new toys pt. 1

while my parents were visiting, i sadly did not get to cook that much! we went out to eat and had takeaway food mostly. my plan was to make a kimchi pizza at our apartment, but my mom took over the kitchen. though i didn't need much convincing; even if it's the instant kind, i can not turn down jjajangmyun! it's a black bean noodle dish... ahh, nevermind. it sounds gross any way you spell it. anyway it was really good and made me miss the great chinese-korean takeaway place back in california. the next night she ended up making budae chigae; a soldier's kimchi stew with crap meats like hot dogs and my worst enemy, spam. luckily it is not easy to find that mystery meat here so i just tolerated the hot dogs. and it was gooooood. i missed my mom's cooking so much. ;_;


i never felt too sad when i was leaving them but now that they have left me, i feel like something is missing. siiiigh. well, they did leave me two gifts (among many) that will help partially fill that space. one of them is this awesome stone pot!! can you believe they brought this from america?! it weighs a ton! i am eternally grateful for this gift from my grandma, because now i can make toasted rice! it makes a really comforting soup which i ate 3 mornings in a row after my parents' departure. it sounds lame but somehow i feel complete after eating a simple meal like that.

oh, and it makes regular rice too. in the photo above you can see peppery rice with some toasted black sesame seeds. of course it's finished with sesame oil, which makes everything smell amazing. ^^