Month: July 2012 (Page 5 of 5)

Din Tai Fung

2012/07/06 / Nic / 9 Comments

We visited one of our favourite restaurants last night. The Taiwanese Restaurant ‘Din Tai Fung’. It is actually part of a chain with restaurants all around the world but they are known to have possibly the best dumplings (xiaolongbao) in the world. I’ve been going there since the beginning of 2009 and have watched its popularity grow. Three years ago my brother and I could get a table right away but these days there is always a long wait. That’s because the food is so good! I introduced my husband to Din Tai Fung quite early in our relationship. We’ve also visited the Din Tai Fungs in Korea and Japan but I don’t think they compare to the Sydney one. Still good, but I noticed it was only Koreans working in the Korean branch but in Sydney all the staff are Taiwanese or Chinese. Maybe that makes a difference. There are differences in menus depending on what country it is located in as well but all have the most important xiaolongbao.

Waiting for our food.

I’m hungry!

YAY!

The main website for Din Tai Fung- HERE

And for Australia- HERE

Guys Showering Together

2012/07/05 / Nic / 26 Comments

OKAY! Korean guys showering together? There are a lot of things that Korean men do, like: physical affection, holding hands, liking feminine stuff, liking pink, showering together, sleeping in the same bed, that a Western person might see as gay. Of course it is quite ignorant to assume Korean men doing these things are gay without taking into account that it’s another culture. It also doesn’t make them any less masculine either- which is an insult I’ve seen many times. Non Asians complaining about ‘girly Asian guys’ simply don’t understand the cultural differences. I find the Western concept of masculinity to be quite restrictive and stupid and I like the freedom Korean guys have to do what they want and like what they want without being called a “girl” like it’s a really bad thing.

Koreans are very used to nudity and aren’t afraid to be naked in front of each other. Going to public baths together is simply a social event. I think for Western men any showering together is somewhat forced, like in locker rooms. A Western guy coming home from work with his friend wouldn’t suggest, “Let’s make it quicker and jump in the shower together.”

The Korean guys next door to us would. When they either came home from work or had been swimming, they had no problem with showering together. Not every Korean guy does this though. Some of the other guys in the share house would laugh a bit at them and make jokes with me- possibly realising it was quite strange to me.

I have noticed that sometimes people who have grown up in a Western country can make too many assumptions when they start getting interested in K-pop. They will read about Korean male groups showering together or sleeping in the same bed and think they must be gay. Sometimes it even fuels their fantasies. But once you understand the culture more you realise that these things are no indicator of someone’s sexual orientation.

Making Kimchi

2012/07/04 / Nic / 13 Comments

Making kimchi for your Korean husband is stressful. It is something so important to Koreans so there is a lot of pressure to be able to make it. It’s my job to make it – not because my husband is old fashioned and thinks it’s the woman’s job – but because he simply doesn’t really possess any cooking skills. Is this typical of Korean guys? Not at all, many Korean guys are excellent cooks.

So not growing up in a Korean home, I’m immediately at a disadvantage when trying to make kimchi. There is no family recipe passed down, I have no childhood memories of watching my mother make kimchi, and I’m not even sure what really good kimchi tastes like.

I follow recipes but every recipe is different! I feel like it’s going to be years of experimenting before I work out which one I like to use. Some say for anchovies, some say for oysters, some say to just use that fish sauce stuff.

One of the first times I made kimchi my husband was really impressed. He even told other Korean guys how good at making kimchi I was. Unfortunately, that might have been a one time thing. The next time something went really really wrong. I’m pretty sure it was because I didn’t use the right type of salt. It was upsetting. I managed alright the next time but it still wasn’t as good as the time I got it perfect. I haven’t tried in a few months because we’ve been busy with travel and stuff and currently my husband is in Sydney while I am in my home town. He is job and apartment searching. BUT, today I am traveling to Sydney and I will see him tonight!

Once we are settled in Sydney I will have to attempt making kimchi again…

Cupcakes

2012/07/03 / Nic / 5 Comments

This comic is about the Korean guys who used to live next door to my parent’s house. My parents own the house and rent it out to Koreans on working holiday visas. These guys were also in THIS comic.

So…. this one is more about me secretly being 4 years old. Princesses! Unicorns! Yay!

So guys buying girly things to make it feel like there are girls there… I don’t know if that is a cultural thing or just a weird thing these guys do in particular… Cause they were kinda weird. Hilarious… but crazy.

They didn’t even really eat the cake and cupcakes because Koreans don’t like too much sweet stuff. Not me though, I love cupcakes so much! So I stole them and ran home and ate them…

Japan Edition #2

2012/07/02 / Nic / 18 Comments

Japan Editions are stories my brother tells me about living in Japan. He goes to a music school in Tokyo and lives in a dormitory. He meets some interesting people.

Adele Pregnant

2012/07/01 / Nic / 3 Comments

OKAY obviously he knows what sex is, he was just being silly. But his surprise at her being pregnant was real. There are 2 reasons for this. He is a big fan and hadn’t really thought of her as an ordinary human who can have a boyfriend and get pregnant (haha). The second reason is related to why he assumed something like that. In Korea, idols don’t have the same sort of freedom as idols in Western countries. While there are a lot of things I like about Korean music, this is something that I think is not that good.

You simply don’t really hear about Korean pop stars getting pregnant accidentally like that. They are controlled very much by their companies and aren’t allowed to. While they are young and under contract they have to do what they are told and their personal lives are pretty much put on hold. Even announcing having a boyfriend or girlfriend is a big deal so announcing a pregnancy outside of marriage would be shocking. People’s heads would probably explode. Korea is still very conservative in this aspect. It is very difficult for unmarried mothers. This is one of the reasons why there are so many babies for Western couples to adopt even though Korea is a first world country, because they don’t have provisions put in place for single mothers. However, somewhere like Australia there is government help and not really much judgement.

People have suspicions in Korea though. For example if a girl group is going really well and are really popular and then one member suddenly has to go study in another country to study or has some undisclosed illness. People suspect that there was an accidental pregnancy.

So this was why my husband was so surprised that it was announced that Adele is pregnant, not just because the world is told, but that people are happy and congratulating her. It just wouldn’t happen like that in Korea.