English Lesson with food~

     Actively and enjoyably learning something, anything, especially a language comes with a lot of natural challenges. The more difficult the task, the easier it is to throw in the towel and give up all together. I do this all too often, especially when it comes to learning Korean. When it gets too hard, or even overwhelming, I take a break...and that hinders my progress even more.
     You need to work with admirations and interests, sure this is an obvious but having the freedom to work with someone one on one makes their learning experience and your teaching that much more effective. One of my new students is painfully shy, for the first couple hours with her, I felt like I was fishing for elephants in a shallow stream...in Attleboro. No luck...
     I called to my joys and whipped out a lot of paper, nearly every drawing utensil and art supply I had and found that she LOVES expressing herself creatively...so now we draw and chat about everything. I don't want to abuse the art power, so last week...we did an English cooking lesson.
     I don't really think anyone doesn't like to use their hands when it comes to learning something...unless your learning about the sharpness of poisonous darts~ get in touch with several senses, get more brain activity going, being a part of a production. We made Korean food and while making the kitchen a mess, she was chatting away all sorts of facts about Korean food and her relationship with it. So what did we make?

빈대떡~ (photo taken by VeganBeats)

     Bindaeddeok, 빈대떡, or mungbean pancakes! These are high in protein, fiber, and you can literally throw everything you've got into them. In ours we added 김치, scallions, soybean sprouts, teeny mushrooms, zukes, and garlic leaks...result? Crispy, crunchy, flat mess of yum!

What you need:

1. 14 ounces of mung beans, soaked overnight
2. 1 onion sliced thin
3. 1 small carrot julienned (optional)
4. handful of green onions sliced up
5. as much 김치 as you want, slice this up too
6. handful of bean sprouts
7. whatever chopped up veggies you're feeling for
8. salt, to your taste
9. water

What to do:

1. rinse the soaked mung beans and put in a food processor and crunch all that jazz up
2. add some water to create a paste
3. in another bowl mix all the sliced goodies you have and the salt
4. add the mung bean paste
5. heat a pan with some oil
6. ladle the mixture in, and get the sides crispy brown, serve with soy sauce or eat plain!

     Next we made one of the simplest, yet satisfying Korean Vegan go-to's...pan fried tofu (두부)

두부~ (photo taken by VeganBeats)

What do you need:

1. tofu
2. oil
3. some salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. pat the tofu dry and cut into rectangles
2. heat oil in a pan
3. sprinkle salt and pepper on the tofu, fry it up

**I like adding garlic... because garlic is great~

     I made a sprouted green salad for the side, and we had a little English cooking date~