Expat Cooking Part 1
(For those of you curious about my new home in Wonju, I will write a big post when I manage to take pictures. For now, at least, I have been far too busy.)
For expats living in countries where their native language is not prominent, buying groceries can be daunting. I often end up with something that only looks like the right thing, and my vocabulary for asking for ingredients for things is actually quite small (unlike my vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant).
However, except for vanilla-less cookies, or the accidental substitution of MSG for salt (man was that GROSS), the meals that I make for myself are little shaped by access to ingredients, and much shaped by the good old college mindset: what do I have, and how can I turn it into something slightly more edible? Of course, availability of ingedients does have another kind of influence. How I possibly make tuna, kimchi, cucumber and brown rice gimbap without kimchi and seaweed sheets?
Today's exercise in edible problem-solving
Problem: banana is expiring miserably, and I don't feel like leaving the house.
Other resources: a few drops of milk of milk, whipping cream, a yogurt cup, a teeny bar of vanilla ice cream covered in a very thin shell of ice cream. (I also have sausage, cheese, tuna, mayonnaise, ramen, various spices, a zucchini, and pancake mix, but I ruled those out).
VOILA! a sort of weird-tasting banana smoothie. The yogurt was a little strong. Not all my experiments have been this successful.
OINK OINK
For expats living in countries where their native language is not prominent, buying groceries can be daunting. I often end up with something that only looks like the right thing, and my vocabulary for asking for ingredients for things is actually quite small (unlike my vocabulary for ordering in a restaurant).
However, except for vanilla-less cookies, or the accidental substitution of MSG for salt (man was that GROSS), the meals that I make for myself are little shaped by access to ingredients, and much shaped by the good old college mindset: what do I have, and how can I turn it into something slightly more edible? Of course, availability of ingedients does have another kind of influence. How I possibly make tuna, kimchi, cucumber and brown rice gimbap without kimchi and seaweed sheets?
Today's exercise in edible problem-solving
Problem: banana is expiring miserably, and I don't feel like leaving the house.
Other resources: a few drops of milk of milk, whipping cream, a yogurt cup, a teeny bar of vanilla ice cream covered in a very thin shell of ice cream. (I also have sausage, cheese, tuna, mayonnaise, ramen, various spices, a zucchini, and pancake mix, but I ruled those out).
VOILA! a sort of weird-tasting banana smoothie. The yogurt was a little strong. Not all my experiments have been this successful.
OINK OINK