The other day we had a company wide sports day, which meant all the branches got together at a spot and spent the day doing all sorts of activities. The draw that I heard repeatedly was that the company had spent a million won ($1000, for you dirty Americans) on meat along. With a bill like that, how could you pass up?
I love my branch. Our head instructor spent the night buying me shots and encouraging us to go out clubbing only to text us at 9 in the morning to "remind" us to show up on time! Also, we were given these lime green collared shirts with the implication that all the other branches would be wearing similar uniforms. Of course, we showed up and were the only ones. We tend to be a group that stands out already, and proudly so. We don't really need the assistance most of the time.
The day started out with all the groups breaking up into teams and participating in a variety of sport goodnesses. A good portion of us showed up late (for obvious reasons) and so we jumped on the nearest team and started playing/cheering/recovering. With great pride, our team took first in dodgeball (huzzah!), then got combined with another, lesser team (awww), only to be lead on to glory by Busanjin's own Jef (huzzah, redux!). We took the lead with such invigorating and Olympic-worthy events as Pass-the-People-Along-On-the-Tarp(?), Blow-Up-the-Balloons, Pop-Said-Balloons, and Bounce-the-Enormous-Ball-On-the-Tarp. It was a tarpy, balloony kinda time. Needless to say, I feel confident in declaring us the winners, though on a day like that, how could you be a loser?
I have to admit, I really do enjoy stuff like that. I met up with a lot of people that I haven't had near as much contact with. It's easy to get insular here, since your work routine combines with your foreigner routine to shut you off from a lot of others. Sometimes you're tired, sometimes you don't want to put the effort in required of somebody in a different country and want to hole yourself in a wall. I realize I've slowed down a bit since I came here; every weekend I was in a new place before and saw new things every day. You need stuff to keep you invigorated or else you fall in the trap. I guess that's the same anywhere you go, but I don't want to squander my time here since it's already limited enough.
We also celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday with a potluck dinner at the coworker's place. Gotta say, I couldn't name a single Canadian holiday before I got here and now I'm jumping at the chance to join everything from Canadian Independence Day to Canadian Kwanzaa (please, let that exist...). Also, I miss cooking since it's so cheap here to eat out and I'm a lazy bastard. So if anyone has some new recipes/cooking ideas, send them my way. I only have a stove, no oven (baking ain't so big here), no microwave or anything really, no space for much. So if you have ideas on delicious meals using only a range and the sweat o' my brow (maybe not actually IN the food), post em up! Otherwise, later all! I'll have more actual Korean culture soon, I swear!
P.S. No, I probably won't.
13 years ago
2 comments:
I've been making A LOT of tofu recently. I've had pretty good success with some baked tofu but you can't make that, so I'll tell you about delicious FRIED tofu!
So one the tricks to making good tofu is to suck up as much of the water that's in the tofu and to replace it with lots of flavor. So after removing the tofu from liquid it sits in, you want to press the tofu between paper towels. You can wrap it in a couple of paper towels and put something heavy on top and let it sit. Don't worry about using a lot of paper towels. I let them dry afterwards and still use them for wiping counters, etc. After doing this, cut the tofu into about 1 inch cubes. Then transfer the tofu cubes into a container and drench them with chicken broth. Let this sit for about 5 minutes.
To make the breading, combine about 1 cup of flour, 3 tbsps of corn starch, a little salt, ground black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Mix this together. Coat the tofu cubes with the breading. You may have to do this twice.
Heat up a few tbsps vegetable oil in a pan and fry up the tofu! You'll have to turn it a couple of times to brown all or most of the sides.
There you have it! Simple fried tofu that's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Excellent with rice. The cayenne pepper really gives it a kick too. One piece of advice is to not make too much because it's not nearly as good when it gets cold. However, if you had a toaster oven, you could heat it up again and still have it be a little crispy on the outside.
I suggest you a make a big bowl of SHUT THE HELL UP. Baring that some delicious chilis would sort you right out, but you don't have any delicious cowboy spices, I must assume. Stop celebrating Canadian Holidays, that Watered-Down-America crap will only ruin your patriotism
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