A little of this… a little of that… Now we have EGGNOG in Korea!

Things you’ll never find in Korea #72: Eggnog

One of the things I always love about the holidays is the special foods and drinks. This is why I tend to get roped into cooking for WinK events. But so many people were posting on facebook yesterday about eggnog that it got me going. I made it last winter, but for some reason, I can’t find the recipe that I used. I thought I had it written in my journal, but I guess not. I took a recipe that looked similar, then adapted it to what we have in Korea.

From time to time you will find an ingredient that has about 5 kilos of sugar in it when it is completely unnecessary, (see any expat’s post about garlic bread.) So I’ve gone through the ingredients at my local GS and found the ingredients that ARE NOT SWEET. Except the sugar. That is sweet. Because it’s supposed to be.

Here are the ingredients that you’ll want to find:
- 6-7 Eggs, separated yolks/whites
- 1 pint whole milk (I literally used my Rogue pint glass for this measurement.)
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 cup sugar (pull about 3 spoonfuls out from the 1/2 cup for the egg whites)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp nutmeg (add more if you want it)
- *cinnamon (if you want. I’m a sucker for anything cinnamon)

Whole milk

Cream. No sugar. Nice.

So what I did is this:

Take the egg yolks and whisk them until it was creamy. Slowly start adding the 1/2 cup sugar (but take out a few spoonfuls. Accuracy isn’t important here.) Whisk it like a crazy person. Whisk, add. Whiskwhiskwhiskwhisk, add. Whiskwhiskwhiskwhiskwhiskwhiskwhiskwhisk, add. Whisk until your arms are tired and you end up with some yellowish stuff that resembles a melted Peep doused in marshmallow fluff. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved. It should look like this:

This does no justice to either the color or consistency of the egg fluff.

You might be able to see a few intact grains of sugar in the above picture because my arms were tired. I took a break and took a picture… but I got right back to it! Then set it aside.

Next, your arms are really going to fall off because you get to pretend that you’re a standup mixer. lol. Hilarious. Have you ever tried to whip egg whites into soft peaks without a mixer? Yeah, it sucks. Slowly add the sugar you pulled from the 1/2 cup and beat the whites into oblivion. Then throw them in the blender for a few whirls if you have one, then pour them back into the bowl and keep going, because they’re just going to fizzle out and you’re going to start swearing at them. Encourage them with a little more sugar. Say nice things to them. Then give up when it’s mildly bubbly and you’re about to say “eff this noise” and the temptation pour them down the sink sets in. That’s a good stopping point.

Give your arms a break and add the creme, milk, and vanilla to the yolk mix. If you want it a little thicker, whip the creme in it first with the vanilla, then add the milk. Add your spices and then gently mix in the egg white mixture. Chill in the refrigerator and drink it later. This mix is good cold, but I especially like it hot… with rum or bourbon.

Even with all this, I added more nutmeg and cinnamon. There’s something wrong with me.

On a side note, I got hired to teach at a new school today. I won’t start until March 2013, but it’s at a fine arts middle/high school. I am freaking STOKED. Gonna go home and celebrate a little bit with my eggnog and booze. My one year gig just turned into three.

Happy Friday!

If you can avoid Korean winters, I would highly recommend it. Unless there’s snow involved.

Because that’s when the crazy comes out.

I like to think of myself as a mostly logical person. After living in Indonesia, full of jam karet and 90% of things working backwards, and almost 2 years of living Korean style, I’d like to think that I can understand things from the other side of the logical  fence.

For instance, wide open windows in the wonderful -7C temperatures. Fresh air after the room finally gets warm enough for me to take off my wool coats and giant scarf. I get it. Leave the coat on.

This is actually what  I look like now. I can’t put my friggin arms down.

During the summer, there  was this wonderful energy saving campaign to limit the temperature of public offices. Air conditioners couldn’t go below 28C. That equals 82 degrees Fahrenheit. An air conditioner. Valiant effort guys, but productivity drops the second things get uncomfortable. Thankfully my office is separate from the main office and my coteachers have the “blame the foreigner card.” We played that one whenever an administrator would come in here… which they rarely do.

For the winter, the new rule is no heaters above 18C. Again, a toasty 64F. I’m writing this with gloves.

Thankfully, last night I won part of the money from Bundang’s Biggest loser (-8.6 kg!!) and was eager to buy myself a little reward as we were leaving Travelers. Just outside of the station, this vivid royal blue knit scarf was calling. I saw it as I was walking out of the station and thought, “If I win, I’m going to get it.” I won. I went back and used my crappy Korean skills to chat up the vendor and got a whopping 1,000 won discount. Not good enough. I walked away.

As I was walking down the stairs to the subway station I had that feeling. The feeling that I was going to need that scarf, and soon. Screw it. Turned around, went back, told the vendor’s wife that I really wanted that scarf, but their offered price was too expensive, and got it at the price I wanted. I’m a bargaining warrior. (Seriously, I should put my killer price negotiation skills on my resume.)

Good thing I was excited to wear it, because today, we are expecting 3-5 inches of snow and it is currently -5 degrees Celsius. Better known to the students constantly walking in and out of my office as “Shut the door. It’s cold today.”

I get to school to find the gates locked. Both of them. I cannot possibly climb this fence, and there aren’t any spots to climb through. I call my coteachers… nobody answers. I was about 2 seconds from saying “forget this” and walking home when the new painfully shy military assistant guy comes running out and opens the gate for me. Apparently the gates are now to be locked at 8:15 every morning. I come to work at 8:30. Take note: this is crap.

Since the 9th graders are finished with their exams and still have to come to school for a month to basically watch movies and do useless lessons, lots of them have been coming late on a regular basis. So naturally the solution to get kids to school earlier is to lock them out. Make them get to class later… this boggles my mind.

Once I make my way to my office and get settled, my dino-computer finally boots up and I’m ready for my day of 3 whole classes. Then the power goes out. Computer dies, heater dies, lights out. A minute later, things are bright again, my work laptop starts the 8 minute struggle of turning on, and the room is freezing. Where’s the heat? As they might say in Korean, 없어요.

Surprise new law: Space heaters are banned from public buildings, too. It’s a good thing I keep fleece blankets and hand-warmers in my desk drawer. (I kid you not.)

My classes all got cancelled, and lunch was nengmyeon, or cold noodles complete with icy broth… with ice. Then, it started snowing.

What is basically came down to was a moment of “aaaaand I’m going to the coffee shop.”

So I did.

Beauty ensued as the snow fell.

The front courtyard of my school. The principal made two troublemakers clean the path.

On the way to the coffee shop

 

One of my favorite boys, about to pwn some of his friends with an awesome snowball!

 

At the coffee shop.
lovelovelove

What awesome luck.

I was looking through my lesson plans from last year, and found a mysterious “Canon_119″ folder. 

Guess what was in it? 

ALL MY SPRING PICTURES!!! YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY! 

As my friend Christian pointed out, all it took was looking for repeatable lessons. Fair enough, sir. Fair enough. 

You guys will get a link for all the wonders of last spring… hopefully before this spring. 

Pomegranate Ginger Lemonade

One of my favorite things I learned from working at Kyllo’s was how to make Candi’s delicious, delicious pomegranate ginger juice. Well, I found POM in Korea last week and decided it was time to try it out, Korea style.

I scoured the shelves of a few different stores for juices that weren’t too sweet, and after a year of trial and FAIL, I found a few that I wanted to play around with.

I found a pomegranate juice made by Lotte, but it is pretty sweet and diluted, Sunkist Lemonade, and a white grape juice that turned out to be closer to simple syrup than anything else.

Juices used: Lemonade, POM, and the grape juice (Sunkist Muscat?)

I need a bigger pot.

Finished product

Lotte Pomegranate juice

I borrowed Jessica’s brave little blender and scrubbed off all the dirt on the half kilo of fresh ginger I got from one of the local markets. I broke it up and blended it until it was on the coarser side of pulpy. When I opened the blender, it was an overwhelming smell of ginger. If you know me, it’s one of the flavors I can literally consume constantly. Ginger tea is almost a daily thing for me. I dropped $5 on 5 ginger cookies that were more licorice than ginger, but still thoroughly enjoyed them. The whoooosh of the burn made me want to make ginger lemon bars. That recipe has been taunting me for months. Alas, it was nearly midnight, and I was making juice.

I boiled the ginger in about 1.5 liters of water for about 30 minutes, then let it sit to cool for a bit.

In a big pot, I mixed the bottle of lemonade, the bottle of POM, the Lotte pomegranate juice, and just a glug of the white grape juice. It was a good mix of tart and a little sweet. The closer I can get to tart flavors, the better. I strained off the ginger chunks and mixed in some of the gingered water, which with a spoonful burned on the way down like it was spiked with something. It was hot. Awesome. Then I added some more.

After everything was bottled, I made some black tea and mixed in some of the spicy goodness. It isn’t cheap to make here, but it is delicious and I’ll definitely be making it again!!

Bon Anniversaire, Korea.

That’s not the same as saying “Bon voyage!”

Nope, you’re stuck with me for another year.

Tuesday was my one year anniversary of living in Korea. Time sure moved quickly. It doesn’t really seem like it’s been a year yet. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had four seasons in a year since 2009. Plus, being from the Oregon Coast, having four distinct, changing seasons is a new thing to me anyway.

As many of you know, I have a really tough time identifying the amount time that passed since I did something. “The other day” can literally mean months ago. And after mentioning something to a friend of mine that allegedly happened “a while back,” we discovered that “a while” means well over a year. That something was getting ditched for Halloween (in 2010 mind you,) and subsequently buying some vino and watching multiple episodes of 30 Rock, timed perfectly with a friend on the other end of the phone doing the same thing. Good times a while back.

But seriously, I got here yesterday. And it was a good day.

So here are a few photos of some of the things I did. (In no particular order)

On the bike trip in Gyeongju

Busan's Jalgalchi Seafood market sells octopus sashimi so fresh, it still moves.

The teachers' retreat included sashimi, drunken fireworks, and karaoke with the principal in Gangwon-do.

Mychaela and I at the Namsan Tower's lock deck.

Foreigner soccer game: Cheap tickets + free beer/food = serious debauchery.

We bought tickets to go to NK... but we couldn't actually go there.

All time favorite restaurant in the Googs.

Chris and I wandered around Seoul for years looking for this tiny owl museum. Worth it just for the quirkiness!

Never try to put on Daylin's glasses. They're terrible! But Muuido is awesome!!

At Orientation, we were the cool kids. Clearly. (Beware of the creeper)

Beautiful cherry blossoms! And I used to think Trombley was amazing. WOW.

The boys later developed the no-pants rule. Noraebangs get pretty intense!!

You've seen this one before. NYE was a blast!

Lauren and I were eating ice cream on an art instillation in Haeundae. Some guy wanted to take a picture. We obliged.

Dart Bar. All day, erry day. Complete with crazy shirts.

Or randomly running into college friends at MudFest. Great times with Val and friends!

We're in a motorcycle gang. We rented bikes and rode by the river while some idiots abused themselves playing paintball.

Girls night in Hongdae!! Always fun times!

To offset the cost of veggies, I grew my own last year and just started new sprouts! Stoked for peppers and broccoli!

Why Laura asked me to pick up this bike, and why that guy looks so stoked, I'm still not sure. Hongdae is the only explanation.

Spent the afternoon perusing Gyeongbukgung with Chris. That day, he also got a photo my my first-ever, completely Korean conversation with a guy selling fans. I need to go back and get a fan. They were gorgeous.

Orientation got pretty elitist at one point. We were the "Suji 6" (even though I don't live in Suji) and then Dorian jumped in.

Sports day is possibly my favorite school day of the year. This fall, we get sports day AND school festival. I'm excited!!

Deceptive flowers are stinky. Checking out the traditional houses in Gyeongju.

On the train of sparkly socks headed to Busan, which then brings us to the Philippines! Such a blast with Lauren!

Quite possibly my favorite picture of me with my students. On the Double Rock and Roll at Everland. What a crazy day!

So those are just a few of the highlights of this year in Korea. There were highs and lows, complications and smooth sailing days. Friends have come and gone and need to come back. There are some people that need to leave. There were students whom I can’t stand and those I want to adopt. Icky kimchi and delicious kimchi. (I make the delicious kind.)

Either way, my life is so good.

But this is the English Zone!

Okay guys, I just have to share the ridiculousness that is happening in my office right now.

Last year, all 5 of the teachers here in my office were English teachers. We are in the super fancy, never-gets-used-because-it-cost-too-much, English Zone, after all. Now, all of the long term teachers have been moved up to the 2nd floor main office, and I’m the only one left in here.

The other department heads (NOT English) have been moved in here, and now they’re moving all the English materials out of my office and into the hallway, and moving science/math/Korean stuff in. I really want to protest, since the English materials (DVDs, games, books and other supplies) are all on open bookshelves and are going to be destroyed by the kids in about 4 days, and they moved in lockers that are lockable.

They’ve now detached the water dispenser from the pipes, moved it over about 3 feet and put a paper shredder in its place. Why they couldn’t move the broken fridge and put the shredder there, I still don’t understand. I asked if we could move the mini fridge out to the closet in the English Zone (since it is broken), but they said no, we must keep it in this office. GGGAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

Godzilla, you understand, right? So why haven't you come to Korea?!?

Though it’s been said, many times, many ways,

Korea is where logic goes to die.

On the bright side, they’ve just demanded that the principal install walls that are real, not the loading dock door and the plastic dividers with windows like we currently have. Let’s hope that we can get in and out after that… since the maintenance guy said that our door lock can’t be fixed until July.

Where’s the tool box? I’m my mother’s daughter, I’ll do it myself.

Wine in Korea is “meh” at best. Watch as we try to find the best of “meh!”

So Jessica and I decided that we were going to take advantage of all the wine sales going on lately. Emart and HomePlus have been selling a bunch of red wines at a pretty good price over the last few months. From what I’ve read in Korean magazines, wine is a fairly new thing, except for Korean plum wine and raspberry wine, which are very unique flavors and for many, an acquired taste that demands more than your standard bottle of decent wine… such is my case.

This project was slightly inspired by my friend Sara, my distaste for sickeningly sweet red wine (which somehow always gets served at staff dinners…), and my desire to find a palatable red wine at a price that doesn’t rival the Gangnam clubs. Those are pricey. Jessica call the wines we’re testing out “won conscious wines.”

Tonight’s agenda brings us a wine that I found at Emart for a whopping 8,900 won. This is about $10.

Tasty first try! We recommend this one!

We stocked up last time we went shopping, so we have a lineup of wines that we know absolutely nothing about. This one is a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, 2010, and delicious.

I prefer medium dry wines, not too sweet, fairly rich, but none of that “earthy” crap. I don’t want to feel like I just drank dirt. If my tongue gets dried out, you’re doing it wrong. This one does it right. None of the dry linger, earthy nonsense. Just smooth tasty, slightly fruity, goodness.

AND AFTER ONE SIP, DANI’S PANTS CAME OFF!

(Thanks Jessica for your input. Those were fancy pants, which quickly became sweatpants, by the way.)

Tonight's agenda included not only wine, but also dress up and make-overs, hence the lipstick.

Anyway. Jess gives it a 9 our of 10, and I’d give it an 8.5. Either way, we’d drink it under most circumstances. Cheers!