reclaiming the kitchen

now i have been whining recently how i do not have the time to utilize my kitchen, to discover the nooks and crannies of the fridge and cupboards, not a chance, to become the once-again master of my house's kitchen. oh well. 

i have not have any problem discovering where the wine is though.

 

through helping out in the kitchen every chance i had this weekend and the lastlast week (oh memories of ultimate freedom! food at home breakfast, lunch and dinner! the joys i did not know was mine until it was brutally snatched away by the monster company named ACCENTURE) i now know where the little dishes and kimchis are, and this weekend realized with joy that all my baking equipments are exactly where they were (which also means nobody has been using the oven..... the only baking freak in the family)

so this weekend, under my sister's request(she has recently gone through a major (minor in my opinion, but ok she's still a baby) disappointment, a little babying for my baby sister) i set on to make oreo cheesecake!

my ingredients! mine!

cheesecake is so easy to make, yet so satisfactory despite it. i remember visiting my friend at the hospital due to a broken angle with freshly baked oreo cheesecake (her favorites are actually cream puffs but hey, cream puffs are hard to puff up). after fussing over her bandaged ankle and hearing the details of the breaking-ankle story, i opened my bag and gave her the little package containing my proud creation. the moment she opened it her mouth dropped open in surprise. i panicked.

was it murphy's law at work? did she had oreo cheesecake for breakfast? somebody had already gave her an enormous oreo cheesecake the day before? or....were she allergic to oreos?

fortunately, it was nothing of those. her expression was that of shock, since she had just mentioned to her friend on facebook (of course, facebook) that she had wanted.....oreo cheesecake. whew. so she devoured the piece in one stand, me watching with a contented smile only cooks and bakers know when people yummily eat their food.

so on my way for another smiley satisfaction, i started rummaging through the cupboards, i found two! unfinished packages of oreos (one oreo korean version), threw away the cream sandwiched between the black cookies, and coarsely crushed them.  whipped up some cream cheese and sugar, eggs which made a very watery mixture, and poured it into the cheesecake pan. left it in the oven for forty minutes, and popped the cheesecake out of its pan.



cant resist taking bits before pics. im just not that professional enough.



the surface was cracked and all but this time, it was creamy and thick, decadent new-york-style (not the soft light souffle style) that stays in your mouth, fills your mouth with cheese-cheese-and mmm cheese! due to the fact that i did not use low-fat cream ch eese (not easily to find in korea) and did not skimp on it. all the oreos goes in, and there you get, a cheesecake that a fork sinks slowly in (not gliding in, mind you. 

yum yum we all went for more.


of course, instead our friends' doggie who was visiting couldnt have a bite. cheesecake is apparently not healthy for little doggies. or maybe we just all wanted the extra bite.




hi doggie! among the pots and pans.

 

p.s. my sister is a weird thing. whenever she spots something unique, weird, good, expensive, fancy looking, something different she stores it away in her secret hiding place. previous examples have been coffee beans my dad brought back from indonesia (she secretly showed it to me hidden inside her old book boxes on top of her bookshelf), fleur de sel (this i confiscated), random chocolates from cousins, and and this yummy cheesecake was no different. she tucked it away in the back of her side of her fridge, chopped up into pretty slices. like we can't find that.

fishies fishies and more fishies!

how do you eat your fish? if you are american, the options you might have encountered might be: pan-seared, grilled, broiled, blackened (i first saw this version at miami, FL at Joe's Sea Crab. weird, it sounds like burnt to me), and you get a small portion of fish flesh on your plate cooked to your matter of choice, either buttered or with some creative sauce that often masks the true fish flavor. other popular options are sushi, a raw, thinly sliced fish flesh artfully placed on top a small oval shaped ball of sticky rice, or sashimi, which is literally raw fish. or, if you are from amherst, you might have seen the bland, dry chunks of something called fish served at our infamous Val.

do any of these look like real fish? they might smell super fishy and taste super fishy, but do they look like fish? now, if you come to korea(as i did a week ago) you order fish anywhere, and what you will get(not including sushi) will be a dish that actually looks like a fish with its head, tail, gills all vividly observable, complete with goggling fish eyes and fish eggs and intestines inside. now thats the ultimate wholesome fish-eating experience.

nobody sells fish chopped up. they sell it whole!

i believe this general style of eating fish in korea is so simple and yet economical both for the environment and for us. no fish going to waste! able to taste all different parts of the fish! and you can actually see for yourself what part of the fish you are eating. generally, the fish we eat this way are not that large, we're not talking about tunas twice the size of my arm sitting on the dinner table or hairtail(갈치 in korean, or cutlass tail, king-of-salmon according to naver dictionary, do they not eat this fish in the US? its very common in korea hm.... we usually chop this up and boil it with korean spices) but mostly moderately sized fish about the length of my hand: mackerel, yellow croaker (ok i dont think naver dictionary useful here:

selling fresh fish at nearby department store.

조기 for those who can understand), pomfret/butterfish (ok, 병어)..... i decline to explain more. come to korea people.

so the usual way is: you clean the fish, sprinkle it with simple salt (or sometimes a simple sauce concocted from soy sauce, ground red pepper, sesame seed, etc.) and pop it in the pre-heated mini oven. the fish roasts in its natural oil (the infamous fish oil) and comes out with crisp, crackly slightly golden skin ready to be devoured with our eager chopsticks.

todays morning fish. (:

other ways might be boiling the fish in a red bean paste spicy sauce with chopped potatoes, daikon and garlic. the sauce integrates into the smooth flesh and becomes moist and flavorful. yum.

a sad update is that i have been spending most of my time at my new internship and haven't the time to utilize and reclaim the ownership of our fully-equipped kitchen, nibbling away at cold burgers and limp fries trying to ignite an awkward conversation with new people. but the silver lining is that my mom takes pity on me and provides me with the most hearty, extravagant breakfast ever. for instance, yesterday i met with hot, steamy bowl of rice, mallow (아욱...) stew with huge shrimps, roasted mackerel, freshly steamed mini-squids, and other banchans. of course, before this i had already drank a full cup of blueberry, kiwi, tomato, banana smoothie and after this i had half a grapefruit. so i guess that makes up for the rest of my day.

i would have loved to include some pictures to share my experience, but i own a simple folder phone in korea (not fully equipped with a high-tech camera) and my camera is currently out of order after my brave attempt to shoot myself ziplining (i did it successfully with D's camera afterwards harharhar). will try to upload at least more lively photos later after my camera is fixed. to be continued...