of these factors are done just so, oh how incredible that end result is.

The owners of a new American style BBQ joint were just getting the restaurant ready, days before their grand opening, when they approached us while we were on an evening walk. They wanted to say hello and invite us to try out their BBQ on opening night. We were surprised and pleased by their openness to approach foreigners like that. (Thank you!) However after tasting many disappointing “Americanized” dish attempts served in Korean restaurants, we initially wondered just how “Americanized” the BBQ would really be? Perhaps it was our curiosity, or wanting to support a local friendly family business owner, whatever the case, when Yammy BarbeCooks officially opened their doors only a few steps away from our own, we thought why not? Let’s give it a go!

Have a hankering for BBQ chicken, or pork ribs? Maybe you are craving the sides like macaroni salad, potato salad, baked beans, or even the little buttery buns you get when you pop your bum down at a BBQ joint. Yammy & BarbeCooks has all of that and then some, to include off the wall additions like, chicken fried rice, shrimp fried rice, combination fried rice, oh and a fresh fruit salad too.

We’ve ordered the BBQ chicken platter and went back and ordered the Yammy platter. We were blown away! The portions were plentiful, you could see and taste the high quality ingredients used, and overall the meal was very decently priced.

The Yammy platter meats includes BBQ chicken, ribs, hot dogs, kielbasa, and little flank steaks.

The sauce that smothers the moist BBQ meat is perfect and packs a bit of heat in each bite (but not too hot). You pick up on a bit of bay leaf flavoring throughout too. Pure perfection!

Both platters also came served with side dishes that are not to be missed. From the perfectly crisp french fries, to the mashed potato salad, the macaroni salad, sweet little pickles, buttery little toasted buns, and perfectly grilled hot dogs.. Mmmhmmmmm. Try them all! Seriously!

The staff is super friendly and incredibly helpful! They are all family and make you feel welcomed and part of their family immediately upon entering. The restaurant is very clean and has an awesome at home in your dining room atmosphere vibe going on from inside, to the large outside wooden deck, where the vibe is like being at your neighbors grilling out on their deck.

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On The Beach

Over the weekend we attended our dear friends wedding on the east coast of Korea. The couple opted to have the wedding at the dive shop that we’ve all come to know as our home away from home on the weekends.

Friday evening we got off to a bumpy start with a flat tire along the way in the middle of nowhere…still two hours out from our destination…Lol… Thanks USAA…ehh…or not (lesson learned). So just how many did it take to change a tire? Thankfully with help from some friends that coordinated with the local police station, an ambulance, police car, a fire truck, and a local garage all came to our rescue. Unfortunately we were missing an important piece of the puzzle, the lug nut wrench. Who would have thought? Lol… Poor Mr. B he took it out of the queen Volvo and put it in my car because he noticed that I didn’t have one. He was going to pick one up to replace his, but forgot. Hence our Dilemma. Eek. Eventually we got on the road after some grumbles, f-bombs, and Korean photo ops.. Yes, after the tire was fixed they wanted a photo with Mr. B shaking the local policeman’s hand and bowing to one another. Again, we’re going to be featured on some side of the road signage on the importance of being prepared. We were again back on the road, thankfully so because we were transporting the booze, THEE dress, and dinner reception decor. Basically the party don’t start till we roll in. We can laugh about it now. We rolled in and rolled right on into bed.

We cannot take credit for the cake, it’s the one item we didn’t transport. The poor thing just didn’t make it all the way in and out of Seoul and to the East Coast. The top slid off the cake and the fondant shaped sea creatures drooped and reshaped themselves. The lovely Ms. Louise and I did our best and tried to shift some of the fondant. At the end of the day it all worked out.

The evening ceremony took place down on the sandy beach just steps away from the ocean tide rolling in. It made for a very relaxing and beautiful backdrop as the two said their vows to one another.

The wedding and dinner reception was small but in the best way possible, sweet, and intimate. It was the perfect recipe for a relaxed and very memorable day. There were lanterns that provided romantic candlelight on the dining tables and twinkle lights strung from the ceiling of the tent above. Swoon! It was awesome getting to see all the various little details the bride and I discussed actually come to life.

The guest toasted with fabulous reds and whites the entire night, and dined on Greek salads, savory potato curry tarts, fresh grilled corn on the cob, grilled burgers, bratwurst, and vegetarian kabob. Many heartfelt thanks to Roy, Jeff, Mark, and Mr. B for being grill sergeants and keeping our bellies at bay throughout the evening.

The entertainment was absolutely perfect with live musical performances during the ceremony and throughout the dinner reception from Ms. Laura Kenny, or Kenny as she’s known to the group. Wow can this gal sing! Download her song on iTunes here! (Shameless plug)

The newlyweds brought together such a diverse group of friends. Everyone just clicked so well and really enjoyed the good company. It was wonderful getting to meet in person all the faces and names we had heard so much about. By the end of the evening we were all good pals sharing laughs as if we had known one another for longer than 12 hours.

Cheers to our dear friends! We wish them so much love, happiness, and health for the rest of their blissful years together.

Backpackbees

2015: Memorial Day Weekend

These are two of my favorite photos from this past weekend at the beach. I feel like they just exude summer. The calm, carefree, slow, peaceful, just be in the moment type of days that you only get to really feel during the dog days of summer (no pun intended). These are the days I find myself clutching onto for dear life as an adult.

What a view! We woke up every morning to this view of a Korean seaside village with brightly colored roofs, and the sea water so flat and crystal clear. Every spare moment I could snag I’d hideaway and find myself with the biggest grin on that balcony reading, sunning, watching the dear sweet ajumma’s tending to their flowers and vegetable gardens below, and at night taking in the beach or starry sky.

The days were filled with the perfect amount of sunshine, pillowy clouds, warm sea breeze, freshly brewed coffee, and meeting new friends. Plus I heard that the dive conditions were excellent, once you got past the frigid water temperature. The evenings just as breezy and blissful, filled with the celebratory Memorial Day Patbingsu, and BBQ. Ahhh perfection!

As we wrapped up our last evening with friends I made sure to pause and look towards the twinkly sky and give my heartfelt thanks to the many men and women that lost their lives defending our freedom. Without that selfless sacrifice we wouldn’t get to enjoy these carefree beach weekends year after year.

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4th of July

The 4th of July is one of those holidays that we Bees really crave a good ol’ BBQ, the rays from the sunshine, fireworks that light up the night sky, lounging by the pool, or on beach with your close friends and family. We almost had it all checked off the list this year, minus being 6,875 miles from the Pennsylvania and most of our family. Almost…

We headed to the East Coast of South Korea and Mr. B finally got in some diving and I some much-needed R+R+R (rest, relaxation, reading). Kelsey joined up with us on Saturday afternoon along with some fun friends from the UK, South Africa, Korea and the US. We learned all sorts of useful British and Korean words — crisps, brass monkey and chincha. HA-HA.

Waking up each morning and falling asleep each night with the sounds of the ocean waves crashing against the rocks right outside of the resort windows was so calming. The view was breathtaking even when the fog rolled in over the boat harbor. I couldn’t contain myself with all of the gorgeous wild flowers popping up all around too.

In the morning we really roughed it by grilling on our little Korean stove top with our cast iron skillet. Wakey wakey eggs and bakey. We actually had quite the little spread going for “roughing it”. Greek yogurt, red grapes, blackberries, English muffins with the nooks and crannies, because really is there any other kind? In the evening of course we had our BBQ and a nice selection of condiments.

We all enjoyed potbingsoo too! With a view to boot!

The dive shop owner had the sweetest Boston terrier dog named 사랑 salang, korean word for love. Ohhh and how I loved this dog! It was so playful yet reserved and chill. It walked around playing a game with us all. she’d find plastic bottles and random items from the divers, latch onto it then wanted people to try to take whatever it was from her. She salang was sweet.

I strolled over to the observatory one morning, then again to show Kelsey too. What a wonderful ocean view and breeze felt from up there! I could have stayed out in that ledge all day. The deck had clear glass floor that allowed you to view the ocean below your feet. It reminded me so much of being in Chicago with the glass observation deck. You never know quite how people are going to react. Even in a different language body language is all the same.

How was your 4th? Hope you were all safe and celebrated it right!

Backpackbees