Parenting is a full contact sport and there is never a break or a half time. They should put potential parents through a boot camp to see if they are able to handle the task, but I think this would halt human reproduction. You never get a break while parenting. Well, I guess there is one when they sleep, but that’s when you need a break. Your body and mind will just go into recharge mode. It’s not the physicality of it that is what is tiring, it’s the mental, philosophical and societal factor as well. You are responsible for your kids and others judge you if it looks like you are doing it wrong. And if you are really doing it wrong, you will end up in jail or worse. But at the end of the day nobody knows if they are doing it right or wrong. All we can do is try to keep them fed, well, and “happy.” And happiness is a relative term here, for me and for them. For example, I am happy when we are running around with them playing games, when they are eating a meal I cooked, or w...

Yesterday I went back to the fish market for the first time in a long time. The Noryangjin Fish Market is still there but the old market seems to be on its last legs and the new one just doesn't have much energy. At least the seafood is still fresh if you know how to look for it. The price has gone up. King Crab is 55K-70K a Kilogram. If you find a good one you can get a fried rice made with the innards. Cheers, Dan For more regular food info follow me on Instagram at @Seouleats

Shabu Shabu in Hongdae at Jayeon Shabu Shabu The best mushroom shabu shabu place is at Jayeon Shabu Shabu. Look, even if you think that you've had shabu shabu and that it is not real Korean food; Korean shabu shabu is different. You get many more sides and a ton of veggies. It feels very clean and healthy. Jayeon Shabu Shabu is one of the best. You get copious amounts of mushrooms, the broth is delicious, and it was all about their special sesame, peanutty, sauce. You many varieties of mushrooms - some of which I never knew could be eaten. Apparently they are all good for health (and none of them are of the magic variety). Oh, and for vegetarians, the broth is not meat based so it is one of my top vegetarian picks in Korea. After you eat all the veggies and meat, you finish off the meal with some buckwheat noodles. Yum! Jayeon Shabu Shabu Mapo-gu Donggyo-ro 197 대관령메밀막국수자연샤브샤브샤브샤브  서울특별시 마포구 동교로 197  NAVER MAP LINK

Cooking for kids is an exercise in camouflage, patience and restraint. Now that my daughter has started to go to preschool, she has started to have all the foods that I didn't really want her to have such as pizza, fried chicken, candy, pastries, cookies, sausages, sugary drinks, and much more. When she was at home, her mother and I would make everything fresh and she used to eat more vegetables. Now, if I had packed her lunch everyday, she would have been envious of the other kids anyway. I understand the lunch lady's position as well. They have limited resources and time to make food for many kids. They want to limit waste and they want the kids to be happy. The problem with this is that it develops the child's idea of what is "delicious" and "good." I think they also develop a taste for salt, sugar and, sadly, MSG. I don't really know what I can do except that I need to make the food at home better and tastier than what she has at school....

Homemade Sourdough Bread in Korea Hey world,  I have just a few minutes before my children wake up and in that time I catch up on work, look over my investments and make sourdough bread. I am not a fan of sugary and soft breads from the Korean bakeries and with a bit of time and love, it can be made at home.  This is made from sourdough starter 5 or Evan 5 as I would like to call him. He is a rye based starter that has survived the harsh Korean winter and intermittent feedings (due to my schedule) and come out strong and tasty.  I have been using a banneton which adds a nice crust. When I move, I will try and get a proper oven to make more bread but for now, I am using a tabletop model. It really is nothing special. One day, I will get some fire bricks in order to add a nicer crust, but for now this works fine.  I feel like Betty Crocker these days since I am raising kids (2 daughters). Props to my mom and all moms for doing this. I can barely keep...

Hello Interwebs, I know. It's been a while. Sorry, but I have these things called kids and blogging and dining out at nice places just don't mix. Yeah, I'm the guy trying to hold one kid while feed the other while the wife cleans up some spill or another from one or the other kids. It's fun and chaos. I don't know how my parents did it. My parents were great and they raised us well and they talk us all the right things, they were principled and patient. We got into arguments but mainly because my sisters and I were just jerks. When I found out I was going to be a parent, my wife and I talked and set rules and thought out how we would raise them. We were going to read them books, play classical music, travel with them, cook all their meals and all that other stuff. We tried all that but at the end of the day, we just got by doing what we could. You get into a pattern of survival. A book could keep a kid entertained for about 15 minutes and then they migh...

Everyone loves ice cream (and gelato), however, the definition of what ice cream is or what would be relative equivalents might differ in the eyes of Koreans. Since 2013, sales of ice cream market size has decreased from 1.6 Billion USD to 910.9 million USD due to increased competition from shaved ice stores, juice shops and cafes. All these sell what would be considered "ice cream equivalents." Subsequently, sales of ice cream have suffered as well dropping from 850 million USD in 2014 to 810 million USD in 2016 ( Food Industry Statistics , Nielsen Korea). However, ice cream is not suffering an irreversible downtrend. The largest competitor for the last few years have been the popularity of the snow shaved ice chain Sulbing. In 2013 they had only 33 stores in Korea but in 2014 this number exploded to 482 in 2014. However in 2015 they only added 8 more stores ( Joeilbo News ). I have personally seen a number of these stores close in the last year in prominent areas. In c...

Chocolate Croissant For a society whose staple food is rice, the consumption of bread has grown exponentially in the last 25 years. The leading bakery corporation, the SPC group has seen their Paris Baguette franchises grow from 3 in 1988 to 1400 in 2005 to 3316 in 2015 (Hankyung News 2015). The per person consumption of flour foods has dramatically increased from 11.5 kg per person per year in 1965 to 33.7 kg per person per year in 2015 (avg. 32.8 kg). While in the past flour was mainly used for noodles, batters and dumplings; these days bread and pastries have become increasingly popular. In 2015-2016, it has been all about the full-fat, cream filled breads. This started from the “kopan” bread which is a red bean and cream filled sweet roll. This style of rich cream has since moved to choux, donuts and rolled cakes. Koreans tend to like more of a less-sweet, milk-taste cream but currently green tea flavor has come back into fad. Also, the cream craze has since grown to includ...

Experimenting with homemade yogurt at home. The Korean whole milk works well with the Bio Plain yogurt as the starter. I boil it for about 30 minutes before letting it cool and then mix it with some starter. I put it in the yogurt maker for 9 hours and then I have a nice thick yogurt. The family likes thick yogurt so the extra long boiling helps to thicken the milk. I have tried it in a Korean pot and it worked pretty well. #homemade #seouleats #frugalliving 

I have been enjoying my lovely sour dough loaf from Bob's bread for the last few days. It has a perfect crust, chewy interior and slight sourness. It is made from all natural yeast cultures they have kept alive since 2008. I also ordered some ciabatta bread for my family, they liked it more than the sourdough bread- which was fine for me me. The bread is large as well and can be used to make manly sandwiches or great open-faces ones like I did. If you are headed over to the Costco by Yeongdeungpo, this is a great spot to spot by. They are open from 12-7 Tuesday-Saturday. Oh, and once they sell out of bread for the day, they close. Often they sell out by 5-6. You can order on their website as well www.bobsbreadkorea.com   Address: 77-71 Yangpyeongdong 3(sam)-ga, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul https://maps.google.com/?q=near%2077-71%20Yangpyeongdong%203%28sam%29-ga%2C%20Yeongdeungpo-gu%2C%20Seoul&hl=en-US&gl=us   #seouleats #artisanbread #bobsbreadkorea 

Bagels so good I just had to come back. Got the spinach bagel which had a delicious, crackling parmesan crunch. These bagels are not NY bagels -they are localized for the Korean palate. The crust is chewy and so is the interior. They are delicious. I like the slight smokiness from the wood burning oven. They are slightly expensive compared to USA prices at 2,000-2,500 won but that is on par for Korea- especially since they are each handmade. Their brick oven is awesome! I think I might want to make one over a weekend or two!  #bagels #koreanfood #seouleats #breakfast Elephant Bagel 코끼리 베이글 69-22 Yangpyeong 1(il)-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul https://goo.gl/maps/ZrKxstPKdZ22 Sent via my dancing thumbs named thumbalyn and thumbadum. Plese excuse any typos. For immediate assistance contact me at WhatsApp: +821067067769, Kakao: seouleats

Had an amazing Chicken Bacon Avocado Torta at El Pino 323. Plush, warm bread topped with oozing, flavorful chicken, crisp bacon and creamy avocado. The avocado was perfectly ripe and the whole sandwich was one that you have to grip and hold onto and eat until it is gone. It is not a sharing sandwich unless you cut it in half first. Wow. Possibly the best sandwich I have had in Korea. The bread made the dish and was pleased to hear it was made in house. I had a chance to talk with Chef D. He is intense but passionate about his food and craft. Very interesting but I was polite and understood I was a guest in his house.  We ordered Guacamole but he didn't have it. I let it go and didn't bring it up. He probably used all those delicious avocados on our sandwiches and tacos.  His tacos and enchiladas were also amazing. The rice and beans were definitely Mexican-style since he didn't use the heavier Korean rice. I thought the tortillas were legit.  Directions ar...