I'm finally back from South Korea and Japan. It was a great 5 week run of exploring the culture and food combined with too much shopping. To document the trip, there will be a number of posts dedicated to the trip.
This post will start off my Korea & Japan trip blog series. How this series will work is that I will post a collective post about each week which will just comprise mostly of photos. There will also be some more in-depth posts about certain sites and activities where I go into further details and talk about how I found it. In addition, there will be 2 'Foodie Friday' posts - one for Korea and another for Japan.
I flew out of Sydney on the 18th of December at 9am to Seoul, South Korea. Probably the best highlights of the first week was that I was able to FINALLY see snow on my first night. I have visited Europe and North America in the winter season was unable to see snow on both occasions so finally seeing it was a lifetime wish fulfilled. On the 20th of December, we visited 'Deoksugung Palace' which I absoluted loved. We saw the changing of guards and was shocked at how immersed I became into the ceremony and the architecture of the whole palace - it may be due to my infatuation of 'Princess Hours' when it was first released. The next day we visited MMCA (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) which I was also really looking forward to. We visited their Seoul branch which was opened in mid-2013 but there are 2 other branches located within 2 of the palaces within the Seoul area. Across those 2 days, we also had our first taste of market shopping. The crowds were crazy and so many stores - both major chain stores such as Forever21 and their make-up brands such as Etude House, and little stalls set up on the streets. Dongdaemun was not really what we expected but supposedly it comes alive from 10pm to 3am and we unfortunately left before then :( We were recommended this little tea house in Insadong that we finally found after searching for what seemed like forever. It was such a nice, quaint little place and offered some really interesting but delicious teas. We also partook in the couple tradition of writing all of our 3 names onto a disc and tied it onto fencing where other couples had placed their own signature discs.
This post turned out more wordy than I expected but looking back, we actually did do quite a bit. It just seemed like all we did was lazy around our hotel room and eat in cafes/chain coffee stores. Can we take a moment and just admire how awesome their 'Baskin Robbins' ice-cream cakes are?! Aren't they like the cutest things EVER. My friends and I also happened to get half a 'Green Tea Ice-cream Cake' for free as another group of tourists didn't want it - and it tasted delicious :9 As it was close to Christmas, they also had their Christmas decorations up, which you can see in the photos and I absolutely loved, but Christmas tends to be a couples thing so that explains why you Cupid and love hearts and like special couple discounts around Seoul.
Well, that's it for my first week overseas. Sorry about the delay of the post but hopefully the rest of the posts will be up relatively soon. I'm hoping for twice a week but I'm heading off another soon to tehe Gold Coast so we shall see how many posts I can write up before then.
Also a massive HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR! for all of you that happen to celebrate it :D
Until next time, here's an interesting fact: smiling releasing endorphins but fake smiling activates the same region of your brain as a genuine smiling and therefore releasing endorphins. So if you are feeling down, just fake a smile and your mood will be lifted.
As Christmas neared, my friends decided that since we are "mature adults" we should have a Christmas lunch where we all gathered and cooked one dish to share between each other. The day was a great way to see each other before I left for my trip and we all learnt how to play "Avalon" which was more exciting than we thought. If you like the card game, Mafia, then you will seriously love Avalon.
The dish that I took along was the "Cheeky Chocolate Cheesecake" which you can see on my previous post. Others had cooked ribs, pasta, sushi, quiche pie, nachos, banana bread, spring rolls and we even had a leg of ham! How grown-up LOL. We also built a gingerbread house village which most of the photos are of.
Well that's it. Hope you are doing well in 2014 and remember to remain safe and happy :)
Unfortunately, this post has no photos so you will have to survive with my rambling words. In early mid December, I had my work Christmas party at a park near Cecil Hills. We just had a bunch of food along with a BBQ to chomp on but the shenanigans made the day. One of the co-workers had brought a water gun which resulted in a water war being declared. Even though I was the main target with my body being soaked about 2-3 times, it was still great fun as people plotted with others to try and target certain people especially the head tutors of my work place.
After the BBQ had finished, some of us decided that we weren't ready for the day to end so decided to go bowling. This was where another war was declared between me and another co-worker, 3 fingers vs. 2 fingers technique for bowling. We recruited our followers and tried to show up each other. It ended up with a lot of laughter but I have to say first place did go to the 2 finger team, only because he was an experience bowler while the rest of us were sort of newbies.
Overall, it was just a great day with my fellow co-workers who I don't really get to see as I only work once a week. We plotted, we laughed and bonded quite a lot over the course of the day and will remain as a great memory to remember for the years to come.
Note: By the time that this post goes live, we would have entered into the new year of 2014. I seriously can't believe that a new year has come upon us and another year has left us behind. So I hope you all had a safe and happy welcoming into the new year. So now back to the post ...
On the 15th of December, a close group of friends of mine decided to hold a Christmas lunch. We were all to cook a dish and bring it along so that we could sample each others' cooking. I have been an avid following of 'sorted food' on Youtube so I decided to test out one of their recipes - the cheeky chocolate cheesecake.
cr. sortedfood's Youtube
For my recipe, I substituted the bourbon biscuits for the chocolate cream filled Oreo biscuits as I couldn't find them at my nearest grocery store. When undertaking this recipe, my biggest hurdle was actually melting the chocolate in the microwave with butter and vanilla essence. I placed it into the microwave for 30 seconds but it didn't look like it melted enough and when I tried to stir it, it still felt solid so I placed it in for another 30 seconds. This is where the problem started. My chocolate mixture didn't turn out to a nice silky liquid like it is in the video but rather it came out as a massive solid lump. After researching a bit on the internet on how to fix this, I added small amounts to butter but it still didn't result in what they achieved. However, upon mixing a small portion of the chocolate mixture with a small amount of the Bailey infused cream cheese, the chocolate completely melted. So CRISIS AVERTED YAY! So if your chocolate mixture does not turn out like the video, do not worry. Just combine it with the cream and stir using a whisk and the chocolate mixture will melt and combine really well with the cream.
If you happen to be using 12cm individual tart casings, I would maybe consider doubling the recipe as I ran out of the biscuit base when I hit about the beginning of the 4th casing. That's why you will see in the photos, I didn't fill each tart up completely with the cream cheese as I didn't have enough ... I think the editor of the recipe incorrectly stated the size of their individual tart casings in the recipe. So if you plan on making 4 servings, you could probably get away from the ingredients listed but if you want 6, definitely consider doubling everything.
I also decided to top them with crushed Ferrero Rochers instead of Maltesers as I had them at home already (I also prefer Ferrero Rochers personally). The nut, in my opinion, also added something different to the dish as it was a surprise element.
Overall, the recipe was deemed a success by my friends with many of them saying that it tasted great especially with the Bailey's infused cream cheese. I unfortunately didn't eat it myself due to health reasons but from how friends have responded to it, I would definitely make it again.
Hope you guys liked this cooking adventure version of Foodie Friday. I will probably continue documenting my cooking adventures under this series. Until next time guys, stay safe and happy :)
