Back to cooking...

...
After a very strange past 6 months I'm back to my cooking :)

I'm obviously not in China, but back in the US. But let's not dwell on the past, let us instead see how to make a super easy and scrumptious Korean meal called Sundae Bokkeum (순대볶음) or as Matt called it "Sunday Bottom".

It is a sweet potato noodle dish that contains carrots, cabbage and Korean blood sausage (the sausage is the Sundae). Bokkeum refers to the fact that it is stir-fried. From start to finish it took about 20 minutes to make.

You will need:
- 1/4 head of cabbage, chopped 
- 3 carrots, peeled & sliced
- a handful of dried sweet potato vermicelli noodles
- 1 tbsp Korean red pepper paste
- 1 tsp Korean red pepper powder
- 3 tbsp lite soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 Korean blood sausages

The sausages I bought were frozen and already fully cooked and so it was just a matter of reheating them. They came in vacum sealed bags. They were boiled in the bag for 10 minutes and then left to sit in the hot water for a further 5 minutes. Check out how dirty my stove top is!! My stove stop is always dirty as I'm such a messy cook.

In a little peanut oil stir fry the carrots and cabbage. At this time also boil the sweet potato noodles for 6 minutes.

Mix the red pepper paste, red pepper powder, soy sauce, sugar and water together to make a sauce. Add the sauce and sliced sausage to the vegetables. Allow to cook over a medium heat for a few minutes.

When the noodles are ready add them to the wok, mix well and then serve.

It was a super delicious meal! The sausage is very similar to black pudding, but the texture was a little softer, maybe due to how it was prepared. I think that if the sausage were thawed and then pan fried it would take on the same texture as black pudding.

There is a popular soup Sundaeguk (순대국) made with this sausage that also contains intestines. I've never cooked with intestine before, so I think I shall have to do some research before I attempt that dish.

So here it is, my first blog in China!!!!

I was too tired to post one yesterday. Today I am just posting a few photos. Click on them to see a larger version.

Here's the night time view from my hotel window. The air quality here is bad! You can see smog everywhere.

Yesterday for lunch I went out with the other people on the course. Lisl, a South African girl who is joining her boyfriend over here, Tom, an English guy doing 6 months before more travelling and Patrick, a Canadian.

Here is some of the food we had...

I promise I'll get better at blogging, I'm still obviously jet lagged!

I stay in Xi'an for a week and then head to the smaller city of Weinan. I'm hoping that my apartment will have better A/C than my hotel room... I can't move without breaking into a sweat in here.  bleurgh!

So far I'm having a lot of fun, have met some lovely people and had great interactions with the hotel staff who don't speak English. I seem to get a little homesick first thing in the mornings before I have any outward interactions. I know this will pass with time, especially once I get into a routine in Weinan :)

The final stretch...

It was with a heavy heart that Matt drove us away from Seattle. He really likes the area and, if he can make it happen, he wants us to use Seattle as base when I return back from China next year. 

Our next stop was a small town in the Northern Cascades, a town called Leavenworth with a population of less than 2,000 and TOTALLY MADE UP TO RESEMBLE A TOWN IN BAVARIA!!!!????!!!!

It was rather bizarre! But they did a lovely job of it. It could have very easily looked cheap and tacky, but it was actually quite pretty, the surrounding mountains certainly help. Also, on the main street there were only local businesses and it was nice to stroll along looking into the windows after a lovely dinner of seafood pasta.

Having been in France, Joshua could say with experience, that the place definitely felt European. Although he kept referring to it as Bulgaria ;) Here he is on the rooftop veranda where we had our lovely dinner.

Matt bumped into a cousin of his!

We were only in the town for 2 nights. On the second day Matt and Josh went white water rafting. We met up for Pizza afterwards, but Josh was so tired (probably from the adrenaline rush, he was rather nervous before the rafting) that he wanted to go straight back to the Kabin.

Matt and I went to a local brewery to turn in a token Matt had received with the rafting for some locally brewed beers. We sat outside and enjoyed our view....

The next day we drove to Boise Idaho, not much to say about this leg of the journey, it was a necessary stop. Matt and Josh went to see Superman at the cinema. I'm a scrooge, I can't stand to pay full price for movie tickets if I don't mind waiting to see the movie on Netflix, so I stayed in the hotel.

Wednesday saw us re-entering Nevada on our way to the small town of Ely. One thing I love about the desert is the presence of dust devils (I call them dirt devils). They are formed from cyclones of air picking up the dry dust.... they look like tornadoes and can range from pretty small to rather large like this one.....

The KOA that we are staying in for this last leg of our journey is a large RV kampground with only 3 kabins. This meant that we could only book the 'deluxe lodge'...

 We have our own bathroom, kitchen and air conditioning (which is great now we are back in the 90's). Josh loves the fact that he has his own loft

Yesterday evening we went for a walk near 'cave lake'....

We had dinner while watching Brave at the kampground park.

Today we drove to "Great Basin National Park". We went on a short hike to a lake.....

We then went on a cave tour. The tour itself was pretty cool, we got to see some awesome 'rooms' throughout the system of caves. I didn't take my camera and the iphone was not able to take any decent photos.

Tonight we are having a dinner of 'Mustgoes': baked beans, hot dogs, cheddar garlic biscuits and mac'n'cheese.

Tomorrow we leave for Las Vegas.

It's been a great vacation, we've managed to avoid getting on each others nerves despite the close living conditions. Although, Matt and I laugh that Joshua's description of this holiday will be "I got to eat some awesome seafood and level up my character on my nintendo DS game. I think we went to Seattle, it was something beginning with an S anyway..." :)

The diet starts tomorrow, I have been treating myself to some delicious meals (I'm munching on peanut butter M&Ms as I write this). I'm glad that I have several asian supermarkets nearby in Vegas, so eating healthy won't be a problem or a chore!

Tossed salad and scrambled eggs

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Seattle, Washington. In the evening we met up with a colleague of Matt's and his family for some Chinese food.

This morning we treated ourselves to a nice lie-in. It was nice to be in a proper bed!

When we finally left the hotel we headed down to the waterfront of the bay...

We then headed to the market at Pike Place

We were then ready for lunch and so we headed to "the crab pot" for an amazing meal. We ordered the Westport Seafeast for 3 people (Dungeness crab, snow crab, shrimp in the shell, steamed clams & Pacific mussels, andouille sausage, corn on the cob & red potatoes in their jackets).

It arrived in 2 buckets which were then dumped onto the table and we were given wooden mallets and then left to rummage through the delicious assortment of seafood.

We were also provided bibs as it can get rather messy when you're smashing the hell out of a crab...

Matt, fat and happy after the feast :)

 Josh's shellfish remains...

It was a really fun experience, we were there for about 90 minutes slowly making our way through the feast. It was a really good value for the amount of seafood that we ate, $25 per person. Anybody visiting Seattle should definitely give this place a go.

After lunch I was in need of a nap so I headed back to the hotel while Matt and Josh took a ferry tour of the port.

We then met up again and headed to the Space needle, which is a lot smaller than I had previously thought.

As we are in Seattle we thought it only right to grab a Starbucks, although we didn't go to the original one in Pike Place. Joshua, who doesn't like coffee, found that he has a fondness for non-fat caramel frappacinos! He had a sip of mine and then was hooked!
We chillaxed on a lawn beside an amphitheater next to the space needle.

We then went to see the International fountain...

And watched some young Koreans play the drums...

We then headed back to the waterfront, past some interesting fountains...

Saw a train...

And decided to stop at Elliot's Oyster House for dinner. Josh tried his first Oyster, there wasn't a second one ;) Matt and I asked the waiter to pick a selection for us. I'd never had more than one type of Oyster at a go, so it was interesting to notice the differences in the tastes and textures!

For my entree I chose the Cioppino, a shellfish and fish stew. Delicious!

Here was our view from the restaurant...

Goodnight Seattle, we love you!