What food can you buy at local markets?

In this video we head to our local markets to show you the type of food we often buy from there. One of the stalls was selling dalogna, which has become internationally popular recently because of the TV show ‘Squid Game’. While this show is definitely NOT FOR KIDS, it features children’s games in it. Dalgona is a honeycomb candy where children try to get the shape out without breaking the actual shape. It’s been around for several decades but popularity had dwindled in recent years. It’s now been very much revived and apparently there have been huge lines for it as young adults are keen to try it. We were lucky to find it locally without there being big lines.

You may have heard fruit and vegetable can be expensive in Korea, and while that can be true for big supermarkets or department stores, it’s usually decent prices at markets like this and sometimes can be very cheap. Food in general at markets tends to be cheap and it’s an easy way to put together a meal for at home with a variety of meat and seafood, as well as already prepared side dishes.

Hugh and Yul try out some different food in this video, as well as attempting the dalgona game. This is probably the most natural situation we have filmed that shows how Yul is bilingual. You may notice that he uses English when talking to both of us, he will use Korean when talking to Hugh directly and English when talking to me directly. When talking to both of us he may mix some Korean and English into one sentence and this is called “code mixing” and is normal at this age. This is different from “code switching” that bilingual adults use as this is more a part of bilingual development as he learns both languages, but even at this age he is well aware of which language a word belongs to.

Yul switches between languages easily and is a similar level in both. What he speaks is not “Konglish” as I’ve seen some people say, as Konglish means English words that have been absorbed into the Korean language but have changed somewhat in meaning. Konglish is also different from English loan words in Korean, which retain their original English meaning. Yul competently speaks both languages, knows when to switch and only code mixes when he knows that we will understand. There is a lot of myths about kids and bilingualism, one of them being that they are confused, but it’s really not true at all.

Brown Sugar Bubble Tea? Or Boba Tea? What do you say in your country? Have you tried it in ICE CREAM form?

This is just a fun little video with my good friend Sara from Hoju Sara. Brown Sugar Bubble Tea has been so popular in Korea. There have been a bunch of things with Brown Sugar flavour, especially in convenience stores, so we try the Brown Sugar Bubble Tea Ice Cream.

Come cook with us!

We made this video in a natural way so everyone stuck at home, particularly if people are feeling lonely, can maybe feel like they are there with us.

We don’t always get the chance to cook together but it’s nice when we do.

Can you make instant kimchi ?

If you know anything about kimchi your immediate response would be “of course not!” However, we do attempt to make instant kimchi in this video. Our secret weapon? A new kimchi seasoning product. We do know the women who invented this product but this is not a sponsored video. Hugh uses it just as seasoning but we wanted to try it for actually making kimchi.

Most of the results were pretty good! Especially if you don’t always like the sour aspect of kimchi. Personally I like kimchi when it’s first made and before fermentation, but for those that do like the deep sour kimchi taste, fermentation is still important when making kimchi.

But also if you just want a spicy kimchi taste on other food, the powder is great for that! It should be available online in the next few months. It’s only a small company, so they are working on making it available at the moment.

Where to get high-end sushi in Korea?

You might think that you need to go to Japan to get amazing sushi, but if you are in Korea or are planning a trip, there are places to have a real sushi experience with a Japanese sushi chef!

We first met Chef Koji in Australia years ago. His wife is Korean and knew Hugh. We had been meaning to visit his sushi restaurant for ages but hadn’t had the chance. They invited us to come make a video though and we ended up having the best sushi experience of our lives.

We love sushi, and are happy to eat all kinda and quality of sushi. But experiencing this type of sushi was just a whole other level. Chef Koji taught us how quickly sushi needs to be eaten because the temperature of the rice is so important. He took us on an amazing sushi adventure and really opened out minds to all the amazing flavours there are- not just salmon!

Our son Yul really enjoyed the udon noodles but refused to eat the sushi. Can’t explain much to two-year-olds! Koji’s own daughters prefer the udon as well. One of his daughters, when asked what her father does, says he makes udon! She understands udon is delicious but not that her father is an amazing and famous sushi chef.

Sushi Koji is open for lunch and dinner and while pricey, as high quality sushi is, it’s well worth the experience.

Lao Cuisine at Lao Piak in Seoul

Over the next few months we are going to show some of the amazing restaurants in the Mangwon area. Mangwon is known for having many small but amazing food places. We want to share some of our favourites. Lao Piak is a place we eat at regularly and it’s one of the only Lao food places in Korea.

The owners and chefs are two Korean women who fell in love with Laos on a trip. They learned how to make Lao food from Lao people in the Laos countryside and then came back to Korea to open their restaurant.

A lot of people assume they have never eaten Lao food before. But a lot of Thai food, especially the types of Thai food that has been exported to the west, is actually Lao food. There has been a real problem of Thaification of Lao food and Lao people have faced discrimination in Thailand for a long time. Also since Thai food is known in western countries more than other countries from region, many Lao people will call their restaurant Thai, even though it’s really Lao food.

These days there is a movement for Lao people, whether they are living in Laos, Thailand or other countries to be proud of their culture and food. If you do see a restaurant openly serving Lao food, please go and support it so that Lao people don’t have to pretend the food is Thai to attract customers.

I think it’s great that the owners of Lao Piak have such respect for Laos and want to show what Lao food is. They could have easily said the food is Thai, as there are many Thai restaurants in Seoul and Thai food is popular, but instead they want to educate people about Lao food.

You can see more details on their Instagram here.

If you have trouble finding places from the Korean address, the closest big landmark is the newish IPark apartments which have a park in front of them. Lao Piak is in one of the nearby backstreets, across the road from the apartments and the park.

It’s been years since we’ve done one of these videos! Let’s check out what Korean convenience stores have to offer when you are looking for a whole meal.

Taking Yul to eat bingsu!

Bingsu in Korea is a must during summer! This shaved iced dessert has a huge range of varieties, but we took Yul to have the more traditional type with red beans, rice cakes and bean powder. He has probably tasted shaved ice before but last summer he wasn’t old enough to properly eat and enjoy any bingsu.

We thought it was time for him to have a real bingsu experience so we headed to our local cafe. He probably liked the ice cream on it the most! When I first moved to Korea I liked the very sweet bingsus, like the mango and cheesecake one. But when I became pregnant my tastes changed a lot and the less sweet traditional styles appealed more to me. Even now I prefer patbingsu, the traditional type with red beans, rice cakes and bean powder. The version we had also included ice cream, but often when ordering this type it doesn’t necessarily always have ice cream.

Bingsu is very common in Korea in summer and cafes have machines that shave the ice quickly. But before everyone had these machines, the ice had to be hand cranked which was not fun for cafe workers!

It’s definitely something to check out if you visit Korea in the warmer months and there are so many types to choose from. Summer can get very very hot in Korea so it’s always refreshing to eat something icy and cold. It is something that is usually eaten with at least 2 people, so heads up if you do order it while alone as you might have trouble finishing it.

There are big dessert chains that do bingsu, but you can also check out smaller cafes that might have their own interesting flavours.

And subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

Attempting to make bibimbap with my toddler

Hugh wants to start a cooking/mukbang series with Yul where they try to make and eat lots of different types of Korean food. Now I’m sure that every video is going to a messy disaster, but that’s the fun of it!

In this video they attempt to make bibimbap, but really they are just doing the final stages of assembling it as I’d prepared the ingredients beforehand.

Yul was not very interested in doing his own bowl, but preferred “helping” Daddy. Bibimbap is a great food for kids though as there is a variety of vegetables. You just need to switch out the gochujang for sesame oil and soy sauce instead. Gochujang is traditionally used but is too spicy for young kids.

Often people assume a mukbang means eating a lot of food, but mukbangs aren’t always like that. It’s just eating any food and any quantity. We hope it will be interesting for people to see the type of Korean food Yul eats here in Korea. His tastes vary and he is quite picky about vegetables these days, but hopefully will also be a good way to expand his tastes, as well as bonding with Hugh.

What’s new on our channel?

As we have mentioned recently, we are transitioning to doing YouTube in a more professional sense with a regular schedule. The past few weeks have been hectic with Hugh quitting his job and really starting his own business, but once things settle down we will be setting up our schedule.

It’s also the time for us to experiment a bit with our content. We are still small enough to do that, but big enough to get good feedback and find out what works for us.

Join the conversation over on YouTube and make sure you are subscribed to us. Subscribe here and click the bell icon so you get notified about new videos.

Hot cross buns are in many countries but people didn’t know they are real!

Every year, at some point on social media, I’ll make a comment about hot cross buns. And every year there will be people who didn’t know they were a real thing! They will know there is a song called “Hot Cross Buns” but not that it’s a common Easter food in many countries. So this year, while back in Australia for Easter, I decided to make a quick video about hot cross buns in Australia.

It makes sense that it seems to be Commonwealth countries that continue this British tradition and why it’s usually Americans that don’t know about them. Seriously, Americans, you are missing out! While hot cross buns are available in some places in the US, it’s nothing like the traditions in other countries. Reactions range from “I did not know this was a real thing” to “I have seen them in some bakeries”. Nothing like the fevered desire and need in Australia to have hot cross buns at Easter. It’s a vital part of Easter here and symbolic for the Christian holiday.

As I mentioned in the video, there are different flavours now. But I still prefer the traditional type. Yul is happy to eat the traditional ones with fruit too, though many kids want the fruitless ones. We’ll see as he gets older though, if he decides he wants to be picky…

There are some bakeries in Seoul that do hot cross buns and Summer Lane Cafe which I’ve shown in a video before, has them. If we are not back in Australia next Easter I think I’ll try to make them at home.

What do hot cross buns taste like? They are lovely moist buns with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice and fruit like sultanas and raisins and mixed peel bits. And of course they have a cross on them and are best served hot with butter. They are a nice treat now, but I imagine they must have been even better in previous centuries when sugar and sweet things weren’t as easily available.

I filmed this video very quickly just to show what it’s like in Australia and how all the bakeries are baking many hot cross buns to meet the demand for them on Easter.