You know you're Korean...

when you eat rice and kimchi after midnight. Yup, the 50% of me that is Korean has started to affect my eating habits and I am perfectly okay with that. Thank you Macy's for having small jars of kimchi for sale!

Did you know that kimchi is one of the world's healthiest foods? The words fermented cabbage may totally turn you off and make you cringe, but before you completely disregard this delicious Korean gem, there are some things that may change your mind...if you don't mind spicy.

• It's loaded with vitamins A, B and C. You get the first three letters of the alphabet so you know it has to be good.
• It has lactobacilli, a healthy bacteria like you find in yogurt. It helps with digestion and and seems to stop and prevent yeast infections. I've never had one of those, but I love kimchi so I hopefully never will. 
• Some studies show the fermented cabbage has compounds that may prevent the growth of cancer. 

I encourage everyone to give this wonder food a try.

*Info used in this post was taken from this article.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!

I went from having no plans this evening to dinner and a movie. I was bored so I decided to make mini cupcakes. I was planning on taking some down to the apartment of the guys in our FHE family (I'm sure you can guess why). The last batch was in the oven and I checked my phone for the time. I noticed I had a text from a number I didn't recognize. It was Matt! Remember him? His text said (and I quote), "Hey this is Matt. I made some Korean food if you want to come down and try it." Obviously I did. I was expecting the Dukbokki he promised me, but instead I got Budae Jjigae. He wanted to try making it himself since he hasn't been able to find a place that makes it as good as it is in Korea. It was way better than the restaurant's (no bias here, really). His roommates agree.

While we were eating he asked if I had seen any Korean movies, but I haven't really. They aren't as good as the dramas so I tend to avoid them. He then asked if I wanted to stay and watch one if I had nothing else to do. What a silly question! Of course I'd LOVE to stay, even if I had plans (consider them CANCELLED). So Matt, Joe and I watched Matt's favorite Korean movie (out of the few he's seen). It's called 200 Pounds Beauty.

It's about this fat girl who has a great voice, but because of her looks she sings behind stage for someone that looks great and cant sing. She ends up getting a complete body make over (Isn't Asia the plastic surgery capital of the world? If not, it's certainly getting there.) and gets her chance to shine. Along the way she loses her best friend and pretends not to know her father (he's mentally ill). She realizes she's lost herself and misses the way she was before (not being fat, but happy with her personality). It was a pretty good movie. After the movie I ran back up to my apartment to frost the cupcakes and I took a plate to Matt. They aren't as fancy as I usually try to make them, but they were still cute and delicious.

Here's what they looked like:

For scale:

The baking cups:

It was a fun night and I was glad to hang out with Matt for the second time this week. I also noticed that we're decreasing in numbers each time. For dinner on Monday there were two other guys. Tonight's dinner was the same (one was a different guy, he's from Nepal and knows my roommate - all the Nepali's [not sure if this is the correct term, but I'm going with it] know each other), but for the movie there was only one extra. If the pattern continues, I'm looking forward to next time. Actually, I'm looking forward to next time no matter the circumstances. I'm still looking forward to the Dukbokki he promised me. I think I might actually ask him to teach me how to make it (I really do want to learn). How cute would we be cooking together? Practice for the future? I think so. Just kidding. Or am I? It's BYU, you never know.

Oh, another thing I'm looking forward to is our ward dance that we are having next Saturday. We are most likely combining with another neighboring ward. It should be fun. Look forward to reading all about it.

Monday Misadventure...Turned Around

For FHE tonight, our family planned on going to some natural hot springs. I was looking forward to it since I had never gone to a hot spring before. Rylee and Arianna were in Ben's car and I was in Matt's car with Joe. We drove for almost an hour before finding where to go and realized it was closed because of it being winter and surrounded by snow (it's in a canyon and you have to hike a couple miles). We plan on going in the spring. It's no surprise that we had a hard time finding it because our FHE family has a history of getting lost. We are just dysfunctional when it comes to following directions.

Since that didn't pan out, we planned on getting ice cream. While driving back, we were talking about how hungry we were since we didn't eat dinner because FHE was earlier than usual. Matt (he served his mission in Korea and he's cute) said, "I think we should just go eat Korean food." He wasn't completely serious but I said we should totally go and let the other three go eat ice cream. Matt asked if I was serious and I was. So, when we got back to our apartments to change out of swim suits and sweats, we told the others about our plan. Rylee and Arianna didn't really want to go and spend more money today (we had gone grocery shopping earlier). It was just me and the three guys.

The restaurant was called Asian Fusion. We were the only people there. Since I'm no expert on Korean food and haven't been exposed to a lot, Matt ordered for us (in Korean, which sounded so cool) and we got three different main dishes and just shared them. There was also rice and a bunch of traditional side dishes. It was a lot of fun! It took us like ten minutes to order because they have a t.v. playing a Korean drama while you eat. We were too busy watching the drama to look at the menu.

The food was so good. We had spicy Dukbokki (rice cake, which I've wanted to try so bad because I've seen it multiple times in the KDramas I've watched), spicy pork (don't know the proper Korean name), and Budae Jjigae (a traditional base soup with lots of random stuff in it). We got a little history lesson from Matt regarding the soup. During the Korean War there was little to eat so they went around collecting what little food was left and made soup out of it. Obviously it's evolved and become a little more Americanized. There's ramen noodles, sausages, rice cake, cabbage, a slice of American cheese (a little weird, but it melts and disappears-can't even taste it) and other stuff. It's not as gross as it sounds.

According to Matt it wasn't that great compared to the kind you get in Korea. Ben said it was because it wasn't made by Korean women and then apologized that Matt was stuck with us instead of being surrounded by Korean girls. Matt told Ben I was Korean. Ben looked confused. We were like, "Are you serious?" Ben was totally serious. After a whole semester already how did he not know I was half Korean? He said, "Sorry, I guess I didn't pay close attention during the adoption of my daughter." He's our FHE dad.

The Dukbokki was delicious! I'm so glad I finally got to taste it. Matt said his is way better and Ben agreed so I said now he needs to make it for me so I can compare. Next time he makes it I'm invited over. The spicy pork was also amazingly tasty. We were blocking each other's chopsticks, it was that good! We definitely became closer, eating traditional Korean style where you just use your chopsticks and dig in. Hopefully none of the guys are sick!

Aside from some typical guy conversation that was a tad awkward, gross and didn't belong at the dinner table, I had great time.Now, I'm looking forward to Matt's cooking.

After thought: So this just popped in my head. There were three guys and me (Nice odds right? Haha.), which reminded me of that movie Three Men and a Little Lady. It's basically the same because they are men and I am a lot shorter than them...and a lady, but it really was nothing like the movie :)