It Started with a Journal

The budae jjigae was an unqualified success! adelagia and I both, surprisingly, enjoyed it. She felt that the American cheese was an unnecessary component, while I felt the same way about the baked beans. I like hot dogs, but wasn't too impressed with what they brought to the stew. You know what was surprisingly good, though? The Spam. :/ It turns out Spam is DELICIOUS. Dang it. It's really salty and full of umami... it's no wonder so many people like it. I've always thought of it as being this disgusting thing, because, well, canned meat -- it was clearly something only desperate people would eat during times of war. WWII was, after all, when it became popular. And it's the name of allllllll our unwanted email! Buuuut I kept hearing about various peoples who enjoyed it. The Hawaiians, for example. And while watching K-dramas, I'd see it here and there (pan-fried slices of Spam were Min-seok's favorite dish in High School King of Savvy). And now I know why! It's got to be horribly bad for you, but it's delicious, that can no longer be denied. Here's a gif of it bubbling merrily away. :D



I was also really happy with the mung bean sprouts. There were SO MANY, OMG. I waited an extra half day to harvest them so that adelagia and I could cook them fresh, but they grow very quickly the last couple of days, so they were SO TALL by then. I'd been keeping them in the oven, then the microwave (you're supposed to keep them out of light) with a wet paper towel over the top, but by Day 6 I just had to keep them out in a dark corner because they were too tall. You're supposed to water them every 3 hours, but I wasn't extremely religious about it; I tried to keep to that schedule (easier to do when on vacation), but just did it when I remembered and always kept the paper towel covering them wet so that they would keep moist that way too. Since they were all packed into the tub I couldn't really tell how tall they really were, or what color they were, etc. They weren't as plump as I might've liked, but I was really pleased by their length. It's weird though that homegrown bean sprouts have their "bean" parts still attached, but when you get them in the grocery store, they're not (whereas soybeans always have the crunchy bean parts intact; that's why my mom prefers those and I prefer mung bean sprouts). Anyway, also because they were so packed in, I couldn't tell how many of them there really were. And OMG there were a LOT. About 4lbs worth. Washing them (so that the green skins would wash away) was the most onerous part of growing my own, honestly! I hadn't expected that!

( Pictures! )

All in all, a very cool experiment. It took constant care, but it was extremely simple and easy, no soil or anything required. adelagia and I each made sukjunamul-muchim from a pound of bean sprouts, and put a bunch of them into the budae jjigae, too.

I also made a sandwich that is supposed to be Korean street food; it actually turned out really well. >< It's basically eggs fried with various veggies, then put between two buttered pieces of toast along with sugar, ketchup, and mayo. O.o Sounds disgusting, right? I fully expected it to be, but it was actually really tasty. I didn't use as much sugar as called for, though, and instead of a slice of ham I just cut up some Spam (since I had some) and put it in with the veggie mixture. I tried it with and without American cheese; it tastes good either way. Oh and -- it appears that she uses Kewpie mayo, though she doesn't actually specify. Since it's a dish originating in Asia, given Asia's obsession with Kewpie mayo (and it's not just Asia, but legit chefs everywhere), I can only assume that's the type of mayo used on the streets of Seoul. Since I only had regular mayo on hand, I made my own version of Kewpie mayo by diluting regular mayo with rice vinegar, sugar and MSG. (No, MSG is not evil. And though that fact has been "thoroughly debunked," the conspiracy against it has been too vast to overcome. Same goes for egg yolks and Spam. :P)

( I've also been watching more K-dramas... )

I also finished S2 of The Man in the High Castle. I enjoyed the season, particularly as it seems they haven't really given up on the Joe-Julianna thing. Either they want to keep it at a slow burn, which I'm fine with, or maybe they won't end up together at all, which I could also see happening. ( One quickie spoilery comment. )

My new Apple Watch arrived last night! It's sooooo pretty. I got the one with the rose gold plating and pink/blue band. I'm still figuring it out, but so far I've been happy being able to check my email, and I can tell that having Wunderlist on it is going to be awesome. I chose one of the Minnie Mouse variations as my watchface. :D (Min-seok has a Mickey Mouse watch, so I told jade_okelani that I was just like him now! LOL.) Her hands point to the time, but since it's digital, she's even dancing a bit and her foot taps out the seconds! So cool. However... I was in my open space office this morning, and I touched the watch somehow -- I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I DID, there was nothing about this in the instructions and despite all my playing around last night, this NEVER HAPPENED -- and suddenly Minnie Mouse said in her squeaky little voice, "It's 10:30! Good morning!" and everyone stopped typing. So then I was like, "Haha, oops" and could feel myself turning red. :))))) HOW/WHY DID THAT HAPPEN!!! Why you do me like that, Minnie?!