Category: Australia (Page 2 of 22)

Hot Cross Buns? Yes they are real!

2019/04/21 / Nic / 0 Comments

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.

Yul’s First Australian Wedding

2019/02/06 / Nic / 0 Comments

One of the reasons why we went back to Australia was for my brother’s wedding. Yul was a page boy! It was also his first Australian wedding and he enjoyed himself immensely. Australian weddings are much longer, and bigger events, than Korean weddings so it went for many hours. Modern Korean weddings don’t usually have a wedding reception with speeches and dancing like weddings in western countries. We did wonder how Yul would cope with all the people and long hours and noise. But he did really well! Having a flexible lifestyle with him does really help in these situations as he adapts well.

He also did such a good job of walking down the aisle with his second cousins. I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to, but since he’d had some practice he knew exactly what to do on the day. Even though there was a heat wave, the wedding was beautiful and we are so happy to welcome my brother’s wife into our family. She is Chinese Malaysian, so they also had a ceremony in Malaysia and celebrated lunar new year there. My parents and my other brother also went to Malaysia for those celebrations too. We had to head back to Korea for lunar new year here though.

If you watch the video to the very end you can see Yul in his hanbok in the car (that Hugh is controlling). We didn’t buy him that car! Friends bought it for him, but he really does love it.

Hosed Off: Australian Parenting?

2019/01/31 / Nic / 0 Comments

This happened while in Australia. Yul would play in water almost every single day and he particularly liked played with the garden hose. Hugh discovered the parenting secret of just hosing your kid down in the backyard instead of going to the trouble of giving them a proper bath.

Yul didn’t mind.

Revisiting my toys from the 80’s

2019/01/31 / Nic / 0 Comments

My son plays with my old toys from the 1980’s

In this video Hugh and I look at some of the toys I played with from the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The Duplo Lego and Fisher Price cash register was shared with my siblings, the Tuppertoys school bus probably belonged more to my brothers, but the soft toys and My Child doll were my own.

Yul already played with most of the toys already, but it was the first time seeing my doll and soft toys. Watch the video to see him playing with the toys. It will be interesting to see him interact with the same toys next time we go back to Australia.

Aussie Kids Try Korean Snacks

2019/01/30 / Nic / 0 Comments

Aussie Kids Try Korean Snacks!

We have a 6 month sponsorship with Korean supermarket Emart. It’s been a really great sponsorship to have, not only because they have been great to work with, but we genuinely love the products they have. And for foreign food, both locally made and imported, they have proven themselves to be way ahead of the competition.

We knew we’d be in Australia for over a month so that presented a problem. How can we make our monthly Emart video when we are in another country? We came up with the idea of taking some snacks from Emart and getting Australians to try them. Hardly a new concept, but people still enjoy these types of videos. We weren’t sure who we would get to try but it worked out that one of my friend’s kids were keen to try. That’s how we got Sophie, Luke and Tyler to help us with the video.

They were very good at trying some things that even adults can be hesitant to try. All the brands were Emart brands and we picked things that were normal in Korea, but maybe more unusual to Australians.

A big thank you to Sophie, Luke and Tyler!

Yul’s first trip to Australia

2018/06/24 / Nic / 0 Comments

Finally we have our video of our trip to Australia up!

Authentic Australian Food?

2018/04/17 / Nic / 0 Comments

What is Australian food?

What we actually eat in Australia is such a big variety and from all different countries so it’s hard to say what exactly Australian food is. There are very few foods invented in Australia because Australia, when referring to the start of European settlement (invasion), is very young. There hasn’t been enough time to really develop something specific and it’s a country of immigrants that brought their own amazing food.

There is one thing invented in Australia though, and I show Hugh in this video.