Tag Archives: Dongducheon

A-Hiking We Will Go!

One of the many, many, things that I adore about Korea is the endless mountain trails that you can hike. If you have followed our blog up until this point, you know that we have hiked some beautiful places in various parts of Korea.

I feel like hiking is taken to another level in Korea. To be considered a serious hiker, you need to dress the part. I am talking dressing to the nines. Matching hiking boots, hiking pants, hiking jacket, hat, sunglasses, gloves, backpack, and walking poles or stick. PS. your backpack better come packed with the essential makgeolli or soju too. These people know how to have a good ol’ time while they get their hike on. As you can see…I am not a serious hiker. I mean come on, what tee-shirt am I wearing? “Lettuce, Turnip, the beets” ha-ha-ha!

Back to the topic of actually hiking, some of my co-workers and I woke up bright and early and hit the trails near our home this morning. I struggled getting out of bed so early knowing it was a Saturday. The snooze button may or may not have been hit a handful of times. Once I got up, grabbed a cup of joe and a banana, I was good to go!

The sun was shining! Birds were chirping! The air was so fresh! Bits of greens and flowers were starting to peak from the earth! The endorphins were pumping! Plus we beat the Korean billy-goat crowds! It was an absolutely wonderful morning and great time getting to know one another more outside of the office.

How did you spend your Saturday morning? Hope it was just as beautiful for you too!

Backpackbees

Saying Buh-Bye not Goodbye

“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold.” LOL! That song reminds me of when I was a little girl and in Brownies, the younger aged little ladies of the Girl Scouts. Yup, I was a cookie working sales professional with my sash and all.

I don’t know why, but these photos jogged some suppressed memory of my childhood. Hence the song. These were taken at dinner tonight. While the dinner was certainly delicious and the company was excellent, my heart and head were on overload. Our dear friends, the P family, currently in the military are leaving Korea very shortly. They will move onto their next duty station and this was one of our last buh-byes.

I know that no one said it would be easy. Actually, sometimes it’s quite hard. Yes, I admit it…living abroad can be hard! It’s not like when you were a brownie, or in grade school. You are an adult, meeting people, getting to know them, let them into your life, trust them…It takes time.
All the while, you pack up, you move, you unpack, you live, you make friends, they pack up, they move, and so on. So, when you meet other foreigners or couples, in the back of your mind you know it’s not a permanent state, but you try not to let it get to you. You try to think positively and be grateful that your paths crossed in both of your lifetimes. However, you are human. Being human means that you have those days or moments where it does get to you.

People are going to move in and out of your life. Often times it is very quickly, depending on when the timeframe you meet them was. It’s such a bittersweet feeling. The one thing that I find myself clinging onto for comfort is, knowing that we have friends that are spread out across the entire world. When we find ourselves in their parts, or them in ours, we know we will always have local tour guides to navigate the area with.

P family, Best wishes! May this new beginning bring your family success in everything that you do! Until we meet again! We miss you dearly already!

Backpackbees

Strawberry Pie

It’s early Wednesday morning, our home is very silent, very still, very peaceful. Only the stir of Bean cat can be heard. On a day like today with the tension so high in North Korea, silence and peace are truly a blessing.

Today is really like most mornings here. I wake up earlier than Mr. B so I have that morning 30 minutes to an hour of me time all to myself. I start-up my little K-Cup coffeemaker, fix my breakfast and sit at the bar in our kitchen. Sometimes I check work e-mails, I know its sick but I like to know what I am walking into for the day, sometimes I catch up on my reading, other times I pull up my fellow bloggers, or even muddle through my personal e-mail. I am telling you, that box is almost a lost cause at this point.

This mornings me time includes, enjoying a slice of my grandmothers strawberry pie topped with coconut whipped cream. I like to live on the edge every once and awhile. Shake up my fruit and oatmeal routine. Eat my favorite course first thing in the morning, dessert!

I might have mentioned this in the past, but I was told my late great-grandmother liked to enjoy her dessert before her actual dinner. She said that she wanted to enjoy it and make sure that she had room to for her favorites first. Not only was she a dearly sweet woman, but she was completely onto something! Truth be told, I feel 100% the same way! There is no written rule that says we have to have our salad served first at dinner, right? So, why not have a nice slice of pie at breakfast? Plus its fruit pie, making it even more 100% perfectly acceptable in my book.

So if you are like me this morning and you are planning out the meals for the following week. Go ahead and add this little recipe to the list! Make sure you live a little on the edge too, throw caution to the wind and have a slice for breakfast.

Oh and feel free to dabble a little coconut whipped cream on top too! MmMMmmm…Cheers to a savory me time wherever you are!

Strawberry Pie

For: 1-9″ Pie

Ingredients:

1 9″ Pie shell
1 Cup water
1 Cup Sugar
2 Rounded Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Small package of Strawberry jello
5 Cups Strawberries

Bake pie crust in oven until brown. *You can use a pre-made or frozen pie shell.. or my grandmothers to add a little junk in your trunk. (We are talking crisco and all!)

Cook until the following come to a boil:
1 Cup water
1 Cup sugar
2 Rounded Tbsp cornstarch

After ingredients come to a boil: Put 2 Tbsp strawberry jello in a cup and add 2 Tbsp HOT water to dissolve the jello. Then pour into boiled mixture above. Now let everything cool completely.

In the meantime start cleaning your 5 cups of fresh strawberries. Cut the strawberries into pieces.

Once the stove top mixture has cooled completely, place the strawberries into the mixture and coat well. Then pour all into the bakes pie shell. Keep it in the fridge until ready to enjoy.

Coconut Whipped Cream

Ingredients
1 (14 oz) can of Coconut Milk (I used GOYA)
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of pure sugar cane

Directions:
Place the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight.

Following day, open can and spoon out the thick, semi-hardened white part off the top, leave the watery remains behind in the can.

In a large mixing bowl put your coconut, vanilla extract, and sugar together. Whip ingredients on high until medium/firm peaks form

The whipped cream will last a few days, may need re-whipped for nice peaks.

Grandma L’s Pie Crust
*Makes 5 single pie crust (freezes well too!)

Crumb the following ingredients together with your hands:

5 Cups of flour
1 3/4 Cup of crisco
Sprinkle of salt

Then add in 1 cup cold water.

Again mix ingredients together with hands to make balls; flour surface, roll our thin. Flour as needed. Roll out round then afterwards fold in half and lift into your pie plate. Then take a paring knife and cut off the extra around the edges. Then pinch the crust.

Bake at 400 Degrees for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it gets a nice golden brown color, but not burnt.

Backpackbees

Hoppy Easter Everybunny!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Isn’t this little veggie and dip tray that I made fun?

Over the last few years our dinner table and holiday traditions have changed a lot. We have moved from our small hometown, to a new state, then to move again across the ocean to South Korea. A big part of celebrating Easter for we Bees has been gathered around that ever-changing dinner table with our family and friends and enjoying a delightful Easter brunch or dinner. This year was no exception, we joined our dear friends and celebrated together as one, however I wouldn’t call this your typical Easter dinner. We celebrated Armenian style!

Dinner included:

Cheese Borek
Hummus
Eggplant Caviar
Easter Pilaf with dried fruit
Lentil Bean salad
Fish Plaki
Beef Kabob
Mini Baklava
Khavitz halva
Lenten Peanut Butter balls

Is your mouth-watering yet? Everything turned out so scrumptious and was absolutely divine!

Our gracious host served in the Peace Corps when they were first married. Armenia holds a special place in both of their hearts and they wanted to share that experience with us. What a treat getting to talk about the Armenian traditions, have an Armenian egg fight, learn to make Armenian coffee, listen to them share their Peace Corps stories, and of course enjoy our little babes too! What an amazing comfortable feeling it is to have such close friends that have become extended family to us. I’ll count that as one of my many Easter blessings this year.

(Dye your Easter eggs Armenian style using onion peels!)

2013_03_31 Easter

2013_03_31 EasterMar 30, 2013Photos: 43
 

Backpackbees

Good, Bad, Everything in Between

Many apologies, lately I feel like I’ve been rather inconstant with keeping up on our blog. I know it’s only been a week or so since the last update, but it feels like months have went by that I’ve left you all hanging. Life has certainly been fast paced here for the bees. Travel, wonky work hours, and life, just plain life. Now I’m left trying to catch up on my e-mails, blogger friends, pen pal, books, and the heaping pile of laundry that’s bursting at the seams every time I open our walk in. The only real comforting fact to subside my OCD is that i know my grandma’s advise would be, it’s not going anywhere, you will get to it when you can get to it. She’s sweet! I won’t even get started on the fact I haven’t put any thought into packing for my trip to Cambodia yet. Eek! Yes, that’s this Friday…more on that later.

Lets start with the good! I like to jump off on a positive not anyways.

Over the weekend we decided to get more adventurous and try out another new restaurant. Sweet victory! We loved it! Excellent duck and outstanding sides. Of course I included photos for you, even threw in a bonus video too. Sorry for the iPhone quality guys. Can I just point out how ingenious is that table with the built-in rotisserie! Oh Korea, you make being foodies so easy!

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Onto the bad…no sugar coating…the place below was the pits. Period.

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So whats everything in between? Planning to leave for my Habitat for Humanity trip in Cambodia this FRIDAY!

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I wasn’t kidding, fast track life lately! I feel like it was just yesterday kicking off my build fundraising for my team. Here we are almost $2,000 later and boarding a plane soon. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m ready, if I’m excited, if I’m worried. Yes, yes, and yes!

I find myself soul-searching a lot, looking for ways to give a piece of myself, my heart, to something meaningful in this world. What an opportunity with Habitat! I get to build a home for a deserving family, give them a forever place. In so many ways I know this will fill my heart temporary. I’m ready to give my all! My sweat, my energy, my manpower. Oivay, sweat…did you see those temperatures above? I’m thinking there will be plenty of sweat to give.

I’m excited to learn about the Cambodia culture and way of life, work hand and hand with the people, be a tourist, and disconnect completely from all the technology that bogs me down. Yes, worry, had to mention that of too. What can I say? I’m a worry wort. With any trip outside of the norm there is always the element of worry, right? Mr. B made me make two deals. One, come back alive, and two I cannot bring any children back with me. Does this man know me or what? Shushhh don’t tell him I admitted that openly.

Cherio! I’m off to finish up and finalize all the in between things before leaving on my trip, but I’ll be back soon with lots of exciting things to share!

Backpackbees

Sashimi House 횟집

Hoejip (횟집), means “sashimi house” in Korean. This weekend I was invited out to dinner to enjoy fresh raw fish, or sashimi as we mostly call it in America.  In Korea, the fish is sliced a bit thicker than that of the Japanese style, and the fish is known as hoe. Like almost all meals in Korea, the sashimi is served with complementary side dishes.

It was a lot of fun to see and compare the differences in ones dining experience when it comes to enjoying sashimi. We have eaten at a few restaurants in Korea that serve sushi rolls and sashimi, but nothing where it was the full-blown Korean Hoejip.

The restaurant was located very close to the Ganeung subway station. Very small, only housing roughly five tables. Two of the tables were tables with chairs, the rest were dining on a raised platform where the floor was heated for your bum. Thought the space may be small, the restaurant is very plain and very clean. I was told that this particular restaurant was well-known for its freshness and quality of fish. Also, if you didn’t have a reservation for dining chances are that you may not be able to get in most nights.

Koreans often serve raw fish in a different manner. They usually take a very large fish (mostly whitefish) straight from a tank that is displayed out front of the restaurant. A lot of times they let you pick the fish that you would like to eat. They will then prepare it and slice it  into  translucent slivers, and carefully arrange it on a very big platter of shredded cabbage, which is then placed in the center of the table for everyone to share family style.

Another difference in eating sashimi in South Korea was the way it should be enjoyed. Yes, even a simple dish of sashimi has it’s own traditional way. You take the  raw fish wrapped in ggaenip (similar to shiso leaf) and a slice of jalapeño, raw garlic, wasabi, and some rice, roll it up and shove it in your mouth. Of course one does this as gracefully as she can…haha! Yeahhhh…still feels like I’m breaking all the rules every time I do this, and goes against everything I was taught growing up.

Tonight I got to experience a true Korean treat, hoedeopbap. Hoedeopbap is a raw fish mixed with veggies and rice. It’s like bibimbop but without the rice! What’s not to love? It was delicious!

At the end of the meal, the last course served was a spicy soup called meuntang (매운탕). The soup was all of the bony parts that could not be served with the raw fish, (are you ready for this?) to include the fish head. Eek! Keeping my promise to myself, knowing that I’m only going to live once, I ate it too. It was spicy and pretty tasty!

Traditionally you should enjoy soju or some type of Korean alcohol with your meal too. You will look around towards the end of your meal and see all of the red faces, hear the bottles of soju clinking, hear the loud laughter and stories in Korean. In that moment you will know they are completely unwound from the everyday stressors in their life, and are now able to enjoy the deliciously fun moments of their dinner with their friends and family.

Cheers!

Backpackbees

Anatomy of the Perfect Date Night

New adventure + very close to home + cute chef + excellent food + sweetest ajumma waitress= The perfect date night

For date night Mr. B and I decided to try someplace new. While its nice to always go to our favorite little place, its nice to continue adventuring out of our comfort zones too.

We had it narrowed down to two places we had never been to before. Conveniently these two places are near our place. After taking down the recyclable’s, we decided to take a walk and enjoy the cool air, along the way Mr. B tells me to pick a number, “one or two”. I picked the number two.

Great choice!

And that’s how this place ended up on our top favorites list.

Cajun duck. Come to mama and papa B!

Backpackbees

Culturally Aware

We woke up this morning to snow. I had to wipe my eyes and do a second take as a pulled the curtains open across the big living room windows. No mistake. The white stuff was definitely back again. Luckily it really didn’t stick around, and was gone by mid afternoon. We lucked out here. From what I gather the states are not in the same shape as of late.

I usually don’t talk about my work life on the blog. However, I thought this would be fun to share with you all on this Friday eve.

Culturally we are all very different. We all come from such diverse backgrounds. Today at work we broke bread together — each of my co-workers bringing in dishes that represent ‘their culture’ to them: bulgogi, water kimchi, white chicken chili, garden salad, lasagna, garlic bread, mandu, enchiladas, with rice, japchae, pasta salad, mustard eggs, and cupcakes for a special birthday celebration. We all had a blast getting to taste a bit of everyone’s background. I enjoyed explaining a bit about America and how America is a melting pot, much like our team.

On a side note, I now know what true torture is…Yes! It’s giving up sweets for lent and baking your favorite yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting. The cupcakes continue to get frosting on your fingers as you frost them, and you cannot lick them off.

T-O-R-T-U-R-E! HA HA!

Backpackbees

Petra Palace

After a very eventful trip to Seoul today, with my friend Mrs. P and precious baby G, I’m home. Yes, what originally was planned as a fun-filled get out and explore Seoul trip took a slight chaotic turn for the worse. Without getting into all the crazy details lets just say that an unplanned trip to Samsung Hospital unfortunately took up most of our Seoul fun. No worries friends and family, I am doing just fine now.

I can’t write off the entire day, we did find a great place to grab a falafel on flat bread.

Originally we attempted to check out a little French bistro, however after further review of the late lunch menu, we needed a little bit more than snails and a cheese dish to fill us up. We walked up and down the main street in Iteawon. Now, if you ever get to visit this section, you will see there are endless options to eat at. We were just being difficult and could not commit on a place. Searching, searching, searching, walking, walking, walking. . . Finally, we stumbled upon Petra Palace. Frankly the smell is what drew us in. The outside was nothing extravagant. We figured why not!

WOW! What an amazing little gem we found! Petra Palace is a rather small restaurant that serves simple Arabic cuisine. Dishes include falafel, humus, and shawarma. Mrs. P and I each ordered falafel’s on flat bread. The wraps were accompanied with a side of french-fries sprinkled with a delightful spice from Jordan. Final verdict, loved every bite and cannot wait to go back and try more!

Until the next adventure!

Backpackbees

Sweet, Sugar-Coated, February

Just curious, taking a poll…How do you say February?

Feb-uary or Feb-ruary?

It’s crazy, this one little word we are taught at such a young age, has got to be one of the most commonly mispronounced words in the English language.

This was a heated dinner topic of discussion in the Bees house. We won’t name any names on here who has the correct pronunciation. Sarah. HA-HA! (Mr. B will love reading that)

February feels terribly short, sweet sugar-coated, and possibly the snowiest month so far this year here in South Korea. Never the less I still love the month of February. It’s really such a grand month. Take for instance just how quickly it goes by, so much happens in just a short few weeks.

Oh, PS: I am sharing all of the Valentines that I made and received with all of you! What do you think of my Burts Bee Valentine? Pinterest! A girl simply can’t keep all of those goodies to herself. Enjoy! You deserve it! Happy Valentines Day bloggers!