Tetris Time!

Tonight was Tetris night. Every Friday around 7pm, Prairie and I like to play Tetris and try to beat each other's score.



So far, Prairie's been in the lead with 843,975 points. Every week my score has been getting higher though...we'll see if I can beat her next week!

After we played Tetris, we drew Graffiti on each other's walls for a bit and sent each other "Grow-A-Gifts" on Facebook.



She sent me a blueflax a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I got a Grow-A-Geek from her in honor of my English test on Monday. So kind of her! I'm going to send her a sunflower tomorrow.

It was a really fun day!

I love Spam

Not those annoying e-mails titled "Ringtones.net" or "Congratulations! $500 JC Penney's Gift Card!" but those salty pink blocks of deliciously processed pork shoulders. Koreans love this stuff. We use it in kimchi chigae (a spicy kimchi stew), diced and mixed in with our omelettes, or fried in thin layers and eaten straight up with rice. But how to revamp this slab of saliferous satisfaction for even more gastronomic enjoyment, that is the question. Luckily, I have a few answers!



Why not take an old favorite like Spam musubi and turn it into a pleasing hor d'oeuvre? Instead of wrapping it sushi-style, cut the Spam into fun shapes using a miniature cookie cutter mold and lightly fry the pieces--just enough to get an even browning over the surface, but not crispy. I made a batch of sushi rice using sugar and rice wine vinegar, rolled them into balls, drizzled a bit of teriyaki sauce and set it on top of strips of unsalted nori (seaweed laver). Spam is full of sodium in itself, so don't get too crazy with the sauce now. Moderation is key.



If musubi ain't yo thang, try something a little more familiar like this Spam pizza. (Those cookie cutters came in handy for this recipe as well.) Since I was short on time, I used a ready-made Boboli crust and topped it with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and Spam stars. Pop it into the oven for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees, and bada bing bada boom. You've got yourself a quick, college student-friendly meal.



I modified this recipe for Spinach Cheese Swirls from puffpastry.com, Pepperidge Farms' ingenious website dedicated to the light and flaky pâte feuilletée. I didn't have any Muenster on hand, but I did have plenty of Spam. Its bold, salty flavor complemented the neutral tastes of the spinach and pastry perfectly. A great appetizer for family get-togethers or potlucks.

Now I love processed meat, but even for me there is such a thing as too much Spam, as a friend helped me realize with her Spam Jello concoction:



Yep.

After seeing--no, smelling--this pink gelatin, I had no desire for Spam for at least a day. Fortunately, I got over it and made Spam fried rice later that week.

Say hello to my little friend

Plato once said, "Friends have all things in common."

This couldn't be truer of my friendship with one of my closest friends, Prairie. Even though she lives on the other side of the country and I've actually never met her in person, we've been good friends for three years and going! We met through a mutual friend on the Internet, and our lives haven't been the same since. We share the same tastes in music, sports, hobbies, clothes, etc. It's like having a best friend that I've never met!

Tomorrow we're supposed to hang out, so I'll post on that later. Adios!

Now back to the good stuff.

Of the entries I've written so far, only one has actually been about food. I should change my name, because this Korean hasn't been too epicurean lately. But what better way to make a comeback than to do a recap of the most food-centric day of the year?



The only thing I love more than the Thanksgiving meal itself is the time I get to spend at home with my family. Even though I'm usually put to work with cleaning, cooking, or running to the market to pick up some last minute items, being away at college has made me appreciate my family so much more. I guess the age-old adage, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," really is true!



I know turkey is a Thanksgiving staple, but my mom's honey-glazed ham steals the show every year. The way the brown sugar caramelizes to form a crackly outer layer over the moist, juicy fare within...oh succulent slab of meat, you slay me!



My aunt is known for her fantastic dips. She takes these overlooked appetizers and turns it into ooh-and-aah-worthy bowls of heaven that almost make you forget about the main course to come. The avocado dip (top) is a deceptively simple mixture of avocados, tomatoes, and red peppers, with salt and pepper to taste. Her shrimp ceviche (bottom) is a bit more complicated, with shrimp, tomatoes, cilantro, and several other ingredients I couldn't quite identify (and she refuses to tell me, lest she give away her secret). Both complemented the saltiness of the plain tortilla chips excellently.



My aunt also makes a mean baked yam. Cooked to perfection, and deliciously orange every year. Who needs marshmallows with yams like this? Like they say, don't mess with a good thing.



After the ham, this was my favorite dish. Okay, technically creamed corn is considered a "side" and not a dish, but if you only gave me a vat of this to eat for dinner I'd be happy. My mom took this recipe from the Summit House restaurant in Fullerton (how she managed to score the actual recipe card is beyond me). Corn, butter, sugar, and lots and lots of heavy cream = bliss.



Penne pasta with littleneck clams in two sauces: arrabbiata and alfredo, in case you only wanted one. Or the other. Or both.



My meager contribution to the menu: a Chinese-chicken salad, done Korean-style with dried ramen noodles and sliced almonds instead of fried wontons. I made a dressing using a recipe off of Simply Recipes, and tossed it with sliced raw cabbage and romaine lettuce. The romaine was an afterthought, because more people came than expected and I had to increase the volume of the salad somehow (and I had already used up my head of cabbage). It got the job done, at least.



A fruit platter and another shot of the salad.

After a long day of cooking, basting, broiling, boiling, and frying, what better way to end the day with...more cooking! Yep, even after dinner, the kitchen ain't closed.



Rather than wasting a good turkey, we boil the bones to make stock for soup.



Add a few vegetables and leftover turkey meat, and voila! Turkey soup for the rest of the week!





Not only did we stuff our stomachs with food on Thursday, but the other four senses were indulged with these lovely bouquets of flowers our friends and family brought.

Hope all of you out in the Internet world also had a blessed Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for!

Flashmob: The End.

Considering it was our first flashmob ever, I think we pulled it off relatively well. Of course there were a few logistical items we could improve on (i.e. telling more people in advance, thinking through the "what if's" and potential problems that we could face, how we could adapt to a new situation), but since introducing an element of abnormal behavior to upset the social norms as our intent, I'd say it was a success!

Flashmob #1: Red Light, Green Light

I couldn't get any pictures of this, but it was the most successful of the five Flashmobs. Maybe it was because the timing corresponded with when class let out and students were flooding the Humanities bridge. It was fun for the thirty of us who were running-stopping-running-stopping all the way to the Admin building, but even better to see non-participants participating. They'd even yell "Red light!" or "Green light!" to throw us off. Funnily enough, we were the ones trying to throw them off by interrupting the normalcy of their day.

Flashmob #2: The Applause









The point of this flashmob was to follow a random person and applaud them. The first few people were definitely weirded out, but the others had some great reactions. Note the expressions of these victims above. It was a nice mix of "Back away from my car," "What's going on?" and "Hey, this is so amusing I have to take a picture of it on my cellphone!"

Flashmob #3: The Line






Anonymous supporters cheering us on. Thanks!



It was a nice break from the all the running around we did in the previous flashmobs. We formed a huge line that meandered around Ring Road, into the bookstore, through Starbucks, etc...basically, wherever the unlucky person we chose to follow decided to go. Some more non-Arts 50 people joined our line, which was pretty neat.

Flashmob #4: Free Hugs (or High Fives)






Between a rock and a hard place. Too bad there's only one way to get off this bridge!



Despite the good intent of these hugs, it's not so appealing when you're hugging people after running around campus for thirty minutes and all they can feel is the sweat on your back. I think if we had done this one first, with more students milling around Ring Road, the awesomeness of it would have doubled at least. Maybe even tripled!

Flashmob #5: ATM Attack




Flashmob students pretending to be normal students


We'd slowly surround the unsuspecting victim in silence and/or whispers to make them uncomfortable, then applaud when they completed their transaction.





Execution could have been a little more organized on my group's part, but interestingly enough, we didn't evoke any crazy responses from the people we targeted. I thought they would've been more timid or angry, but mostly they were pretty apathetic about these strangers that could potentially steal your credit card number and identity. I guess that's what happens when you live in a city like Irvine.

Everything2 v. Wikipedia

Q: Which source would you first turn to for information on a topic that you are not familiar with, everything2.com or wikipedia.org and why?

I'm a big fan of the Internet--so much so that when I watch a movie at home, I like to sit with my laptop on my lap and surf imdb.com so that I can take note of all the goofs and movie trivia that occur in random scenes. While cooking, I frequent allrecipes.com or foodnetwork.com to look up new recipes or watch tutorial cooking videos. And when I'm just plain curious about something, I'll immediately type "wiki [insert subject here]" in Firefox's address bar.

As unreliable and lacking in credibility Wikipedia may be, its organized layout and highly simplistic design have made it a personal favorite website of mine. I know, there are tons of more entertaining sites I can visit if I'm ever curious about anything. The point is, I like Wikipedia because it's straightforward and provides a clear description of whatever it is I want to learn about.

I don't use everything2.com too often, but after surfing through the site for a bit, I found myself enjoying its randomness. It's definitely a great time-waster...I learned more in one hour about "Thomas 'Black Jack' Ketchum," the "Infinite Monkeys Theorem," and the history of the "Helvetica" font than I did from my psychology textbook. Unlike Wikipedia, everything2.com has links to various posting on the side of the screen, and occasionally my wandering eye will fall upon an unusual title (i.e. "Chased by a screaming hydrocephalic in a leopard-skin vest and a beehive hairdo") that'll lead to another window chock-full of interesting tidbits. The site's layout isn't as clear or organized as Wikipedia's, but at the same, it helps procrastinators like me learn something while avoiding the other things I should be learning.

When it comes down to it, my loyalty still lies with Wikipedia as the primary resource for finding information on subjects I'm unfamiliar with. It's more straightforward (and seemingly legit) than the haphazard, link-ridden front page that everything2.com offers, although I do enjoy the entertaining, uncensored, and more laid-back style that the latter has.

Flashmob: the Beginnings.

I know this blog is still relatively new, but for class purposes I'm going to start documenting the progress of our flashmob assignment.

According to Wikipedia (one of the most useful, though not wholly credible, inventions on the Web), a flashmob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse. In class we saw a few YouTube clips of flashmobs, linked below:

Japanese "Troop of the One Hundred"

Students worshipping the Purdue Engineering Fountain

My group and I are still brainstorming some ideas for the flashmob we're doing two Mondays from now. It's hard being creative, but I'm definitely looking forward to the response we'll get from our fellow collegians while we're doing whatever we plan on doing :)

New home!

ep·i·cu·re·an /ˌɛpɪkyʊˈriən, -ˈkyʊəri-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ep-i-kyoo-ree-uhn, -kyoor-ee-]
–adjective

1.	fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures; having luxurious tastes or habits, esp. in eating and drinking.

Now that I think about it, I'm not that "epicurean," although I am Korean (and "The Epicurean Korean" has a nice ring to it). I LOVE food, but the luxuriousness of a particular dish doesn't really matter to me. Whether it's from the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood or my mom's kitchen, good food is good food. I do appreciate the efforts put into the occasional fine cuisine, though...anyway, I digress. Perhaps I'll learn to develop an epicurean palate, but for now, I'll have my pollo asada fries from Roberto's in SD over a fancy teaspoon of duck liver pate, any day.

My first food recommendation for this blog isn't even in America. Over the summer, a few friends and I went down to Mexico on a quest for some lobster, a sunny beach, and bargain shopping with the vendors by the Mexican/U.S. border.

























We ran into a few of Nacho Libre's friends along the way.



















We also found the most beautiful beach. Even the sand was beautiful! It looked like there were flecks of gold in it, so depending on the angle of the sun and where you were standing, everything would shimmer.



















And then we hit the jackpot: the $15 lobster deal.



















Oh yes.



















Promptly as we sat down at our table, we were served some of the best chips/salsa/guacamole/rice I've EVER had. Hands down. As an amateur aficionado of Mexican cuisine, I rescind my allegiance to all the Mexican restaurants I used to frequent. Maybe it's because we were actually in Mexico, and I've been deprived of authentic Mexican food...but THIS is what Mexican food is supposed to be. The lobster was succulent, but I wouldn't mind driving another 2.5 hours for the guacamole. The next time you happen to be in Rosarito, Mexico, you can't leave without trying the lobster!