Tag Archives: Winter

Charlie’s Wok

Typically I brown bag it everyday at work, however a building mate asked me if I’d like to join him for lunch nearby at a friends restaurant. Although my peanut-butter, banana, topped off with local honey on whole wheat sounded very satisfying, lol, I said sure!

So we went to Charlie’s Wok, an American Chinese restaurant, where I was introduced the main man himself, Charlie.

The restaurant is located off the Main Street and tucked away in an alley near the Bosan subway station and US Army installation Camp Casey. When we pulled up to park, I quickly realized why I had never seen the restaurant before, it was because of the discreet location.

Don’t let the unassuming exterior and location fool you, once we stepped inside my nose immediately told my belly that I was in for a treat. I learned that the food is always freshly made after you order, so be prepared for a bit of wait. You do have the option to place a take out order, as well as call ahead to place your order to eat dine in. If Charlie isn’t available, the restaurant does not open, it is a one man wok show. You see the pride Charlie takes in his food quality, the prices are very reasonable and you are served generous portions.

^
I ordered a 2 entrée combo meal because I couldn’t decide between the beef with broccoli, and General Tso’s chicken. With the combo you also decide if you’d like fried rice, or chow mien. I ordered chow mien based off of recommendation. The recommendation was spot on!

^Building mate’s garlic chicken and General Tso’s chicken

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Overall, I was pleasantly pleased with my order. The menu offers a small variety of standard Chinese American staple choices and price points. Sure, this isn’t a gourmet 5 star restaurant, but it definitely is a great little neighborhood find!

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Enjoy!

Give Charlie a call! 031-866-8656

Backpackbees

Gather. Eat. Drink. Repeat

Friends, we certainly missed you at our table over the weekend!

We gathered, ate, drank and repeated all evening. Nothing better in our book!

These friends are friends that have cooked a special birthday meal for us and have given us such wonderful gifts, we’re very blessed to have met them all, so we certainly wanted to return the favor with a special treat for them!

The menu was French themed and featured the following:

^L’Apéritif (Drinks): Assorted beer, cocktails, homemade mulled wine

^L’Entrée (Appetizer): Pan seared foie gras served on homemade whole-wheat toast

^Le Plat Principal (The Main Dish):
Sous vide duck breast, served with fresh steamed broccoli, and pommes frites (french-fries)

^La Salade et le Fromage (Salad and Cheese):
Seasonal dinner salad and assorted cheese plate (served on my favorite Pennsylvania board)

^Le Dessert (Dessert): Vanilla-bean crème brûlée with local strawberries

Le Café (Coffee) : Coffee & tea

Bon weekending!

Backpackbees

Winter berries and the past

There are certain times throughout the year that I get very nostalgic about my childhood. So much so, I find myself shortly afterwards in our kitchen baking or making it simply to have a taste of the past. Make no mistakes, I enjoy adulthood and eagerly look forward to the future, but you know those days or moments when they hit you…

Today for me it’s homemade strawberry shortcake. Oh yes, a delicious family recipe that I covet, passed down generation to generation, butter, Crisco and all. No sharsies with this one folks. I know what you are thinking… Mmmm isn’t it sort of out of season to be longing for shortcake? Yes and no. I guess the great and not so great fact about the US is that at any time of the year you can get your hands on imported fruits and vegetables. I try not to be that gal, strive to purchase as much locally, plus we’re currently located in South Korea where local strawberries are divided into two growing seasons, summer and winter.

If you recall on a past blog post in the summer-ish we visited a nearby greenhouse and picked our own. With our winter berries we weren’t as adventures, we simply visit our local vegetable stand and purchase one or two containers a week. (They are that good!)

I enjoy learning more and more about anything that surrounds the topic of food. I found it very interesting when chatting up some Korean friends and locals that, the winter berries grown here are Maeyang strawberries, a cross and byproduct of two other strains of strawberries. I am told that these winter beauties yield a higher sugar content, because they are said to breath less at night, so unlike its sister summer berry, it loses far less nutrition, thus losing less of their precious sugar. I can absolutely attest to that! No need to sprinkle a dash of sugar on these little sweeties. Oh and the smell of the berries, imagine the best perfume in all the world!

During my childhood summers we’d always enjoy a nice size slice of shortcake topped with fresh local strawberries, sometimes cool-whip topping, but almost always soaked in a bowl of milk. This cake would accompany a bowl of parsley potatoes. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. Recently Skyping with my grandparents we had a good laugh because Mr. B couldn’t wrap this mind around the fact that there wasn’t any protein, and the fact that was the entire meal. Hahaha! I suppose it might sound odd to those out there reading this post too, but I confess those dinners as simple as they were, were the very best. My great-grandmother coined the statement that you had to have the salty with the sweet. The saltiness of the parsley potatoes and the sweetness of the strawberries. This was a grandmother that knew her foodie stuff, she’d rather enjoy her dessert served before any meal. I certainly belong to the correct bloodline.

While we didn’t serve parsley potatoes tonight with our strawberry shortcake (party-pooper Mr. B), we did enjoy an outstanding marinated grilled chicken with corn barley salad from Iowa girl eats. The link is here and we didn’t change a thing. We used our fresh corn on the cob that we shucked and froze when it was available. We know you’ll enjoy this hearty easy dish during the weeknight too!

So now it’s your turn to share your childhood meal nostalgia with us. Do you re-visit the past with any sorts of odd meals? We’d love to hear!

Backpackbees

Lighter

The evening sky after we get home from work is staying lighter longer. You know what that means? The perfect opportunity to get out and take a walk! The view from inside looked almost Spring like, however looks were a bit deceiving and it was still rather cold out. That darn groundhog! After the initial miserable shock to my bones, I was still really happy to finally get outside again. Ohhhhh how I have been longing to get out in the evenings again and thaw these bones. (This coming from the lady who posted she wanted state of emergency snow only a few short weeks ago).

Keeping on the topic of lighter, tonight we cooked up a lighter and much healthier version of take out sesame chicken and broccoli. We relied on a good ol’ Martha Stewart recipe and slightly adapted it to share with all of you. Remember, use what you have on hand. Don’t be afraid to get creative, if you don’t have brown rice or multigrain, go with quinoa!

Enjoy!

Lighter Sesame Chicken & Broccoli

Recipe slightly adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

2 Cups (흑미 찹쌀) heukmi chapssal, AKA Korean multigrain rice

3 Tablespoon clover honey

2 Tablespoon sesame seeds

2 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Garlic clove, crushed with a garlic press

2 Large egg whites

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2-inch chunks

1 Teaspoon of ground pepper

1 Tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

2 tablespoons safflower oil

1 Medium yellow onion, sliced thin

2 Pounds broccoli, cut into large florets

Instructions:

Cook rice according. Sorry guys, we cheat and use our Korean rice cooker.

While rice is cooking, make sauce: In a small bowl, combine honey, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and garlic; set aside. In separate bowl, whisk egg whites and cornstarch together. Toss in raw chicken and coat; season with ground pepper.

In a large skillet or wok, heat 2 Tablespoon of your oil over medium-high heat. Next add in coated chicken turning occasionally, until golden throughout.  Once cooked, add in the sauce you’ve set aside and chopped onion, and toss to coat chicken again.

Last, steam broccoli to your liking. We prefer slightly undercooked and crispy.  Once done plate rice, topped with chicken and broccoli.

Backpackbees

Pureed Tomato Soup with Gouda Cheese

Mmmhmmmm…. someone couldn’t resist the temptation of giving the Vitamix a whirl tonight. Luckily no episodes of cyclone explosions of tomato soup on the ceiling, backsplash or floor. I’ll give it to Mr. B, he had a fun list of ingredients that made for a very delicious pureed tomato soup. He also won me over with the cheesiest toasted cheese sandwich on ezekiel bread too! That’s my guy, he knows the way to my heart. Speaking of hearts he also picked me up conversation hearts <3! Remember these little guys? Did anyone else think these were gone for good? Don't worry, I included the VERY difficult recipe if you'd like to enjoy a nice bowl of our tomato soup with gouda cheese tonight. It's VERY difficult. Don't say that I didn't warn you. [shashin type="photo" id="10098" size="large" columns="max" order="user" position="center"] [shashin type="photo" id="10099" size="large" columns="max" order="user" position="center"] Pureed Tomato Soup with Gouda Cheese

Ingredients

1 Jar roasted red peppers
1 Can of crushed tomatoes
1 Qt gallon of Whole milk (Organic)
6 Sun-dried tomatoes
1 Tsp Oregano
1 Tsp Basil
1 Jar of your favorite marinara sauce (We love Paul Newman’s Organic or Favatas)
8 Slices of smoked gouda cheese

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in your blender or food immersion mixer, minus the cheese. Blend until thoroughly combined. pour into a pot on your stove top and heat, slowly add in the smoked gouda cheese.

I could live on toasted cheese! It reminds me of being a kid, What about you?
What is your favorite soup to accompany a toasted cheese sandwich?

PS: What’s up with Dumb Starbucks in LA? Personally i’d give the seasonal “Wuppy Duppy Latte” a go. Perhaps a franchise opportunity for South Korea? Asia loves their coffee shops and trademark infringement… what’s that?

Backpackbees

Pancake Princess

Overnight we finally got a little taste of the snow I’ve been asking for. Of course you might be getting tired of the powdery white stuff wherever you are, even looking at any photos of it might be daunting, but I’m still not satisfied with the amount that we’ve had this winter. Like most things… it came to an end and has been melting as we speak. Enter sad squishy face here. Perhaps in the next few weeks we will get some record-breaking, state of emergency stuff!

I woke up snapped some photos, yep neighbors I was the crazy lady leaning out the window at 8AM giddy about the snow.

Anyways, I recently thew out some rancid coconut flour that I think I accidentally should have been keeping in the freezer or refrigerator. Oops. Luckily it was only a small amount, so I didn’t feel as guilty. I know this is record-breaking stuff folks. Just kidding, I have a reason to my madness. I was going to make pancakes. Epic fail. Then I found out that a dear friend was able to locate and pick some up for me and saved this princesses Sunday morning pancakes making! Thanks again Sarah!

I think you are really going to enjoy these! Plus check out all the different people’s dietary restrictions this recipe can cater to. Let’s get mixing! Don’t forget some awesome tunes too!

(Above photo showing non-rancid smelling coconut flour)

Coconut Flour Pancakes (Gluten Free/Grain Free/Low Carb/Low Calorie/High Protein)
Slightly altered from Foodie Fiasco

Ingredients

2 Egg whites
1/4 Cup coconut flour
1/2 Cup almond milk
1 Teaspoon vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
1/8 Teaspoon salt
1/8 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 Teaspoon honey or any kind of sweetener such as stevia or agave that you prefer

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined. Heat a greased nonstick skillet over medium high heat with coconut oil. Pour desired amount of batter onto skillet and cook until golden or color desired. Enjoy!

Have you ever tried coconut flour? If so, what do you use it in?
Are you a pancake fan? Or princess like me? Mmmmm
Do you enjoy toppings or just straight up maple syrup?

Backpackbees

Plunge

Besides the temperatures taking a plunge…

We took the plunge….and finally purchased a Vitamix!

EEK! A VITAMIX!

I’ve been lusting after this bad boy for almost a year and a half. Even after reviewing all the videos and blogger ratings over the past year, I was still blown away by how powerful and smooth anything you put into the Vitamix in person comes out. I’m talking reallyyyyy smooth! Superrrr smooth!

I’ve been craving hummus, perfect excuse to use the Vitamix, right? Right! The blender box included an entire book of various recipes you can use the Vitamix for. hummus was among them and I already had all of the ingredients. So blend away I did.

The Vitamix was so quick to use and just as quick to clean up afterwards. Seriously topping my favorite kitchen gadgets! I cannot wait to find more excuses to blend in this powerful guy. I’m open to suggestions and recipes please.

What’s your favorite kitchen gadget?
Do you blend frequently? If so share some recipes pretty please.

Backpackbees

Things Worth Sharing

Random bookmarks from the past weeks:

Great news Mr. B! “7 Reasons You Might Want to Go for Another Cup of Coffee

Test your knowledge…your results might scare you. Let’s be honest with one another, how did you match up? I’m not going to lie, the photos of various individuals, necessary really!?

70% of all lemon wedges have microbial growth according to a new study….WOW! Folks, where is the shock factor in this study? Water. (Says the girl quietly ordering future drink by saying, “Hold the lemon please.”)

Can’t wait to debut our recent grownup purchase soon! Hints it belongs in the kitchen. Lordy, you know you’ve crossed over to adulthood when your over the moon about something for your kitchen.

So, any good bookmarks to share lately? Come on…I know you’ve been liking and reading them on Facebook lately. Share!

Backpackbees