This is what I got when I went out to buy umbrella, I happened to passed by at Dunkin Donut outlet and I can’t resist my craving for chocolate donuts. Yeah, that’s all I bought in donut shop aside from the heart shape strawberry donut. I made sure that I got all the available chocolate donuts in the shelves and of course I am not going to forget the chocolate munchkins. I got the double dazed, chocolate zebra and I already forgot the name of the other one.

Trying my new plate.  This is my favorite meal when I am busy and too lazy to cook a viand, plain rice, fried eggs and kimchi on the side. I eat a lot when I have kimchi and eggs,  kimchi served as my appetizer.

The other day while we are shopping at Lotte Super I wandered around the house and home aisle and I found this plate cute. It only cost ₩1,000 ($0.87) so I bought it thinking I am going to eat small amount of rice if I am going to use it.

I think it is more as a kid’s tray rather than  a plate because it it is in the same shelves of the large trays. My husband just nod his head when he saw what I am holding.

Finally I am able to get a good shot of the new coffee shop in Icheon, Starbucks. It opens around January or February this year. The second floor before is an Italian restaurant called Fresco, then at the first floor left side of Chai Wok is Family Mart a 24-hours convenient store. The Chinese restaurant (Chai Work) is now very small compare when the Starbucks is not yet on the site it is wider with three rows of table and chair, now only two rows left.

Other people might think having Starbucks in Icheon is good but not all the time I have noticed that since Starbucks was present some of the local coffee shops are now empty or there’s only few people inside while Starbucks is full. You can see students near the bus terminal carrying Starbucks cup, sipping their coffee and etc.,

Yeah Starbucks is just across the bus terminal just few steps away. Before there is a Mister Donut coffee shop across the terminal but one year didn’t passed it is gone now, occupying the place is a shoe store beside Skechers. While Skechers before is a pillow and blanket store.,

You know I can’t still get over with the thought of what happened way back in Seoul two years ago, we always shopped in a Family own supermarket but one day a chain supermarket was built just at the back of the old supermarket, every time we shop the items are becoming lesser, fridge are empty and the sales clerk are gone what left is the two old couple (I guess the owner), it was saddening to witness how they loss their business.

In our remaining stay in Seoul the old couple gave us a big container of Kimchi and when it was all eaten up they want to give us more but we declined because we are only going to stay for few days and we are going to left our apartment. I don’t want to left the apartment, I still want to shop at their store but I can’t do anything my husband’s contract already expired and we need to transfer to his new work place.

I don’t know what happened next, if they already closed their supermarket or they transfer their supermarket to other place. I am hoping for the best for them, I can stop my tears remembering this sad memories.

That’s what happened when big chain companies built on a certain place, the local people loss their earnings and way of living. So until now we don’t visit Starbucks here not because we don’t patronized the shop but because we don’t drink coffee on coffee shop unless we are traveling.

Well I don’t think there’s really a Magnum Ice cream in Korea, I just thought of looking something that resembles the Magnum Ice Cream in the Philippines. As what I noticed it is very popular ice cream brand in the Philippines now a days, these past few weeks my facebook wall is populated with status and photo about Magnum  ice cream.

That’s the name of a newly open Yoga Club in Icheon, it just beside Coffee Stony. I happened to pass by while going to the bank to pay our utility bill. I immediately take a snap so I can share what’s the new development in this city. In our two years here Icheon had a progress more and more establishment are built.

Anyway if you prefer yoga than working out in the gym you should try this club. According to Wikipedia Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India.The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on the Hindu concept of divinity or Brahman. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.

Now a days yoga is one of the method to lose weight and feel beautiful inside and out.

Nothing else to do today I decided to cook in the kitchen, I cooked pancit for the first time. I got the bihon  from Philippines it is one of the thing I requested from my mother to send here few months ago.

Cooking pancit is very easy. I just learned it from watching, when there’s an affair in our family circle expect me in the kitchen helping on washing dishes or chopping garlic and onions. So I learned few menu to cook,

My ingrediets:

• Bihon, chicken, carrots, cabbage, soy sauce, oil, garlic, onion, water, black pepper and seasoning

Procedure:

• Rinse pansit bihon with water and drain it.
• Saute the garlic and onion in a small amount of oil
• Add the chicken strips and cook it until brown
• Add water and soy sauce, let it boil
• Then add the pancit bihon, let it simmer and stir it to loosen the noodles
• Add the carrot, cabbage and baguio beans (if available) when the pancit  bihon is almost dry, black pepper
• Cooked for few minutes but don’t overcooked it

Last weekend we ate at PhoTai, a Vietnamese Restaurant. It was located at the second floor of ishotel, the restaurant is quite full when we get in maybe because it is dinner time, most of the customers are family and in group. We ordered  Fresh Spring Rolls made from assorted vegetables, fruit, meat mixed together inside a rice wrap.

Then we order two Pho with tenderloin,  it’s a noddle soup.

Appetizer kimchi and preserved raddish and more sprouted beans for our soup.

The food we ordered is not that good and not too bad. It just tasted like soup at home, I guess next time we should order on their rice, set menu or main dish.

Phở  is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef (phở bò) or chicken (phở gà).^[1] The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Asian basil, mint leaves, lime, and bean sprouts that are added to the soup by the person who is dining. The dish is associated with the city of Hanoi, where the first phở restaurant opened in the 1920s.

Most instant noodles in Korea are spicy that I seldom buy and eat.  The other night my husband and I crave for something savory and we had cup of noodles and instant spaghetti.  I ruined his spaghetti though I have add the sauce while the noodles are still in hot water, I should drain it first but I mistakenly thought it is noodle soup.

Macaroni soup is already part of my diet these past few months.  At first it was just a vegetable soup but  I just thought of adding macaroni in it like the breakfast soup in the Philippines called Sopas.

 Chicken Sopas is a soup dish filled with  chicken strips and  macaroni noodles but mine is not chicken sopas it is just plain vegetable.