SMiLE!

i sure did when i was offered this piece of chocolate. :) :) :)

night life

whenever i go out on the weekends, i've pretty much narrowed down where i like to go. hongdae, surrounding the art uni, is my favorite part of seoul. there are a gazillion places there to get your groove on or whatever you'd have in mind for a night on the town, but there are these 2 places where i've never not had an amazing time: the reggae bar & club obeg. they are both a refuge for freedom of expression and creativity. beautiful, conscientious people, great music, and killer ambiance. yesssss. :)

+++club obeg/500+++

+++redemption [Re] reggae bar+++

walking in a winter wonderland

...well, not quite. but it snowed! =)

i told myself after the last hike in the bitter cold that i was done for the winter. i just can't hack the wind chill factor, or would rather choose not to. BUT, my friend and hiking trip organizer, warren g, put together a trip way down south to wolchusan national park. i checked out the photos and saw an amazing suspension bridge that stretched between two peaks, and the rock formations in the park also looked pretty sweet. i signed up immediately. and glad that i did.



it was another hike that began on zero sleep at 5:00 in the morning, right after a long and uncomfortable bus ride. that's one way to wake up. brrrrrrrrrr! we charged for the peak to catch the sunrise, crossing the suspension bridge along the way. the sun was starting to rise before we reached the highest peak, so we climbed up on top of a big steeple-like rock to enjoy. as soon as i pulled myself up onto the rock, snow flurries started to swirl up toward my face. the sun was rising through the thick fog behind the peaks in the distance, creating a heavenly glow all around, while the snowflakes danced across the landscape. i can't imagine a better way to experience the first snow of winter, and the first snow i've seen in years.



the remainder of the hike was a bit extreme, regarding weather. winding around and up and down the rocky terrain, we battled ferocious winds, sporadic white-outs and even miniature hail. at times we frolicked and times we just trudged on. but for the last stretch, through pampas grass and pines and back down among the streams, we galloped like antelope until we reached the grand temple at the end. a great time. and for once i was able to sleep on the bus on the way back. hello winter!

cabin fever; giving thanks

this time of year, i always think of family, and how nice it would be to spend the holidays with them. in reality, though, with the places my life has taken me over the last decade, i'm away from home far more often than not. however, this doesn't, by any means, imply that i spend the holidays just sulking around the house. i love these festive months and i do my best to enjoy them to the fullest. thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday (halloween is a close 2nd)...and certainly not because i'm so proud of my ancestors butting in and taking over what wasn't theirs.....but because it is a time spent w/ loved ones, a day of relaxation and indulgence, a day to give thanks for all that we've been blessed with in our lives, sharing of food and stories, etc. i feel like on this day, everyone is in my usual mood & it makes me just ooze w/ love.

i've had some pretty amazing thanks-givings to date (playing a contemporary version of hide & go seek with walkie talkies in columbus, ohio and, of course, jess' birthday bash at the manoa cottage in hawaii comes to mind) but this year was right up there w/ the best of them. a big group of friends and i rented both a small cottage and a huge cabin just outside of the city. all the ingredients for a great time were in tact: good friends (old and new), heaps of delicious food, good beer (and bad beer), egg nog, rum, wine, stringed instruments, drinking games, karaoke room, fireplace, etc, etc. no football or macy's parade on the telly but, personally, i don't give a crap about that (no offense). i ate, drank and sang my face off.

the meal that we all, so lovingly, cooked up was off the hook...and all veg! there was so much food that we had to do 3 rounds, with lots of drinking and other frivolous acts in between.




this was the menu:






first course~ spicy pumpkin chili, garden salad deluxe, spanokopita, devilled eggs and cheese.


second course~ chickpea-seitan sausages, mashed potatoes, walnut-apple stuffing, mushroom gravy, sweet corn, roasted root vegetables, baked beans and persimmon-cranberry sauce.


third course (which didn't happen until the next morning)~pumpkin pie from scratch, homemade cookies, fruit and fair trade haitian bleu coffee.

there is a shortage of photos, but that's a sign of an unbelievable. good. time. :) i love you all and wish you a warm and happy holiday season.

my toaster oven did this

roasted radishes with garlic, rosemary and olive oil (like potatoes, but better). ....AND pumpkin mini-muffins (vegan). success.

Hiking Jirisan

i went on another hiking trip outside of seoul last weekend. it's almost too cold for the likes of me, so i figured i might as well do at least one more good mountain before it's unbearable. jirisan happens to be one of the three most notable mountains in korea (the others being seoraksan, done that, and hallasan, which is on jeju island).
we left seoul before midnight and made it in time to start hiking in the dark, just before 5am. we caught a nice sunrise en route to the peak, and then it was a long, knee-jarring descent, but we made it back in time for a late lunch. unfortunately, the fall colors were past their prime, but it was a great hike w/ a sweet group of folks. we were pretty beat by the end, but a little soju and makgeoli took care of that. ;)


before heading back to seoul, we made a little cultural detour for some traditional music, and we also got to make our own jjango drums! we probably looked pretty ridiculous when we got back, though... about 40 foreigners w/ little toy drums walking the streets of seoul at night. haha. bap, bap!

harvest; tuber time

it's been mighty nippy outside these days. well, it's actually been o.k. this past week... you know, mild autumn weather.. a nice sweater and a thin jacket.. maybe a scarf. but there were a couple of days that were just FREEZING. and i thought i was gonna die. anyway, we decided we should head out to the garden one last time to harvest what was left; what survived the freeze anyway.
daylight is growing shorter w/ each day, so we had to book it to the garden on our bikes straight after school. we knew that we'd only have a couple of hours, at most, before dark. when we got there, it was a bit sad. it was obvious that the gardening season was over. folks were harvesting their cabbage to make enough kimchi to last god knows how long and they wouldn't be planting anything else. our little garden was barely hanging on. all of the basil was dead; wet, brown drooping leaves. we were just a couple of days late. so we started uprooting all the tubers (beets, radishes and carrots) and harvesting huge piles of herbs and greens. getting it all home on our bikes was a bit of a challenge but we made it.
so then i had all that stuff to deal w/. just washing it all took forever. now i have enough greens to have huge, amazing salads for dinner this week. as for the other stuff, i found some good recipes for daikon radish and beets and i set aside one whole evening for that magic. the outcome was daikon kimchi, do chua (vietnamese pickled vegetables) and, my new favorite, daikon cakes. YUM. as for the other stuff, the herbs are drying & i'm gonna make some herbed radish butter and i'll roast some of the beets (but i mostly like them fresh on salads). damn, having a garden has been good. :)