More recipes, movie review, Thanksgiving
Dec. 1st, 2007 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirHaste Street, on the Feast of Ste. Florence
I made seaweed soup again today but with a beef broth instead of an anchovy broth and it turned out delicious! Mother walked me through the recipe over the phone.
미역국 (seaweed soup)
- Soak dried miyeok in a bowl of cold water in advance. Miyeok is brown seaweed and can be obtained from your local Asian supermarket. You only need about five or six pieces for a full pot since the seaweed expands in the water.
- Chop beef into small pieces. Sauté some minced garlic in sesame oil, then add the beef. When the beef is browned, add soy sauce (I put in enough to just cover the bottom of the pot and it turned out just right). Continue to sauté the mixture until the soy sauce begins to boil. Then add water and let the broth simmer for about fifteen minutes.
- Slice the seaweed into chunks, and add to the broth. Bring to a boil then serve.
- You can add baby clams, slices of daikon and potato, or tofu to the soup before adding the seaweed if you prefer.
I also made one of my favorite lunch side dishes (도시락 반찬):
달걀 장조림 (soy sauce-glazed hard boiled eggs)
- Make hard-boiled eggs. Cool them in cold water then peel.
- Add some water and soy sauce in equal parts to the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil. Add back the peeled eggs, roll in the mixture until the soy sauce has soaked the surface of the eggs. They should look pretty brown (the browner, the saltier).
- Slice and serve.
Also made portobello mushroom and snap pea stir-fry. I think I've finally gotten the hang of not adding too much soy sauce now.
Spent the afternoon procrastinating on my presentation by cleaning the apartment (oh, the dust!), doing laundry and watching Lady Vengeance, which is the last film in the so-called "revenge trilogy" by Park Chan-wook, the director of Oldboy. I enjoyed it a lot. The whole film is quite macabre and has a sort of dark humor to it that you shouldn't question too seriously while watching the movie. I rather liked the main character, Geum-ja, played by Lee Young-ae of Daejanggeum fame (the K-drama about the cook who becomes a physician). You know, it occurs to me that I probably would not have disliked Oldboy at all if it weren't for the incest; I remember liking it up to the ending. I guess Lady Vengeance also has the advantage of featuring grieving parents, which in true Confucian fashion never fails to win my sympathy no matter how contrived the situation. (Lady Vengeance is just as contrived as Oldboy; suspension of disbelief is required for watching.) Anyway, don't watch this movie if you're squeamish or dislike violence.
I've been meaning to post about Thanksgiving, which I spent with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladydaera and her family down in San Jose. I had a fabulous time, and Daera's family is pretty awesome. Her mother was so hospitable and took such good care of me. Plus, Daera's little sister, who is twelve and a precocious reader, was every bit as adorable in person as Daera says, and I actually spent a lot of time talking about books with her. Makes me wish I had a younger sibling. ^_^
Thanksgiving was pretty exciting because:
1. I went rock-climbing for the first time. Daera started me on a 5.7 climb (the easiest being 5.1 and the numbers going up with difficulty), which I think was the level she started out at, but of course, she isn't afraid of heights. I began climbing with some trepidation, and about halfway up the wall, there was this sort of convex area that I couldn't figure out how to navigate because I was out of my mind with fear. I was seriously hyperventilating for what seemed like an eternity; I was afraid to move because even though I knew I was on a rope and wouldn't fall, my subconscious simply wouldn't accept that fact. I was also too afraid to look down around me for other handholds and footholds. I tried calling down toladydaera for help, but I was up too high for her to hear. Finally, Daera's S.O. called out a suggestion to change the angle of my foot, and I was able to reach the next handhold. I finished the climb, and then there was another ordeal to face: coming down. As I understand it, in rock climbing, your belayer is supposed to lower you slowly while you pretty much dangle with your feet out to avoid hitting the wall. Since about 75% of my fear of heights is tied up in a fear of falling, this part was even worse than being trapped halfway up the wall. I was so relieved when I put my feet back down on the nice, solid ground that I actually had tears in my eyes.
But you know, there's this kind of weird addiction you develop for fear. Something about the intensity, the heart thudding through your ribs, the sweat soaking the back of your shirt. Something about clinging to the wall and feeling like you're in a life-or-death situation, even though your rational mind knows that you're actually perfectly safe. Also, the exhilaration of actually having survived that first climb made me feel a disproportionate sense of accomplishment. Anyway, I tried two more climbs (at a much easier 5.3 and 5.2), which were less terrifying because there were more handholds and footholds around. Daera and her S.O. did five climbs each; they're both very enthusiastic about rock climbing. It was a lot of fun to watch, especially some of the more difficult climbs, which require a lot of thinking and strategizing.
Final verdict: I probably wouldn't take up rock climbing as a hobby, but I don't think I'd mind trying it again.
2. Afterwards, we went salsa dancing, another first for me. It was at a ballroom dancing club called the Starlite; we made it in time to attend back-to-back beginnner and intermediate salsa lessons before the weekly Friday night dance party. Salsa dancing is Daera's other new hobby, thanks to her S.O., who is a great salsa dancer. He was kind enough to dance with me a few times as well, so I can attest that he's a really good leader and is inordinately fond of elaborate turns. About half the dances were salsa, but they also played cha-cha, tango, two-step, hustle and a bunch of others that I'd never seen before. I took ballroom dancing for a semester in high school (where we learned a new dance every week), but I'd never danced with experienced leaders before. Plus, I enjoyed the novelty of being asked to dance: mostly older white men, quite a few of whom were either middle-aged or downright old enough to be my grandfather, but most of them good enough dancers to be able to lead well despite my complete inexperience. Most of them were very patient and taught me some new steps or in certain cases entirely new dances.
I think I wasn't too bad for a rank beginner, although I did get told that I need to be a bit stiffer to be a good follower. That being said, I did make a lot of mistakes, and at one point, I accidentally jabbed the belly of my, uh, rather portly partner with my elbow. -_- I guess he didn't find it too painful though because he still asked me for a few more dances, presumably to keep teaching me new steps. There was one point where he was having me practice this continuous turn, where the follower spins and spins and spins under the leader's arm, and I got awfully dizzy. In fact, I was so dizzy afterwards that when we finally got home and went to bed, the room started spinning around me as soon as I closed my eyes. It took me a long while before I could fall asleep.
I did get asked to dance by someone around my own age, whose name was Zee (?) and had just spent two months in Ecuador where he learned how to salsa. He was kind of cute actually, and after the dancing ended at midnight, he came up to me and said, "It was nice dancing with you. I live really close to here, you know." I suppose I was meant to interpret that total non sequitur as "Hope to see you here again," so I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and say, "Good for you, but I don't! I'll probably never come here again!" >_> Still, what a novel experience! Now I can write Regency fic about debutantes at their first dances.
Anyway, I just really enjoyed the dancing. I liked being asked to dance and spinning on my toes and thinking with my feet. I liked the whole delicate process of sensing your partner's cues and trying to match him instantly (even though I usually failed). I liked trying new dances for the first time and learning on the fly. I liked coming off the dance floor, breathless and excited and gulping down water before being asked to dance again. It certainly made much more sense to me than the grinding and random hip motions that passes for modern dancing.
3. Good food! Thanksgiving dinner was at a friend of the family's, where we had turkey with stuffing and baked potatoes as well as Shanghainese food. We also had lunch at a housewarming party on Saturday, where the food was northern Chinese cuisine, but contained a lot of dishes that looked like variations on familiar Korean ones, like marinated pork belly slices and beef ribs. The dessert was cheesecake, which was absolutely delicious and put Daera and me in a complete food coma. Oh, that was the party where we ended up having the most bizarre conversation with a self-professed science fiction writer, who tried to argue that science was capable of producing sentient animals within the next ten years. (He also made a lot of other strange claims, like how scientists were amoral in their pursuit of discovery and invention and how governments were absolutely corrupt.)
4. We also spent a lot of time at malls. The requisite Black Friday morning shopping, where we stopped by Sears and Macy's and Bath & Body Works. On Saturday night, we met up with Daera's friend, a fellow Harvard classmate, although I don't think I'd ever spoken to him before, and paced back and forth along the length of a mall. We ended up spending the rest of the evening wandering around in Barnes and Noble before the store closed and looked at some pretty hilarious books, including this awful pamphlet written by one Murray Oxman (autographed copies being sold for $4.99, isn't it ridiculous?).
Still need to post reviews for The Rake's Progress and La Rondine, which I saw at the SF Opera withjaebi_lit, not to mention the long-overdue drama reviews. In the meanwhile, have an amusing link: Amazon customer reviews for uranium.
Yours &c.
Post-script: Psst, sign up for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bibliophages!
Post-post-script: Editing to add, fairy tale issue ofimaginarybeasts is out, so go read. Also, gah! I need to write my fifthmus fic!
I made seaweed soup again today but with a beef broth instead of an anchovy broth and it turned out delicious! Mother walked me through the recipe over the phone.
미역국 (seaweed soup)
- Soak dried miyeok in a bowl of cold water in advance. Miyeok is brown seaweed and can be obtained from your local Asian supermarket. You only need about five or six pieces for a full pot since the seaweed expands in the water.
- Chop beef into small pieces. Sauté some minced garlic in sesame oil, then add the beef. When the beef is browned, add soy sauce (I put in enough to just cover the bottom of the pot and it turned out just right). Continue to sauté the mixture until the soy sauce begins to boil. Then add water and let the broth simmer for about fifteen minutes.
- Slice the seaweed into chunks, and add to the broth. Bring to a boil then serve.
- You can add baby clams, slices of daikon and potato, or tofu to the soup before adding the seaweed if you prefer.
I also made one of my favorite lunch side dishes (도시락 반찬):
달걀 장조림 (soy sauce-glazed hard boiled eggs)
- Make hard-boiled eggs. Cool them in cold water then peel.
- Add some water and soy sauce in equal parts to the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil. Add back the peeled eggs, roll in the mixture until the soy sauce has soaked the surface of the eggs. They should look pretty brown (the browner, the saltier).
- Slice and serve.
Also made portobello mushroom and snap pea stir-fry. I think I've finally gotten the hang of not adding too much soy sauce now.
Spent the afternoon procrastinating on my presentation by cleaning the apartment (oh, the dust!), doing laundry and watching Lady Vengeance, which is the last film in the so-called "revenge trilogy" by Park Chan-wook, the director of Oldboy. I enjoyed it a lot. The whole film is quite macabre and has a sort of dark humor to it that you shouldn't question too seriously while watching the movie. I rather liked the main character, Geum-ja, played by Lee Young-ae of Daejanggeum fame (the K-drama about the cook who becomes a physician). You know, it occurs to me that I probably would not have disliked Oldboy at all if it weren't for the incest; I remember liking it up to the ending. I guess Lady Vengeance also has the advantage of featuring grieving parents, which in true Confucian fashion never fails to win my sympathy no matter how contrived the situation. (Lady Vengeance is just as contrived as Oldboy; suspension of disbelief is required for watching.) Anyway, don't watch this movie if you're squeamish or dislike violence.
I've been meaning to post about Thanksgiving, which I spent with
ladydaera and her family down in San Jose. I had a fabulous time, and Daera's family is pretty awesome. Her mother was so hospitable and took such good care of me. Plus, Daera's little sister, who is twelve and a precocious reader, was every bit as adorable in person as Daera says, and I actually spent a lot of time talking about books with her. Makes me wish I had a younger sibling. ^_^Thanksgiving was pretty exciting because:
1. I went rock-climbing for the first time. Daera started me on a 5.7 climb (the easiest being 5.1 and the numbers going up with difficulty), which I think was the level she started out at, but of course, she isn't afraid of heights. I began climbing with some trepidation, and about halfway up the wall, there was this sort of convex area that I couldn't figure out how to navigate because I was out of my mind with fear. I was seriously hyperventilating for what seemed like an eternity; I was afraid to move because even though I knew I was on a rope and wouldn't fall, my subconscious simply wouldn't accept that fact. I was also too afraid to look down around me for other handholds and footholds. I tried calling down to
ladydaera for help, but I was up too high for her to hear. Finally, Daera's S.O. called out a suggestion to change the angle of my foot, and I was able to reach the next handhold. I finished the climb, and then there was another ordeal to face: coming down. As I understand it, in rock climbing, your belayer is supposed to lower you slowly while you pretty much dangle with your feet out to avoid hitting the wall. Since about 75% of my fear of heights is tied up in a fear of falling, this part was even worse than being trapped halfway up the wall. I was so relieved when I put my feet back down on the nice, solid ground that I actually had tears in my eyes.But you know, there's this kind of weird addiction you develop for fear. Something about the intensity, the heart thudding through your ribs, the sweat soaking the back of your shirt. Something about clinging to the wall and feeling like you're in a life-or-death situation, even though your rational mind knows that you're actually perfectly safe. Also, the exhilaration of actually having survived that first climb made me feel a disproportionate sense of accomplishment. Anyway, I tried two more climbs (at a much easier 5.3 and 5.2), which were less terrifying because there were more handholds and footholds around. Daera and her S.O. did five climbs each; they're both very enthusiastic about rock climbing. It was a lot of fun to watch, especially some of the more difficult climbs, which require a lot of thinking and strategizing.
Final verdict: I probably wouldn't take up rock climbing as a hobby, but I don't think I'd mind trying it again.
2. Afterwards, we went salsa dancing, another first for me. It was at a ballroom dancing club called the Starlite; we made it in time to attend back-to-back beginnner and intermediate salsa lessons before the weekly Friday night dance party. Salsa dancing is Daera's other new hobby, thanks to her S.O., who is a great salsa dancer. He was kind enough to dance with me a few times as well, so I can attest that he's a really good leader and is inordinately fond of elaborate turns. About half the dances were salsa, but they also played cha-cha, tango, two-step, hustle and a bunch of others that I'd never seen before. I took ballroom dancing for a semester in high school (where we learned a new dance every week), but I'd never danced with experienced leaders before. Plus, I enjoyed the novelty of being asked to dance: mostly older white men, quite a few of whom were either middle-aged or downright old enough to be my grandfather, but most of them good enough dancers to be able to lead well despite my complete inexperience. Most of them were very patient and taught me some new steps or in certain cases entirely new dances.
I think I wasn't too bad for a rank beginner, although I did get told that I need to be a bit stiffer to be a good follower. That being said, I did make a lot of mistakes, and at one point, I accidentally jabbed the belly of my, uh, rather portly partner with my elbow. -_- I guess he didn't find it too painful though because he still asked me for a few more dances, presumably to keep teaching me new steps. There was one point where he was having me practice this continuous turn, where the follower spins and spins and spins under the leader's arm, and I got awfully dizzy. In fact, I was so dizzy afterwards that when we finally got home and went to bed, the room started spinning around me as soon as I closed my eyes. It took me a long while before I could fall asleep.
I did get asked to dance by someone around my own age, whose name was Zee (?) and had just spent two months in Ecuador where he learned how to salsa. He was kind of cute actually, and after the dancing ended at midnight, he came up to me and said, "It was nice dancing with you. I live really close to here, you know." I suppose I was meant to interpret that total non sequitur as "Hope to see you here again," so I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes and say, "Good for you, but I don't! I'll probably never come here again!" >_> Still, what a novel experience! Now I can write Regency fic about debutantes at their first dances.
Anyway, I just really enjoyed the dancing. I liked being asked to dance and spinning on my toes and thinking with my feet. I liked the whole delicate process of sensing your partner's cues and trying to match him instantly (even though I usually failed). I liked trying new dances for the first time and learning on the fly. I liked coming off the dance floor, breathless and excited and gulping down water before being asked to dance again. It certainly made much more sense to me than the grinding and random hip motions that passes for modern dancing.
3. Good food! Thanksgiving dinner was at a friend of the family's, where we had turkey with stuffing and baked potatoes as well as Shanghainese food. We also had lunch at a housewarming party on Saturday, where the food was northern Chinese cuisine, but contained a lot of dishes that looked like variations on familiar Korean ones, like marinated pork belly slices and beef ribs. The dessert was cheesecake, which was absolutely delicious and put Daera and me in a complete food coma. Oh, that was the party where we ended up having the most bizarre conversation with a self-professed science fiction writer, who tried to argue that science was capable of producing sentient animals within the next ten years. (He also made a lot of other strange claims, like how scientists were amoral in their pursuit of discovery and invention and how governments were absolutely corrupt.)
4. We also spent a lot of time at malls. The requisite Black Friday morning shopping, where we stopped by Sears and Macy's and Bath & Body Works. On Saturday night, we met up with Daera's friend, a fellow Harvard classmate, although I don't think I'd ever spoken to him before, and paced back and forth along the length of a mall. We ended up spending the rest of the evening wandering around in Barnes and Noble before the store closed and looked at some pretty hilarious books, including this awful pamphlet written by one Murray Oxman (autographed copies being sold for $4.99, isn't it ridiculous?).
Still need to post reviews for The Rake's Progress and La Rondine, which I saw at the SF Opera with
jaebi_lit, not to mention the long-overdue drama reviews. In the meanwhile, have an amusing link: Amazon customer reviews for uranium.Yours &c.
Post-script: Psst, sign up for
bibliophages!Post-post-script: Editing to add, fairy tale issue of
imaginarybeasts is out, so go read. Also, gah! I need to write my fifthmus fic!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-02 01:15 pm (UTC)And the soup sounds yummy. I should try that sometime. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-02 10:05 pm (UTC)Hee, hope the recipe works for you! ^_^ It's traditional in Korean culture to have it on birthdays. It's also traditional to not eat it before an exam; since the seaweed is "slippery" you might "fall from the exam" which is the idiom for failing.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-02 09:14 pm (UTC)I would recommend looking at the route before you try- see which holds you can use. Also, if you turn with your side facing the wall, you can read 3-5 inches higher!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-02 10:03 pm (UTC)Rock-climbing has become a bit of a fad, hasn't it? I feel like I'm the last person among my acquaintances to try it.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-02 10:10 pm (UTC)XD RC is my sport of choice, so it makes me gleeful to see people try it.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-03 03:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-03 10:17 am (UTC)