Home Life: Adventures of the Inept Chef

You know, for someone who’s moved to the smack-dab, seriously geographically center of a large urban metropolis, I don’t really get out much anymore. Last week, I went all over Seoul in brief morning expeditions, zig zagging to Nowon (NE), to Gwangmyeong (SW) to Bundang (SE) on several craigslist quests for household items. But mostly, I’ve been keeping it close to Itaewon-dong (Is it a -dong? or a -gu? Neither?)

I took this in Unjungdong in Bundang, as I was buying a sweet 15,000 won rice cooker. As you can see fall is occurring, in that non-arbitrary, four seasons kind of way that Koreans are so fond of.

However, for the most part, I’ve become very domestic, devoting evenings to reading books, intending to catch up on my laundry, unclogging my sink, and trying to figure out the ins and outs of my Hangul-ed appliances. Perhaps it’s the second year in Korea malaise or the fact that hiking up to my apartment on a hill (not a hyperbole, as my friend stated once, you may be “in need of a sherpa”) is kind of an undertaking, or the fact that I work on Saturdays mostly and don’t have that desire to “make something” out of my weekend. Or maybe, maybe my neighborhood’s just rad.

I live up here.

Anyway, sometimes I try to cook for myself. Though to be honest, I get a little lazy… but nowadays, because of my location, going to the local kimbap place has been replaced with going to the local kebab place. Mostly Mr. Kebab, though sometimes I cheat on him with Ankara Picnic.

Here are some of my recent efforts:

Grilled cheese FAIL.

Cheese ramen.

Rice from said magic rice cooker.

Angel hair pasta sauteed with sun-ripened tomatoes, mushrooms and olives, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Don’t worry about me, I’m doing fine living on my own. Really. 🙂 Not photographed: that time I successfully made kimchi fried rice, that time I made garlic fried rice, that time I made rice and egg with spam slices. I aspire to make curry (out of a box) next.