Pickle That Watermelon~

     It is hot in Seoul and I'm determined to actually spend the Summer in the sun...not giving into the fan temptress. Anyone familiar with Korean cuisine knows that once the sweat starts bubbling, the menus and food served changes...a LOT! Summer season (in my opinion) has the BEST Korean food. Pat Bingsu 팥빙수 (icy flakes with sweet red bean, rice cakes, and assorted fruits), naengmyeon 물냉면 (cold ice noodles), kong guksu 콩국수 (soybean broth noodles), bibim naengmyeon 비빔냉면 (spicy buckwheat noodles)...ahhh, it brings me back to the summers where my mom would make cold noodles and my brother and I'd crack the ice cubes in our teeth. ::sigh::
     I'm also wanting to eat a hella load more fruit this Summer...stateside there's loads of watermelon sales...kilos for a dollar OR LESS!! In Korea, 6-7 kilos of the sweet watery fruit hits 13-20,000 won (that's about 12-18 USD!!) I've already gone through five watermelon in the past two months...I plan to eat way way more of them.
     I usually give the outer shell and rinds to my girls, they like to jump inside them and eat the juicy bits~ if only we could play with our food and get away with being heart-stoppingly adorable right? Well, I got a pretty massive watermelon earlier this week and remembered years ago my mom made kimchi with the rind, and being the vinegar lover and pickle peddler I am, I wondered if I could pickle them! Strange enough, the next day, Food Republic wrote an article about doing just that! I got on it like a kid desperate to win twister.

I had to alter the original recipe due to not having any star anise...womp womp~ Chinese pepper to the rescue!! 

Servings: 2 big containers~

Ingredients:
*one medium watermelon, about 4-6 kilos
*3 T green tea salt (or salt~)
*3/4 cup coconut sugar
*3/4 cup of white vinegar with 5% acidity
*1-2 T Chinese pepper

What to do:
*Cut and gut the watermelon...save the yummy stuff for whatever your heart and stomach desires!
*Peel the rind off of the watermelon with a veggie peeler and throw away the dark green bits. Cut the white part into 1/2 inch cubes and put them into a big bowl.
*In a separate bowl, mix salt and 3 cups of water and pour over the cubed/cut rinds...let this sit for a day
*Drain the rind and rinse them well, then combine them all with the sugar, vinegar, 3 more cups of water and bring everything to a boil. Once the sugar dissolves, shut off the heat and let it cool down.
*Sprinkle some Chinese pepper in the bottom of the containers you're going to use and once the "pickles" are done, move the rinds into them and cover them with the pickling liquid.

These should store for a week or more...~

cooking up on the stove~ photo taken by VeganBeats

all done and contained!! photo taken by VeganBeats

    Aside from stuffing my gut with watermelon, SoulScience and I have been gallivanting the roads and paths of Seoul with our swanky bikes and making discoveries....I've got more photographs to collect, as there are more places to stumble upon! But we did roll into a massive veggie farm, where I just about melted....natural response when surrounded by cucumbers, lettuce, and tomatoes....right?

CUKES~~~~ photo taken by VeganBeats

    I'm not the only one enjoying the Summer crop~ Hamlet has a thing where she zombie-mauls any and all tomatoes....

Vampyre Pig~ photo taken by VeganBeats

Now in Nowon~

     I've been without a personal computer for a while now and (regardless of how obvious this realization will be), I have gained so much more time and general appreciation for my surroundings. I still access email and facebook (eghhhm) but have swapped afternoons home and reading random news, dreamy recipes, and tumblr rolling with stronger bonds and friendship(s). I've been in a great place just connecting with people and getting that buzz from being social.
    Though~ I've missed this blog. I have been eating delicious (and simple) things, been doing some art projects, bonded with some beautiful Seouls, and actually breathing~ (And now the air is cleaner...Nowon!) I've stuck as gluten free as presently aware of (I'm a learning gf baby) and still use soy sauce from time to time (tamari...I'm hunting around for you~) but I have knowledgeably turned my head from being 100% gf...how could I say 'No thank you' to my student's grandmother who put so much effort into making a vegan meal? And one time I really wanted a beer... I can keep this up, but I've been dreaming of pumpernickel rye bread lately.
     I have my final day of work tomorrow and I have been counting down the hours. I will miss (some) of the kids...but I am eager to have more time to do my hobbies, spend more time with friends, and just live more. More often than wanting to admit, I will sometimes just go to work and come straight home, no social action, no activity, no creating...not even stretching or kicking it with the girls! All around pumped...anyways~~ Here's a few things consumed by this lady...

Smiles~

Special vegan kimchi for me!! photo taken by VeganBeats

yummy Thai salad~ photo taken by VeganBeats

Fresh juicy mango fruit salad~ photo taken by VeganBeats

Not so silent parts finding my Seoul...internal battles and growth, a brief altercation

     ㅎㅎwork has been...a lot along with everything else...everything else being the old parts of me resurfacing after I foolishly thought they were gone.
     Across the world I figured and foolishly assumed that the insecurities, manipulations, atrocious fears would also be left behind, the fears that prevent me from moving forward, from functioning, from being a full person...another concept I can't swallow. The parts of me that continuously cut myself short, tell (remind) me that I am (may not be) worth it (whatever it is), that I am less than or an excess of something...were quiet and silent for so long, especially since my arrival here in Seoul. I was feeling confident, ~~~good...grounded, then one small instance spurred about this chain of events that brought these old parts screaming and storming. I felt like a sledgehammer was swung into the sides of my knees, shattering them and causing me to crumble before I even acknowledged what just happened....was happening-
      This is a very brief jotting and generalization of what was going on this week...then there is work, the pressure from that, the expectations that not only I put on myself but that I feel others place on me, and then the ones that are actually on me...no sleep, emotionally and mentally drained...I went from place to place searching for...dissociation, another extremely comfortable and uncomfortable zone all at the same time, like under your bed, it's dusty, it's dirty...but safe and hidden.

     It's Friday, and I'm finally taking it easy...well I won't lie, I had a WONDERFUL Thursday night. I got my presentation all sorted out, Jaxs thank you*!~
     Did my work on the subway, drawing pictures of bunnies and foxes, lots of Korean beng thrown my way...need to learn more )O:
     Anyways, didn't get out of work until 8 or so (I think) came home, stressed too much about this presentation, finally showered and wandered towards 홍대!! I was meeting with Jaxs and Stephanie, and ...ahh I love girlfriends**!~
     Didn't get into 홍대 until around 11 or so and we just walked around, got coffee, chatted, caught up...so needed.
     Feeling so lost and floating...not actually floating, not so, free and light...I felt like I was inches off the ground this whole week in a fuzzy thick haze...just, lost. Being with girlfriends is...truly wonderful, I felt like I was wearing glasses or contacts and could see through the fog...if not forever at least for a bit.
I really do love Hongdae, there's just...curiosity everywhere. Giant questions marks everywhere, what's on that street, what does that bar serve, who works there, what's the smell...just a lot of option for discovery.
     I still have yet to check out the vegan cafes in 홍대, Alien's Day Out, another vegan blogger in Seoul,  has mentioned  a bunch, so the next time I'll be there..I'll have to make  a mission out of it.
     I'll be there Saturday night...
~~Anyways, Jaxs, Steph, and I met up with another crew...(O:
and well...I feel better. I had a wonderful evening....and even though didn't get much sleep ^^*, I was the most rested I have been in a while...
dork

Ahhh and my buddy Eli was supposed to come visit Thursday through Sunday from China...and someone stole all of his belongings...)O:
I was looking forward to se ehim, haven't seen him in literally a year...)O:

Anyways...I'll get to the MOFO stuff in a bit
Tomorrow will be fun, I hope, I think...I'm worried. Day with the mom, cross them fingers.

The other day I had to get rip of some veggies kicking it in my fridge, so I attempted japchae...

I love me some spinach and carrots*!~
photo taken by VeganBeats

    I threw a LOT of stuff into this, there's not much potatoe noodle..I just, don't like noodles...but a whole lot of spinach, mushrooms, carrots, onions, and sweet potatoes!!! I'm not into starchy things (poatoes, yams, etc) but...these guys have a nutty flavor and subtle sweetness, and I don't taste much starch...texture texture texture! Anyways...lengthy process.

     Wednesday night is Woodstock night with the crew...I went, but only for an hour or two, Nowon, you are so far away from everywhere else....)O:
Vodka Cranberry, never did I think that this would be my drink of choice nearly everywhere...

antioxidants.....
photo taken by VeganBeats

     I'm used to Gorilla's drinks, but this drink was really well made. There was just enough vodka to make the cranberry juice taste like cranberry nectar..like pure fresh cranberries...so there was a lot of vodka. They uced an Ocean Spray equivalent (Korea LOVES sugar) so the slight bitterness brought me a smile....

Anyways...until next time*!~

Thursday...ㅎㅎㅎ

Thursday was so fun....and such a long day~~!
I had to go to Insadong (인사덩) and get my registration card, then book it back to work, open my bank account over break, decorate the school for the Halloween party, and lots of lesson planning...continuing really. I had to set up more for the BIG HALLOWEEN day....(later post) then after work to Nowon (노훤)!
Walked over around 7, to discover that it woul dtake a hella lot longer to truck it over, (about 30 minutes, and it's COLD here now) but caught a bus that took me directly to Lotte World...just hectic, but good. I was anxious, excited, ready for what was to come..whatever it would be, pretty confident it would be fun no matter*!~
When I got to Lotte, completely overwhelmed and...GAHHH All this stuff going on so close to me, and I've been kicking it in Junggye where there's only Hagwons (학원)...Lotte is huge, so meeting Jin where he was...wherever he was, I looked more than idiotic and felt increasingly simple minded to fail at accurate locating.....HE came to me, couldn't find me, I found him..ㅎㅎ
Anyways, wandered and found some yummy Vegan eats!!
We went to this tiny place that served jeon (전) and mmuk (묵). Mmuk is acorn jelly and...yumm! I love this stuff. The texture is weird to a lot of people, it's not slimy, but...like firmer jello...I wish I could describe it well..but...We got some kimchi to start off, this was the banchan (반찬) bit..

kimchi, pickled onions, and makali (마카리)
photo taken by VeganBeats

 This stuff, the mmuk...ahhh, ahhh, I LOVE this stuff. I really need to learn how to make it from scratch! It's only acorn powder and water (I think) but I can't find acorn powder...and I've heard it's a bit tricky. Funny, the fewer the ingredients, the more difficult it is to master...)O:

mmuk (묵) maybe this is 도톨묵무침)
photo taken by VeganBeats

 It was spicey, crunchy, flight, and it felt good eating, my body was definately thanking me*!~
This is the variety of jeon (전) and other fried veggies we got...Jin asked they make it with no egg...and with a promise of cash versus plastic...we got ultra crunchy nummy veggies*!~
There is fish on the left side...not for me...but the ajumas were doing so much already who am I to insult?!~

:O)  the kimchi jeon was so good*!~
photo taken by VeganBeats

I'm such an awful person, taking photos of mid-nomming...though this was a pose*!~ Good sports all around, chyea*!~

"so yummy!"
photo taken by VeganBeats

Venturing to new places, finding hole in the wall places, having BOMB Korean eats and beautiful Seouls....Regardless of the busy non-stop rushing day,..I had a blast*!~