Tis the Season!

Merry Christmas everyone! We miss you all so much and are freezing our behinds off in Korea! Christmas in Korea is definitely an experience on itself. It is more of a couples holiday then a family holiday, but at our school of course it is celebrated for the little ones! Here are some pictures from of our kindies decorating the tree. On Christmas Eve we had a party at school, where the Kindie students received presents from Santa! Guess who that was...Santa Alan!! I made some focaccia for the teachers and staff, and we got some little gifts from our students.

                                                    
This Christmas we decided to give more than anything, after all it is the season of giving! We signed up for the annual ophanage Christmas party, where we got assigned a child to bring a present for, from Santa of course. Our girl's name is Oh Bom and she asked for leggings and stationary. We got her a few other things as well, which we were delighted to see that she liked! It was a great party with food, performances by the kids and or course a visit from Santa.

                               

On Christmas we ate Korean bbq for lunch, watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy and cooked some food. Chicken marsala and mini apple pies!

Wishing everyone a joyful holiday season!

A trip to Seoul!

Its December! Time is flying by here in Mokpo and it's definitely getting colder! We experienced the first drop of weather when we visited Seoul to pick up my parents. The temperature was a good ten degrees lower than in Mokpo and we were not ready for it at all. Coming off a slight cold, we both were feeling already under the weather, so the freeze attack did not help. But it was a good trip none the less. On our way by KTX (the Korean bullet train), we made it to Seoul in about three hours. Our first day in Seoul was a daze full of shopping and eating.

Our tour guide took us to Passion 5, which is a more upscale version of Paris Baguette (and owned by the same parent company), a famous bakery chain here in Korea. It was delicious! They had 5 different sections: gelato, pastries, cakes, chocolate, and coffee. Everything was so pretty and yummy, as you can see from our pictures we had a great time.

         

Alan went for the vanilla and strawberry gelato, I got the macaron ice cream sandwich! Yes, you read that right... it was awesome! We also tried a lot of different pastries including fruit tarts, sweet and savory breads, coffee and macarons.

 

 After our snack...lol we had a night of shopping. Our hotel was conveniently located near the shopping district of Myeongdong, so we spent the whole night shopping and eating from the various food vendors on the streets. 

On sunday we went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was very cold and windy so it was a short trip. After the tour, we went to a famous ginseng chicken soup restaurant. Apparently, my parents have tried to visit this restaurant twice already with no success because of the long wait time. This was their third try and we got in! We tried one ginseng chicken soup, one black chicken soup, and the rotisserie chicken. They helped with the cold and was very soothing. There was no line when we got there, but when we left, the line was out the door! It was a short trip but very eventful and with great company!

Halloween and Alan's 26th :)

A little off schedule due to the Korean Crud... That is what they call the sickness every foreigner will suffer from during the first few months in Korea. Your body is not accustomed to the various strains of viruses and bacteria present in this foreign land so you will get sick... awesome right!? Especially if you come in the winter because of the dramatic change in weather from one day to another. Our school is very environmentally friendly to put in a nice way, as there is no AC during the Summer or heat during the Winter, just the opening and closing of windows and doors to keep the air in or out. When I say no Ac or heat... it means they exist, but to "save energy" (or to save money as I see it) they do not get turned on.

On to the actual post hahahah. Halloween and Alan's 26th birthday! Halloween is not celebrated here, except for places with foreigners ie. at school or at a foreign friendly club/bar. So as the week of Halloween came up, we were told that we were responsible for the decorations and activities at the school, but only for kindie classes. So we spent after hours decorating, cutting out witches and skeletons, and building spiders out of balloons. It was a success and the kids had a lot of fun and got a lot of candy!

On Saturday we went out to dinner to celebrate Alan's birthday. We wandered down Rose street and ended up at a small italian place called Gorilla Pasta. We ended up ordering two pizzas, the Margherita and the Bugolgi pizza. After we placed our order, we were first serve a mini appetizer and creamy cheddar soup. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the soup because we ate it all before I remembered lol. The appetizer consisted of a piece of honey smoked duck breast with some greens and a drizzle of honey mustard, quite good.

             

Our first pizza arrived, and it was super cheesy. The crust itself was a flaky puff pastry. It also came with a side of apricot jam that you can dip the crust in! GENIUS. After eating the first piece I was getting quite full. Thankfully, the kitchen forgot our second pizza so we didn't have to stuff ourselves. The server cleared our table and asked if we wanted dessert! Of course! A few minutes passed and we were presented with a trio of mini desserts: a chocolate lava, orange cream cake, and vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. So if you are following our order, we get a full three course meal, but we only payed for the entree! Very good deal in my opinion :)

             

The Best Fried Chicken EVER!

The Best Fried Chicken 

https://www.kyedong.com

This may just look like your typical fried chicken. BUT I KID YOU NOT, IT IS THE BEST FRIED CHICKEN EVER! Well... to say it is THE BEST would only be our opinion, and while we are not connoisseurs of fried chicken, we have had a fair amount between the two of us. From Southern fried chicken, to fast food fried chicken, to Thai fried chicken, to chicken fried chicken, to chicken katsu, you name it, we probably have had it. (I felt like Lt. Dob writing that sentence)

What makes a good fried chicken? That is a great question! For us, its all about texture and flavor. The batter or skin has to be crispy, not crunchy. A moderate coating of batter, not over loading the chicken. Flavor wise, we are up for anything! Spicy, sweet, salty, but our favorite would have to be an all around umami flavor coating the chicken but not to the point of making it soggy. The chicken itself should be juicy, not dry or greasy. 

This is the Original fried chicken from Kyedong. The chicken is served with pickled radish, sweet chili sauce, and some nuts and crunchy puffs. The first bite we took of this delicious chicken, we knew. Any competitor would have to be darn good to beat it. There is no batter on the chicken, yet the skin was fried to perfection, no soggy fat remains. It is coated in a sweet soy glaze, that is like the chicken's second skin. The chicken is juicy and not greasy and absolutely finger licking good (and KFC needs to try Kyedong before they have a clue as to what that really means)! Don't believe me!? Well then you will have to fly to Korea and find out for yourself! Or just check out their website... and drool at the pictures! 

The second time we visited, Alan was brave enough to try their spicy chicken. It was spicy! But to him, he describes it as a good spicy, one that slowly builds and sizzles in your mouth and you just want to keep eating even if your mouths is slightly burned. Of course we figured the remedy to this tingling sensation and brought our Ranch with us... Oh the goodness! 

Jinju Lantern Festival

Jinju Lantern Festival

This weekend we decided to go on a little adventure. We heard about the Jinju Lantern Festival from the Mokpo Facebook page. After some research, we found out that this festival was named one of the best festivals to attend in South Korea. How could we past this up! Jinju is about a three hour bus ride from Mokpo, connecting in Gwangju. We left after lunch, and had to wait in Gwangju for the next available bus at 5:00pm! So we arrived in Jinju at around 7:00pm. Perfect timing since the festival is better at night! We had a big group of seven, Alan of course being the only guy lol!

The lanterns were incredible! Made out of cloth, every lantern had intricate details. Some of them even moved! We decided to get these light up hand ands to keep track of everyone. Alan nicknamed us the Minnies, after Minne mouse, he of course was the King with his blue crown.

Year of the Rabbit!

Year of the Dragon!

There were many activities at the festival. We made our own floating lanterns and floated them along the river. There was also a hanging lantern tutorial but we needed reservations which we did not know about. Bummer! We did however reserve our spots on the boat tour along the river to see the lanterns up close!

Boat Tour! 

After the boat ride, we went to the Super Heroes and Cartoons area where they had an array of character lanterns. Keep in mind that these lanterns are constructed of a wire frame and then covered with the cloth material. So intricate! 

After our long night, we had our first Korean bathhouse experience. Very interesting to say the least! There were seperate floors for males and females. Think communal showers and lockers where everyone is not shy about their bodies... At all... Lol! After a night of not much sleep, we were on our way back to Mokpo. Pistop in Gwangju for some much needed brunch! All in all it was a great adventure!