The One About New Year 2012 (What We Ate)

What we devoured with much gusto in the City of Pines...

Army Navy's Starving Sailor, Freedom Fries, and Tortilla Soup

A Korean feast at the Korean Meat Shop and Restaurant

We asked for 6 orders of pork and beef.  Then after cooking the meat, we sort of ate it shawarma-style by filling a lettuce leaf with the meat...

salad...which had a lovely hint of sesame oil

and kimchi.

Hon-some ordered rice but he refused to eat it after discovering it was black rice.  I was only too happy to eat it for him. :)

Brewed coffee, French apple pie, and chocolate lemon tart at the Hillstation Cafe in Casa Vallejo

Crispy pata at Barrio Fiesta (because it was 50% off!)

We ransacked The Manor's gift package.

Dived into The Manor's breakfast buffet...

Congee

Tuna and potato salad, Caprese salad (but they used local tomatoes), and salad greens which I partnered with crispy bacon

 

Vegetables, corned beef, garlic rice, and more bacon

A croissant and an egg white omelette.  I always asko for egg white omelettes whenever I eat in a buffet.  At home, I don't dare waste a good egg yolk.

 A waffle with very little maple syrup and loads of butter cream!  Still, it was lacking something...

Bacon!!!

Now I'm starting the new year dealing with this glutton guilt.

For stuff we did in Baguio, click here.

The One When I Went Korean

This is a long overdue post. The day before the EARCOS weekend, I made this Korean dish for lunch. I actually saw a Korean student of mine bring this to school once. It's actually just a simple dish of tuna and rice wrapped in seaweed. What made it so intriguing to me was how compact it was. It was a perfect lunch-on-the-go meal. If one is driving, he/she can literally hold the steering wheel with one hand and eat this meal with the other.

After class, I asked his mom how she made the dish. She gladly taught me how to make it. The next day, she sent the actual seaweed packs she used to make the dish! You could just imagine how thankful I was since I could not find these particular seaweed packs in any supermarket. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask the name of the dish and I couldn't read the Korean name on the pack. Hence, I always refer to this dish as the "Korean seaweed dish." Hehehe!

First, season some rice with salt and drizzle sesame oil. Set aside.

Next, drain the tuna and mix it with a little mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper. You can also use ground beef or pork instead. Stir fry the ground meat first.

The seaweed pack comes with a triangular frame. Place some rice in the frame. Make sure the rice is placed tightly so that when the frame is taken out, the rice holds its shape.

Top the rice with some of the tuna mixture.

Lastly, top it all off with another layer of rice.

This is the seaweed pack.

Take one of the seaweed packets and lay the triangular frame on top. Remove the frame. The rice and tuna layers should hold their shape.

The next step is to simply gather the ends of the seaweed packet and fold over the edges to form a triangle.

Seal the edges of the packet with a sticker (Yes, the sticker is included in the pack!).

If you can't find the exact seaweed packets, I guess you can always use the regular rectangular ones in the grocery. You can just layer the tuna and rice and fold the seaweed into a square or a rectangle.

I can't say enough how convenient it is as a lunch-on-the-go meal because it literally is! It's a filling meal without the hassle of lunchboxes and plastic utensils. How cool is that? :)