Phew! What a week~ After I launched the Alien's Bake Shop website last Monday, I've been non-stop baking~! It's been crazy awesome. A huge thank you to everyone who has ordered so far- you guys make me so happy. In fact, you guys ordered so many thin mints that I've run out of chocolate and am currently waiting for my bulk order of chocolate to arrive before I can make more. :) I suddenly feel like I have a full time job with an actual schedule, like waking up at the crack of dawn to bake, making early morning trips to the post office, returning emails... It's tiring but I love it! :)
The packaging station. hehe
Even though I've been spending most of my time in the kitchen, I haven't really been doing much actual cooking lately... definitely nothing creative when it comes to actual meals. My cooking "routine" these days is just throwing some rice noodles and veggies in a pot and boiling everything to the point of no return, and then slurping it all down while wiping the beads of sweat from my forehead. I know, it doesn't really make sense to eat such steaming hot food in this humidity and heat, but as Koreans say, you have to sweat the heat away!
Bibimbab from a random Korean restaurant...
I messed up on a batch of lemon poppyseed softies so I couldn't mail them out for an order, so then I ate them myself with some sweet tofu cream filling. What a shame.
My mom also randomly ordered this huge box of tomatoes for me from GMarket! This is why the Internet and delivery-system in Korea is so brilliant. You can order bulk fresh veggies right to your doorstep. These tomatoes are so delicious, plump, juicy, and sweet, I've been making daily tomato-lemon smoothies, and throwing them into my stir fries.
Oh, and I went to Hongdae on Saturday for a friend's birthday bash.
My friend picked 'Cusco' for his dinner party, which is a Peruvian restaurant by Hapjeong station. I looked on their online menu before going and saw that they had a mushroom-tofu ceviche, so I thought I'd at least have one veg-friendly item... Nope. Their actual menu was different from the one on their website and there was nothing vegetarian (let alone vegan), except for side orders of plain rice or fries. Uh... So then after talking to the waitress, she said that they would put together a vegan salad for me for 15,000won. Well,... I don't want to sound too negative and whiny, but this was perhaps one of the most uninspired restaurant salads I've had. Ever. It was basically just some cabbage, lettuce, a few bell pepper and carrot slices, and four tomato wedges, dressed in balsamic vinegar. That's it. No salt, no olive oil, no pepper, no sweetness, zero flavor. And the bitterness of the cabbage just overwhelmed the whole thing and I couldn't finish it- I don't think that's ever happened to me before! Even if something isn't that great, I'll usually eat it, but this one was just unappetizing on all counts. They could've at least put some mushrooms, beans or nuts on there. And to charge 15,000?! Needless to say, I left disappointed... and hungry. haha. I feel a bit bad about being so critical, but really, a chef should know how to put together a decent vegan salad, no? Anyway... moving on! :)
Here are some scenes from the streets of Hongdae.
I stopped and bought a pineapple wedge on a stick which was cool and refreshing. I also saw the most awesome backpack ever... Yoda!
Yesterday, I had to say goodbye to Sylvia who is returning to Canadia after 6 years in Korea so we met up and she handed me a huge bag of kitchen and food items! A hand mixer (woah!), colorful paper napkins and plates, muffin cups, cocoa powder, taco spice mix, spaghetti, a silicone muffin tin, a martini glass... and a bunch of other things too. It was like Christmas in July. So awesome~~~ Even though I'm gonna miss her so much, I know we're gonna see each other again so it's not the end of the world. :) Thanks Sylvie!