Adventures in Cooking

I have a confession. I can't cook - or at least I couldn't when I moved to Korea over 3 years ago. As my friend and former roommate, "Ray", will tell you I even "burned water". My mother would say that, "I couldn't boil water".

The burning water joke is actually closer to truth than fiction. One day when I lived in Yangsan, a suburb of Busan I was boiling water for tea on our gas range. The stove was located directly in front of a window. As I stood there waiting for the water to boil I looked out the window and saw the most incredible sight. I saw these paragliders sailing over our apartment building and a 6 lane highway to land in an empty field across the street from our apartment. Without thinking I grabbed by camera and ran out to take some pictures. However, I left the kettle on the gas burner and didn't turn it off. OPPS! I was gone maybe half an hour. I returned to find the apartment smoky and the kettle boiled dry and scorched and the handle of the kettle completely melted. I tried to air out the apartment before my roommate returned but I couldn't find a replacement kettle on such short notice so he saw the evidence. I have never been able to live it down. In hindsight it is pretty funny and I am just lucky I didn't burn down the apartment or the entire building.

This is a kettle like the one I burned up.

This was the first glimpse I had of the paragliders when I ran out of the apartment with my camera. I wish I had had a telephoto lens. There are four of them and it looks like a couple of them are close to colliding.

Here's a picture I took of them landing across the road.

This is my favorite picture of the paragliders.

Another shot of them landing.


I went picture crazy taking photos of these paragliders.

The sky really was this blue that day. I wanted so much to be up in the air with them. It seemed so amazing. I imagine it would be quiet and peaceful sailing through the air like that.


Within minutes the clouds rolled in and it got cloudy looking.

***

Taking all those pictures took time and allowed the kettle to burn up. I always forget that gas is so much more powerful than electric stoves and I guess it's not a good thing to walk away from your apartment and leave something on the stove unattended. I am - or at least I was - like a walking ad for fire prevention.

Now, however, to the amazement of myself, my friends and my family I have become quite a good cook. I admit when I first started cooking it was out of frustration at not being able to find any of my favorite foods even at the western restaurants here in Korea. At first when I would cook I would call up my mom or my friend "Ray" and ask them "If you were making curry rice [or whatever] what would you do?" Then I started to experiment on my own and of course having an internet connection helps, too. If I get stuck I Google the name of whatever I am trying to make and voila up pops a recipe.

I still get frustrated with the lack of spices available in Korea. There are two aisles at the supermarket devoted to red pepper paste but I dare you to try and find cumin or cilantro or even garlic powder.

A picture I took of all the red pepper paste at the supermarket.

***
In desperation to find some ingredients to cook my favorite foods I turned to the black market and Texas Street. In Busan, Texas Street is located directly across from the Busan train station and it is infamous for being a bar area with lots of Russian and a number of Filipino juicy girls. But it also sells long distance telephone cards, stick deodorant, North American brands of toothpaste and some canned specialty foods.

This is a picture of Texas Street I took during the daytime.


I took this close-up picture of a lantern on Texas Street.


This is Texas Street at night.


As I mentioned there is a large Russian population that works and frequents the Texas Street area. A lot of the signs are in Russian.


Many of the bars and cafes are named for American places. This maybe because they want to appeal to the American soldiers [before Camp Hialeah the American Military Base in Busan was closed just this summer] and to American sailors when the Navy ships are in port. This restaurant is where I buy my long distance telephone cards and also they serve the best lumpia [Filipino egg rolls] ever.



I am able to buy canned corned beef on Texas Street.



I even find a full-size jar of North American Cheez Whiz [Australian Cheez Whiz is white in color as is their cheddar cheese]. With this I can made toasted cheese, bacon and tomato sandwiches and homemade macaroni and cheese, ummm!



Here's the corned beef hash I made with my can of corned beef. [I cut up sweet pickles - they come when you order pizza in Korea since Koreans eat pickles with their pizza - and added them to the potatoes and onions to give it a little more flavor. It was delicious, if I do say so myself.


I got the New Hawaii Restaurant to sell me some lumpia that has uncooked so I could cook it myself at home later. I even found a sweet spring roll sauce at Mega Mart to serve with it.
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My success with these cooking ventures lead me to explore even more and expand my repertoire of dishes. My neighbour last year, Mrs. Lee, served me lotus root in a sweet light corn syrup sauce for dessert once and it was divine. I decided to try my luck at making something similar.

First I found and bought the lotus root and the light corn syrup.



Then I steamed the lotus root until it was tender. Then I put it in a plastic container and poured some of the syrup over it and let it set over night in the fridge. I was really exotic and quite refreshing. It certainly wasn't anything I would have even eaten if I'd stayed in Eastern Canada. I quite like it.

***

I visited Costco in Daegu a couple of months ago and when I was there I got some spices. But I found myself cooking more and thus in need of more spices. It is just too hard for me - as a new cook - to try and substitute spices [ones I can find for ones I can't]. In desperation I turned to an internet website. On pusanweb I had read about this website called Costcoplaza and although it is entirely in Korean it doesn't require a Korean ID number to join or a Korean credit card to purchase items. You use your e-mail [and yes they even accept hotmail] and set up an ID and an account and then you place your order. It gives you the total price and you go to the bank and deposit the money into the bank account number they give you on the site. It's actually pretty easy. I had a Korean friend help me set up the account and make the order but I think I could do it myself now if I had to. They have lots of spices including cumin, fajita seasoning, Cajun seasoning, dill weed and coriander leaf. To browse the items available if you don't read Korean just click on the first link on the left of the page. It says 식 품 [shik pum]. Here's the link to the website.

Costco Plaza

Three days after placing my order my spices had arrived. They are big bottles, too, 85 grams.

Also, I ordered Starbucks House Blend of coffee and Jelly Belly jelly beans. I am happy, happy, happy. :)

***

I found another internet website where I can order sour cream, icing sugar, canned pie fillings and all the other goodies I can't find anywhere else in the stores here. However, like most Korean websites, it requires a Korean ID number to join and since I don't have one and my Alien Card Registration [ARC] number doesn't work I am dependant on my Korean friends to order things I want from this site for me. Here's the link to the site. If you can't read Korean but are interested in the products they have click on the link [it opens a new window] and click on the icon that looks like a toaster located about 5-6 inches down on the left hand side of the screen. This shows all the products.

E Home Bakery

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I am now even the proud owner of a Cuckoo rice cooker. I make a great curry rice and some wicked stir fries. Who would have thought even a few years ago that not only would I learn to cook but that I would actually be so proud of this skill that I'd be writing about it on my blog? Not me - that's for sure!

My Cuckoo rice cooker. I love it. I don't think I ever want to live without a rice cooker again - not even if I ever move back to North America someday.

One of the reasons I am not afraid to try cooking here and now is that I know that if all else fails I can order a mean pepperoni pizza.