Derek Takes on Cooking in Korea

Derek is a sweetheart. He has agreed to give up the comforts of what he knows at home, and what is easy for him, to travel across the world and live in Korea with me. He cannot work here, so he's not got much to do. Since we've arrived a bit over a week ago, we haven't had internet, or cable TV at home. So, I'm sure he's kind of bored. Will he admit to being bored? No, he's such an amazing person, and I'm so grateful to have him here with me.

He has tried twice to cook supper since we've been here. We have a tiny fridge, a microwave, and a two burner gas stove. We have no oven. He did find a tiny little deep fryer and was very excited about it. So, here are our experiences with Derek's cooking:

Monday
We had bought these 'burgers'. They looked good. They were supposed to be beef. We had bought buns for them, and thought they'd be good. We also had some mozzarella sticks that we thought we'd have with them. Derek decided that he'd put the mozza sticks in the microwave. **NOT A GOOD IDEA** The cheese all came out of the sticks, and the batter was really not good either. We didn't finish those. Then, the burgers. Oh my... They were cooked. There was no way they weren't cooked. But, when I bit into one of them, it was almost a florescent pink. It was very strange. It wasn't really any fault of Derek's. I'm the one who thought the burgers would be good, and suggested buying them. And, they were cooked, I'm 100% sure of it. I just don't know what the frig made them that color. So, needless to say, I didn't eat them. I picked up our newly purchased cell phone, and called the only pizza place we had a number for. Yes, it might not have been good, but.. oh well. Derek enjoyed burgers anyways.

Wednesday
We went out for Kabli. It was YUMMY!!

Thursday
We decided to have chicken breasts and break out the little deep fryer for some fries. Derek wasn't sure how to thaw the chicken out with the microwave we had, so he just put the frozen breasts in the frying pan with some oil. (I might have helped him, but I was busy throwing a fit at this time.. because I was hungry.... yeah, yeah.. I know.. get over it, right? LOL...) So, the chicken is cooking, and Derek decided to do some dishes. He wanted to make sure we had some plates to use to eat off of. So, as I'm in the bedroom, all I hear is Derek swearing, cursing, and throwing a general fit Derek-style. I go out, and see that he has managed to completely tear apart our faucett. The water spout pulls out, and he did that, and pulled it right off. Somehow the hose sliced right in half, and water was spread all over the floor. So, we cleaned that up, and figured out a temporary fix for water in the kitchen, and moved on to the fries. Derek peeled the potatoes, cut them up and got ready to put them in the deep fryer. This deep fryer is the smallest thing, and it was crazy. It took us about 45 minutes to cook one batch of fries, and it was a small batch. So, by the time we put the second batch in, the chicken was done, and was turned off already. Then, we waited for the second batch so that we'd both have some fries. In the end, the fries were cold, the chicken was cold, but, it was all good. Supper was good, and was very much appreciated.

I really LOVE it that Derek's willing to try new things, he's open to new experiences, and he really tries. It's so great that I get to share this experience with him. We miss home, but... we are happy here. I'm sure that Derek will be less bored once we get internet and cable. He will have more to entertain himself with. Right now, we're playing Soul Calibur 4 on the PS3 together, and even that's probably a stressful situation for him... but that's another story...

I'll keep you posted on how our home cooking improves as we get more settled in.