Lazy Food & A Bit of A Heads Up

Sorry about the title, first off. I know some people take their food and cooking seriously but this is just something that perfectly depicts what I've been eating lately. This entry is actually inspired by 'Pasta', a Korean drama that I'd been watching for the past three weeks or so. I just got done with it last night. Totally loved the ending. Well.. except for the part that the main female cast ended up with the jerk instead of the nice guy. Very interesting serial, I'd say, it successfully made me resent the mean chef (who I called the jerk earlier) to the guts; couldn't stand my-shit-doesn't-stink type of attitude of his, really. Hmm, I guess that's supposed to be part of his charm. LOL. On the other hand, the CEO (Kim San) cast is so adorable!! Turns out that his name is Alex Chu, and this guy is a Korean Canadian who rose to fame upon his return to South Korea. Alex sings, acts, plays piano, and also has appeared on a few Korean TV shows including 'We Got Married'. Apart from the fact that he's a celebrity, Chu seems like a genuine person (judging from his live performances as well as interviews). I was thrilled upon finding his 'Just Like Me' album on Amazon.com this afternoon. Bought the damn CD and it should be in the mail some time next week. Alex Chu does pop, which some people may not fancy. But I love some of his songs already, after listening to them on YouTube. Go Alex go! Welcome your new fan please! :)

So yeah... I'm looking forward to enjoying my first Korean music album! And hopefully it will improve my Korean a bit. I realize I will not have the intense moment of learning the language next year. Will probably not do more than just reading the book (Integrated Korean by Young-Mee Cho et.al) I've been reading on and off -off at the moment, since I've been so hooked on the piano practice. Yeah.. those piano lessons. Got a lot of homework from Ms Bennett last week and been working on it. Been pretty happy with my pace so far, about ten pieces (one page to two for each) done in three days of practice. Apart from my daily piano practice, I've been reading 'Confessions of A Shopaholic' whenever I am in the bathroom (I guess around 15 minutes each day). Sounds weird, I know. But reading in a bath room happens to be one of my favorite things to do, so live with it LOL. I was pretty curious with the book since a friend of mine is mad for this Sophie Kinsella's. She's all mad for it, Mate, which I can understand. She loves shopping, so does Rebecca Bloomwood -this Brit is lunatic and does everything to justify her shopping craze! :D

My spaghetti and meatballs

Back to the theme!

Having eaten a bunch of noodle dishes I came to realize how versatile this thing is. Doesn't matter what the base ingredient may be. Among the many comfort food I've been eating, noodle has always popped up on the list. I spent many afternoons and evenings munching on noodle dishes. And relating it to 'Pasta', the serial was one of the reasons why I ended up eating spaghetti and other forms of noodle lately. They're convenient to make too, wouldn't you say? Well, as for me, I do not make the (marinara) sauce for my pasta from scratch, cuz we mostly buy those of Gia Russa, Rao's HomeMade, or Giada de Laurentiis. Speaking of the last one (Giada), we just read on Consumer Reports recently that the damn sauce's apparently rated quite high. It's made specially for Target the department store, by the way. My first encounter with her (yes, Giada is the name of the person who makes the sauce) actually was when I read an American Airlines magazine during my flight to Toronto this year. I thought this chef's pretty interesting. Not just interesting for the fact that she is very passionate in cooking, on top of that she is also quite pretty.

잡채 (japchae), tonight's dinner!

Another dish I've been making is 잡채 (japchae). It's originated in Korea and the noodle, called 당면(dangmyeon), is made of sweet potato instead of rice. Never had sweet-potato noodle before in Indonesia, and pretty soon 잡채 became my much-loved daily lazy food. Why lazy? Do I have the instant seasoning for it? Nah, the answer is I don't :D. In fact it takes about an hour to prep all the ingredients and make the dish (check the recipe on Aeriskitchen on YouTube). I am far from pro when it comes to slicing and chopping so I take my time making 잡채 . I normally do a big batch of 잡채, and that will last me for about three days. It's convenient so I don't need to bother making something decent for the next three days. After the big bowl of 잡채 is ready I'll eat some and store the rest in the fridge. Then I can lazy around when it comes to cooking. Wheeewww, I can even have a hot breakfast the next morning! What a perfect epitome of 'lazy yummilicious' :P

Mi goreng Jawa aka Indonesian Javanese fried noodle

I guess.., enjoy the pics from my kitchen for now. Just a heads up that I may not write about travels until end of February. Glen and I plan to hit Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Dingle, and Galway) then and I hope to post an entry about our travels later. Let's call it another European episode. Till then, take care and welcome 2012!

Man, it's been raining all day and I'm going crazy staying at home. Going out for either bubble tea or hot chocolate in a bit.

Later, Comrades!