When searching for the perfect souvenir, what, I ask you, could be better than novelty chocolates?
Who wouldn’t be glad to recieve chocolate covered macadamia nut clusters from Hawaii, or cocoa dusted truffles from Belgium. And for you, the gift giver, a sleek box of chocolate fits perfectly into your carry-on. And, seeing as how no one has yet tried to create an explosive out of the brown sweet, chocolate is a safe, FAA approved gift.
But would you want chocolate covered kimchi? Or chocolate seaweed squares? Yeah. Me too. But the novelty of it gets to me at my tourist core, and quite a few others too, proven at the Lotte Duty free store, perched on the 11th floor of the Lotte Department store in Eujirlo.
There I found hoards of Japanese and Chinese tourists fondling boxes of chili flavored bonbons, chestnut or sweet potato filled truffles, and the most curious of curios, kimchi and gim (toasted and seasoned seaweed) chocolates. At around 10 US bucks a box they are a bit pricey, but warrant a try once in one’s life.
Our South African friends served as a good excuse to enact on our curiosity. We first tried the gim chocolate. Both Kev and I have a fondness for gim, the toasty salty roasted sheets of seaweed, are the perfect crackling accompaniment to a bowl of rice. But salt, sesame oil, and chocolate: could it work? Check out the Video for James’ reaction- ours were in-sync.
The kimchi version fared far better. The Ghirardelli style squares packed a piquant punch. But the faint essence of vinegar was less than palatable.
Are they worth it? Most likely not. Not one of us ate a whole one, opting instead to break each square into small sections then passing the specimen around. But what is to say about a country that doesn’t capitalize on pairing its indigenous foods with chocolate?
At the moment I’m coming to you from a two story, brick laden bagel cafe in the sunny, and windy city of Cape Town, South Africa.
Kevin and I are escaping the bone chilling Korean winter, all 6 months of it, to summery South Africa to soak up rays and sink our teeth into a whole new cuisine.
Our tickets were quite cheap, and if you also buy cheap tickets, you know this can mean 12-20 hour layovers in airports. Thankfully, instead of being cooped up in a drab airport terminal sucking in stale air and trying unsuccessfully to sleep under the glare of fluorescent lights, Singapore wants you to get out there and spend some cash! You can opt for a guided tour provided by Singapore Airlines, or go it alone. We had a nicely timed 12 hours to eat and shop. And eat and shop we did! If you live in North Asia, Singapore is about a 5 hour flight from Seoul and a great city in which to rejuvenate stagnant gray senses. The weather is usually muggy and cloudy, but the food dazzles kimchi laden taste buds, and shops like Zara and Top Shop cater to those of us who are large-ee.
I present to you maryeats, a peek at hawker stands.
If you are interested in Singapore cuisine there are a host of Singaporean food bloggers out there. Check out chubby hubby, kuidaore, and Kitchen crazy daffy.
In the week after Thanksgiving every news outlet from NPR to MSN goes through the recipe cards, giving their respective audience dozens of ideas for what to do with mounting leftovers, stacked neatly in the fridge.
The gobbler is a classic, but there are alternative takes, an American southwestern turkey with chipotle sauce. Then there are the standard pot pies, potato croquettes, and casseroles. Exotic takes included a diced turkey and mango cury on rice, and the list goes on.
Our take kept us in America with deep fried pumpkin cheesecake bites and thanksgiving enchiladas.
Putting together the enchiladas was a no brainer. Lay the tortilla flat, fill it up like a burrito with a slather of mashed potatoes, a serving of turkey. A spoonful or two of stuffing, and a pinch of green beans. Wrap it up and place in a glass baking dish. Cover the whole thing with leftover gravy, bake for 30-40 minutes and voila.
The cheesecake I needed a little help with.
I knew I wanted to wrap them in eggroll wrappers, but then what?
How bout a coating of cinnamon sugar and cinnamon?
If you have a blog, let me ask you a question. Do you ever look at your “top searches” and quietly puzzle, “Whaaa?”
My top searched phrase is mary eats.
Hello! That is the name of my blog. Come on people. Just add a dot com and you got it. No need to even go to the google or yahoo home page for that. Actually, maryeats is my top 3 searched phrases.
Number four is a ddokboggie recipe. I don’t have one of my own, but let me direct those with a hankering for chewy ddok cakes in a sweet and fiery sauce a nod to my favorite Korean cooking site, My Korean Kitchen, to Sue’s mouth watering version.
