Etude House

Since I found myself waiting for SNL to come on with nothing to do, I thought I should blog for all you people who actually ready this ^_^

One thing I really miss about my time in Korea is all of the cosmetic shops. Face Shop, Tony Moly, and Skin Food are just a few of the many shops that I visited. However, one brand won my heart above all the others and that brands is Etude House.

Once I saw Lee Min Ho outside of the Etude House in Insadong I knew that I would love Etude House. I spent way, way , way too much money there. So much so that I don't even feel comfortable disclosing the exact figure (let me just say it was more than one paycheck). But let me tell you, every single dollar I spent there has been worth it.

The first product I tried from Etude House (courtesy of Sandra) was the hand and foot packs. Oh my goodness, my hands and feet have never felt softer since I started using their packs. I still have some at home after giving most away to friends and I cherish them.

And don't even get me started on their face packs. I brought three boxes back with me. I've been doing about one pack a week ( I would do more, but I want them to last as long as possible). The packs are just so relaxing. As soon as I plaster one on my face, everything crazy in my life just melts away.

I'm not even the only one who I got hooked on Etude House either! I brought back some products in the Total Age Repair line for my Mom. One of them is a face pack that has gold flakes in it (so classy)! She swears by this line.

But my absolute favorite thing that I brought back from Etude House is the Collagen Moistful set.

This set is utterly amazing. Mine came with the first essence (which is 90% collagen!), a collagen face pack lotion, as well as a jar of collagen lotion. Wow~ this stuff always makes my face look and feel fantastic! My face feels so incredibly soft since I started to use it, and it looks a lot smoother too! I really recommend it.

I also brought back a tube of BB cream with me, but I'm using up my foundation first before I try it. You can buy Etude House products from yesasia here. Now all you people have some ideas of what to get me for Christmas, right ^_~


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Reasons Why I Love...

Kimchi!

Yes...I know what you're thinking. Fermented cabbage sounds slightly (OK, highly) disgusting. But once you try it you'll probably learn to love it! I first tried it a couple of months before my trip. I was a bit taken aback by how spicy it was, but since then I've grown much more accustomed to it.


Kimchi is eaten with every meal in Korea. Since I've come back home, I've been buying big containers of Kimchi from the Korean market near my house (I also actually found it at a Japanese market too!). So far I am on my third tub. Let me tell you all the reasons why I have a love affair with this amazing side dish ^_^


1) Taste

I'm not quite sure how to describe the taste of Kimchi. It's definitely spicy.  And slightly crunchy. I think it's just a taste you have to experience to be able to understand it. All I know is that if I go about three days without eating it I start to really crave it. I just can't get the taste of it out of my mind! Yum!



2) Health Benefits

Kimchi is known to be one of the healthiest foods in the world. It is packed with vitamins, and it also has the same probiotics that are found in yogurt. Recent studies have shown that it boosts your immune system to help prevent colds, and many people believe it can help to cure a cold if you have one. There are also a few studies coming out that if you eat kimchi you may decrease your risk of certain types of cancer. Kimchi is also a great diet food! It fills you up quickly and speeds up your metabolism.



3) Versatility

 


I love how you can do so much with Kimchi. Not only is it great as a side dish, but you can use it in so many main dishes also! I recently made kimchi chigae (kimchi stew) with hand cut noodles which turned out amazing, and the picture above is the kimchi fried rice with tofu I made for lunch today. It was delicious! Not only do you use the kimchi in these recipes, but you can also use the extra kimchi juice in the bottoms of your container. Perfect! I suggest checking out maangchi for some great recipes!


4) Diversity

 

There are so many different types of kimchi! I have only tried a few so far, but radish kimchi is by far my favorite. I love how crunchy and easy to eat it is. Recently I have been on a cabbage kimchi kick, which I have been enjoying. I don't like it as much as a side dish as radish kimchi, but I love it in other dishes. I am really anticipating getting to try cucumber kimchi next week at the Food & Wine festival at EPCOT!


Now can you see a few of the reasons why I love kimchi? I hope reading this has inspired you to try it (or at least think about it). I guarantee it will grow on you! Please enjoy this post until next time I have some free time from homework ^_^


P.S. I told you I would tell you about my noraebang experience last week. In a word, it was AMAZING! I think my throat is still sore from all that singing hehe. We sang everything from Big Bang, to 2PM, 2NE1, f(x), SNSD, Super Junior, Beast, and CN Blue! The one song that went slow enough for me to read all the lyrics and correctly sing everything was Here I am from the Secret Garden OST. There was also a lot of dancing going on too ^_~ We stayed about two hours. I hope to go back again soon! Who wants to join me?



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Happy Chuseok ^_^

In honor of Chuseok going on right now I thought I would make a quick post and send you my Chuseok greetings. Chuseok is a harvest festival where people normally visit their hometowns and pay respect to their deceased family members. People also eat rice cakes called songpyeon and bulgogi is also popular. Chuseok is basically the Korean version of Thanksgiving.

Sending you my warmest Chuseok greetings ^_^

 

 

 In addition to telling you about Chuseok, I already mentioned that I am going to noraebang later this week. I'm having a hard time trying to decide what songs to sing. I want to decide in the next day or two so I can begin to practice them so I don't completely butcher them. I know I will sing I'm A Loner by CN Blue for sure, but I'm having a hard time picking another song or two. I would really love to sing a Big Bang song, and I can't decide what would be easier out of Tonight, Lies, or Haru Haru. How badly do you think I'll do when it comes to T.O.P.'s or G Dragon's raps? ㅋㅋㅋ I would like to pick one more song, maybe Gee or Oh by Girl's Generation or Lonely by 2NE1. Have any thoughts or suggestions for me? I'll let you know of my choices and how they go next week ^_~

Jajangmyun

I've previously mentioned my love of jajangmyun noodles. Over the past few weeks I've attempted to make jajangmyun a few times and I think I've gotten pretty decent at it, so I thought I'd share my recipe with you ^_^

First I start by chopping up my ingredients. Typically in jajangmyun you also have pork, but since I've always been too lazy/cheap to buy any I skip it. You can also make jajangmyun with chicken or any other meat you have on hand. I use about half of a medium sized zucchini, a small yam, and a medium sized onion. In Korea they use sweet potatoes in jajangmyun (go gu ma), but since we don't have them here I used a yam instead. I've also used a regular potato. Also since I love onion I think I'll probably add another one next time I make jajangmyun. Adjust the amount of the ingredients based on your tastes. The potato and zucchini should be chopped into small cubes and the onion should be chopped into moon shaped pieces.

Next I cook up the black bean sauce in a medium sized pan with about two tablespoons of sesame oil. I used 1/2 cup of black bean sauce. You should be able to find this at an Asian market. Cook the black bean sauce for a couple of minutes and then remove it from the pan, leaving the oil. I tried skipping this step before but it didn't taste as good so be sure to do this! Also, if you are adding meat to your jajangmyun you should cook your meat in the same pan before the black bean sauce. Remove the meat and set aside before adding the black bean sauce.

Next, in the same pan you should cook up all the vegetables you chopped. You should cook until everything is cooked all the way through. Normally the potatoes take the longest so you may want to start those a few minutes before you add the zucchini and onions. Right around this time I try to make sure I have my jajang noodles cooking in a pot of boiling water. You want to try and have the noodles and the sauce done cooking at right about the same time. The noodles need to cook for about 5 to 6 minutes in boiling water.

Remember that black bean sauce we cooked up? It's time to add that back to the pan! You should also re-add any meat you previously cooked. In addition to adding the black bean sauce, you should add one cup of water, and about two tablespoons of sugar. You can play around with this depending on how sweet you want your jajangmyun. The recipe I first looked at said to only add two teaspoons which didn't taste right to me. Cook this until it boils.

After your sauce is boiling it is time to add your thickening agent. If you have it you should add cornstarch (about 2 tablespoons), but if you don't have cornstarch (like me) you can add flour. I add about three tablespoons of flour, but I think I might try a little less next time. The more you add the thicker your sauce will be. You should also be very careful when adding the flour. Add it very slowly and make sure to stir it in completely. The first time I tried making jajangmyun I got too excited and added all the flour at one time. Because of this there was many lumps of flour in my sauce! Your jajang noodles should be done cooking around this time. Make sure you rinse them a couple of times in cold water.

Now that everything is cooked you can plate up your jajangmyun! Make sure you eat it when it's still hot. It's looks kind of gross right? But I promise you it tastes delicious! I'm not even sure how to begin to describe the flavor, but it's slightly sweet.

Then all you have to do is mix and enjoy ^_^ This recipe makes about 2-3 servings of jajangmyun depending on how hungry you are. This seems to do pretty well in the fridge (and being reheated in the microwave). I save the noodles and sauce in the same container, but you could also make less noodles and then just save the extra sauce. I've read it goes very well on rice also!


I'm excited because in about a week I'm going with a couple of girls from work to dinner at a Korean restaurant and then to noraebang after! We picked the restaurant specifically based on the fact that they have jajangmyun so I'm really anticipating having someone make this for me soon! I hope after reading this you are also interested in trying or making jajangmyun yourself. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

2NE1

Before  my classes start tomorrow I wanted to share another entry with you. Hopefully I will still find time to update my blog a couple of times a week once my classes go into full swing but I'm going to apologize in advance if my posts start to get a little slow -_-


Earlier this week I had some downloads left on my soribada account so on a whim I got the latest 2NE1 mini album. I'd always been a little hesitant to listen to them because while I didn't dislike their songs that I'd already heard, I didn't love them either. Also, when it comes to K-Pop girl groups, I tend to like groups like SNSD and f(x) who have a very cute, bubbly image.

However the instant I started to listen to 2NE1 2nd Mini Album I was hooked! Every song is really catchy and I was singing along after the first listen. The songs are all really relatable, and all of the girls have great voice. Let's meet the members ^_^

Park Bom is the main vocalist of 2NE1. Her voice is incredible! She moved to the United States during elementary school so in addition to speaking Korean, she is also fluent in English. When we signed with YG she also learned Japanese and Chinese! She is currently 27 years old and attended Berklee College of Music. She has also done some work with Big Bang, most recently appearing on Oh Yeah and I'm Having An Affair.

Dara (her real name is Sandara Park) is 26 and recently got promoted to be the Director of Communications of 2NE1! When she was growing up her family moved to the Philippines so that is where she first became famous. She is also an actress and is in TaeYang's I Need A Girl music video. And her younger brother, Thunder, is a member of MBLAQ.

CL raps for 2NE1 in addition to singing. She is 20 years old and as she grew up her family moved around often so she is also fluent in Japanese, French, and English (I really admire all of these people who can speak so many languages!). There are rumors that she may be looking into a solo career, and she was also a guest judge on Project Runway Korea!

Minzy is the youngest member of 2NE1 as she is only 17 right now. She was only 15 when 2NE1 debuted! She is known for her dancing skills and she is the granddaughter of a popular folk dancer.


Like I mentioned earlier, every song on the 2nd Mini Album is great so I'm not sure I can pick one favorite to share with you, but why don't you take a look at Lonely....

Ugly is also really great! Apparently 2NE1 has done some work with Will.i.am in preparation for an American debut so lets cross our fingers that we may get to see 2NE1 in the United States sometime soon!




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Alex

Normally when I listen to music, I enjoy upbeat fun music. However, there are times when I just want to relax. During those times, one singer I have been turning to more and more lately is Alex.

Alex is the male vocalist of Clazziquai, and he also has a solo career. He grew up in Canada, and became really famous in Korea around 2004 with the first official album by Clazziquai. Clazziquai really has some great songs, one of my favorites is Lazy Sunday Morning.

Besides singing, Alex has also appeared on the show We Got Married. And I have to say, he was definitely one of the best (if not the best) "husbands" to be on the show. He showed his caring and loving side, and I think many people were jealous of his "wife" Shin Ae! Alex has also done some acting, with his most famous role being on the drama Pasta.

The solo album that Alex released a couple of months ago, Just Like Me is amazing! I'm not sure I can pick just one from the album as my absolute favorite, but I do love "You're My Lady". Take a listen!

I hope you enjoy Alex as much as I do ^_^


And while this has nothing to do with Alex, can I just say how frustrated I am that I cannot be in New York City right now?! T.O.P. just arrived there the other day for some photo shoots.

Why can't T.O.P. do his photo shoots in Michigan? ㅠ_ㅠ Let's all anticipate some great pictures from T.O.P. in the future!





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