Vietnamese Cooking 101 continued yesterday, with Thai teaching me how to make coconut pork.

You need coconut juice, hard boiled eggs and pork marinated in five-spice, fish sauce, shallots and salt.

As Daddy gets creative in the kitchen...

...Tyson is painting in the living room.

Add everything into a put and cook under pressure for 30 minutes, and then allow to stand for 15 minutes. The juice should be quite clear.

Serve with rice and salad - use excess juice as a dressing.

Eat with nem (fermented pork).

(Thanks to my sis for inspiring me to write more about food)

Chúc mừng năm mới - Happy New Year!

To celibrate the coming of the year of the cat in Vietnam, Thai made some Bánh chưng, a delicious New Year's treat.

Legend has it that a Vietnamese King was getting old and didn't know which of his sons he wanted to pass the Kingdom onto. So he gave them the challenge to go and find a delicious delicacy, the son who brought him the best bite would inherit the Kingdom. So the sons searched far and wide for the perfect gift with which to impress the King and win the Kingdom. But the youngest son, who was poorer that the other sons, decided instead to make something special using everyday ingredients that the average person could afford. The product was Bánh chưng. The king was so impressed that he made his youngest son his heir, knowing that the son would take care of the ordinary Vietnamese people.

Thai was kind enough to let me take part in making this food fit for a king.

The basic ingredients are: dong leaves, soaked strips of young bamboo (not me ole bamboo), soaked and salted uncooked sticky rice, mung beans, fried shallots, and marinated pork.

You need a small box to with dong leaves. This is the trickiest part and requires wicked origami skills.

When you have lined the box with six leaves, fill the box with layers of rice, beans, pork and shallots.

Then, fold over the excess leafage, and press down to make sure the cake is nice and compact.

Remove the package from the box.

Tie up the package with the bamboo, twisting the ends together to make sure everything stays in place.

The finished product should look something like this:

After boiling for 6-8 hours, you can unwrap.

Enjoy hot cold, or (my favourite) fried. Serve with pickles to some one you want to impress.

Land Elephants

It was not on my list, but my first and (alas) last basketball game in Korea was a great way to spend an afternoon looking at tall athletic young men. We were there to cheer on Maureen's friend Jarod Stevenson (문테종) who plays for the Incheon ET Land Elephants (not to be confused with the sea elephants).

Jarod is wearing the white sweatband.

There was also something for the boys.

I don't know who Pocari is, but his sweat is delicious and refreshing.

The basketball players weren't THAT tall, these are mini-cheerleaders.

I was picked out of the crowd for being a foreigner and given a signed ball. That's not going to happen in Germany.

Last Christmas

I already regret my fashion choices of last year.

But I can not regret spending Christmas with such lovely people.

Thank you guys so much for making my first Christmas without family such a happy and memorable one.
xx

Kimchi Evil Eyes

In just over a month I will be leaving Korea. How am I to exist without kimchi - the fermented spicy cabbage dish - that I eat every day? I clearly need some kimchi making skills to keep the H1N1 virus at bay. So on Sunday I headed with Sam to the O'Ngo cookery school to learn how to make the dish that I have become seriously attached to. As a tasty extra, they also taught us how make bulgogi.

Read, steady....COOK! (Please note the demonic eyes)

Hye-jin, our lovely instructor

Kimchi ingredients: brined cabbage, spring onion, chilli powder, garlic ginger and shrimp sauce....

....and radish (MU!)

After stuffing the cabbage with the other ingredients, and throwing half of the ingredients down yourself and on the floor (it's traditional), you bundle it up and...

TA-DAA!

Eating the food along with another student from Japan and her instructor (Again, please not the evil eyes)

Feeling very pleased with myself I couldn't believe at the time that my kimchi had actually given me demonic eyes. Until I went to get a photo taken for a job application today. The lady in the shop snapped my picture, I went home to wait for the email. I opened up the file and this demonic teacher greeted me:

I like to think that my perfect skin is another result of the home-made kimchi, rather than just very liberal use of photoshop. But, just incase my skin really is getting that good, I'm going to go make myself a kimchi smoothie. I'll just have to put up with the demonic eyes.

Hanbok

Winter has officially hit, and so what are you to do in the wee hours, miles away from home in freezing temperature when you need a warm place to curl up and sleep? Go to the public bath house, of course.

Unfortunately, when Anna and I arrived after her farewell party, we were not the only ones to have thought of this. After a quick shower and bath, we went to the women's sleeping room - a large dark room with mats and blocks for pillows and about 30 sleeping women. Once the seven year old next to me stopped elbowing me in the ribs, I actually had quite a pleasant nights sleep.

Anna getting into the public bath house.

The spring of eternal youth?

It works!

But Baby it's cold outside

The next day, after sweating all the impurities out in the sauna, we went over to Julie's for the best shabu-shabu in the world (FACT). Julie was kind enough to let me try on her hanbok - traditional Korean costume made out two dresses and a jacket. Julie helped me get dressed. Oddly the dress is actually green. I like to think this photo also misrepresents the length of my face (thanks, Naomi, for telling everyone at school that my face is so long because of an accident involving a heavy articulated lorry)

The dress is very tight across the chest, but with lots of netting on the petticoat.

Practising a full Korean bow.

This bow-wow wanted in on my bow

Sexy Back

No, I don't have the world's worst case of bacne.

These are the side effects of having your chi warmed up with a traditional cupping therapy.

Last weekend, I went with Jess and Jess to Dragon hill spa, a huge public bath house with seven floors of facilities. Once you get into your pajamas you are free to use the internet cafe, swimming pool, saunas, karaoke rooms, arcade games, restaurants, snack bars, beauticians and massage parlours. You swipe your wrist band if you have to buy a service, and then pay as you leave. Families, couples and groups of friends often spend the whole day there together as there is so much to do.

Jess and I in the large family room.

If you want to use the baths you go to the female only area, strip down and scrub yourself fiercely before dipping in. In the outdoor courtyard you can choose from the ginseng bath, the kids rainbow bath, a bath made of a special wood, and a salt water bath. Indoor there are more baths of different temperatures, some with salt water. There is also a steam room and sauna. Obviously, there didn't take any pictures of this area, but you can see some here.

I went to one of the massage areas, and decided to get the cupping with a meridian massage - deciding against "face reduction management". The massage therapist seemed to magically straighten out my body, by twisting my arms and legs. Then, she got a torch and a lot of small ceramic cups. She put the flame into the cups and this caused a vacuum so they could be stuck along my meridian lines. It was more uncomfortable than painful, with the places with more muscle being the most painful. When they were removed I had shocking red swollen circle on my back, but very little pain.

Cups on my back

A second round on my back

On my stomach. It felt like my organ were being sucked in.

Since then I will occasionally be reminded of the experience when my back hits the back of a chair with a slight shock of pain. It is probably the most extreme form of massage I've had (which is saying something - I was once covered in chocolate mud). Maybe next time I'll gather the courage to get my face reduced.