A day of too much good food......

Breakfast for the champion. It was sooooo good today!! A lot of meat! And I think that's because someone wrote this on the board right before the cafeteria exit:

Someone wrote, "more meat please!" hahaha... which probably resulted in this extra meat today. Mmmmm... yum! I didn't read the other ones because they were so long.......

So class was pretty short today. I think most of us were pretty tired from the baseball game last night and we just really wanted the weekend to start.... so our energy was quite low in class today. There was also no culture class today, so we were free to do whatever we wanted after 1pm.

I didn't want to walk over to the super good bibimbap place since it's a bit far... so I decided to go back to dorm area and just eat in the food court over there. There is this kimbap place that also sells other food, so I tried dosirak, which is traditional Korean bento. I've seen it on YouTube, but I've never tried it... and since it's so readily available next to our dorm, I gave it a shot.

This was the spam version, which is the super basic kind.... but already looks so yummy!

Isn't that an amazing selection of food? Ah.... drool.

So to eat a dosirak, you're supposed to close the lid and shake it vigorously to mix all the ingredients together. Well..... I was really bad at shaking it vigorously. I thought I shook it pretty hard, but the two times I did it, it still looked like I just moved the content from left to right, but nothing was mixed. I felt like it was getting a bit ridiculous, so I just tried to mix it with chopsticks and spoon.

The ee-mo (aunt) saw me mixing it with chopsticks and spoon, came over to tell me that I need to shook it. I told her I couldn't do it very well... and she shook it for me a few times. And here it is..

Walei... she's professional!! Oh man, that dosirak is super yummy! I think Koreans are pretty smart in integrating spam in their food menu..... the saltiness really brings out another level of flavor! I think I'm gonna incorporate it in my cooking from now on!

After that super big lunch, I went to Gangnam to meet my student again. We were going to her mom's cooking studio, which she was gonna prepare a meal and teach me how to make some simple Korean food.

But I didn't know it was gonna be a feast!!

Walei....... it was SOOOO MUCH FOOD! I felt super bad about it since it was so much food and I just ate a big dosirak........ and they kept giving me food, so I feel obligated to finish all of it. Oh my goodness..... I was SUPER FULL.

Her mom is quite the artist.... she decorated her studio super nice.

And she's really into table setting too. Which you'll see soon.

The first thing we did was having her assistant teach us how to make small kimbap. It was not too hard, but I think the key is in the ingredients... they fry all the food to make it have more flavor. Here is my kimbap:

Not bad right?

And here's her mom's plating of small kimbap for finger food.

And here is a random picture of my student and me :)

Now on to the dinner menu......

Skewers:

Japchae:

Salmon pasta in cream sauce:

Samgetang:

Pellegrino drinks (notice how she wrapped the bottle top to make it look prettier?!):

Vietnamese shrimp salad:

And us enjoying the food (my student's little sister is also there, but she doesn't want to take a picture!!):

Oh my goodness...... I was SUPER FULL after that. The auntie kept feeding us more food...... fruits, candies, cookies, tea, coffee.... oh my goodness. She's also thinking about moving to LA with her daughter and starting a catering business in LA. If/when she does, please support her!

The assistant took me to a nearby baked goods shop to checking out baking supplies. I got a few baking pans for 3,000 won each, spatulas, cake boxes, etc, for much cheaper price than in US. The owner gave me a small discount as well.... which is awesome! 

By the time I was going home, it was POURING outside! It's definitely storm season now and it's gonna be pouring for the next few days. Eeek..... 

Last thing that happened today. Everyone in class has been raving about how they're going to the Seventeen concert. I just figured it's hard to get tickets and it's gonna be expensive, so I didn't bother looking at it. However, when I came home today, my roommate was saying that she's going and something something.... and I asked her if it's hard to get tickets, and she said no, not in Korea! Apparently the tickets are MUCH CHEAPER here than in the US. She said it's because only teenagers listen to Kpop here, while overseas, it's people of all ages, so the attendance here is much lower than overseas. The concert is next week and there are still plenty of tickets left! Imagine that! 

So I got a ticket to sit as close as possible. There are standing tickets, but I'm not that crazy about them.... since I don't even know ALL 13 of their names! (my goodness... 13?!) The ticket is only 100,000 won, compared to normal US tickets of $300+. Eek. I'm just gonna go for the experience..... with a pretty well known group. 

Last thought for the day: A lot of my classmates keep talking about cute guys, cute girls, etc. One has been going on a lot of dates lately, and one wants to talk to this cute Korean girl he sees.... and etc etc. I just feel like...... wow, is that how people get dates which lets them marry early? Because they're not opposed to just dating random people and they can find the person they want to marry earlier? I guess I was just never really interested in that type of socializing....... sigh. Very different mentality.

When I was with my students' family, I noticed how her mom is really caring towards everyone, especially her daughters. She's really the model mom that you see on TV who talks to her children like a friend, yet she is very caring (she's always saying "our daughter!" and then she'd hug them and kiss them... or she'll tell them that they do good job, and etc). Her daughters really love her and is super close with her. They were talking about how my student still doesn't have a boyfriend yet (which my student was super open to discuss with her mom), and they were all ok about it.... and giving her advice about how to attract guys' attention. They were just super open and the mom was not overbearing at all... which makes it easy for her daughter to talk to her about EVERYTHING (like my student kept telling her mom about the guys she meet, her friends, her friends' boyfriends, etc etc). I've never felt comfortable telling my parents anything because they'd always either lecture me or totally think in super negative direction that makes me just want to avoid all personal topics. I really admire the relationship she has with her daughters!

Alrighty, not sure how much rain it's gonna be tomorrow.... but if it's not too bad, I'm joining the school's sightseeing trek for half of the day!