Happy Thanksgiving!
Today is Thanksgiving. Obviously, South Korea doesn't celebrate this particularly American holiday. Still, it was very, very weird to go to a grocery store and not find a throng of frazzled shoppers wrestling in the aisles for the last can of pumpkin for twenty miles. Anyway, we went all out for thanksgiving this year.
No, the bird isn't burned, it's just pleasantly charcoaly. South Korea doesn't really have turkey, so we got ourselves a whole chicken in the grocery. Barbecuing chickens on a spit over wood or coals is a big thing over here, so they aren't hard to come by.
Then, we made ourselves some rolls, some mashed potatoes and stuffing (using homeade chicken stock, dried, cubed bread, onions, and a healthy dash of craisins, all of which are carried in the store). For veggies, we had a baked zucchini and potato dish and some daikon radish rounds that had been boiled in brown sugar water until they tasted cool and sweet.
And of course, the crowning piece was dessert. Thanks to Erin's family for the canned pumpkin and the pile of spices. Korean grocery stores have many things, but they are oddly deficient on seasonings. If you need anything other than garlic, cinnamon, ginger, salt or pepper, you'd best bring it with or find someone kind enough to FedEx it. (EDIT: Larger stores like E-Mart or Lotte Mart will sometimes have foreign spices in their foreign foods aisle. Yes, these are as expensive as they sound)
Thanks to our families. Thanks to our friends. And thank you to everyone who has helped us make this adventure possible.
Anyway. Enough talking. LET'S EAT!
-Sam