My husband and I both love barbecue or grilled meat that’s why we had a electric grill at home. It is more convenient and cheaper than going to barbecue joints/restaurant.  As we are leaving Korea soon I have asked my husband’s permission to send the electrical grill to my family and before depositing it on my box we decided to grill bulgogi on Lunar New Year.

We grilled meat in our balcony to avoid smoke and stench inside our apartment.  I just open the window and put the electric grill in top of the washing machine.

Bulgogi is the most popular variety of Korean barbecue. Before cooking, the meat is marinated with a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, and pepper. It is traditionally cooked using gridirons or perforated dome griddles that sit on braziers, but pan-cooking has become common as well. [source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_barbecue]

A few days ago I went to the nearby convenience store to buy for electrical tape, but  before I went to the counter to pay, I look around the aisles for items that I can afford to buy.  I found few but the instant Bibimbap caught my attention, this Korean food can only be found in Korean restaurant, but today if you are craving for Bibimbap you can eat it anytime and anywhere as long as you see them in any convenience store around you.

Bibimbap is a signature Korean dish. The word literally means “mixed rice”. Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating. It can be served either cold or hot. (Source Wikipedia)

The instant Bibimbap was sold with free beef noodles, I think it is marketing strategy so more people will buy and try this product. The box contains 3 packages and a spoon, the packages contain puff rice, dry garnishes and sauce. I cook the rice mixed with the dry garnishes within 1 cup of water for 3 minutes and mixed the sauce afterwards and voila my Bibimbap is ready to eat. This item cost 2,800 won per small box.

Spaghetti is everyone’s favorite, a dish that has many variants. In the Philippines, spaghetti is sweet and meaty with cheese toppings. So when I first ate spaghetti from Italianni’s I can’t even finish one serving, since then I vowed not to eat on Italianni’s again but when I arrived in Korea there spaghetti is not also the spaghetti my tongue used to know.

So when my husband and I decided to cook spaghetti at home, it doesn’t attract me at all. Spaghetti is my favorite but eating sour  salty taste spaghetti killed my appetite. My husband educates me that’s how spaghetti taste like, savory with tomato sauce and the sweet spaghetti I am talking is  a crap.  As day goes by I have been used to eat spaghetti with a sour salty taste as I named it, I can even eat two servings with black olives in it, so I think I am ready to eat in Italianni’s restaurant again.

Well, when we craved for spaghetti and cooking is impossible we run to 59 Pizza or Pizza school to order spaghetti. The photo above is cheese oven spaghetti from Pizza School, it cost ₩4, 000 while the white cream oven spaghetti cost ₩4, 500.  It is chewy, a little bit salty and meaty goodness.

Eating instant noodles developed a negative image over the years. It could be either unhealthy habit or has a bad effect to individual’s health because of too much sodium and preservatives. I do sometimes disregard this information because eating instant noodle is one of the convenient way to eat your meal without cooking or too much preparation. All you need is to boil hot water and fill in the noodle cup and let it sit for few minutes and voila meal is ready!

In Korea instant noodles, Ramyeon is a very popular food, snack. You can find different flavors of noodles from convenient stores to supermarket, from spicy to non-spicy noodles. When I first arrived in Korea instant noodles is the only food I ate along with rice because I was not accustomed with their food like Kimchi and gimbap.  I didn’t like the smell of gim in my food and the taste of kimchi.

As the day goes by, eating Korean food became so easy and I was able to cook Filipino food as well when we moved to a new apartment but still time to time I eat instant noodles to fed my hunger for soup but this time I already knew which soup is spicy and not.

The other night my husband feel bored of eating the same food again and again from his diet plan so he asked me to buy him an instant meal and dumplings at the nearby convenience store but as usual I went out buying another food more than what is asked to me. I bought cheese dog because I have thought my husband will like it as a few weeks ago we are craving for cheese dogs, I also bought onion rings for myself while the soft drink in is a freebie from the meal.

My husband didn’t eat the cheese dog because he thought I bought it for myself, so I’ve eaten it the next day as well the onion rings.

I was so hungry the other day but too lazy to cook so I went down to Homeway to buy instant noodles. I was a little bit hesitant on what noodles should buy because I can’t read Hangul and I don’t want to buy spicy food. To make the story short I just get two noodles which I think not too spicy to eat, after paying the owner told me to wait and he handed two liquid yoghurt for free.

Not sure what’s the freebie for maybe the owner feel pity on me (haha). Yeah right I went down without combing my hair nor changing my home clothes which are faded and a little big for me. Hehe

After my friend and I paid a short visit at Bukchon Hanok Village last weekend we ate in a Korean restaurant in Itaewon. It was been my long wish to eat Korean food aside from the food I have eaten that could easy purchased in convenient store. The soup tasted good and little spicy, it was served with rice and side dish.

According to Wiki Gamjatang or pork bone soup is a spicy korean soup made with pork spine or ribs, vegetables, green onion, hot peppers and ground wild sesame seeds. it is a matter of contention whether the name of the soup comes from the word for potato (감자; gamja) or not, because the soup is frequently served without potatoes.

I seldom went out, I spend most of the day in front of my laptop. Lately I have thought that I should see everything around Korea before we left, yeah right my husband decided not to renew his contract anymore next year.  He said six years is enough, he need new surroundings and he is getting tired of Korea.

Anyway the other day my friend and I met in Seoul, we went to Buckhon Hanok Village for a walk, ate Gamjatang in Itaewon and dropped by  at I’Park Mall in Yongsan to buy a phone, her husband followed in Yongsan and we wander around the mall for few minutes before heading home in separate way.

They invited me to eat Korean buffet in Itaewon but I was not able to go because I have a lot of stuff to do online, updating blogs, list and designing a new headers.

Eating instant noodles became my habit every day, I don’t know but these past few days I really have craving for instant noodles probably from watching TV shows and seeing them eating noodles and it was also easy to prepare rather than cooking my viand especially I am little busy these past few days.

I am sort of workaholic where I won’t stop until I am done working into something online,  forget to hunger and the food. My break was just to fee, well probably it is not workaholic anymore but addicted, lol.

Samgyeopsal is a popular Korean dish, every where you can see barbecue or grill restaurants in Korea. Anyway I didn’t finish the work out I left the gym first so I can go to Noghyup Supermarket and shop for pork meat. I bought 1.5 kilos of meat marinated in soy sauce with carrots and onions.

I barbecued the meat in our balcony, I just opened the window and put the electric grill in top of the washing machine. It took me one hour to barbecue all of them.