Tag Archives: USA

Around The Table

“It’s about what happens when we come together, slow down, open our homes, look into one another’s faces, listen to one another’s faces, listen to one another’s stories. It happens when we leave the office and get a sitter and skip our workouts every so often to celebrate a birthday or an accomplishment or a wedding or a birth, when we break out of the normal clockwork of daily life and pop the champagne on a cold, gray Wednesday for no other reason than the fact that the faces we love are gathered around our table. It happens when we enter the joy and the sorrow of the people we love, and we join together at the table to feed one another and be fed, and while it’s not strictly about food, it doesn’t happen without it. Food is the starting point, the common ground, the thing to hold and handle, the currency we offer to one another.” ~ Bread & Wine, by Shauna Niequist

F o o d. F o o d is four little letters that make up a word, that is sometimes overrated but often underrated. Think about it, no matter what language you speak, where you come from, or how far you go, food is made as an offering, an extension. Its used when words cannot be expressed due to sadness, or in times of celebration and happiness, or even as simple as when there is a language barrier. Ah food.

I turned my friends down earlier in the week when invited out for dinner because I was just to sad, upset, and feeling guilty to even fathom enjoying fun or enjoy food. I cashed in my rain check this evening and tonight I met around the table with a few good friends. We of course dined and enjoyed Saengsun jun (Korean pan-fried fish). After a really hard week, it was nice to just sit back relax, share memories, chat, and dine together in one anthers company at this dinner table. The older I get (I can say that now with another birthday under my belt as of August 14th) the more I realize how much I love to gather around the table with my family and good friends.

I even took along my camera to capture the moment and share with you all. Enjoy!

Backpackbees

Cold Snap

It’s too cold! These words are all to familiar here in South Korea as of late. It’s basically replaced the common greeting of a simple “hello” or “hi” to your neighbors or acquaintances. We are experiencing quite the cold snap again, so much so that it literally burns my little ear lobes if I’m outside, and they are exposed to long. That little taste of almost Spring like temperatures the last week seem like such distant memories now. How’s the weather where you are?

Luckily we’ve got heated floors to warm our chilled bones up when we are out at a restaurant or even while snuggled up at home. Speaking of restaurants, Mr. B and I enjoyed a really nice dinner Thursday night this past week with some good friends. We ate huge bowls of Bibimbop, and sipped on Hobakjuk, a delicious Korean Pumpkin Porridge. Mmmmm the Hobakjuk was so velvety smooth! I believe I’ll attempt to make it rather soon (perfect cold weather comfort food). Stay tuned…

Foodie Pen Pal October

Happy Halloween!

AH! The candy, kids costumes, parties, baby pumpkins, spooky black cats…

Wait, did I already mention the sugary candy?

I love reminiscing about Halloween as a child. It makes me giggle to think back on some of the silly costumes I must have begged my mother to be. Those were the days. The only thing that truly mattered in the month of October was making that life altering decision to be a blue crayon, a lumberjack, Minnie Mouse, or a robot for Halloween. Oh, and what houses had the best candy too!

When you are a child, Halloween was so exciting! Halloween was a day of possibilities!

Anything you’d wish to be for one night came true. What fun it was!

October marks the second month that I have a foodie pen pal. I was so lucky to have been linked up with Melissa from treats with a twist, Memphis, TN. Melissa was the absolute sweetest! Prior to mailing out my package Melissa did some research not only via e-mail on me, but read through some of my blog postings to get to know me better.

If I could box fall up, id have to say that this would be the box!

Trader Joe goodies, pumpkin coffee, flavored pumpkin coffee syrup, pumpkin butter, candy corn, and so much more!

Just look at all the fall goodness!

MmmmMmmmMmm!

Melissa, Thank you again for sending a box of Fall my way! You were such a doll to get to know! I look forward to keeping in touch!

Treats

No tricks…just treats here!

How spoiled are we? One of my best friends, Cassie, sent me a large surprise package.

“Happy belated birthday and happy Halloween!”

She knows me oh so well! Get a look at all those fun goodies!

We’ve been best friends since our freshman year of high school And haven’t looked back.

Our friendship has always been so effortless and just plain fun!
I love this girl!
You and Josh are dearly missed.
Thank you again for spoiling us so much!

Day 2 of R&S Invade South Korea

We all woke up around 8ish-9ish this morning. We didn’t have a real plan in place. We wanted to keep the decisions of what to do up to Rebecca and how she was feeling. Mr. B whipped up some south western egg whites and I cut up a nice fresh Korean watermelon for breakfast.

Eventually we formulated a plan to see all the marketplaces in Seoul. We got everything together and were out the door around 11:30 with the GPS set to direct us to Seoul.

Please disregard the worst farmers tan ever that I’m sporting in my photos. Come on folks, I’m trusting you now!

We hit Namdaemun Market, Dongdaemun Market, Myeongdong, Cheonggyecheon Stream, and walked down the center of Seoul as the sun went down outside of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

We spent the afternoon lunching on street vendor food, shopping, exploring a bit, snapping photos, and soaking up the sunlight. The weather was gorgeous, we traipsed our little butts about 8 miles around the city.

As the sun went down, Rebecca said the city started to really take on a different vibe. We agreed, we love Seoul during the day, but really love Seoul light up shining brightly at night too.

Even after being here for over a year, we still get the same feelings of excitement while wondering around Seoul. Needless to say we were all thoroughly enchanted.

We ended our Seoul Backpack Bees tour in Itaewon over a delightful Thai dinner. We never ate at the restaurant, My Thai, it turned out to be rather delicious! We ordered pineapple fried rice, a spicy Thai noodle dish, and pad thai with shrimp.

It was getting late, we still had to drive home, we were all pretty exhausted. An hour and a half later we arrived home at midnight and all decided to retire to bed.

What an amazing day! Can this week not ever end, pretty please?!

2012_06_16-24 Rebecca's Visit

2012_06_16-24 Rebecca's VisitJun 15, 2012Photos: 95
 

Day 1 of R&S Invade South Korea

It’s FRIDAY! You know what that means!!

SHE’S HERE!!!

Yes! Rebecca’s flight landed a little after 3:30PM today, Mr. B was such a doll and drove to the Incheon Airport to pick her up for me while I finished out the work day. (I know, I know, I’m so lucky!)

Within 15 minutes of each other we all arrived at home. Two words, pure bliss! As soon as I heard the code getting entered into the door, I immediately had to run over and give her a big long overdue hug! I keep having to pinch myself to make sure she’s actually here! Actually sitting at our bar, sipping her drink, chatting about life! It’s reality!

SHE’S HERE!

Rebecca, having the amazingly caring Seoul she has, came baring gifts. Things from back home, Tastycakes, and a copy of the Real Simple magazine. Does she know us, or does she know us?

We took it easy, had a very low key relaxing night. Rebecca unpacked, we showed her around our place, and she decided she was up for something of lighter proportions for dinner after her incredibly pork filled flight. Lol, long story.

We all decided bibimbop would serve as an excellent meal choice. Plus it was one of our favorite places that we wanted to share with her. Needless to say we were pretty excited!

The restaurant changed some of the side dishes because of the seasonal changes. It was fun getting to taste the new mix-ins.

We asked Rebecca how she liked the bibimbop, she said she really enjoyed it, however she was used to it being served directly to her with everything already in the bowl. We explained that most places do serve it that way here in Korea too. This restaurant is just a fun experience allowing you to pick what you would like in your dish.

After dinner, Rebecca could no longer keep the sleep monster at bay. We decided to call it a night and head back home so she could get some sleep and prepare herself for the rest of the week.

Goodnight everyone!