Desserts and Sweets

I have sweet tooth. I always have hidden chocolate bars under my cupboard. And there are times that I indulge myself, go to a cafe and order any dessert that appeals to me.

So here are some of the desserts that I've tried while in Korea, which I have tasted during my indulgence or during birthday celebrations.

cakes from Paris Baguette

Chocolate cake. I am not very impressed with Paris Baguette's chocolate cake. It is soft and creamy. It is a good cake, not too sweet. But I think it lacks the chocolatey taste. The frosting (as you can see from the photo) has crack which is a sign that even the frosting is not made of pure chocolate. So if you're craving for a rich chocolate cake, I think this is not the best option, just so-so.

Blueberry yogurt cake. For this flavor, I think Paris Baguette did a good job. The yogurt has the proper blend of sweet and sour taste. The chiffon base cake is soft and silky. The frosting is creamy and yummy. The fruit toppings are well-ripen. 

Cheesecake. Eating this cake reminds me of Lemonsquare cheesecake. The cake is not the usual cake made of pure cream cheese with a graham base. Paris Baguette cheesecake is combination of cream cheese and flour. As a cheesecake fanatic, I do not very much appreciate this cake from Paris Baguette. Even the topping is not very cheesecake-y. The topping is like the one added to leche flan. I don't give this cake a thumbs up.

Vanilla cake. THIS. THIS CAKE. This is personally my favorite cake in Paris Baguette. It has soft and silky chiffon cake inside with so much creaminess. It is best eaten when chilled. The fruit toppings are also good, but I once ate the grape and it had seed. But aside from that, the cake has the right sweetness of vanilla. :)

**cookies from Paris Baguette

These are Homemade Cookies from Paris Baguette. There's one type (oatmeal?) with raisins and the other one is chocolate cookie. They taste like... homemade cookies. :) They are the crunchy type, not the chewy type. Just a piece or two is fine, but the third piece will already give you the I-don't-like-anymore feeling about it. Best eaten with a glass of milk.

from Caffe Bene (*they spell cafe with double f)

Cheesecake. I like the cheesecake in Caffe Bene. It is plain and cheesy and creamy. It is served chilled and it melts in the mouth. The cake is made of pure cheese and cream, no flour. It is sour and salty, but its sweetness is a little bit sweeter than what I am used to. But overall, I like it. :)

Strawberry waffle with whipped cream. This one from Caffe Bene is heavenly divine. The waffle is soft and the whipped cream is really good. The strawberry is slightly drizzled with syrup but it is perfect. This waffle can be a meal itself, it is heavy and can make you feel full. I love it.

from Vero Espresso (a nearby local cafe)

Patbingsoo is shaved ice with milk and syrup topped with corn flakes, red beans, fruits, or different combinations, and sometimes topped with ice cream. It served in a big bowl which is shared within a group.

Red bean patbingsoo (팥빙수). 

Fruit patbingsoo (팥빙수)

from a street vendor

Cup-pingsoo (컵핑수). This version of patbingsoo is eaten alone. It is served in a small cup and is usually sold as street food for 1000 won.

from Tokyo Taiyaki (located Lotte Department Store Food Court)

I don't know what these are called, but it's a pastry with choice of red beans or custard as its filling. It is best served hot and is very yummy.

from convenience store (Family Mart/ CU)

Parfait (파르페). Whenever I crave for a readily available ice cream, I just go to the nearest convenience store and buy this ice cream. It has chocolate, strawberry, and cookies and cream flavors. There are also different types of ice cream and all are really good.

I don't have photos but when you're in Korea and you want premium ice cream, the most famous is Baskin Robbins. You'll love their variety of flavors and every 31st of the months, they have this event promo which gives you a free upsize of your bucket order. :)

PS. I made a separate blog on my favorite Korean cafe named 남작할 슬리퍼 (namjakhal slipper). They have great pastries. <3

Cooking Pasta in Korea: An Easy Recipe

I love cooking and my forte is pasta. I've been an executive chef in one big event and a sous chef in one event, both of which events the main dish is pasta. This led me to experimenting several pasta sauces at home: cream-based, tomato-based, tomato/cream-based.

In my almost 6 months of staying in Korea, I have never tried cooking "real" food for a meal. My food is either from a restaurant or something instant cooked with something not instant (example: sauteed canned tuna with cabbage, instant noodles with broccoli, etc.). So on my roommate's birthday, I decided to cook pasta. It also happened to be the last day of our summer English group study for our Korean friends, so it was a worthy double celebration.

Experiment No. 15: Cooking Pasta in Korea
Since it was my first time to cook pasta in Korea, I did not have any idea how the sauces taste like, if they were more on the sour side or the sweet side.

Ingredients:
10 cloves garlic, minced (the garlic in Korea is kinda mild in flavor)
1 large white onion, minced
1 T corn margarine
400 g ground pork (I prefer pork over beef because beef gets greasy in sauces)
2 jars spaghetti sauce, 680 grams each (or tomato sauce)
1 jar carbonara sauce, approx 300 grams (or alfredo sauce)
1 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 pc carrot, minced
salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

Heat pan and add margarine. Saute in the garlic and onion.

When the onion and garlic are cooked, add in the ground pork.

Add salt and pepper. Cover and wait for pork to turn into brown color. Then add carrot and parsley.

Put the carbonara sauce.

Wait for it to simmer, then add the tomato sauce. 

Mix and blend the sauces well. (Funny that it almost reached the rim of the sauce pan! Haha. We have limited cooking utensils because we're only staying in Korea for short time.. :P)

Wait for it to boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook pasta noodles according to instruction. Serve while it's hot. Top with parsley and cheese for more colors. :)

When in a foreign country, you'll never go wrong in cooking when you have the right taste buds. Don't be afraid to experiment, because it is really really fun to experiment on food. <3

A Restaurant: Asian Spoon

Whenever I go to downtown area with my friend, we always pass by this alley where there's an even smaller alley leading to this hidden restaurant called Asian Spoon.

On my friend's birthday, we decided to go to the downtown, go shopping and have dinner. We first bought our lattes from a cafe our friend is working at and then we were supposed to eat at The Rice Story but it was already closed.

We then decided to finally satisfy our curiosity about the hidden restaurant a.k.a Asian Spoon.

The photo on top was the view from the outside of the restaurant. It had a homey exterior but you'll have to pass by a small alley before you can reach it. The interior also has a homey feel but the air conditioning was poor. (maybe because we arrived near closing time)

The server gave us soup and bread for appetizer. The soup is quite good but it was like the instant ones from pouch.The bread was okay.

When I got my seafood risotto, one word to describe it is --indulgence. It was unhealthy and yummy, the whole topping was covered with mozzarella cheese. The rice was rich with cream. The shrimps had proper cooking, soft but not rubbery. It's a great risotto but not for calorie-conscious people like me. 

The food was okay, but because we arrived 45 minutes before closing time, we experienced a not-so welcoming treatment from the servers. Maybe they were just tired but I felt their impatience while waiting for us to finish our meal.

I recommend this restaurant to be visited by daytime, but certainly not on late dinner time. Food is good. I will visit again next time and see if people will be nicer with the sun out. :)

Yeosu Expo 2012

July 22, 2012.

July 22, Sunday is Philippine Day at Yeosu Expo 2012. We got free admissions tickets via PIKO (Pinoy Iskolar sa Korea, 감사합니다 <3). Event starts at 9:00. And we were advised to bring our Filipiniana national costumes for the parade. I remember before I went to Korea that our university professor told us to bring national costume for special events like this. So I told my mom to buy one for me, and finally I will be able to use it.

On the event day, I woke up 4:45am to catch the 6:15 am bus from Jeonju to Yeosu via Shiwei Bus terminal. Travel time is 3 hours but due to several bus stops, the travel time was extended to 4 hours. People in the bus were also agitated because of the travel delay. Almost everyone in the bus are headed to the Yeosu Expo. We arrived at Yeosu Expo by 10:30.

Sadly, I was not able to wear my Filipiniana costume. 

As we entered, we took picture with the Yeosu mascots. They are suuuper cute. HIHI

So to maximize the free ticket, we decided to go around every pavilion we could enter. But we ate lunch first. We ate at Lotteria where we saw Kyla (a famous Filipina singer). We had the opportunity to take picture with her.

After lunch we went tried to enter Japan and France pavilion but the lines were too long it would take maybe 2 hours of waiting before we could come in.

We decided to walk around Yeosu and we saw that there was an ongoing parade, the theme was sea-creatures. It was a pretty nice show.

 All the performers seem friendly with their smiles and some encouraged the audience to take photos with them.

After the parade, we went to the Big O area (the name hihi). There was a play where the performers are riding jet skis and this amazing ride which raises the guy with water. (It’s hard to explain, HIHI there’s a photo below.) The motor ride uses water pressure to make the guy float in the air. Apparently, he is the ‘bad guy’ in the play.

After the play, we decided to go to pavilions where there are no long lines.

And so we were able to enter countries in South East Asia: 

Malaysia Pavilion

Cambodia Pavilion

Vietnam Pavilion

Brunei Darussalam Pavilion

5pm is the time that the bus will fetch us to go to Seoul. And 5pm came too soon.

To be honest, it could have been more fun if we had more time. I was quite unfulfilled. I had fun going around. But I was not able to enter the pavilions that I want to go to—Japan, Italy and France. One day is not enough to enjoy the Yeosu Expo. Also, the weather is very hot and humid. ~~

Anmyeon Island (안면도) Experience

So this was my first ever camp to participate in during my stay in Korea. A four-hour travel from the province I am staying at, in Jeonju (전주). It is an all-expenses paid trip by KISSA.

It is a 5-day* volunteer work in Anmyeon Island where we went vegetable picking and sea-side cleaning.
*Turned out, it became a 4-day experience because of typhoon and other problems...

Didn't know before that I can experience star-gazing during daylight. :)
Starfish galore. ♥♥♥

July 16 ~ July 19, 2012. ♥
Got to meet new people from all over the world, who share the same passion for exploring culture and travelling the earth. Met other international students who, same as me, are living their lives to its fullest. :)

For our first task of volunteer work, we cleaned seaweed (김) by the seashore. It was a hot summer day. I forgot to bring sunblock so hello ultra-tanned skin.

It was really really tiring. We were able to fill maybe 10 mini-truckloads of seaweeds. I would have given up if not for the friends that I've been working with. While picking up the seaweed, I was having chats with my new-found friends. I met a Filipina, she's older than me and have stayed in Korea for quite a few years. She told me her travel experiences, her host family, gave me tips. I enjoyed her company, I found a new sister.

After swimming, we were given the privilege to swim. It was very relaxing to soak under cool water after working under the scorching sun.

Our second task was to cut garlic. We rode a pick-up truck on our way to the garlic farm. Hot and breezy joyride.  :)

So our task was to cut the root and stem parts of the garlic, separate large and small ones, and do as many as we can. As usual, working time equates to bonding time. I learned so many things from the stories of my new friends and they also learned a lot from me (I hope.)

I like cutting garlic better than picking up seaweed.

Our third task of volunteer work is going to a middle school and high school to interact with students, share about our country of origin, and to have a mini museum tour.

On our last night in Anmyeon Island, we had a mini-celebration where all volunteers prepared performances according to country of origin.

It's a fulfilling volunteer farm work, which also turned out to be a party!!! Party of united nations. ♥♥♥ 

When I saw the slippers and shoes in front of the door, I couldn't help but smile. I'm amazed how these pairs of footwear belonged to people from all over the world, but are all geared to one direction-- that is volunteer work.

seaside cleaning > swimming > seaside cleaning > garlic cutting > middle school teaching > museum tour with highschool students > feasting. INSERT FUN IN ALL ACTIVITIES. ♥

HIHI. Definitely one of my most unforgettables. :)
Really, the best things in life are for free. :)