Goodbye Korea, Hello America!

After two years of this crazy adventure, Danny and I are finally heading home.  I have more to share in the future of our adventure, so this won't be the last you hear from us, but for now we're saying goodbye!  Goodbye to Korea, goodbye to Andong, goodbye to teaching, goodbye to friends, goodbye to delicious food, goodbye to the craziness, and goodbye to the wonderful people of Korea!  We've had great times and hard times but overall these two years have been awesome.  I know as we get back into the American way there will be a lot about this place that we will miss, but there's no time to be sad when we have another adventure starting!  I hope you all have enjoyed reading about our stories and experiences as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  Take care, and see you from home sweet home, the land of the free, the promiseland, the best country in the... AMERICA!  WOOP WOOP, here we come!

Vacation and Exciting News... OH YEAH!

In a matter of hours, Danny and I will be leaving for vacation.  Our last class has been taught, our bags are packed, and we are SOOOOO excited to head off to Thailand and Cambodia.  I will update you with some pictures from our trip in the next couple weeks, but for now I want you to know about something awesome happening in Korea.


Dan, Pablo (sorry won't be there) and Georgiana

 Our great friends, Dan and Georgiana Eakins, are in Korea as we speak and will soon be going with us to Thailand and Cambodia!  They are part of a band called the Ineloquent, and they are freakin' awesome.  While we are in Thailand we will hopefully be able to see a Compassion International site in Thailand and meet some awesome kids that they sponsor, but the exciting news that is happening in Korea, is this...

The Ineloquent will be playing a FREE concert at Dongshin Church (for directions click here) in Daegu on February 25th, at 7pm.  It's going to be awesome music, awesome people, and it's FREE... you can't beat that.  Come, bring friends, and enjoy a good time!  Here's a video of them so you can check them out. 

Hope you can make it, and hopefully when you see us there, we will be more tan and more relaxed then you have ever seen us ; )  VACATION, HERE WE COOOOMMMMMEEEEEEEE!!!

Bike For Sale

Anyone in Andong want to but my bike for 40,000 Won?

It was bought two years ago for 120,000 Won.

And the winners are...

After many wonderful people left interesting and disgusting comments of food they had eaten, Danny and I did a very fair (I promise ; ) drawing of names out of a hat and found our two winners!  Ladies and gentlemen, the two winners of Kimchi for Breakfast's 100th blog post contest are...drum roll....

Seth and Anna Schuett and Chelsea Van Ryn!

Congratulations!  Thank you all for your support and comments to our blog, and even though some of you didn't win, I hope you will continue to read and enjoy our stories from Korea.  It's always encouraging when we hear of you guys reading (and hopefully) liking our blog...really, thank you!

We wanted to try and do something special for post #101 so we've been putting together a little compilation of  stories from Korea.  So many of us who live here have crazy tales and funny memories that we don't want to forget, so Danny and I tried to document some into a little movie for you all.  In a little over a week, Danny and I will have been living in Korea for exactly 2 years, and man do we have a lot of memories!  We did our best to add the funniest and most wacky stories we could so for those of you who live in Korea ~  I bet you can relate ; ) and for those of you who don't ~  this is just a small sampling of Crazy Korea.  ENJOY!

Good times in Korea : ) 

Kimchi for Breakfast's 100th POST! Woop WOOP!

Today is the 100th post of this ol' blog and we're celebrating!  At first I wasn't really sure about starting a blog, and I really only did it to update our family, but after 100 posts I can say that now I really enjoy it.  Danny and I never really thought we would make it this far, but here we are... we survived 711 days of this crazy Korean life, and Kimchi for Breakfast is all about that journey!

To celebrate post #100, we are doing a GIVEAWAY!  We are giving away 2 prizes next week to 2 randomly chosen people! 

Yes, that's right you could be the lucky owner of a Bibimbacon shirt ...get it bibimbap...bibimBACON...get it? (Made by yours truly and will come in the size of your choice)...

Or of an original "Korea" artwork done by yours truly (you'll see the final one next week)...

Here's how you enter: 

Step 1:  I want to spread the news of this blog, so to enter you have to leave a comment at the end of this post in the "comments section".  Let us know what's the craziest food you've ever eaten (Korean or otherwise) OR just say hi...either is ok.

Step 2:  In addition to leaving a comment, you need to post on Twitter or Facebook that you just registered for this giveaway.  (Please copy and paste the following words: I just register for a free GIVEAWAY on Kimchi for Breakfast, http://www.katyanddanny.blogspot.com/, and you should too!  Go and check it out!)

 Step 3:  If you would like to have more then one entry, you can leave additional comments below, but then you also must specifically tell 2 people about our blog.  It's as simple as THAT!

I'm hoping in doing that, Kimchi for Breakfast will spread across the globe, and then Danny and I will be offered Travel Channel jobs, and then we will be bbillionaires, and then we will be the most loved couple in all the world, and then we will help find a cure to cancer, and then we will be able to live off our riches and die happy, in love and full of delicious food!  Whoa, I got a little out of hand there...sorry.

The winners will be announced next week so make sure and check back to see if you are the lucky winner!  Good luck to you all and spread the word!

How to make Jjimdak... it's Andong FAMOUS!

If we mention to anyone who knows a little about Korea that we live in Andong, usually people say "Oh, the jjimdak place!"  Danny and I laugh because people from Andong say that it is "famous" for about a thousand different things, but it actually is really famous for jjimdak.  Jjimdak is one of my favorite Korean foods and I was really excited when friends, Sara and Heelak, wanted to try to make it.  I will have to tweak the recipe a little to make it just perfect, but we are on the right track.

So for your eating pleasure, here is how to make the one and only ANDONG JJIMDAK!! (said with an echo ; )  I am not a expert when it comes to Korean food by any means and when I cook I do "a little of this and a little of that" so sorry if this isn't as specific as you would like.  I will add a specific recipe at the bottom you can try, but here are the general directions for now...

Ingredients you need:  "glass noodles" or starch noodles, soy sauce, pear and vinegar marinade (you can get this at a Asian grocery store, but I think you can omit this if you have to), corn or rice syrup, sesame oil, carrots, potatoes, red and/or green chili peppers (dried or fresh), LOTS of garlic, what I can only call HUGE scallions (maybe leeks?), white onion, chicken (you choose boneless or not), water, salt, and pepper.

Step 1:  If you get bone-in chicken you need to soak it in the marinade and remove the skin.  Koreans think the bone adds a lot of flavor, which is true, but I'm sure you could do this boneless and save yourself the time of picking the bones out while eating.

Me and Heelak "de-skinning"



Step 2: Cut up all your vegetables. 

We had lots of helpers, so it went quick.  Cut your potatoes and carrots into 1/4 inch thick rounds.  Then cut up your scallions into longer strips and your white onion into chunks.  Now can you take some heat?  Cut as much red and/or green chili pepper that you want... in Andong we have to ask for it "tol mepgay" which means "less spicy" because I can take some heat, but full-strength Andong Jjimdak is ridiculous!

And cut up a RIDICULOUS amount of garlic.  Seriously, I cut up like 20 cloves... so I guess this isn't really a "first date" kinda meal ; )

Step 3: Soak your glass noodles in water.  We've had jjimdak that has tdoek (Korean rice cake) in it and that was an awesome addition but you traditionally there is only glass noodles in it.

Step 4:  Combine all the ingredients for the amazing jjimdak sauce!  Put together soy sauce, sesame oil, corn syrup, lots of cloves of garlic, scallions, red chili pepper and start it a boilin'.  You want the sauce to get thicker so you gotta boil it for a little while.  *** Taste the sauce and make sure it has a good flavor...some like it a bit sweeter so if that's the case you can add a little brown sugar at this point.

Step 5:  While sauce is boiling, boil the chicken as well.  Don't cook the chicken fully, but just boil it enough to get all that "foam" stuff to come off the chicken.  Skim the foam off the top and pour out the chicken water.  (Reserve a little just in case you need some for the sauce.)

Step 6:  Combine the partially cooked chicken and the sauce together and continue to boil it.  (side note: take out the garlic cloves from the sauce.)  Keep it going for a maybe 10 minutes so the chicken soaks up all the amazing soy sauce, garlic, chili goodness.

Step 7:  After a few minutes add the vegetables, glass noodles, and minced garlic.  Boil all the ingredients together till the potatoes, carrots and onions are cooked through.  Pour your completed dish of jjimdak into a large bowl or platter and ENJOY!  (As you can see our jjimdak was a little lighter then the true Andong version, but I think we just needed a little bit more sauce to make it right.)

**Some tips to make your Jjimdak seem really authentic:  this amazing dish usually has a side of pickled radish that helps with cutting the heat in between bites and a bowl for your discarded bones if you use bone-in chicken.  Also, since the noodles seem never ending, it's really helpful to have a pair of scissors at hand so you can cut the noodles where need be.

There you go!  Go out and make yourself a famous dish that will make you fall in love with Korean food like we did.  But know that no matter how perfectly you make jjimdak at home, you still gotta come to Andong to try it on the "famous" Andong Jjimdak street... the smell of garlic wafting through the air and restaurant owners beckoning you inside is a cool site not to be missed : )

WAIT, here's some exciting NEWS!!!  Next week will be my 100 post for this blog and I'm really excited!  I honestly didn't think I would make it this far in posting and Kimchi for Breakfast has really been a surprisingly fun way for us to share our adventure here in Korea.  To celebrate that we stuck with it, Danny and I are going to be doing a GIVEAWAY next week!  It's a secret prize so make sure and check it out.  See you next week!

Here's a link for the completed Jjimdak recipe: 

Maangchi Jjimdak Recipe

(I will try to post the official one that we used, but it's all in Korean as of now so we have to have it translated.  Anyways, enjoy!)

Kai, Bai, BO! Koreans love of Rock, Scissors, Paper

Sometime in all our lives we learned the rules of Rock, Scissors, Paper (RSP). It's almost as though it is engrained in our DNA, and even though I feel like I'm surrounded by aliens on a far off planet sometimes, Rock, Scissors, Paper has even reached the world of Korea.

In fact, not only has it reached Korea, but it is serious business here. RSP is the ultimate decider in Korea and every man, woman, and child knows it. I'm actually surprised that more political offices aren't won by doing Rock, Scissors, Paper here... that is just how hard-core these Koreans really are ; ) Anytime I have a dispute in class, I just pull out RSP and students can't argue the results anymore. No "Teacher, unfair!"  No "Teacher, why!?" ... it's a magical thing.

In Korea, RSP is called "Kawi, Bawi, Bo!" or short "Kai, Bai, Bo!". Students do it in large groups here and go so fast that it is still hard for me to figure out who really won. All I know is one kid usually ends up cheering and excited while another kids hangs their head in resignation.

I doubt I've gone a day at school without hearing a Kai, Bai, Bo tournament going on somewhere and if you are in Korea or visit you should make a tally of how many times you see it. All I know is that it has saved me from many an argument and I think it might be my preferred way to decide who has to do the dishes with Danny now : ) Good luck to you in your many Kai, Bai, Bo games and if you know the "official" Korean rules, let me know because I'm still clueless.